Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mario Vallejo-Marin @nicrodemo.bsky.social · 3h

Thanks for inviting me to write this blog post!

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

Functional Ecology @funecology.bsky.social · 6h

👀Behind the Paper!👀

🌼In this blog post, author Mario Vallejo-Marín explores a striking example of evolutionary convergence in floral form - buzz pollinated flowers🐝

Read it here👇
buff.ly/5dXVFHg

@nicrodemo.bsky.social

🧪🌍

Mario Vallejo-Marín | The buzz of pollination and how plants stave off greedy bees

In this week’s blog post, we’re learning all about buzz pollination between Bombus terrestris and Solanum rostratum! Author Mario Vallejo-Marín explores one of the most striking examples of evoluti…

buff.ly

1 3 4

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · 8h

🌼🎨 From the upcoming #AJB Special Issue: “Paradigm Shifts in #Flower Color" 🎨🌼

Temperature & the #evolution of flower color: A review

By Elizabeth Lacey

doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany #plantscience #drought

Four plant species that show floral color variation, (A) in degree of response to changing temperature, (B) associated with development stage during reproduction, (C) associated with altitude, (D) in pollen associated with latitude.

1 10

Mario Vallejo-Marin @nicrodemo.bsky.social · 1d

How do plants stave off greedy pollinators? Read our new paper on pollen dosing in buzz pollinated flowers just out in @funecology.bsky.social
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Gradual pollen release in a buzz‐pollinated plant: Investigating pollen presentation theory under bee visitation

Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

14 34

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

Chris Martine | Plants are Cool, Too! @martinebotany.bsky.social · 2d

Please share! Psyched to bring in a new member of the team. Starting salary $62K.

#postdoc #sciencejobs #plantpeopleFTW

Chris Martine | Plants are Cool, Too! @martinebotany.bsky.social · 7d

Excited to begin the search for the next (6th) Burpee Post-Doctoral Fellow in Botany here in my lab at Bucknell! Funded research and teacher-scholar training embedded in the primarily undergraduate institution (#PUI) environment.

#iamabotanist

Details (+ application portal) here:

lnkd.in/eVsbe7K5

Photos of past Burpee postdocs with some of our great students at Bucknell.

8 5

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

Lilian Melo @lilianmelo.bsky.social · 4d

Plant Program Day!
A special day to present our projects and results, strengthen relationships, and have fun!

#UppsalaUniversity #EBC #Sweden #Postdoc

1 3

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

New Zealand Geographic @nzgeo.bsky.social · 4d

Remember the Magic Eye books of the 90s?? Now, you can have a crack at viewing New Zealand’s native flowers in 3D. Clematis, orchid, ngutukākā, korukoru, oioi… this is a luscious, spectacular feature by @rebekahwhite.bsky.social, based on the new book He Puāwai by @theobrominated.bsky.social

Magic flora

Philip Garnock-Jones has spent more than a decade photographing our native flowers as they’ve never been shown before: in luscious, three-dimensional detail.

www.nzgeo.com

18 27

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

Annals of Botany @annbot.bsky.social · 4d

🎉🆕📰🎉: Construction costs and tradeoffs in carnivorous pitcher plant leaves: towards a pitcher leaf economics spectrum
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

2 3

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

Blanca Arroyo-Correa @blancaac.bsky.social · 6d

What sustains biodiversity? 🌿🌸🐝🐦‍⬛ It’s not just about species, it’s also about individuals.

Our new paper in @esajournals.bsky.social Ecol. Monogr. shows how the way individuals specialize on their mutualistic partners can scale up to shape species persistence.

🔗 doi.org/10.1002/ecm....

Bridging the gap between individual specialization and species persistence in mutualistic communities

Mutualistic interactions among organisms are fundamental to the origin and maintenance of biodiversity. Yet, the study of community dynamics often relies on values averaged at the species level, igno...

doi.org

13 41

Mario Vallejo-Marin @nicrodemo.bsky.social · 7d

A recording of the talk I gave a couple of weeks ago in the old stomping grounds of Linnaeus youtu.be/neTQPYTlmJc

UppTalk at Kulturnatten: What’s the ‘buzz’ about?

YouTube video by Uppsala universitet

youtu.be

5

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

Chris Martine | Plants are Cool, Too! @martinebotany.bsky.social · 7d

Excited to begin the search for the next (6th) Burpee Post-Doctoral Fellow in Botany here in my lab at Bucknell! Funded research and teacher-scholar training embedded in the primarily undergraduate institution (#PUI) environment.

#iamabotanist

Details (+ application portal) here:

lnkd.in/eVsbe7K5

25 22

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

Sissi Lozada Gobilard @slozadagobilard.bsky.social · 8d

📢Paper alert!🐝🪻 We studied flower advertising and temperature on Royal irises. Flowers heat 10-35 min faster than ambient, likely offering the pollinators a head start in the morning. @telavivuni.bsky.social @yuvalsapir.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/jpe/article/...

Flower display and temperature in Royal irises (Iris section Oncocyclus, Iridaceae)

Abstract. Large flowers are typically more conspicuous to pollinators and are associated with more nutritional rewards than small flowers. Flower size can

academic.oup.com

5 10

Mario Vallejo-Marin @nicrodemo.bsky.social · 8d

Hoping for some cross pollination!

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

David Berger @dbergerbiol.bsky.social · 8d

How do insects respond to changing climates? Our new review and analysis in @annualreviews.bsky.social suggests that phenological adaptation trumps thermal adaptation.

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Life-History Evolution of Insects in Response to Climate Variation: Seasonal Timing Versus Thermal Physiology | Annual Reviews

Climate adaptation in insects can proceed via responses in life-history traits and their thermal plasticity and through phenological shifts mediated by responses to photoperiodic cues (photoperiodism)...

www.annualreviews.org

1 11 17

Mario Vallejo-Marin @nicrodemo.bsky.social · 8d

Very nice video of self pollination in a tiny Veronica flower. www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/20...

Self-pollination in a flower of thymeleaf speedwell (Veronica serpyllifolia) | 2025 Small World in Motion Competition

Jay McClellan - Self-pollination in a flower of thymeleaf speedwell (Veronica serpyllifolia)

www.nikonsmallworld.com

1 3 9

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 9d

🍊🧬 RESEARCH 🍊🧬

CitACOS5, a fatty acyl-CoA synthetase, has a role in citrus pollen development by influencing tapetum degradation and exine formation, and mutations in CitACOS5 caused male sterility without impacting vegetative growth– Fan et al.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪

Fig. 1.Phenotypic analysis of ‘Egan No. 1’ Ponkan mandarin (EG) and ‘Qianyang Seedless’ Ponkan mandarin (QS). (A, E) Comparison of fruits from EG and QS. Scale bars: 2 cm. (B, F) Comparison of flowers from EG and QS in which all flower organs appeared normal. Scale bars: 5 mm. (C, G) Dehiscence of mature anthers of EG and QS. Scale bars: 500 μm. (D, H) Pollen grains stained with 1% I2–KI solution in EG and QS. Scale bars: 100 μm. (I, J) Transverse sections of EG and QS anthers. Ar, archesporial; aMMC, aborted microspore mother cells; aMsp, aborted microspore; aPG, aborted pollen grain; aTd, aborted tetrad; E, epidermis; En, endothecium; Fb, fibrous bands; ML, middle layer; MMC, microspore mother cells; Msp, microspore; PPC, primary parietal cell; PSC, primary sporogenous cell; PG, pollen grain; Sp, sporogenous cell; SPC, secondary parietal cell; St, stomium; T, tapetum; Td, tetrad. Scale bars: 50 μm.

3 5

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

AoB PLANTS @aobp.bsky.social · 9d

♻️An ecological, phenotypic, and genomic survey of duckweeds with their associated aquatic environments in the United Kingdom by Kellie Smith and co-authors

Full #openaccess
👉 doi.org/10.1093/aobp...

#PantScience

Bumblebee visitation and pollen dynamics in Palicourea coriacea (Rubiaceae): does coflowering with congeneric species matter?

This study investigates the pollination ecology of Palicourea coriacea in the Brazilian Cerrado to understand if flowering alongside P. officinalis modifie

doi.org

2 4

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

Anna Traveset @annatraveset.bsky.social · 10d

Muy agradecida por este gran reconocimiento, el cual me empuja a seguir trabajando en la ciencia que me apasiona y acompañada por un equipo fantástico de gente a mi lado. Gracias, gracias, gracias!!

11 3 31

Mario Vallejo-Marin @nicrodemo.bsky.social · 10d

Go Solanum!!

1

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

Chris Martine | Plants are Cool, Too! @martinebotany.bsky.social · 10d

IMO paying close attention to species and simply describing what they do is a worthwhile endeavor unto itself.

Guessing I am not alone.

#iamabotanist #iamanaturalist #PUI #biodiversity

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The inherent values of observation and description: A case study in the spiny solanums of Australia

Click on the article title to read more.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

3 11 70

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

Current Biology @currentbiology.bsky.social · 12d

Although highly topical, kleptoparasitism does not get nearly the attention it deserves!

Here, a plant exploits the kleptoparasitic behavior of a fly that likes to snatch ants killed by spiders.

🕷️🐜🪰🌿

So the thief itself gets taken advantage of. Nice going, plants!

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Olfactory floral mimicry of injured ants mediates the attraction of kleptoparasitic fly pollinators

Mochizuki reports a plant that lures pollinating flies by imitating the scent of ants injured by predators. This study reveals the first known case of ant mimicry in flowers and uncovers previously un...

www.cell.com

11 34

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

The Ramsey Lab @theramseylab.bsky.social · 14d

New Element in the Philosophy of Biology series—free to download until October 6! Walter Veit examines the role of models in evolutionary biology: their types, testability, and interrelations 👇📕 www.cambridge.org/core/element... #philsci #HPBio #evobio

Book cover of “Modelling Evolution” by Walter Veit, in the Cambridge Elements: The Philosophy of Biology series. Against a black background, the title is surrounded by Ernst Haeckel’s illustrations of marine organisms—radial, symmetrical forms in vivid blues, oranges, reds, and greens.

1 20 48

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

Aureliano Bombarely @bombarelya.bsky.social · 15d

We come back from our lunch to #SOLRUB2025 with Giovanni Giuliano. He is presenting about the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms behind the evolution of #tomato fruit shape. Elongated ovoid tomatoes appeared in Italy in the 18th century. Non ribbed tomatoes appeared in the US in 19th century.

2 4

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

Javier Martín @txaverius.bsky.social · 21d

Me despisto unos días y ya está la primera mandrágora repleta de flores. Queda inaugurada, si el destino lo permite, la segunda edición de la operación mandrágora para responder a la pregunta: ¿quién poliniza esas flores?

El año pasado vi una variedad de sírfidos en ella. Veremos este.

3 9 94

Reposted by Mario Vallejo-Marin

Davis Vaughan @davisvaughan.bsky.social · 21d

Air is our incredibly fast R code formatter!

Come learn all about it at 2:40pm in Regency V in the Sparking Development Joy session!!

We also have hex stickers!

#positconf2025 #rstats

1 5 33