Owen Osborne
@owengosborne.bsky.social
400 followers 500 following 2 posts
Evolutionary biologist. Lecturer at Bangor University. Speciation | Adaptation | Biogeography | Genomics | Host-microbe interactions
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Reposted by Owen Osborne
crouxevo.bsky.social
Hybridization and introgression are major evolutionary processes. Since the 1940s, the prevailing view has been that they shape plants far more than animals. In our new study (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants
Reposted by Owen Osborne
carlybacter.bsky.social
First post! New paper in Infection & Immunity.

We asked: what do #probiotics do to microbiome & immune system?

They do more to microbiome than immune system, but depended on probiotic & effects fleeting with cocktail impacts different than individual strains.
journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
Reposted by Owen Osborne
metallophyte.bsky.social
Photographic evidence that it has also colonised a galaxy far, far away...Silene uniflora growing on Luke Skywalker's island retreat (aka Skellig Michael)!
pnas.org
Organisms can adapt to environmental change through individual plasticity. Past experience of coping with salt water has conferred on the coastal flower Silene uniflora enhanced plasticity to cope with zinc pollution from mines. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Silene uniflora growing on Skellig Michael, in county Kerry, Ireland.
owengosborne.bsky.social
We’re recruiting for a #PhD opportunity funded by NERC Envision DTP, investigating the impact of climate change on chytrid disease dynamics in Appalachian salamanders.
Full details here: findaphd.com?pj=182328
Eastern newt (Notophthalmus viridescens)
Reposted by Owen Osborne
metallophyte.bsky.social
Our new paper shows that plasticity that has evolved to deal with one stressful situation, can help plants to adapt rapidly to new stressful situations. doi.org/10.1073/pnas... @meebangor.bsky.social @rbgkew.bsky.social @ukri.org @pnas.org
Reposted by Owen Osborne
mattwilkins.galacticpolymath.com
In 2013 Liz Scordato & I did a ~6k mi transect of Russia. It was *part* of a larger study of how divergence in traits used in mate choice & competition affects the formation of new species. Today, we have a paper in Science, led by Drew Schield & Becca Safran 🧪🪶🦚
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Sexual selection promotes reproductive isolation in barn swallows
Despite the well-known effects of sexual selection on phenotypes, links between this evolutionary process and reproductive isolation, genomic divergence, and speciation have been difficult to establis...
www.science.org
Reposted by Owen Osborne
asanchez-tojar.bsky.social
In 2020, we showed that studies published in ecological journals WITH a code-sharing policy showed a 21% reproducibility potential at max (Culina et al 2020, @plosbiology.bsky.social)

We've now investigated journals WITHOUT a code-sharing policy. The results are worrying.

📰 doi.org/10.32942/X21...
Code-sharing policies are associated with increased reproducibility potential of ecological findings
doi.org