Go read our new pre-print!

At the same time, Dr. Megan Frayer was finding that these two species have a ✨sorted✨ history of gene flow, including introgression of a large chromosomal inversion that has been previously implicated in hybrid seed inviability

but here's where things get spicy: in her rotation project, Pia showed that the genetic basis of hybrid seed inviability is in fact SHARED between two such incidences involving two different (and phylogenetically distinct) species.

She followed up with super awesome embryo rescues to show that these incidences of hybrid seed inviability arise in the endosperm, & that hybrid seeds show parent-of-origin biased growth effects, following some predictions that hybrid seed inviability may be evolving via parental conflict

Then Hagar stepped up to the plate: she showed that RI follows a geographic rather than phylogenetic pattern: populations that are closer together have the same patterns of crossing. Importantly, these patterns TRANSCEND SPECIES BOUNDARIES, creating a complex landscape of hybrid seed inviability.

This is work that I first started as a postdoc: I was befuddled about why we saw hybrid seed inviability evolve so many dang times in such a short period of time in monkey flowers, so I started just doing a ton of crosses.... like truly an unhinged amount...

We're on a roll: Super proud of this paper lead by Dr. Megan Frayer & GS Hagar Soliman (with a major contrib from GS Pia Schwarz): Introgression and Parental Conflict Shape Repeated Occurrences of Postzygotic Isolation @hybridzones.bsky.social @hagarsoliman.bsky.social @pfschwarz.bsky.social

Very important paper and resource. Bryophyte genomes expanded by one order of magnitude. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This was a HUGE effort, taking years of diligent work. Hongfei was a true leader, and I'm really proud of this cool piece. We'd love any feedback y'all might have. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Lots of cool data to dig into, but the big take homes: Phenotypic evo is repeatable, but the genetic bases of these traits is largely not. Of the QTL we do find in more than one cross, QTL with large effect sizes or those implicated in more than one trait tend to pop up in more than one cross!!!!

Late to the party, but I'm so excited about the first paper from our lab: ✨Unique genetic bases of repeated life-history divergence associated with high altitude adaptation in Mimulus perennials ✨

This work was led by the ABSOLUTE ROCKSTAR Hongfei Chen!

I hope to take a PhD student in the coming application cycle. Please reach out if you are interested in joining our lab in EEB at Yale, especially if interested in working on the natural history/ phylogenetics/ morphology/ population biology/ development/ genomics of siphonophores. dunnlab.org

New manuscript by graduate student @kmeaton.bsky.social. Along with UG students she found that Pinfish pops have similar max thermal tolerance despite experiencing different water temps. This can make southern pops more susceptible to #climatechange & #oceanwarming
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New paper on the timing and geological context of two co-evolving salmonid fish radiations (predator-prey system) driven by adaptation-to-depth in the Great Lakes: www.nature.com/articles/s42...

I had a great time presenting my undergraduate thesis at #Evolution2024 #Evol2024. Stay tuned for more, the manuscript is submitted!!!

In case you missed my talk at #Evolution2024 #Evol2024 on mosaic hybridization and secondary contact of three darter lineages with @fishgenomes.bsky.social, Tom Near and @dmacguig.bsky.social you can see it here (starting at 56:00)
youtu.be/H-vue8TJsrA?...