JCarlos Villarreal

a study that changes the paradigm of horizontal gene transfer across kingdoms, led by my former PhD supervisor Bernard Goffinet, congratulations to his team www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Assembly and co-occurrence networks of nitrogen-fixing bacteria associated with epiphyllous liverworts in fragmented tropical forests Abstract. Understanding the spatial dynamics of plant-associated microbial communities is increasingly urgent in the context of habitat loss and the biodiv

I am glad to share the latest paper by Adriel M. Sierra published in ISME Communications
on the "Assembly of nitrogen-fixing bacteria associated with epiphyllous liverworts in fragmented Amazonian tropical forest" doi.org/10.1093/isme...

Bryophytes hold a larger gene family space than vascular plants - Nature Genetics A super-pangenome analysis incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes reveals that bryophytes exhibit a larger number of unique and lineage-specific gene families than vascular plants.

I am glad to be part of the largest paper on bryophyte genomics. Spearheaded by Shanshan Dong and Yang Liu ( Fairy Lake Botanical Garden) presents: "A comprehensive super-pangenome analysis, incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte nuclear genomes......"
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

YouTube video by Forest Film Studio The Life of the forest. Bryophytes

a cute video on bryophytes www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAQ0...

Gene flow stops sooner in plants than in animals Genomic data indicate when species became reproductively isolated

The editorial : www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Rapid establishment of species barriers in plants compared with that in animals Speciation, the process by which new reproductively isolated species emerge from ancestral populations, results from the gradual accumulation of barriers to gene flow within genomes. To date, the noti...

Un groupe français dont ma collègue Christelle Fraïsse (Université de Lille) fait partie vient de publier un article très intéressant sur les barrières entre les espèces de plantes et d'animaux ! Bravo à Chris, Camille et tous les autres ! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Comment les champignons et les animaux structurent la diversité des forêts La dispersion des graines par les animaux et l’interaction avec les champignons jouent un rôle clé dans la répartition des arbres de différentes espèces dans les forêts.

@pourlascience.bsky.social . Le volume parle de la matière noire, du chromosome X inactif. L'article sur la diversité des plantes était fascinant. Notre placette en Darien fait partie de FORESTGEO et nous y ferons certainement des découvertes fascinantes. www.pourlascience.fr/sd/ecologie/...

Eurêka ! L’intuition, moteur de la créativité Pourquoi certains problèmes s’éclairent parfois soudainement ? Les neurosciences révèlent les mécanismes du « eurêka ! », et mettent en lumière le rôle crucial de l’intuition.

Quel bel article, intéressant et amusant ! @pourlascience.bsky.social www.pourlascience.fr/sd/neuroscie...

The cellular mechanics of symbiosis: sensing friend from foe

🚨 Save the date! Thrilled to be co-organizing the next iteration of the @embl.org Symposium on the Cellular Mechanics of Symbiosis (📅 March 17-20), w/ @floravincent.bsky.social, @hassansalem.bsky.social & Tom Richards.
www.embl.org/about/info/c...
#EESSymbiosis #Symbiosis #SymbioSky #MicroSky 🦠

Adriel Sierra defended his PHD. He worked on the impact on fragmentation on plant population genomics and microbial diversity and 2) the relationship between plant metabolome and microbes. His work can be found shorturl.at/DZgCU. Congratulations to Adriel and the best of luck on the way forward. 🌿

so cool !!
www.c-lab.co.uk/projects/AIi...

Adriel M. Sierra published a paper on the impact of fragmentation in the Amazonian forests on plant demography and population genomics @ulaval.ca
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

some news from the lab
villarreal-lab.ibis.ulaval.ca/2025/07/26/o...

paypal.com/donate/?camp...

#soirées Québec www.instagram.com/stories/jcva...

A screenshot from a webinar. The text on the slide reads 'If I understood you, would I have this look on my face?'

A big thank you to everyone who joined us for our 'Communicating your science to different audiences' with Colleen Iversen and Rich Norby yesterday!

The webinar is now available to watch on demand. Q&A is open until 14:30 BST (UTC+1), 19 July 2025.

⏯ cassyni.com/events/FASBv...

#SciComm

and talking about hornworts: our paper got the cover of Annals of Botany, photo of Nothoceros endiviifolius (Chile) by Juan Larraín:
academic.oup.com/aob/article-...

I was reading a recent cool paper on the genomics of hornwort sex/"accessory" chromosomes (New Phytologist) and it never ceases to amaze me the tremendous knowledge that Johannes M. Proskauer had about the group. He'd be thrilled to see the hornwort research in this era. www.jstor.org/stable/3241446

Congratulations @fernway.bsky.social - 2025 BSA Emergent Leader !! www.botany.org/home/awards/.... - well-deserved!

Compartmentalization reduces conflict in multipartner plant-insect symbioses Many symbioses involve one host species having several mutualist partners, yet theory predicts that unrelated symbionts lead to destabilizing conflict through competition for host resources. We combin...

A great study on mutualism by Guilaume Chomicki and colleagues

"Many symbioses involve one host species having several mutualist partners, yet theory predicts that unrelated symbionts lead to destabilizing conflict through competition for host resources. ...... " . www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Terturlia Français-Español Québec | Meetup Bienvenidos al grupo Latino/español y francés de Québec. Organizamos tertulias para practicar el español, el francés y conocer gente chévere. Estaremos poniendo al día el grupo con el sitio y el tipo ...

www.meetup.com/terturlia-fr... #quebec

The most recent article from Lilisbeth Rodríguez-Castro, a former master's student, working on cycad phyllosphere
#cycads #phyllosphere #IUCN www.mdpi.com/2813-0464/4/...

Comprehensive phylogenomic time tree of bryophytes reveals deep relationships and uncovers gene incongruences in the last 500 million years of diversification Premise Bryophytes form a major component of terrestrial plant biomass, structuring ecological communities in all biomes. Our understanding of the evolutionary history of hornworts, liverworts, and ...

Our paper bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... was the most cited in the American Journal Of Botany in 2024! and the most downloaded with over 10,500 views ! It has been cited 74 times since December 2023 !

Bryophyte images by Des Callaghan - Chile Photographic images of bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts) by Des Callaghan.

A British colleague, Des Callaghan, just shared some astonishing bryophyte pictures (even a hornwort!) bryophytes.myportfolio.com/chile

Decoding cryptic diversity of moss populations in a forest-tundra ecotone Cryptic speciation is widespread among bryophytes, and it appears common in arctic and subarctic mosses where cryptic lineages may occur sympatrically in the environment. However, cryptic lineages are...

The most recent preprint from our lab on cryptic speciation, clonality and microbiome from an Arctic plant

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Migrant crackdown risks choking off critical supply of US workers President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigrants could have serious economic repercussions.

once I thought (as a grad student in Illinois and Connecticut), to live and work in the US (a country that I love dearly with splendid landscapes and good people!). But life brought me to Québec and I love Canada more way more now ;)

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Antibiotic resistance genes detected in lichens: insights from Cladonia stellaris Background and Aims Antibiotics are natural compounds produced by microorganisms that have long existed in ecosystems. However, the widespread clinical and agricultural use of antibiotics has intensif...

notre plus recent pre-print #lichens #antibiotics #ARGs www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

📰 Nouveau numéro | Autisme : un héritage de Néandertal ? www.pourlascience.fr/sd/neuroscie...

The May 2025 issue is now fully online, with a cover highlighting the cell wall of ferns, from:

"Comparative transcriptomics in ferns reveals key innovations and divergent evolution of the secondary cell walls" rdcu.be/enhGp

The Mesquite icon shown, as a Mesquite leaf against a black background, and as a leave against the sun and a blue sky.

Mesquite 4 beta released! Many new features, esp. phylogenomic. Check out the trailer and longer video on the home page: www.mesquiteproject.org, and use the download link there to get a copy.

Feedback welcome! Ask and discuss on our new Google Group (groups.google.com/g/mesquite-p...).