David Lowry

New preprint from our big collaborative evolution experiment in 9 whole lakes in Alaska, written by McGill grad student @lucaseckert.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
What happens if you put a mixture of multiple source populations together to complete & evolve in multiple new lakes?

This article is now published! academic.oup.com/nargab/artic...
We’ve added a few new analyses. First off, we show that, while gene presence absence variation (PAV) scales with evolutionary distance in both plants and animals, the base level and rate of accrual are both twice as high in plants.

A Beginner's Guide to Structural Variants in Eco‐Evolutionary Population Genomics Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) has greatly expanded researchers' ability to study structural variants (SVs), that is, the variation in the presence, number, orientation or position of a DNA sequence. ....

New review!

Theory & a practical guide to structural variants in popgen🧬

Many thanks to my co-authors: @rebekahoomen.bsky.social
@annatigano.bsky.social @marenwellenreuther.bsky.social @janawold.bsky.social @dlfield.bsky.social @clairemerot.bsky.social

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Homepage - 2026 Population, Evolutionary, and Quantitative Genetics Conference Visit our website to learn more.

PEQG! My favorite conference ever*. Single session, fantastic talks, great discussions. Only once every 2 years. And in the best conference location too! Abstract deadline coming up Feb 5!

*Disclosure: I am required to say it's the best conference because it is and I told my mom I wouldn't lie.

The genetic and developmental enigma of rhizomes: crucial traits with limited understanding Rhizomes play fundamental roles in plant evolution, persistence, and environmental adaptation by enabling clonal propagation, resource storage, and stress resilience. Despite their ecological and agro...

The genetic and developmental enigma of rhizomes: crucial traits with limited understanding. arxiv.org/abs/2601.10847

Trees without leaves with snow on the ground.

Michigan midwinter phenology watch: no leaves, -20F windchills. See you in spring.

Special Issue: Paradigm Shifts in Flower Color: American Journal of Botany: Vol 113, No 1 Click on the title to browse this issue

Check out AJB's special issue "Paradigm shifts in flower color" a bunch of cool papers on flower coloration with a focus on non-pollinator drivers of color variation 🌸🌼🌺https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15372197/2026/113/1

The snow is coming down sideways. The windchill is at -6. There is a dude at the Meijer in shorts. Michigan, you never fail.

New preprint is up!

Not going spoil the results for you 🤓 but we looked at some “bird” vs “bee”-pollinated Penstemon hybrid zones and came away with some pretty unexpected results!

Ané Lab Jean-Michel Ané

2 postdoc openings in my lab:
anelab.wisc.edu/join-us.html
One for a maize geneticist and one for a bacterial geneticist

Picture featuring @manishbiotechie.bsky.social, @balptekin.bsky.social and @sairamnagalla.bsky.social. The first two left my lab over the last few months to start their own labs!

Congress passes bill to fund U.S. science agencies, rebuffing Trump's requested cuts The Senate voted to provide billions more to NASA, NOAA and the National Science Foundation than the president had asked for.

Nice to see strong support in Congress: “In an 82-15 vote, the Senate approved a minibus budget bill to fund agencies involved in science and the environment, among other issues, through Sept. 30. The bill passed in the House last week by a vote of 397 to 28.” www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...

a man standing next to a tree with a codetwo logo in the background ALT: a man standing next to a tree with a codetwo logo in the background

The Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position in Forest Genetics, Genomics and/or Tree Breeding at the Assistant or Associate Professor level.
www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/464...

Abstract Submission - 2026 Population, Evolutionary, and Quantitative Genetics Conference Visit our website to learn more.

Abstract submitted for #PEQG2026. Hope to see lots of you there! Just as a reminder, abstracts are due February 5th. genetics-gsa.org/peqg-2026/ab...

Pangenomics in the Mimulus guttatus Species Complex Click on the article title to read more.

Pangenomics in the Mimulus guttatus Species Complex onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Howdy,
Whoop. Big news from Texas AgriLife Genomics Service. Effective today, our Illumina 10B NovaSeq X+ pricing drops 35 percent. We are also continuing to absorb Illumina tariff surcharges. Email us at TxGen@ag.tamu.edu for our new prices.

Marcel and I will be at #PAG33 if you'd like to chat

I'm looking for a postdoc to work at the interface of molecular biology, comparative genomics & single-cell data science, a great opportunity to lead projects on regulatory evolution and cell-type-specific stress responses. Find me at PAG or reach out kenchanmanelab.com
#SingleCell #PostdocPosition

Want to study the genomics of repeated adaptation with data from hundreds of species? New funding for non-Canadians @ grad or postdoc level. Internal competition at UCalgary with very short deadline so please get in touch ASAP!!
sshrc-crsh.canada.ca/en/funding/o...

I was updating mine this past week and it work fine. Is it a browser issue?

I walked fully across the isthmus last night. Should have done this years ago. It has really helped with orientation.

That all said, I still think it is hands down the best city/college town in the Midwest.

I’ve been to Madison, WI ~8 times and I still find it to be a confusing place for my sense of direction (which generally is quite good). The combination of the diagonally oriented isthmus, two lakes that sound/ look like each other, and the often cloudy skies in winter really throw me off.

I might be very interested. Need to check my collection once I am back in town next week. Don’t wait for me if you find another good home.

Yeah, I totally understand.

Why are you parting with them? Space? I have Doug Schemske’s collection, minus the first ~10 years. I like having them, but don’t know if they will fit in my new office.

As the NY Times wrote today, this all is likely to end in a regional mess, but we can hope that it doesn’t.

One thing that has stuck out in my mind and feels parallel to the US today is how the Chavistas would harass scientists in Venezuela. Demagogues never treat scientists well.

Three people carrying scientific fishing equipment in the middle of a river.

Fieldwork in Venezuela in 2004. Thinking a lot about all the things I saw there (good and bad) back during the Chavez years.

Three Waymos in traffic

Swam with a pod of Waymos on 19th Avenue this morning.

I'm rarely on Bluesky so maybe I've missed this shared before. But I stumbled upon a fun, daily game called Metaflora (and it's partner Metazooa). You guess the mystery plant or animal by navigating through the tree of life. I figured folks here would enjoy it!

flora.metazooa.com

Old redwood tree trunk with burnt out hole in it, flanked by two younger redwood trees.

The stuff of legends