Jesús Martínez-Gómez

So I pleased to announce the conceptual spawn of FigTree: PearTree (acronym still to be finalised). If you want to dive right in it is hosted as a web app here: artic-network.github.io/peartree (click the “Example...” button for immediate candy and then click every button you can find).

I won’t be able (don't want) to implement any new features including ones I really wanted for my own work. Instead of trying to find time to fix/enhance FigTree I decided a more fun procrastination project would be to start it all again from scratch.

rambaut/figtree Automatically exported from code.google.com/p/figtree - rambaut/figtree

The first version of FigTree was released nearly 20 years ago and it is still widely used (including by me). But there are currently 85 issues on the GitHub repo (github.com/rambaut/figt...) and some of them I don’t really like the look of.

Limitations of molecular dating using constant birth–death rate priors in deep time reflected in Brachiopoda evolution Molecular dating often struggles to align with fossil records when divergence times are estimated in deep evolutionary history, particularly during th…

Limitations of molecular dating using constant birth-death rate priors in deep time reflected in Brachiopoda evolution www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A covarion model for phylogenetic estimation using discrete morphological datasets Abstract. The rate of evolution of a single morphological character is not homogeneous across the phylogeny and this rate heterogeneity varies between morp

Our new paper 'A covarion model for phylogenetic estimation using discrete morphological datasets,' is out in SysBio!
We introduce the "covariomorph" model in RevBayes to capture character and lineage specific rates of morphological traits.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/sysb...

Recombination suppression in plant adaptation and speciation Recombination suppression is increasingly recognized as an important facilitator of genomic divergence and speciation, especially under ongoing gene flow. In plants, however, the broader evolutionary...

Recombination suppression in plant adaptation and speciation nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Spiral phyllotaxis in the moss Physcomitrium patens emerges from simple division rules of the apical cell Cammarata et al. explore how cell division orientation generates phyllotaxis in moss with a unicellular meristem. They show that successive rotational divisions in the apical cell are precisely placed...

How moss makes a spiral of leaves through a rotating asymmetric division of the apical cell meristem--our paper is out @currentbiology.bsky.social today! @soestrauss.bsky.social Richard Smith, Joe Cammarata
www.cell.com/current-biol...

I'm not really big on awards in academia but my students got together and put in a successful nomination packet to give me an outstanding mentor award from my college and it's the most meaningful and humbling recognition I've received in my career. 🥹

Delighted to share our new preprint: "Evolution of moss leaf-like organs through variations in deeply conserved developmental principles."
Led by Ph.D. student Wenye Lin from my lab @irbv.bsky.social ,
in collab. with Yoan Coudert (ENS Lyon) and Richard Smith (JIC).
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

This one goes to 12

A line curve showing number of awards for fiscal year 2026 compared to fiscal years 2021-2025 for the Biological Sciences Directorate. The fiscal year 2026 curve lies well below curves for other fiscal years.

Biological Sciences

2/11

New preprint on a new diversity-dependent biogeographic diversification model using deep learning. Joint work with my amazing advisor @landismj.bsky.social. Details of the paper in the comment section. #evobio
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

My department at CSU Northridge is hiring a vertebrate functional morphologist! We've got a great EEB group, and we're looking for someone to carry forward a tradition of enriching organismal courses and community-engaged research. App review starts March 15

csucareers.calstate.edu/mob/cw/en-us...

Cumulative restoration action leads to improved vegetative response in shrub‐encroached wet prairies of coastal Florida, U.S.A. This study shows effective restoration of shrub-encroached wet prairies may require more than conventional management tools. The cumulative effect of three treatment approaches, removal of woody shru...

📄🚨New paper from our Florida conservation team showing the positive impact of habitat restoration on biodiversity. And the coolest part- this work was done without herbicide! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The seed fossil record of Solanaceae revisited is out!

Using morphometrics and micro-CT data from 110 fossils and 354 extant taxa, we described 6 new genera and 6 new species, doubling fossil diversity for the nightshades!

🔗 doi.org/10.1002/tax....

@iochromaland.bsky.social

I'm super excited to share that this article was published today in Science! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

All made possible by the fantastic group of donors, volunteers and scientists at The American Chestnut Foundation (tacf.org), HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, and our collaborators.

Denglongia and another stem in the sediment/Archaeopteris leaf/Section in Callixylon root /Section in Denglongia stem

New paper in press on a Late Devonian fossil plant assemblage from Australia, with lycopsids (Leptophloeum), cladoxylopsids (Denglongia), and progymnosperm (Archaeopteris/Callixylon) remains 🌿⛏️
#paleobotany #FossilFriday
doi.org/10.1016/j.pa...

NSF GRFP applicants (and mentors): Was your application Returned Without Review and deemed ineligible despite fitting in the allowed topics?
1) Write NSF
2) Write your Congressperson
3) CC us at grfp@grant-witness.us so we can compile + follow up

Details and template at grant-witness.us/grfp-letter

My grad student, who got RWR and appealed, got an email from GRFP program today that said "Your application was screened by NSF program officers with expertise in your proposed field of study and was determined to be ineligible according to the solicitation requirements."

No details were given. 😡

Evolution and development: What makes a merry stem? From tiny mosses to giant redwoods, around 450,000 species of land plants show a huge variety of forms, yet all land plants develop from stem cells in proliferative meristems. What makes a meristem? T...

Insightful new papers on #auxin, brilliantly compiled by @jillharrison.bsky.social.
Evolution and development: What makes a merry stem?
www.cell.com/current-biol...

We’re #hiring a #postdoc @ucriverside.bsky.social 🌿
Work on cis-regulatory evolution, gene family diversification, and cell-type-specific climate responses using single-cell and comparative genomics - kenchanmanelab.com/research/

Deadline: Feb 5, 2026
Apply: aprecruit.ucr.edu/apply/JPF02058

An example setup for herbarium tours. This is a general setup, as we have 8 groups coming today. I've prepared for discussions of taxonomy, floristics, history, and of course the basic: What is an herbarium?

Herbaria encourage questions in these areas and many more.

@mortonarboretum.bsky.social

There's a lot going on right now. But I just want to take a moment to celebrate the recent accomplishments of the truly incredible young scientists I get to work with on a daily basis in my lab. #proudPI

Here are some of their recent accomplishments (a thread):

The cover of Vol 77 | Issue 3 | 2026 of the Journal of Experimental Botany, Special Issue: Plasmodesmata: Current perspectives on plant intercellular communication and signalling. Teal coloured banners border the top and bottom of the page and in the centre is an image of multicoloured Nicotiana benthamiana cells under a microscope. Fluorescent proteins (mTurquoise2, mEGFP, mCitrine, mScarlet-I) move between cells via plasmodesmata in the epidermis of N. benthamiana. (Image credit: Rory Greenhalgh, Jacob O. Brunkard.)

📣 Check out JXB's newest Special Issue 📣
📜 Issue 3 of 2026 📜

🔬 Plasmodesmata: Current perspectives on plant intercellular communication and signalling 🔬

📘 Guest edited by Jake Brunkard & Tessa Burch-Smith

🔗 academic.oup.com/jxb...

#JXBspecialissues #PlantScience 🧪 SEBiology

image of a maize inflorescence meristem that is labeled by the plasma membrane marker PIP2-CFP and BAM1D-YFP.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/JAIVZX...

Excited to share my latest work in @newphyt.bsky.social. Here, we used TurboID proximity labeling with CLAVATA receptors FEA3 and BAM1D in maize meristems to better understand the signaling pathways important for meristem regulation. #PlantScience

Cow Tools!

We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years.
We breed them and exploit them

It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS

Here I describe our study

(paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social
with @auersperga.bsky.social

Back-scratching bovine leads scientists to reassess intelligence of cows Brown Swiss in Austria has been discovered using tools in multiple ways – something only ever seen in humans and chimpanzees

COW TOOLS COW TOOLS COW TOOLS

Ethylene modulates cell wall mechanics for root responses to compaction - Nature Soil compaction traps ethylene around roots, which causes transcriptional upregulation of Auxin Response Factor1, resulting in decreased root cortical cell wall thickness and thereby promoting root ra...

Go to the original article in Nature: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

4/4
#PlantScience