Someone in the Arabidopsis/clock community seems to deeply dislike my work on research culture. Just want to say: whoever you are, please write & debate me directly instead of cowering behind anonymous grant reviews that threaten my students’ work. (2nd year in a row)
Thinking about this more, the 2 and 3 year bans are real career killers… who’d hire a tenure track candidate, or an (associate) professor that has one of those hanging around their necks?
Scientists from Kiel and Lima getting a tour of the labs of the germplasm bank at DONOSO experimental Station of INIA Peru.
Scientists from Kiel University in a mesh greenhouse with tomato plants, at DONOSO experimental Station of INIA, Peru.
Scientist discussing with a tomato farmer in front of crates of tomatoes in a field in near Huaral, Peru.
Shot of a Majacuja plantation. One scientist taking leaf samples of Maracuja plants, and another discussing with the plantation owner.
After a week of sampling dozens of fields, it's almost time to say goodbye to Peru! Thanks to the colleagues from INIA and La Molina University!
Postdoctoral Scholar position in the Coaker group University of California, Davis We are seeking a Postdoctoral Scholar to join our research program focused on immune receptor engineering and spatial analyses of plant pathogens interactions using computational and imaging approaches. The position will involve integration of molecular, imaging, and computational approaches. Relevant publications from the laboratory include Nature Plants (2025, PMID: 40721669), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024, PMID: 38814867), and Cell Reports (2023, PMID: 37342910). https://www.coakerlab.org/ Qualifications: • Ph.D. in plant biology, molecular biology, genetics, computational biology, or a related field • Strong background in genomics and/or computational biology • First author publications in peer-reviewed journals • Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary environment • Experience in plant innate immunity is preferred Application Instructions: The position is initially available for two years, with the possibility of extension based on performance and funding. Salary is based on the University of California postdoctoral salary scale (https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/_files/2025-26/represented-oct-2025-scales/t23.pdf). The salary range for this position is $69,073-$82,836 US Dollars/year. Review of applications will begin June 1, 2026 and will continue until the position is filled. Please submit a CV, a brief statement of research interests (~1 page), and contact information for three references to glcoaker@ucdavis.edu. The research statement should describe your previous work, how your expertise aligns with ongoing research in the lab, and potential future research directions.
We are hiring! We’re excited to recruit a postdoc to our lab at UC Davis to work on plant immune engineering and single-cell analyses of plant pathogen interactions. Apply by June 1. Please repost. www.coakerlab.org/postdoctoral...
In case you want to see the different views on the same question.
From the host's perspective
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
From the pathogen's perspective
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
From the interactive perspective
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Three Botrytis/Eudicot papers accepted.
A reevaluation point on a question about generalism started with @katherinedenby.bsky.social 's sabbatical 24 years ago. Continued by a broad team of undergrads to post-docs including @annajomu.bsky.social @ccaseys.bsky.social and more not on bsky.
And another kind of field season also started! Collecting Alternaria from cultivated tomato and other crops in Peru to compare with our collection of Alternaria from wild crop relatives. 😁
And another kind of field season also started! Collecting Alternaria from cultivated tomato and other crops in Peru to compare with our collection of Alternaria from wild crop relatives. 😁
Field with young, few day old, spring barley plants, block design,
Field season is starting!
Resequencing hundreds or thousands of individuals from the same species has become routine... but processing all those genomes efficiently? Still a headache!
Here's my solution that used to be lab-internal but that I am happy to share:
crolllab.github.io/genomepanel_...
Somehow, I struggle imagining you with such a beard... 😉
Congratulations! I can assure you, leading a department with such a name is a lot of fun! 😉
Krankenkassen jammern über Milliardenlöcher – aber zahlen weiter für Homöopathie ohne Wirkungsnachweis.
Wilde Idee: Vielleicht fangen wir mit dem Sparen einfach da an, wo es medizinisch exakt nichts bringt?!
Our new experimental evolution study across 30+ locations using the plant Arabidopsis thaliana —— we direct "see" adaptation and extinction to different climates at the genetic as it happens!
Read it in Science
dx.doi.org/10.1126/scie...
@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social
@hhmi-science.bsky.social
Great to see this out! It was really nice to be part of this from setting up the field near Munich and on the Alps all the way to final publication.
#GiveGenesAChance in UK 🌾
www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/rothams...
Job advertisement for PhD and postdoc positions
For our project in the context of the Excellence Cluster GreenRobust
@greenrobust.de
we look for 2 PhD students and 1 postdoc in the area of plant molecular and evolutionary ecology.
Deadline: 15 April
Reposts are welcome
#plantjobs #plantscijobs
Scientists: In the hypothetical situation that you were invited to present a proposal for a large ECR grant and you would have to present yourself, your career, ánd proposal in 15 minutes; would you or would you not include 'academic metrics,' and why? I lean to no, but am not sure what's common.
Now out!
We show that TEs can be horizontally transferred between fungal species via Starships. Once transferred, these TEs can become active, changing the genome organization and affecting the lifestyle of the recipient fungus.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@oggenfussursula.bsky.social #TEsky
What if a super successful fungal plant pathogen has little evidence of structural variation, horizontal gene transfer or their ilk? It’s just a nice Mendelian meiosis and inheritance, etc. does that make it the odd one?
Woohoo. Pathogen work!
China increases science funding again (by at least 7-% over the next 5 years) as it pledges billion-dollar spending boost for science
🧪
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Zehn von zehn
Alle noch im Wettbewerb befindlichen Exzellenzuniversitäten bestehen die Evaluation. Was die Entscheidung der Exzellenzkommission über Selektivität, Strukturpolitik und die Zukunft des Wettbewerbs verrät.
Im Wiarda-Blog: www.jmwiarda.de/blog/2026/03...
Hey fellow scientists, I'm just letting you know that if you're promoting something with some junky AI image, I'm not gonna click. You've got a workshop, a conference, a new paper?
Just not gonna bother. You want a bespoke image? Hire an illustrator.
The strains differ, but it is hard to pinpoint specific genomic features. Moreover, under lab conditions the strains behave relatively similar.
Do A atra can be pathogen or (harmless) endophyte dependent on the host it infects?
New Preprint: Alternaria atra from distinct ecological roles share functional genomic repertoires
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A while ago we sequenced A atra collected as pathogen from wild tomato. We compared this with new genomes of strains that grew endophytic in Tillandsia.
That's a good name for software:
MKado: a toolkit for McDonald-Kreitman tests of natural selection
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Yeah. Had a look at the first set of project reports today. Graphs look fine, superficially the analysis looks good. But the biological interpretation and the discussion....
Please share with potentially interested colleagues :)
#Bioinformatics #Genomics #EvolutionaryBiology
