wild cherry blooms in front of my office at Sapporo🌸

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

Inferring the strength of directional selection on armor plates in Lake Washington stickleback while accounting for migration and drift Abstract. Contemporary evolution allows us to investigate how natural selection drives phenotypic and genotypic evolution in nature. Recent advances in mol

Our new paper is now out in Evolution! 🐟
We estimated the strength of directional selection on armor plates in threespine stickleback in Lake Washington, while accounting for migration and genetic drift.
My first stickleback paper!
doi.org/10.1093/evol...

Collaborative writing in Quarto! I can maybe finally say goodbye to Overleaf!

令和8年度科学技術分野の文部科学大臣表彰受賞者の決定等について：文部科学省 令和8年度科学技術分野の文部科学大臣表彰受賞者の決定等についてのページです。

Highly honored to receive the young scientist award of the Commendation for Science and Technology by MEXT Japan! I’m grateful to everybody who has supported me so far.
www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/houdo...

Save the date!
Next fall (2026), we will be hosting an interdisciplinary conference on crop diversification in Paris.

Fig. 1.Experimental design. (A and B) Close-up views of RhizoTubes® showing wheat seedlings and their roots. (C) Spatial distribution of the seedlings within the RhizoTubes® in both pure (up) and mixed (bottom) stands. Different colours represent different genotypes. (D) Schematic representation of the experiment; each dark square represents a RhizoTube®. The green squares are the control RhizoTubes® and are all grown with the same wheat variety to check environmental heterogeneity.

🌱 RESEARCH 🌱

Wheat varieties with a high root projected area in pure stands experience a strong relaxation of below-ground competition in mixtures at the seedling stage under resource-limited conditions – Montazeaud et al.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪 @germtz.bsky.social

New preprint with Kosuke Hamazaki is out in bioRxiv. The beta version of its R package is available via GitHub at github.com/yassato/rNei...

Major updates on Neighbor #GWAS! Now it's combined with polygenic IGEs by RAINBOWR. Collaboration with Kosuke Hamazaki.
doi.org/10.64898/202...

The Swiss Plant Breeding Center is looking for a Breeding Data Scientist and a Molecular Geneticist

#plantscijobs #plantscijob

www.spbc-plantbreeding.ch/en/vacancies

Spring comes to Hokkaido!

We are here! #ESJ73

esj-meeting.net/home/

We just published a review article as a book chapter of Advances in Ecological Research. This review focuses on interdisciplinary fields between genome-assisted breeding and community genetics. Please DM if you want a reprint. doi.org/10.1016/bs.a...

JREC-IN | Associate Professor, full-time tenured position (Faculty of Environmental Earth Science) イノベーション創出を担う研究人材のためのキャリア支援ポータルサイト

Open job position for an associate professor (tenured) of plant ecology (incl. plant-animal-microbe interactions) at the Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University. Spread the words!
jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekJor...

We also celebrated the winner of the 19th Kataoka Prize, Koki Katsuhara 🏆

Congrats!👏

He delivered his Award Lecture: "Coexistence mechanism of two closely related Commelina species under pollinator-mediated reproductive interference" at #SSSB57

種生物学シンポジウム　片岡奨励賞受賞 #Award

NEW!
Spatial heterogeneity of disease infection attributable to neighbor genotypic identity in barley cultivars
by Iqra Akram, Lukas Rohr, Kentaro K Shimizu, Rie Shimizu-Inatsugi, and @yassato.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1093/insi... #PlantScience

Spatial heterogeneity of disease infection attributable to neighbor genotypic identity in barley cultivars Abstract. Pest damage exhibits considerable spatial heterogeneity among individual plots in the field. Such spatial heterogeneity has often been treated as

@insilicoplants.bsky.social “Spatial heterogeneity of disease infection attributable to neighbor genotypic identity in barley cultivars” by Akram et al., is now out in in silico Plants. This work was led by a PhD student, Iqra Akram. Congratulations! doi.org/10.1093/insi...

Plant Species Biology (@plantspeciesbio.bsky.social) will soon be a full #OpenAccess journal. I am an associate editor of this society-owned journal, who can handle the subject of plant-herbivore interactions. If you are intrested, please see esj-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1442...

Breaking the norm: Absence of seed size/seed number trade‐off in Hymanaea stigonocarpa, a tree species from the Brazilian semi‐arid Seed size/number trade-off is a central topic in plant biology as it reflects ecological and evolutionary aspects of the species. Here we report the absence of a trade-off mass/number of seeds and fr...

#OpenAccess
Breaking the norm: Absence of seed size/seed number trade-off in Hymanaea stigonocarpa, a tree species from the Brazilian semi-arid

Marcilio Fagundes et al
doi.org/10.1111/1442...

cerrado/ environmental constraints/ fire-prone ecosystems

Volatile compounds of Mucuna macrocarpa were collected from four regions with different pollinators (a macaque, bat, squirrel, and two squirrel species, respectively), using the dynamic head-space method. In total, 112 volatile compounds were identified, varying from 14 to 63 compounds in each flower. Several flowers did not contain the sulfur compounds that are said to attract mammals, particularly nectar-feeding bats.

<NOTES AND INSIGHTS>
Volatile compounds of mammal-pollinated Mucuna macrocarpa (Fabaceae) based on distribution area in Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand

Shun Kobayashi et al
esj-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/GTTUHF...

Mucuna macrocarpa/ nonflying mammal/ #pollination/ tropical Asia

The present study provides an approach to the occurrence of this invasive grass and its density in terms of competitive aspects with Caryocar brasiliense. A biological approach with physiological, growth, and nutritional assessments is used to demonstrate the effects of grass coexistence on tree species and prove the problem of this invader for the conservation and cultivation of C. brasiliense.

Urochloa brizantha competition on initial growth, physiology, and use of macronutrients in Caryocar brasiliense

Murilo Antônio Oliveira Ruas et al
esj-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/JTBFFI...

invasive grass/ palisadegrass/ pequi tree/ savannah/ weed competition

「Urochloa brizantha との競争が Caryocar brasiliense の初期成長、生理機能、多量要素利用に与える影響」

icheria grandis exhibits synchronized and highly seasonal reproductive phenology, emphasizing its strong dependence on local climate dynamics. The species' supra-annual fruit production and evergreen vegetative habit highlight adaptive strategies for resource utilization and ecosystem balance. Phenological insights into Richeria grandis provide critical data for conservation strategies amidst global climate change impacts.

#OpenAccess
#Phenology of Richeria grandis Vahl: A dioecious species with wide geographical distribution and unique environmental specificity

Cristiane Coelho de Moura et al
doi.org/10.1111/1442...

conservation/ forest islands/ phenophase/ Phyllanthaceae/ plant physiology

「広範な地理的分布とユニークな環境特異性を持つ雌雄異株植物Richeria grandisのフェノロジー」
#OpenAccess

Hello #BES2025 in Edinburgh!

Come visit booth LT5 to meet our editorial team! We have editors on-site from:
@plantspeciesbio.bsky.social
@ecologicalresearch.bsky.social
@populationecology.bsky.social

Stop by talk about publishing or grab some giveaways! 🎁

@wileyecology.bsky.social

The phenotypic spaces of Arabidopsis thaliana F2s vs. wild accessions. The results shown correspond to one of the 10 hypervolume calculations. Left: Trait hypervolumes based on the first three principal component analysis (PCA) dimensions (with opaque dots representing observed data points, and semitransparent small dots representing uniformly distributed random points generated by the algorithm used for hypervolume computation). Hypervolumes with size equivalent to the mean of the 100 hypervolumes generated by resampling per group (F2s vs. accessions) are shown. Right: Trait variation within the phenotypic spaces of A. thaliana F2s (blue) and wild accessions (red) considering the first three PCA dimensions of trait hypervolumes. Hypervolume centroids, observed data points, and uniformly distributed random points generated by the algorithm used for hypervolume computation are depicted by large circles, opaque dots, and semitransparent small dots, respectively. Hypervolumes with size equivalent to the mean of the 100 hypervolumes generated by resampling per group (F2s vs. accessions) are shown. LA, leaf area; LDMC, leaf dry matter content; LNC, leaf nitrogen content; SLA, specific leaf area.

Why do we observe some plant #phenotypes but not others? This study explores the multivariate #PhenotypicSpace of a widely distributed #plant species to reveal how interplays between population history & natural selection shape phenotypic diversity in #Arabidopsis @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/43Z8IWi

Neurogenomic and behavioral principles shape freezing dynamics and synergistic performance in Drosophila melanogaster - Nature Communications Collective behavior plays an important role in predator evasion, but its neurogenetic basis is poorly understood. Here, Sato and Takahashi show that genetic diversity within groups of fruit flies enha...

Excellent work on a fruit fly, done by Daiki Sato and Yuma Takahashi. #GWAS of higher-order phenotypes reveals positive effects of genetic diversity on group-level performance. @natcomms.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

📢 Don't miss this special issue of ‪@plantcellphysiol.bsky.social‬ 🌱 containing a diverse array of exciting studies in Ecology and Evolution.
Shout-out to all contributing authors and my fellow co-editors @yassato.bsky.social, E. Sasaki and T. Tsuchimatsu !

Volume 66 Issue 4 | Plant and Cell Physiology | Oxford Academic The official journal of the Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. Publishes original articles reporting significant findings in broad aspects of plant biology.

Special Issue: #Ecology & #Evolution out now!

16 Research & Review papers exploring the molecular-genetic strategies used by plants to survive & thrive in nature

🔗 academic.oup.com/pcp/issue/66/4

Organisers:
V.Castric @vincentcastric.bsky.social
Y.Sato @yassato.bsky.social
E.Sasaki
T.Tsuchimatsu

I’m honored to organize this special issue with Vincent Castric @vincentcastric.bsky.social, Takashi Tsuchimatsu, and Eriko Sasaki. We’ve expanded #ecology and #evolution to #plant #physiology and #genetics🌱🧬. I look forward to seeing how #PCP goes toward this perspective👀