Out in eLife: Balancing selection in Capsella

Long-term balancing selection drives evolution of immunity genes in Capsella

Koenig et al., eLife 2019;8:e43606 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.43606

Genetic drift is expected to remove polymorphism from populations over long periods of time, with the rate of polymorphism loss being accelerated when … Read the rest

Cell-type specific RNA-seq and ChIP-seq

Phloem companion cell-specific transcriptomic and epigenomic analyses identify MRF1, a novel regulator of flowering

You et al. Plant Cell DOI: https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00714

The phloem plays essential roles in source-to-sink relationship and in long-distance communication to coordinate growth and development throughout the … Read the rest

PLoS Biology: The magic of heterosis explained

Nonlinear phenotypic variation uncovers the emergence of heterosis in Arabidopsis thaliana

François Vasseur , Louise Fouqueau, Dominique de Vienne, Thibault Nidelet, Cyrille Violle, Detlef Weigel

PLoS Biology https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000214

Heterosis describes the phenotypic superiority of hybrids over their parents in traits … Read the rest

Detlef elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Other new members this year include Michelle Obama & gender theorist Judith Butler

Detlef has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This year, more than 200 individuals with compelling achievements in academia, business, government, and public … Read the rest

HFSP fellowships to two recent PhD graduates

Patricia Lang and Giovanna Capovilla both won HFSP support!

Congratulations to Patricia Lang, who will work on “Evolutionary genetics of stomata-related climate change-adaptation through space and time”, and Giovanna Capovilla, who will work on “Prochlorococcus cyanophage: lysogenic potential … Read the rest

Congratulations, Dr. Karelina & Dr. Van de Weyer!

A first: Two PhD defenses on one day!

Both Anna-Lena and Darya investigated the amazing diversity of NLR genes in Arabidopsis thaliana:

Anan-Lena’s PhD thesis is entitled “The pan-NLR’ome of Arabidopsis thalianaGenome-Wide Analysis of Nucleotide-Binding Domain Leucine-Rich Repeat (NLR) Variation … Read the rest

bioRxiv: Barragan et al – Predicting hybrid underperformance

RPW8/HR Repeats Predict NLR-dependent Hybrid Performance

Barragan et al., bioRxiv, posted Feb 24, 2019

Hybrid offspring can look very different from their parents, including having greatly increased or decreased fitness. In many plant species, conflicts between divergent elements of the … Read the rest

First preprint of 2019: The A. thaliana pan-NLRome

The Arabidopsis thaliana pan-NLRome

1000s of NLR genes in 65 diverse accessions

Van de Weyer et al., bioRxiv 537001, posted January 31, 2019

Disease is both among the most important selection pressures in nature and among the main causes … Read the rest

Last preprint of 2018: Evolution of herbicide resistance

Multiple modes of convergent adaptation in the spread of glyphosate-resistant Amaranthus tuberculatus

Julia M. Kreiner, Darci Giacomini, Felix Bemm, Bridgit Waithaka, Julian Regalado, Christa Lanz, Julia Hildebrandt, Peter H. Sikkema, Patrick J. Tranel, Detlef Weigel, John R. Stinchcombe, Stephen I. Read the rest

In Genetics: over 1,000 spontaneous mutations

Fine-Grained Analysis of Spontaneous Mutation Spectrum and Frequency in Arabidopsis thaliana

Mao-Lun Weng, Claude Becker, Julia Hildebrandt, Matthew T. Rutter, Ruth G. Shaw, Detlef Weigel and Charles B. Fenster

Mutations are the ultimate source of all genetic variation.

Read the rest