Eleanore Ritter (she/her)

On the cover of New Phytologist volume 250, issue 1: Orange jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) being visited by a bumblebee (Bombus) in a remnant patch of floodplain forest in Wisconsin, USA.

On the cover of our #LatestIssue: Orange jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) being visited by a bumblebee (Bombus) in a remnant patch of floodplain forest in Wisconsin, USA. Image courtesy of Rachel Toczydlowski.

📖 See Schoen & Toczydlowski
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#PlantScience

Bee and flower

Stay tuned for the release of this new documentary at the end of the month! I think our buzz pollination clip might have just made the cut!

Calling all OrthoFinder users!

We’ve just released GLADE, a tool to infer gene gains, losses, duplications, and ancestral genomes across a phylogeny.

GLADE runs directly on OrthoFinder results.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
github.com/lauriebelch/...

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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.

I mean, true.

He Studied Why Some Female Birds Look Like Males

"I don’t know why my fellowship was terminated. I suspect that it has something to do with studying a species that doesn’t fit the binary of what we expect to see in nature, with completely different males and females."

@carlzimmer.com profiles my wonderful coauthor @jjinsing.bsky.social Gift link.

A novel, fig-associated microbe promotes reproductive success via variable life history mechanisms in C. elegans and C. inopinata Variation in life history strategies is among the most striking features of animal diversity. Simultaneously, the microbes an animal interacts with are a critical and dynamic aspect of the host enviro...

Very excited to share this work led by Austin Link, a graduate student in our lab. We have discovered a novel, fig-associated microbe that promotes reproductive success via variable life history mechanisms in two nematode species.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Unpopular opinion: biologists are still the ones who understand biology best

No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes Muller's ratchet predicts that non-recombining genomes can accumulate deleterious mutations, though molecular evidence for it is rare. Previous studies have tried to detect ratchet-like behavior in mi...

Have you ever wondered: just how strong *is* the evidence for Muller's ratchet on mtDNA?

Well, wonder no more!

(Project led by Yu Mo, with @smishra677.bsky.social and @yadirapga.bsky.social)

"No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Boxing up the NSF at Eisenhower Av for the forced relocation. Boxes have “Details Matter” signage.

NSF

- Forced reorg

- POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements)

- Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …)

I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing.
“Details matter” 🙃

intern measuring plant

restoration site

plants in the nursery.

We are hiring at California Botanic Garden! The Restoration Intern will have the opportunity to work on a variety of projects involving out-planting, seed collection, plant propagation and monitoring. This is a full time temp position (6 months) that can be extended. Please share! lnkd.in/gaNuNGxA

In these field experiments we did earlier this year in the town of Iijima, we found that spraying nectar yeast and bacteria to buckwheat fields increased insect pollination and seed set.

I am looking to hire a postdoc interested in combining genetics and evolution to understand why telomeres vary so much in plants. My group has been developing Mimulus a genetic model for studying plant telomeres and we have really cool research brewing. Please check ad for detail. Deadline is 12/31.

Check out our new preprint! This was such a great paper to work on with @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social and the rest of the team!

An incredibly chonky brown bear

GUESS WHAT WEEK IT IS

De-novo promoters emerge more readily from random DNA than from genomic DNA Promoters are DNA sequences that help to initiate transcription. Point mutations can create de-novo promoters, which can consequently transcribe inactive genes or create novel transcripts. We know lit...

Excited / nervous to share the “magnum opus” of my postdoc in Andreas Wagner’s lab!

"De-novo promoters emerge more readily from random DNA than from genomic DNA"

This project is the accumulation of 4 years of work, and lays the foundation for my future group. In short, we… (1/4)

a man with a mustache is sitting on a swing in the park . Alt: a man with a mustache is sitting on a swing in the park .

When you write to your senator (weeks ago) about proposed cuts to NSF and they respond this morning saying that they will always support NIH and never mention NSF... Thanks, Jon, totally what I meant ☹️

Well who doesn't love free toppings haha

I cannot fully express how much it bummed me out to find out that the UGA Creamery is just a grab-and-go store with crappy sandwiches and ZERO ice cream ☹️

This is my favorite fact of the day, it's just too precious 🥹

A map of the US with the states the republican senators are from marked in red and states the democratic senators are from marked in blue: Senator Susan Collins (Republican - Maine) Senator Mitch McConnell(Republican - Kentucky) Senator Lisa Murkowski(Republican - Alaska) Senator Lindsey Graham(Republican - South Carolina) Senator Jerry Moran(Republican - Kansas) Senator John Hoeven(Republican - North Dakota) Senator John Boozman(Republican - Arkansas) Senator Shelley Moore Capito(Republican - West Virginia) Senator John Kennedy(Republican - Louisiana) Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith(Republican - Mississippi) Senator Bill Hagerty(Republican - Tennessee) Senator Katie Britt(Republican - Alabama) Senator Markwayne Mullin(Republican - Oklahoma) Senator Deb Fischer(Republican - Nebraska) Senator Mike Rounds(Republican - South Dakota) Patty Murray(Democrat - Washington) Richard Durbin(Democrat - Illinois) Jack Reed(Democrat - Rhode Island) Jeanne Shaheen(Democrat - New Hampshire) Jeff Merkley(Democrat - Oregon) Christopher Coons(Democrat - Delaware) Brian Schatz(Democrat - Hawaii) Tammy Baldwin(Democrat - Wisconsin) Chris Murphy(Democrat - Connecticut) Chris Van Hollen(Democrat - Maryland) Martin Heinrich(Democrat - New Mexico) Gary Peters(Democrat - Michigan) Kirsten Gillibrand(Democrat - New York) Jon Ossoff(Democrat - Georgia)

Are you from one of these states? Then we need your help to save American science!

The Senate Appropriations Committee will be marking up the President's Budget Request for science on Wednesday. People have been saying the proposed cuts "decimated" US science, but that's wrong: they are apocalyptic

Incredible diversity of #pollen grains!

Pollen autofluorescence acquired with @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social #superresolution Airyscan & color-coded for depth

#microscopy #bioimaging #bioart #sciart #botany #plantscience #fluorescencefriday

A very important, inspiring read, even for us biology folks outside of medicine

Based on some quick math, this alone could fund the NSF Plant Genome Research Program for ~4 years; the NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology, which was totally axed in the NSF budget request, for ~9 years; and ~ half the total NSF GRFP budget

Our paper (w/ @smishra677.bsky.social) is now out in Genetics!

academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

FINAL DAY to submit a comment about the changes to the Endangered Species Act! It takes 5 minutes and could make the difference in protecting America's flora and fauna.

Unsplash image of the Earth, mostly the nightside with a tracery of city lights on every continent.

OK, this is wild.

In September 2023, geophysicists across the world started monitoring a very odd signal coming from the ground under them.

It was picked up in the Arctic. And Antarctica. It was detected everywhere, every 90 seconds, as regular as a metronome, for *nine days*.

What the HELL?

1/

This seems like a good day to re-up this advice.

Sen. Ossoff: Who out there in the American public is sitting at home demanding that we shut down cancer research and Alzheimer's research?