Jim Leebens-Mack
@jleebensmack.bsky.social
Botanist. University of Georgia. Plant evolutionary biology, phylogenomics, comparative genomics.
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
We're pleased to welcome @camilledelavaux.bsky.social to the New Phytologist Board of Advisors!
Camille is the winner of the 2025 New Phytologist Tansley Medal for excellence in plant science.
www.newphytologist.org/news/new-phy...
Camille is the winner of the 2025 New Phytologist Tansley Medal for excellence in plant science.
www.newphytologist.org/news/new-phy...
New Phytologist Tansley Medal 2025 winner: Camille S. Delavaux
We are delighted to announce that the 2025 New Phytologist Tansley Medal for excellence in plant science has been awarded to Camille S. Delavaux.
www.newphytologist.org
February 16, 2026 at 3:35 PM
We're pleased to welcome @camilledelavaux.bsky.social to the New Phytologist Board of Advisors!
Camille is the winner of the 2025 New Phytologist Tansley Medal for excellence in plant science.
www.newphytologist.org/news/new-phy...
Camille is the winner of the 2025 New Phytologist Tansley Medal for excellence in plant science.
www.newphytologist.org/news/new-phy...
Work led by @pbentz.bsky.social shows that two of eight dispersals of Asparagus out of Southern Africa were associated with shifts to dioecy and independently evolved XY sex determination systems.
@pbentz.bsky.social @scarey.bsky.social @jleebensmack.bsky.social et al. explore the origins of recombination suppression between ancestral autosomes leading to independent sex chromosome formation in Asparagus.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag003
#evobio #molbio #PlantSky
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msag003
#evobio #molbio #PlantSky
Two independent origins of XY sex chromosomes in Asparagus
Abstract. The relatively young and repeated evolutionary origins of dioecy (separate sexes) in flowering plants enables the investigation of molecular dyna
doi.org
February 16, 2026 at 4:07 PM
Work led by @pbentz.bsky.social shows that two of eight dispersals of Asparagus out of Southern Africa were associated with shifts to dioecy and independently evolved XY sex determination systems.
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
📢 JOB OPPORTUNITY We are hiring a Research Technologist (Advanced Professional) to design, implement, support, analyze, and report on rigorous research in genetics, entomology, and host-microbe interactions. Please consider and share with others in need.
psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/PSU_Staff/jo...
psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/PSU_Staff/jo...
Research Technologist - Life Sciences Advance Professional - Bordenstein Lab
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, a...
psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
January 17, 2026 at 11:01 PM
📢 JOB OPPORTUNITY We are hiring a Research Technologist (Advanced Professional) to design, implement, support, analyze, and report on rigorous research in genetics, entomology, and host-microbe interactions. Please consider and share with others in need.
psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/PSU_Staff/jo...
psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/PSU_Staff/jo...
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
The January issue of New Phytologist is online now, featuring on the cover @roseamarks.bsky.social’s article on the physiology and genomics of the resurrection plant, Myrothanus flabellifolia. doi.org/10.1111/nph....
(I’m posting here for Dr. Marks, who is currently doing field work off the grid)
(I’m posting here for Dr. Marks, who is currently doing field work off the grid)
The architecture of resilience: a genome assembly of Myrothamnus flabellifolia sheds light on desiccation tolerance and sex determination
Myrothamnus flabellifolia is a dioecious resurrection plant endemic to southern Africa that has become an important model for understanding desiccation tolerance. Despite its ecological and medicina...
doi.org
December 20, 2025 at 12:11 AM
The January issue of New Phytologist is online now, featuring on the cover @roseamarks.bsky.social’s article on the physiology and genomics of the resurrection plant, Myrothanus flabellifolia. doi.org/10.1111/nph....
(I’m posting here for Dr. Marks, who is currently doing field work off the grid)
(I’m posting here for Dr. Marks, who is currently doing field work off the grid)
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
My department at California State University Northridge is hiring! We're looking for a new colleague studying microbiology or molecular/cellular biology. I'm not on the search committee, but happy to answer questions about the department and campus, and life in LA
buff.ly/Pc1KOaC
buff.ly/Pc1KOaC
Career Opportunities
Applicant Log-In
careers.pageuppeople.com
December 4, 2025 at 7:19 PM
My department at California State University Northridge is hiring! We're looking for a new colleague studying microbiology or molecular/cellular biology. I'm not on the search committee, but happy to answer questions about the department and campus, and life in LA
buff.ly/Pc1KOaC
buff.ly/Pc1KOaC
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
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.
November 16, 2025 at 8:29 PM
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.
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
Today is the last day to register!
Please consider doing so - it is going to be a fun one!
Register here: evomics.org/apply-worksh...
bsky.app/profile/jlst...
Please consider doing so - it is going to be a fun one!
Register here: evomics.org/apply-worksh...
bsky.app/profile/jlst...
November 15, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Today is the last day to register!
Please consider doing so - it is going to be a fun one!
Register here: evomics.org/apply-worksh...
bsky.app/profile/jlst...
Please consider doing so - it is going to be a fun one!
Register here: evomics.org/apply-worksh...
bsky.app/profile/jlst...
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
Absolutely happy to share our latest publication!🥳🎉
The first manuscript of the first PhD candidate of my team! 🥹🤩
Huge congratulations to our brilliant Asif Ahmed Sami for his excellent work! ✨️
academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...
The first manuscript of the first PhD candidate of my team! 🥹🤩
Huge congratulations to our brilliant Asif Ahmed Sami for his excellent work! ✨️
academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...
The phylotranscriptomic profile of angiosperm seed development follows a reverse hourglass pattern
Angiosperm seed development exhibits a reverse phylotranscriptomic pattern, with early and late stages showing greater conservation and mid-phase showing h
academic.oup.com
November 15, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Absolutely happy to share our latest publication!🥳🎉
The first manuscript of the first PhD candidate of my team! 🥹🤩
Huge congratulations to our brilliant Asif Ahmed Sami for his excellent work! ✨️
academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...
The first manuscript of the first PhD candidate of my team! 🥹🤩
Huge congratulations to our brilliant Asif Ahmed Sami for his excellent work! ✨️
academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...
Chazz Jordan's phylogenomic analysis of cone flowers (Echinacea) just published! - doi.org/10.3389/fpls.... Chazz's findings suggests rapid diversification in the genus as ancestral populations dispersed from southeastern North America into the midwest.
Frontiers | Utilizing target capture sequencing to resolve the speciation history of Echinacea (Asteraceae)
It has been difficult to resolve relationships among many important lineages within the Asteraceae family due to interspecific hybridization and rapid specie...
doi.org
September 11, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Chazz Jordan's phylogenomic analysis of cone flowers (Echinacea) just published! - doi.org/10.3389/fpls.... Chazz's findings suggests rapid diversification in the genus as ancestral populations dispersed from southeastern North America into the midwest.
Analyses of a new genomes for garden asparagus and a Mediterranean basin congener reveal independent origins of dioecy and XY sex chromosomes. The work led by Phil Bentz @pbentz.bsky.social finds no overlap in the two Y-linked sex-determination genes - www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... .
Two independent origins of XY sex chromosomes in Asparagus
The relatively young and repeated evolutionary origins of dioecy (separate sexes) in flowering plants enable investigation of molecular dynamics occurring at the earliest stages of sex chromosome evol...
www.biorxiv.org
September 11, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Analyses of a new genomes for garden asparagus and a Mediterranean basin congener reveal independent origins of dioecy and XY sex chromosomes. The work led by Phil Bentz @pbentz.bsky.social finds no overlap in the two Y-linked sex-determination genes - www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... .
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
Our EEB department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is hiring an assistant professor in evo-devo. See go.illinois.edu/EEBAsstProf for details. Please share!
August 26, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Our EEB department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is hiring an assistant professor in evo-devo. See go.illinois.edu/EEBAsstProf for details. Please share!
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
🌾The Functional traits in primary producers: recent advances and future directions special feature is open for proposals!🍄
🌲Proposal submissions close 15 September, more details here: buff.ly/e8PTkMM
🌲Proposal submissions close 15 September, more details here: buff.ly/e8PTkMM
August 21, 2025 at 10:15 AM
🌾The Functional traits in primary producers: recent advances and future directions special feature is open for proposals!🍄
🌲Proposal submissions close 15 September, more details here: buff.ly/e8PTkMM
🌲Proposal submissions close 15 September, more details here: buff.ly/e8PTkMM
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
The Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University is Hiring!
We are searching for a Director of the Oregon State University Herbarium and applications are welcomed at the ranks of assistant, associate, or full professor.
We are searching for a Director of the Oregon State University Herbarium and applications are welcomed at the ranks of assistant, associate, or full professor.
August 20, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
Please share — Michigan State Plant Biology is searching for an Herbarium Director! Tenure stream, open rank faculty position balancing research, teaching, service, and admin responsibilities. Join us! Reach out to me or @emjo.bsky.social with questions!
plantbiology.natsci.msu.edu/job-postings...
plantbiology.natsci.msu.edu/job-postings...
plantbiology.natsci.msu.edu
August 20, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
On the cover of @natplants.nature.com this month:
@leobaumgart.bsky.social @greensi.bsky.social @abmora.bsky.social @omalley-regulome.bsky.social et al. map binding sites for 360 TFs across 10 🌿plant🌿 species using a new multiDAP approach
Here is Sharon's explainer 🧵:
bsky.app/profile/gree...
@leobaumgart.bsky.social @greensi.bsky.social @abmora.bsky.social @omalley-regulome.bsky.social et al. map binding sites for 360 TFs across 10 🌿plant🌿 species using a new multiDAP approach
Here is Sharon's explainer 🧵:
bsky.app/profile/gree...
August 20, 2025 at 12:45 AM
On the cover of @natplants.nature.com this month:
@leobaumgart.bsky.social @greensi.bsky.social @abmora.bsky.social @omalley-regulome.bsky.social et al. map binding sites for 360 TFs across 10 🌿plant🌿 species using a new multiDAP approach
Here is Sharon's explainer 🧵:
bsky.app/profile/gree...
@leobaumgart.bsky.social @greensi.bsky.social @abmora.bsky.social @omalley-regulome.bsky.social et al. map binding sites for 360 TFs across 10 🌿plant🌿 species using a new multiDAP approach
Here is Sharon's explainer 🧵:
bsky.app/profile/gree...
Awesome research with implications for understanding of transitions between CAM and C3 modes of photosynthesis in yaccas agaves and their relatives!
Our "Joshua tree is CAM" paper is finally out: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Data collection started back in 2021, when we saw weird results in some RNAseq that made me stop and wonder if Joshua trees, long thought to be C3, were actually...CAM!
Data collection started back in 2021, when we saw weird results in some RNAseq that made me stop and wonder if Joshua trees, long thought to be C3, were actually...CAM!
Cryptic CAM photosynthesis in Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia, Y. jaegeriana)
Joshua trees are long-lived perennial monocots native to the Mojave Desert in North America. Composed of two species, Yucca brevifolia and Y. jaegeriana (Asparagaceae), Joshua trees are imperiled by...
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 19, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Awesome research with implications for understanding of transitions between CAM and C3 modes of photosynthesis in yaccas agaves and their relatives!
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
hi friends, let me know if you'd like a zoom link for my defense next week!
August 18, 2025 at 6:54 PM
hi friends, let me know if you'd like a zoom link for my defense next week!
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
I love this trend in polyploid research:
“With new data and techniques, we can finally tackle this horribly complicated group!”
“And guess what? It’s even worse than we imagined!”
But seriously, excellent work!
“With new data and techniques, we can finally tackle this horribly complicated group!”
“And guess what? It’s even worse than we imagined!”
But seriously, excellent work!
New Paper! In 2019, my first dissertation chapter revealed complicated polyploidies in the cotton family (Malvaceae) but we lacked the tools and genomes to truly understand it. Now with better genomes and improved methods, it's much more complicated than we thought. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
August 13, 2025 at 8:37 PM
I love this trend in polyploid research:
“With new data and techniques, we can finally tackle this horribly complicated group!”
“And guess what? It’s even worse than we imagined!”
But seriously, excellent work!
“With new data and techniques, we can finally tackle this horribly complicated group!”
“And guess what? It’s even worse than we imagined!”
But seriously, excellent work!
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
Day 3 of popgen we talked about effective population size. No, I don't really understand it. You probably don't either. But I highly recommend this fantastic guide about how to think about Ne onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The Idiot's Guide to Effective Population Size
This is a reference manual for the elegant, yet hideously complex concept of effective population size (Ne), inspired by a classic, self-published manual of automotive repair ‘for the compleat idiot’...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 10, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Day 3 of popgen we talked about effective population size. No, I don't really understand it. You probably don't either. But I highly recommend this fantastic guide about how to think about Ne onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
The Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University is Hiring!
We are searching for a Director of the Oregon State University Herbarium and applications are welcomed at the ranks of assistant, associate, or full professor.
We are searching for a Director of the Oregon State University Herbarium and applications are welcomed at the ranks of assistant, associate, or full professor.
August 6, 2025 at 4:58 PM
The Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University is Hiring!
We are searching for a Director of the Oregon State University Herbarium and applications are welcomed at the ranks of assistant, associate, or full professor.
We are searching for a Director of the Oregon State University Herbarium and applications are welcomed at the ranks of assistant, associate, or full professor.
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
Are you an early-career biologist or ecologist who would benefit from an invited seminar? Would you like to come to UMaine next fall or spring to give a talk? Leave a brief comment with some info about what you do. I'm co-hosting our seminar series again, and am filling out our rosters.
July 30, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Are you an early-career biologist or ecologist who would benefit from an invited seminar? Would you like to come to UMaine next fall or spring to give a talk? Leave a brief comment with some info about what you do. I'm co-hosting our seminar series again, and am filling out our rosters.
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
Herbarium director position opening at Oregon State University @osu-herbarium.bsky.social Great opportunity for herbarium- and field-trained botanists at any rank. bpp.oregonstate.edu/bpp/about/op...
Open Positions
bpp.oregonstate.edu
July 9, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Herbarium director position opening at Oregon State University @osu-herbarium.bsky.social Great opportunity for herbarium- and field-trained botanists at any rank. bpp.oregonstate.edu/bpp/about/op...
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
Come be my colleague (& @jacquelyngill.bsky.social's and other great folks)!
UMaine is hiring a Genetics Facilities Manager to lead the CORE eDNA and DNA Sequencing Labs. Hiring range is $75-85k (up $20k from previous round)
fa-ewca-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
UMaine is hiring a Genetics Facilities Manager to lead the CORE eDNA and DNA Sequencing Labs. Hiring range is $75-85k (up $20k from previous round)
fa-ewca-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
Genetics Facilities Manager
The University of Maine is a community of more than 11,900 undergraduate and graduate students, and 2,500 employees located on the Orono campus, the regional campus in Machias, and throughout the stat...
fa-ewca-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com
July 8, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Come be my colleague (& @jacquelyngill.bsky.social's and other great folks)!
UMaine is hiring a Genetics Facilities Manager to lead the CORE eDNA and DNA Sequencing Labs. Hiring range is $75-85k (up $20k from previous round)
fa-ewca-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
UMaine is hiring a Genetics Facilities Manager to lead the CORE eDNA and DNA Sequencing Labs. Hiring range is $75-85k (up $20k from previous round)
fa-ewca-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
Some months later, work is now published @natcomms.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...
July 5, 2025 at 7:27 AM
Some months later, work is now published @natcomms.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Jim Leebens-Mack
The Biodiversity Collections Task Force is a nascent effort to help collections through anticipated difficult times in the near future.
We are planning a webinar series, beginning in September 2025.
Let us know which topics would be most useful to you:
lnkd.in/gQmyMKmN
We are planning a webinar series, beginning in September 2025.
Let us know which topics would be most useful to you:
lnkd.in/gQmyMKmN
July 1, 2025 at 9:42 PM
The Biodiversity Collections Task Force is a nascent effort to help collections through anticipated difficult times in the near future.
We are planning a webinar series, beginning in September 2025.
Let us know which topics would be most useful to you:
lnkd.in/gQmyMKmN
We are planning a webinar series, beginning in September 2025.
Let us know which topics would be most useful to you:
lnkd.in/gQmyMKmN