Matt Johnson, PhD
LightNews LightNews
banner
mossmatters.bsky.social
Matt Johnson, PhD
@mossmatters.bsky.social
1.3K followers 330 following 210 posts
Associate Professor, Texas Tech University
Director, E.L. Reed Herbarium
bryophyte evolution, plant phylogenomics
mossmatters.com
ORCID: 0000-0002-1958-6334
he/his
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
mossmatters.bsky.social
Matt Johnson, PhD @mossmatters.bsky.social · Nov 18
Interested in target capture sequencing?

@madiraibullock.bsky.social and I are happy to announce a new service at TTU. Send us DNA, get reads enriched for your probes. Angiosperms353, GoFLAG, Compositae1061 & more!

Funds go to grad student stipends and tuition!

mossmatters.com/blog/TargetC...
Flyer for Target Capture DNA Sequencing at Texas Tech by the TTU Center for Biotechnology and Genomics. We provide targeted DNA sequencing for $30/sample for Angiosperms353, GoFLAG408, and other probe sets. Funds from our service go to fund a graduate student who is running the samples. We can use as little as 100 ng of DNA in 30 uL and provide at least 1 million reads per sample from a NovaSeq6000 SP 2x250 Illumina sequencing. For more information and the full text of this flyer, visit mossmatters.com/blog/TargetCaptureService.html
Reposted by Matt Johnson, PhD
nathankhensley.bsky.social
This must be weird news to see if you’re one of the literally hundreds or even thousands of university administrators who preemptively censored faculty, scrubbed websites, changed the names of centers, etc.
January 23, 2026 at 1:45 PM
mossmatters.bsky.social
Reflecting today on this quote etched into a bench on campus, as I wonder how many on that campus understand its message.

"You died when you refused to stand up for right, you died when you refused to stand up for truth, you died when you refused to stand up for justice." youtu.be/pOjpaIO2seY?...
A curved stone bench with a chiseled inscription: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" - Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr
January 19, 2026 at 4:30 PM
mossmatters.bsky.social
Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness.
January 16, 2026 at 3:00 PM
mossmatters.bsky.social
Here to stay, I’m afraid
ryannorth.ca Ryan North @ryannorth.ca · Dec 16
*walking in a winter wonderland*
ME: where's bluebird?
BIRD: gone
ME: w... who are you?
*bird looks around shiftily*
BIRD: I'm new bird
December 16, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Matt Johnson, PhD
botsocamerica.bsky.social
We 💚 the Stranger Plants—and now they’re on #BSAswag!

The shirts feature bold illustrations by BSA’s own Catrina Adams, with a list of each species by common & scientific name on the back.

BSA members (exp. 2026+) get 10% off—email aneely@botany.org for code.

www.bonfire.com/store/bsa-wi...
Promotional graphic on a red background featuring two black-and-white raglan shirts from the Botanical Society of America’s “Stranger Plants” collection. One shirt shows a large illustrated plant scene; the other displays a grid of illustrated unusual plants. White text reads “We love the Stranger Plants BSA SWAG!” Below, descriptive text explains that the shirts highlight strange plants, with common and scientific names listed on the back in a concert-style format. A QR code labeled “Scan to Shop” appears at the lower right, along with BSA logos and text promoting additional BSA apparel.
December 12, 2025 at 4:29 PM
mossmatters.bsky.social
If Stranger Things were released today, it would be set in 1992. Feeling old yet?
December 7, 2025 at 12:13 AM
mossmatters.bsky.social
Will also feature Sofia Rodriguez, an undergraduate researcher in my lab who attended COP30. Should be a fun conversation!

Link below👇
katharinehayhoe.com Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · Dec 1
Join me and my @texastech.bsky.social Climate Center colleagues for a breakdown of all things COP30, in an hour.

Nick is an ecologist, Ting is an engineer, Bryan is a humanities scholar, and you know me: so it should be a great discussion.

Free & virtual!

www.eventbrite.com/e/inside-cop...
A banner for the event listing the title "Inside COP30" and headshots of the four participants.
December 1, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Reposted by Matt Johnson, PhD
katharinehayhoe.com
Join me and my @texastech.bsky.social Climate Center colleagues for a breakdown of all things COP30, in an hour.

Nick is an ecologist, Ting is an engineer, Bryan is a humanities scholar, and you know me: so it should be a great discussion.

Free & virtual!

www.eventbrite.com/e/inside-cop...
A banner for the event listing the title "Inside COP30" and headshots of the four participants.
December 1, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by Matt Johnson, PhD
kubasawicki.bsky.social
Our paper “Giant chromosomes of a tiny plant” is out in @gigascience.bsky.social! We present a T2T genome assembly of the simple thalloid liverwort Apopellia endiviifolia with truly giant chromosomes. 🌱🧬 #plantgenomics #T2T #liverworts @nanoporetech.com
Thanks @ncn.gov.pl !

tinyurl.com/m8tkkxd3
Giant chromosomes of a tiny plant - the complete telomere-to-telomere genome assembly of the simple thalloid liverwort Apopellia endiviifolia (Jungermanniopsida, Marchantiophyta)
AbstractBackground. The liverwort A. endiviifolia, a dioicous, simple thalloid species, is notable for its cryptic diversity, habitat adaptability, genomic
tinyurl.com
November 29, 2025 at 7:57 PM
mossmatters.bsky.social
Everyone is sure to remind my dad of the time he packed up the leftover turkey in Ziploc bags but for lack of counter space placed them… in the open dishwasher.

This was discovered only hours later after the dishwasher ran.

The Ziploc bags were open.
clairewillett.bsky.social Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · Nov 24
yes, hello, I would like to place an order for everyone’s funniest stories of holiday food-related family grudges / drama / chaotic incidents / lore

I feel like we need this
November 25, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Matt Johnson, PhD
shellygaynor.bsky.social
New paper just posted with @rschley.bsky.social et al: doi.org/10.1111/nph.... (1/n)
The frequency and importance of polyploidy in tropical rainforest tree radiations
The presence of two or more copies of the genome in an organism, termed ‘polyploidy’, is a crucial force in plant evolution, generating genetic, phenotypic and ecological diversity. The Amazonian tr...
doi.org
November 24, 2025 at 3:30 PM
mossmatters.bsky.social
Update: the university is now allegedly offering compensation to faculty who move their exams because of a football game we're not even guaranteed to play in yet.
mossmatters.bsky.social Matt Johnson, PhD @mossmatters.bsky.social · Nov 18
Because the Big XII championship game is during final exams, our Provost suggests faculty choose from ideas including "exempt students from the exam" and "change your whole method of assessment" with 1 week notice

More than usual I'm feeling I work for a football team with a school on the side.
Exempt the final exam for students who have maintained a high average in the course. Give students a choice to adjust grading by weighting another exam more heavily or revising the grading schema. Contact [email redacted] for assistance with changes in RaiderCanvas. Replace the final exam with an alternative assignment that meets the course’s learning goals. Move the final exam online and consider a broader testing window. Continue with your scheduled exam time on Saturday, Dec. 6.
November 20, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Reposted by Matt Johnson, PhD
smbccomics.bsky.social
There's got to be SOME hypothesis that makes our experiment useless. THINK!

COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/stats-3
PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm...
STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com
1-panel SMBC comic update - Two people are talking while seated at computers. One of them says : "Wait! Look, if we change our hypothesis a little, run this other model, and then make a few tweaks to the variables... BAM! No need to publish. The weekend if free." A caption below the panel reads as follows : "New scientific trend: reverse p-hacking. P-hacking is the practice of manipulating data until a statistically significant result is found, here they are doing the opposite to avoid work.
November 18, 2025 at 11:30 PM
mossmatters.bsky.social
Because the Big XII championship game is during final exams, our Provost suggests faculty choose from ideas including "exempt students from the exam" and "change your whole method of assessment" with 1 week notice

More than usual I'm feeling I work for a football team with a school on the side.
Exempt the final exam for students who have maintained a high average in the course. Give students a choice to adjust grading by weighting another exam more heavily or revising the grading schema. Contact [email redacted] for assistance with changes in RaiderCanvas. Replace the final exam with an alternative assignment that meets the course’s learning goals. Move the final exam online and consider a broader testing window. Continue with your scheduled exam time on Saturday, Dec. 6.
November 18, 2025 at 2:16 AM
Reposted by Matt Johnson, PhD
botsocamerica.bsky.social
Improving plant DNA #metabarcoding accuracy with ecological filters and #Angiosperms353: Field and pollen microscopy validation

New in #AppsPlantSci by Benkendorf, @sophietaddeo.bsky.social, Fant et al

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #botany #PlantScience #herbaria #ecology
A queen bumble bee (Bombus bifarius) foraging on a pale green and white Frasera speciosa flower, with her proboscis extended into a nectary. Her orange pollen basket is prominently visible on her hind leg. Photo credit: Jane Ogilvie.
October 31, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Matt Johnson, PhD
sarraceniamason.bsky.social
Hey #Botany2026 we're actively looking for potential speakers at ALL experience levels for our proposed colloquium: Side-quest! – Level up your science!. If you have an interesting story, project, or idea to share that qualifies as a “Side-quest” we want to know about it!

More info below⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
October 15, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Reposted by Matt Johnson, PhD
asherelbein.bsky.social
Dr. Maxine “Max” Abbott (née Langford) is an oft-forgotten paleontologist of early 20th century Texas. Born in the 1920s, this pint-sized paleobotanical powerhouse worked on the Carboniferous swamps of North America and the Cretaceous jungles of Texas.

(All photos from her papers at Sul Ross.)
A dark-haired woman with an upturned nose, a white shirt, a ribbon and a plaid skirt holds up a piece of carboniferous plant material from her work desk, where she's been painting it with clear varnish to preserve it A 1950s news article about Maxine Abbott's NSF grant, which notes that she was previously conducting her paleobotany research as a volunteer while at Cincinnati and working in a local department store office three days a week to pay research costs. A black and white photo of a young Maxine Langford in the 1930s at Texas Tech, smiling at the camera from a bench. She's wearing a knee-length dress, a plaid short sleeved shirt, and glasses. She's clearly very small. A photo of undergraduate Maxine Langford posing climbing in through the window of an abandoned stone building new Mexico, wearing field pants, boots, and a short sleeve shirt. It's a great look, honestly.
October 14, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Reposted by Matt Johnson, PhD
shellygaynor.bsky.social
Updated tutorials for nQuack today. Want to predict ploidy level of sequence data? See this new tutorial on how to process and model data faster: mlgaynor.com/nQuack/artic...
a little boy is driving a red toy car on the street .
Alt: a little kid is driving a red toy car on the street.
media.tenor.com
October 14, 2025 at 1:32 AM
mossmatters.bsky.social
www.texastribune.org/2025/09/26/t...
Texas Tech chancellor limits academic mentions of transgender and nonbinary identities at five universities
Advocacy groups say the new state law, presidential executive order and gubernatorial letter Tedd Mitchell cited do not prohibit classroom discussions of particular LGBTQ+ identities.
www.texastribune.org
September 26, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Matt Johnson, PhD
madiraiplants.bsky.social
Excited to share what I've been working on with the science community! Starting to get my PhD papers out as I get closer to graduating, and looking into next steps in my career. If anyone has any postdoc ideas, please reach out! 🙂🌱
September 22, 2025 at 3:25 PM
mossmatters.bsky.social
New preprint from our lab - how miniaturized library prep drives down costs for target capture sequencing with minimal impact on recovery. Led by @madiraibullock.bsky.social and with two undergrad coauthors!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Fun-Sized Library Prep: Miniaturization is a valid method for per-sample cost reduction in targeted sequencing of angiosperm DNA
Genomic analysis of population structure is important to the conservation of plant species of concern. A limitation of using genetic information in conservation is the cost of obtaining large datasets...
www.biorxiv.org
September 22, 2025 at 1:06 PM
mossmatters.bsky.social
Is it possible to learn this power?
September 18, 2025 at 12:19 PM
mossmatters.bsky.social
Interesting pilot study on paid peer review. From the thread, $250 US significantly increased "rate of conversion" for review invitations without decreasing a metric of review quality in a medical journal.
elisabethbik.bsky.social Elisabeth Bik @elisabethbik.bsky.social · Sep 4
DM: Incentivized reviewers had slightly higher positive response, and were a bit faster in sending in reviews.
The incentivized manuscript surprisingly had a slightly longer time-to-acceptance. The peer review time, however, is just a small fraction of the total editorial time.
#PRC10
Results day with a table with percentages. Conclusion slide with a photo of a painting of the Venice Arsenale.
September 4, 2025 at 10:05 PM
mossmatters.bsky.social
Are you a mammologist whose research involves natural history collections? Apply to be my colleague!

Assistant professor position with the Department of Biological Sciences and the Natural Science Research Laboratory at Texas Tech University.

sjobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Sear...
Job Search Welcome | Texas Tech University System
Search for Internet job openings.
sjobs.brassring.com
September 2, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Reposted by Matt Johnson, PhD
erikarmoore11.bsky.social
So excited to be co-leading this special issue! Cannot wait to see all the innovative ways target enrichment sequencing is being used!

Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions ☺️
botsocamerica.bsky.social Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · Sep 2
SPECIAL ISSUE CALL FOR PAPERS

#AppsPlantSci invites proposals for “Beyond #phylogenomics: Innovative applications of target capture data,” led by @emcassey.bsky.social, @erikarmoore11.bsky.social, Mafe Torres Jimenez & ‪@yannickwoudstra.bsky.social‬

Deadline 30 Nov 2025

botany.org/home/publica...
The text at the top reads: “APPS Special Issue Call for Papers: Beyond phylogenomics: Innovative applications of target capture data”. The image beneath the title: On the left side of the image is a large circle divided in two halves: the left side of the circle comprises four images of flowers/herbarium specimens and the right side of the circle contains the text “Target Capture.” Five dotted line arrows point from the large circle to five smaller circles on the right. Smaller circles (clockwise from top): (1) “Off Target”, (2) “Biodiversity assessments”, (3) “Population genomics”, (4) “Evo-Devo”, (5) “Species identification”. The text beneath the image reads: “Proposal deadline November 30, 2025”. The Applications in Plant Sciences logo is in the bottom left corner, and a QR code is in the bottom right corner. Image credit: Yannick Woudstra.
September 2, 2025 at 11:18 PM