Martin Johnsson
@mrtnj.bsky.social
PhD in genetics. Associate professor (docent) at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala. The Jar Jar Binks of animal genomics. Writes in English, svenska & gruntings. he/him
Reposted by Martin Johnsson
All those questions about inbreeding in conservation that you were afraid to ask.
A bunch of early career scientists is here to explain something that even Wright and Fisher couldn't agree on, the (not so) simple question of what is inbreeding.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
A bunch of early career scientists is here to explain something that even Wright and Fisher couldn't agree on, the (not so) simple question of what is inbreeding.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Q&A: inbreeding and its implications for conservation - BMC Biology
Inbreeding depression plays a role in the decline, endangerment, and extinction of small populations, and thus inbreeding has received much attention in conservation biology. The term inbreeding is us...
link.springer.com
October 23, 2025 at 7:43 AM
All those questions about inbreeding in conservation that you were afraid to ask.
A bunch of early career scientists is here to explain something that even Wright and Fisher couldn't agree on, the (not so) simple question of what is inbreeding.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
A bunch of early career scientists is here to explain something that even Wright and Fisher couldn't agree on, the (not so) simple question of what is inbreeding.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Martin Johnsson
There's something oddly fitting about a Werner Herzog trading card sitting on top of a medal awarded for pain research.
October 15, 2025 at 3:04 PM
There's something oddly fitting about a Werner Herzog trading card sitting on top of a medal awarded for pain research.
Reposted by Martin Johnsson
A reoccurring frustration for philosophers of science: Many scientists know how to do science like people know how to ride a bike. When they reflect on the practice of science, they repeat platitudes about how science works. Those platitudes are often wrong, sometimes even about their own field
*sighs in philosopher of science*
Looking for confirmatory evidence is an entirely normal part of science. The primary problem here is the eugenics and the fascism, not the lies to children about "the scientific method."
Looking for confirmatory evidence is an entirely normal part of science. The primary problem here is the eugenics and the fascism, not the lies to children about "the scientific method."
October 10, 2025 at 3:26 PM
A reoccurring frustration for philosophers of science: Many scientists know how to do science like people know how to ride a bike. When they reflect on the practice of science, they repeat platitudes about how science works. Those platitudes are often wrong, sometimes even about their own field
October 10, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Martin Johnsson
When large-effect damaging alleles enter small populations https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.11.675554v1
September 17, 2025 at 5:33 AM
When large-effect damaging alleles enter small populations https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.11.675554v1
Researcher day with the Beijer laboratories. Here: Elin Hernlund, my fellow Beijer researcher in the laboratory for animal science, talking about her models of shape and posture of domestic animals.
September 30, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Researcher day with the Beijer laboratories. Here: Elin Hernlund, my fellow Beijer researcher in the laboratory for animal science, talking about her models of shape and posture of domestic animals.
The new format for the Formas Explore 2025 call--I say it's an improvement overall. Fewer boxes to fill in, and in the end a bit more space for implementation and references, so one doesn't have to hunt characters as much.
The new format of the academic profile is a step backwards, though.
The new format of the academic profile is a step backwards, though.
September 29, 2025 at 10:34 AM
The new format for the Formas Explore 2025 call--I say it's an improvement overall. Fewer boxes to fill in, and in the end a bit more space for implementation and references, so one doesn't have to hunt characters as much.
The new format of the academic profile is a step backwards, though.
The new format of the academic profile is a step backwards, though.
Here's one powerful opening sentence:
"Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media."
"Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media."
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
September 27, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Here's one powerful opening sentence:
"Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media."
"Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media."
Vice Chancellor Maria Knutson Wedel, SLU, opening the first "studium generale", a series of meetings on knowledge--I suppose--and reflection.
September 23, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Vice Chancellor Maria Knutson Wedel, SLU, opening the first "studium generale", a series of meetings on knowledge--I suppose--and reflection.
Circuits and microsats on the whiteboard.
September 23, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Circuits and microsats on the whiteboard.
Reposted by Martin Johnsson
Genetic variation is the key to species resilience, enabling populations to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Our research group will take a deep dive into the variation present in the genes encoding for central roles of the immune system. www.slu.se/en/news/2025...
The price of perfection: Opting out of variety - a danger to animal immunity and survival | slu.se
For thousands of years, humans have been controlling the breeding of dogs, horses and farm animals. Despite the benefits, this has led to unexpectedly high risks for the animals. With knowledge from r...
www.slu.se
September 12, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Genetic variation is the key to species resilience, enabling populations to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Our research group will take a deep dive into the variation present in the genes encoding for central roles of the immune system. www.slu.se/en/news/2025...
Reposted by Martin Johnsson
Me right now reading “It is also the 18th anniversary of ggplot2…”
September 11, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Me right now reading “It is also the 18th anniversary of ggplot2…”
Going home from Borlänge and Högskolan Dalarna after Priyanka Mehra's PhD defence--an exciting full day of theoretical genetics and computational modelling.
du.diva-portal.org/smash/record...
du.diva-portal.org/smash/record...
August 30, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Going home from Borlänge and Högskolan Dalarna after Priyanka Mehra's PhD defence--an exciting full day of theoretical genetics and computational modelling.
du.diva-portal.org/smash/record...
du.diva-portal.org/smash/record...
Reposted by Martin Johnsson
In 25 years, every business school in the country will be doing case studies about how a long defunct company known as “Google” once had an unbeatable lock on online information retrieval and then started doing shit like this.
August 23, 2025 at 6:16 PM
In 25 years, every business school in the country will be doing case studies about how a long defunct company known as “Google” once had an unbeatable lock on online information retrieval and then started doing shit like this.
Some subjective impressions of trends from #eseb2025.
Genomic inbreeding through F_ROH has made it big. As it should.
Genomic prediction hasn't. Perhaps single step would help bridge the gap between pedigree and genotype datasets.
Selection mapping has calmed down, but I still saw some Fst scans.
Genomic inbreeding through F_ROH has made it big. As it should.
Genomic prediction hasn't. Perhaps single step would help bridge the gap between pedigree and genotype datasets.
Selection mapping has calmed down, but I still saw some Fst scans.
August 23, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Some subjective impressions of trends from #eseb2025.
Genomic inbreeding through F_ROH has made it big. As it should.
Genomic prediction hasn't. Perhaps single step would help bridge the gap between pedigree and genotype datasets.
Selection mapping has calmed down, but I still saw some Fst scans.
Genomic inbreeding through F_ROH has made it big. As it should.
Genomic prediction hasn't. Perhaps single step would help bridge the gap between pedigree and genotype datasets.
Selection mapping has calmed down, but I still saw some Fst scans.
@btschirren.bsky.social The badger project looks super exciting and ambitious! I teach about the genetics of bovine TB and cattle breeding each spring; looking forward to add the badger side of the story in a few years then. :) #eseb2025
August 21, 2025 at 4:43 PM
@btschirren.bsky.social The badger project looks super exciting and ambitious! I teach about the genetics of bovine TB and cattle breeding each spring; looking forward to add the badger side of the story in a few years then. :) #eseb2025
Karolina Wąchała is building one of the things selection scans _really_ need: workflows for simulation so that one can check "whether you could even detect selection in your study". #eseb2025
August 21, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Karolina Wąchała is building one of the things selection scans _really_ need: workflows for simulation so that one can check "whether you could even detect selection in your study". #eseb2025
Reposted by Martin Johnsson
Is AI transforming science? Apparently not in evolutionary biology. Of nearly 1,700 abstracts at #ESEB2025, only four mention AI or artificial intelligence, another eight mention deep learning, and another two explicitly refer to AlphaFold.
August 21, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Is AI transforming science? Apparently not in evolutionary biology. Of nearly 1,700 abstracts at #ESEB2025, only four mention AI or artificial intelligence, another eight mention deep learning, and another two explicitly refer to AlphaFold.
Pierre de Villemereuil: Partitioning the phenotypic and genetic variances of reaction norms
#eseb2025
peercommunityjournal.org/item/10_2407...
#eseb2025
peercommunityjournal.org/item/10_2407...
Partitioning the phenotypic and genetic variances of reaction norms
peercommunityjournal.org
August 21, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Pierre de Villemereuil: Partitioning the phenotypic and genetic variances of reaction norms
#eseb2025
peercommunityjournal.org/item/10_2407...
#eseb2025
peercommunityjournal.org/item/10_2407...
Lou Guyot: Long term balancing selection can favour the evolution of recombination suppression by linked selection on deleterious recessive alleles. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
(From the posters. A preprint QR code is really the best part of a poster.)
#eseb2025
(From the posters. A preprint QR code is really the best part of a poster.)
#eseb2025
Loci under balancing selection facilitate the emergence of pseudo-overdominance and recombination suppression
Loci under strong balancing selection, such as sex-determining, mating-type, and self-incompatibility loci, are frequently flanked by regions of suppressed recombination. The reasons why recombination...
www.biorxiv.org
August 21, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Lou Guyot: Long term balancing selection can favour the evolution of recombination suppression by linked selection on deleterious recessive alleles. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
(From the posters. A preprint QR code is really the best part of a poster.)
#eseb2025
(From the posters. A preprint QR code is really the best part of a poster.)
#eseb2025
Charissa de Bekker showing a lot of molecular and behavioural work to figure out what a previously unknown, highly differentially expressed, fungal candidate effector ptotein is doing--finding the protein it interacts with, experimentally testing effects on behaviour. #eseb2025
August 21, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Charissa de Bekker showing a lot of molecular and behavioural work to figure out what a previously unknown, highly differentially expressed, fungal candidate effector ptotein is doing--finding the protein it interacts with, experimentally testing effects on behaviour. #eseb2025
Charissa de Bekker: "... of course, Ophiocordyceps has its own parasites, so there are fungi that parasitize the fungus." #eseb2025 #BiologyBeingBiology
August 21, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Charissa de Bekker: "... of course, Ophiocordyceps has its own parasites, so there are fungi that parasitize the fungus." #eseb2025 #BiologyBeingBiology
"As you can all see ..." No one who hasn't stared at the thing for weeks can see it.
#eseb2025 talks were great so far. Subjective ranking of the most common quotes:
- theory and modeling: "with this very simple approach"
- genomics: "using methodology you all know"
- plenaries: "Nature/Science" in the bottom right of a slide
- posters: "una cerveza por favor"
- theory and modeling: "with this very simple approach"
- genomics: "using methodology you all know"
- plenaries: "Nature/Science" in the bottom right of a slide
- posters: "una cerveza por favor"
August 20, 2025 at 6:33 PM
"As you can all see ..." No one who hasn't stared at the thing for weeks can see it.