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briandilkes.bsky.social
Brian Dilkes
@briandilkes.bsky.social
720 followers 410 following 940 posts
Takes things apart to figure out what's inside.
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briandilkes.bsky.social
Just did a little guerrilla botanizing with Jody! Samples collected!
Selfie of Brian Dilkes and Jody Banks under a light canopy of urban trees in Atlanta Georgia on a perfect late summer afternoon.
September 7, 2025 at 6:45 PM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Exciting surprise in the mailbox! Will need to find out if the contents match the cover. Does he? Is it demonstrated within?
A small black and white dog looks off into the distance not knowing that she won’t be able to read “I do know some things” by Richard Siken. She is sitting on a white rug next to a black book with the title “I Do Know Some Things” by the author Richard Siken.
August 5, 2025 at 1:33 AM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Very patient neighbor. Sorry for the crazy commotion.
A small frog in the hinge of a maize leaf sits atop the midrib nestled in the whorl. A freshly applied pollination bag subtends the leaf holding the frog.
August 4, 2025 at 6:06 PM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Last crosses of the day by moonlight. In Dulbecco we trust!
Half moon behind a cloud and the light from a shed prevent the photography of a road beside a corn and sorghum nursery.
August 2, 2025 at 4:16 AM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Sure it’s immature. But they are perfect.
A maize ear and which the anthers were not suppressed resulting in ear florets that are perfect and have both anthers and pistils. This one is a dominant mutation in the DELLA domain transcription factor Dwarf8.
July 31, 2025 at 12:48 AM
briandilkes.bsky.social
“I WILL NOT BOW TO ONTOGENY AS DESTINY! I CAN BE AS MANY INFLORESCENCE MERISTEMS AS I WANT!” There there shouty friend. Have some air and light.
A maize ear in which floral meristems and spikelet meristems revert to inflorescence meristems a few days after pollination. Also results in retained lower florets. And extra silks in the florets. A long tassel like tip on the ear really holds the nursery together.
July 29, 2025 at 6:33 PM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Abaxial lashes.
July 27, 2025 at 5:03 AM
briandilkes.bsky.social
We had some plantings that missed the mark moisture-wise. And those fields are a bit of mess. But the "no it's fine, I'll wait until it really rains hard multiple times before I germinate" of this EMS treated sorghum seed is remarkable. Weirdly, it is not alone.
The first leaves of a sorghum plant emerge from a crack in dry soil among a loose collection of dead weed stems.
July 24, 2025 at 7:07 AM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Weak allele! Oh yeah, babs, we went from compact to semi dwarf. Can’t wait to find out what gene this is…and how the alleles work!
A maize plant about half the size of the tall plant behind it is marked with a white paper shoot bag wrapped around its stalk.
July 23, 2025 at 4:46 AM
briandilkes.bsky.social
We had to walk to dinner because the bomb squad was called to campus. As we walked from West Lafayette to Lafayette we crossed the footbridge, which was crowed with "no death panels" signs. At the pub for dinner he was entranced by our table neighbors 2/n
Tea party demonstration April 15, 2010. A large crowd of people hold signs equating healthcare to being animals on a ranch and other nonsense.
July 21, 2025 at 6:00 AM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Hello strange friend. (Thermos once mistaken for a beer bottle at a St. Charles maize meeting).
Spindly mutant with thin upright leaves emerges from the soil. Wildtype sibling is just behind and to the left. To the right of the mutant is a thermos, with no cap, that used to be brown but the plastic laminate coating has peeled off of the top 3/4 revealing the stainless steel exterior.
July 21, 2025 at 12:43 AM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Strange friend of the day. Dominant lightly cross banded diurnal patterned weirdo in an EMS nursery.
A novel maize mutant displaying weak yellow cross bands on otherwise green leaves.
July 18, 2025 at 9:13 AM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Ahhh the joys of @sweetmarias.bsky.social sense of humor (and great beans).
A classic white diner coffee mug, like you might see at your churches or your schools or your institutions of sit-down fast dining, with squiggled lines surrounding the words “all I wanted was a Pepsi”. Mug is held in front of an embattled and repeatedly repaired la Pavoni europiccola manual espresso machine on a coffee stained Formica counter.
July 15, 2025 at 7:22 PM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Maize or not maize, mower edition.
Blurry image taken from a riding mower in front of some soon to be even shorter grassy weeds at the edge of a maize nursery. Green Chuck Taylor’s with black laces, visible in the lower left corner of the frame, suggest this is driven by Dr Brian Dilkes.
July 11, 2025 at 5:29 PM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Dominant yellow sector in an EMS F1 nursery. Yellow strange friend.
Center: corn plant which is developing from an apical meristem sector due to the acquisition of a dominant mutation conditioning yellow color. Adult leaves are roughly 50% green tissue and 50% yellow along clear mitotic sectors. Plant is found within a field of otherwise green hybrid corn.
July 11, 2025 at 3:08 AM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Extra very late planting in weed infested abandoned spot has left all parts of my body constantly signaling need of recuperation. Very lightly bruised clavicle from the strap on the weedeater. Had to retire a pair of Levis. Butbutbutbutbut, if I can keep the pressure down...GENES FROM PHENOTYPES!
A gravel road edge in front of a weed infested field against a blue cloud dotted sky. Most weeds are brown and, in the words of Miracle Max, mostly dead due to recent fertilizer application and light drought conditions.
July 10, 2025 at 7:24 AM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Porphyrins are double edged photochemical swords. Tune them just right and they move high energy electrons (e.g. heme) or turn photons into electron excitation and power the biosphere (e.g. chlorophylls). But fail to tune them and they can split O2 into singlet oxygen using the power of the sun.
Maize plants against a brown soil backdrop. Some leaves have light brown spots from photo toxic metabolites resulting in cell death in small patches of the leaves. A few leaves are wrapped with a large rectangle of aluminum foil to block sunlight and prevent lesion formation.
July 4, 2025 at 6:40 PM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Played a round of “maize or not maize” everyday this week in the late planting.
Green maize plants planting in 12.5ft plots with 2.5ft row and plot spacing surrounded by the brown desiccated remains of the weeds that sought to make this experiment less reproducible.
July 1, 2025 at 8:45 PM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Another day of progress.
Dust and plant bits coat the tops of a pink pair of chuck taylor low tops with red laces. Dust also coats the faded blue jeans that drape over them slightly.
July 1, 2025 at 1:31 AM
briandilkes.bsky.social
The tallest dwarf. Either the bestest plant ever or the one pollen contaminant in the thousands of individuals from this experiment. Sequences won’t lie.
A single tall dark green maize plant at the v5 stage, marked by an orange stake, just barely peeks over the mutant short siblings next to it.
June 29, 2025 at 5:44 AM
briandilkes.bsky.social
No such thing as an unlucky number. What a cutie.
Taller (wild type sibling) and a bunchy grassy dominant dwarf mutant of maize in against a brown wet soil background. Soil is wet enough to be tacky underfoot and accumulate on your shoes (chucks, of course).
June 27, 2025 at 9:17 PM
briandilkes.bsky.social
On sabbatical in fall and wandering for science. Cannot wait to share the adventures of an: elder postdoc; D.O.V.E.; data janitor. For now, "hello" from the heat dome from this weird little maize mutant!
An orange stake next to a small floppy and almost bladeless maize plaint leaning into it's more normal neighbor at the V5 stage and looking delighted with the heat.
June 23, 2025 at 6:40 PM
briandilkes.bsky.social
It even fits with the decor. Assembled last night in expectation of wildfire smoke arrival in Chicago. Gonna breathe easy. @corsiaq.bsky.social
A black 20inch box fan taped to four 20x20x2 inch merv 13 air filters with white duct tape to make a Corsi-Rosenthal box. Box is sitting on a white and black floor as if it belonged there all along.
May 31, 2025 at 7:38 PM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Out standing in his field. The incomparable @damonlisch.bsky.social
A maize geneticist jab planting a nursery of perfectly executed crosses. Light brown soil against a grey sky on a perfect cool late May midwestern day in West Lafayette, Indiana.
May 27, 2025 at 4:10 PM
briandilkes.bsky.social
Text of an email from Brian Dilkes Subject "I'm talking shit about you on blusky until you join" and the body of the email reads "Just FYI"
April 15, 2025 at 3:35 PM