Tessera

Andrew Willoughby

@andrewilloughb.bsky.social

https://andrewilloughb.github.io Streptocarpus and regeneration. NSF PRFB Fellow - Plant Genome Research Program Duke University Opinions are my own and do not reflect my funders or institution

163 Posts275 Follower 285 Folgt

Andrew Willoughby @andrewilloughb.bsky.social · 3w ago

Loved being an AFE and thank you!!!

Mary Williams @PlantTeaching@plantteaching.bsky.social · 3w ago

Cool article! Particularly since I met Dr. Andrew Willoughby during his tenure as a @theplantcell.bsky.social Assistant Features Editor 💚 www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/s...

Carolyn Johnson @carolynyjohnson.bsky.social · 4w ago

Many scientists feel grim right now. Here's a different story - about discovery, friendship, grimness, yes, but how science finds a way! @couchmicroscopy.bsky.social @andrewilloughb.bsky.social In an $80 Motel Room, a Discovery to Shed Light on the Origins of Life www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/s...

In an $80 Motel Room, a Discovery to Shed Light on the Origins of Life

A scrappy science project led to a significant discovery: two new species of a rare organism that could elucidate a fundamental transition in the history of life on our planet.

nytimes.com

Andrew Willoughby @andrewilloughb.bsky.social · 4w ago

Fun fact that didn't make it in: When I saw John's first iteration of his colored pencil tool, he used the orange and the brown ones. I was shaken to my core that he only went the earth tones (Green? Photosynthesis? This isnt hard.) I am happy to see in this article John's pallete has expanded

Carolyn Johnson@carolynyjohnson.bsky.social · 4w ago

Andrew Willoughby @andrewilloughb.bsky.social · 4w ago

Really lucky to have been part of this work and end up in the NYT about it!

John Tuthill@tuthill.bsky.social · 4w ago

this story about @couchmicroscopy.bsky.social captures science at its best: a scrappy team, a homemade microscope in a motel room, working under funding duress, pursuing a fundamental question about the evolution of photosynthetic organelles. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/s...

eric lai @lucksmith.bsky.social · 4w ago

inspiring journey to read amidst bleak times for US science @couchmicroscopy.bsky.social! (still grappling with news yesterday there is no love for my 9% then 3% R01 renewal at end of fiscal year). however, i smirked at this line. (pooters aka mouth pipettors are still used by some fly fanciers). 🪰

John Tuthill@tuthill.bsky.social · 4w ago

Andrew Willoughby @andrewilloughb.bsky.social · 2mo ago

So lucky to have been involved, and my first ever field work!

Julia Van Etten@couchmicroscopy.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Our paper describing two new photosynthetic Paulinella species is out today in JPhycol! This is the kind of work I love to do and even it though took many years to finish, we had a lot of fun stomping around together in the marsh! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #protistsonsky

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 2mo ago

All detectable ancient whole-genome duplications involve hybridization https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.25.747000v1

New Phytologist @newphyt.bsky.social · 2mo ago

✨ Paper spotlight ✨ (🧵 1/5) Nuclear auxin signaling and temperature: perception and response across scales nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Fig. 1 Auxin signaling as an interpreter of temperature across scales.

bioRxiv Plant Bio @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · 4mo ago

CLAVATA3 peptide signaling from stem cells integrates vascular organization and stem cell maintenance in Arabidopsis shoots https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.25.734304v1

Andrew Willoughby @andrewilloughb.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Julia has lots of great things to say about coming together in a crisis, and I am also happy to brag our friendship! I had never done field work before and I learned a lot from Julia and John about eukaryote diversity and mouth pipetting.

Me and Julia standing next to each other

Julia Van Etten@couchmicroscopy.bsky.social · 5mo ago

brag about my amazing friendship with Andrew but to say that it is possible to make connections that lead to good new science during a time when things feel hopeless and scary and when funding is taken away. I hate everything that’s happening to American science and I feel SICK about it every day,

Andrew Willoughby @andrewilloughb.bsky.social · 7mo ago

"These ideas coalesce to support DNA transfer as a fundamental ecological phenomenon that remains largely unmeasured"

Julia Van Etten@couchmicroscopy.bsky.social · 7mo ago

I have a new review out in TiG titled, “The ecology of horizontal gene transfer”! I’ve been thinking about these ideas for years and this field is growing so fast it’s becoming impossible to review it. I hope this paper sparks discussion on different ways we can look at DNA transfer!

Andrew Willoughby @andrewilloughb.bsky.social · 9mo ago

@plantcelltech.bsky.social has a raffle for the mini laminar flow hood but you have to post about it to enter👀

Andrew Willoughby @andrewilloughb.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Getting to be involved in this project was the first time I had heard of the Calyceraceae. Really great plants, and really neat story about the evolution of the Asteraceae!

A picture of a cluster of Acicarpha flowers, in a capitulum-like head but elongated peduncles. The flowers are small and white, while the peduncles are bright green coming from a paler green base. High contrast with black background.

A picture of a series of Acicarpha inflorescences developing, in . Pale green balls emerge over bracts, and then grow in a tiered structure with a central flower at the top. Halfway through the series of 12 inflorescences as they start to turn white instead of green before opening the tiered structure goes away and they are mostly flat except for the prominent central flower the final, open, flowers have regained their tiered placements from elongation of the petioles. High contrast with black background.

Jennifer Mandel@jennifermandel.bsky.social · 11mo ago

🌻 Sharing this preprint where we assembled 3 new chromosome-level genomes, including the first for Asteraceae's South American sister Calyceraceae! Asteraceae uses all the tricks when it comes to being the most ecologically successful family of flowering plants. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Barbara J. King @bjking.bsky.social · 12mo ago

"The project that was terminated was on this hummingbird, the white-necked jacobin....I suspect that it has something to do with studying a species that doesn’t fit the binary." Researcher @jjinsing.bsky.social interviewed by @carlzimmer.com #birds #nature #science #fundscience #nonbinary 🧪

He Studied Why Some Female Birds Look Like Males

nytimes.com

Development @dev-journal.bsky.social · 12mo ago

More extraordinary model systems for regeneration In their #LifelongDevSI Perspective, José Garcıa-Arraras, Chunyi Li, Tania Rozario, Mansi Srivastava & @andrewilloughb.bsky.social introduce five research organisms with remarkable regenerative potential doi.org/10.1242/dev....

A screenshot of the article PDF showing the title, authors and author photos. Read the article for more information.

Andrew Willoughby @andrewilloughb.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Streptocarpus plants rapidly make shoots from the leaf epidermis without exogenous hormones. The coolest plants in the world, many species have one cotyledon that never stops growing, and no SAM until they flower. Do you have Streptocarpus at home already? African violets are also Streptocarpus!

A piece of a regenerating Streptocarpus leaf covered in new bright green leaves emerging from its surface. The new leaves are a little cupped and have many little hairs

A selfie of Andrew in a plant growth room with plant shelves holding a large single leaf covered in dozens and dozens of purple flowers.

Two purple flowers overtop several bright green leaves.

Andrew Willoughby@andrewilloughb.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Excited to share this perspective article out now! Come read about Streptocarpus and other great model systems! More extraordinary model systems for regeneration journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Suresh Damodaran @sureshd.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Love the concept of new research organism in development and regeneration. Enjoyed reading it!!

Andrew Willoughby @andrewilloughb.bsky.social · 12mo ago

More extraordinary model systems for regeneration

ABSTRACT. The ability of organisms to replace and regenerate anatomical structures following their loss or damage has piqued the curiosity of biologists for centuries. In addition to Development's ‘Mo...

journals.biologists.com

闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD @minyaaa.bsky.social · last yr.

Looking forward to it! Now #MorphographX is an important part of my work. I'm grateful for @kierzkowskilab.bsky.social and @mingyuanzhu.bsky.social teaching me how to use it during grad school, and for @richardsmithlab.bsky.social and @soestrauss.bsky.social always patiently answering questions!

Mingyuan Zhu@mingyuanzhu.bsky.social · last yr.

Coming this week! @minyaaa.bsky.social @roederlab.bsky.social @naascarabidopsis.bsky.social 🌱 Join us for our upcoming workshop Quantifying Plant Morphogenesis: 4D Insights with MorphoGraphX! Learn how to quantitatively analyze plant confocal imaging data using MorphoGraphX.

PlantEvolution 🌱🌾@plantevolution.bsky.social · last yr.

Congrats, Joe Ecker @salkinstitute.bsky.social, to receiving the McClintock Prize! Joe has been a visionary leader of the field of genetics and genomics – not only for plants – for decades www.salk.edu/news-release...

Gitta Coaker @gittacoaker.bsky.social · last yr.

UNC Chapel Hill is hiring an Assistant Professor in Plant Molecular Biology. Per Jeff Dangl MPMI candidates are also highly desired in the search. unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307...

Assistant Professor

The Department of Biology at UNC Chapel Hill (https://bio.unc.edu/) is searching to hire a tenure track Assistant Professor to study critical questions in Plant Molecular Biology.We seek candidates wh...

unc.peopleadmin.com

Mark Peifer (He, him)@peiferlabunc.bsky.social · last yr.

Love to see one of my favorite colleagues, Pat Gensel, profiled on the UNC website: " Indiana Jones — but for plants" www.unc.edu/posts/2025/0...

Paleobotanist searches for ancient plants | UNC-Chapel Hill

Emeritus professor Patricia Gensel studies 400-million-year-old plants across the globe.

unc.edu

PM Delaux @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social · last yr.

A milestone for plant genomics just out @natgenet.nature.com 130 bryophyte genomes! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bryophytes hold a larger gene family space than vascular plants - Nature Genetics

A super-pangenome analysis incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes reveals that bryophytes exhibit a larger number of unique and lineage-specific gene families than vascular plants.

nature.com

Andrew Willoughby @andrewilloughb.bsky.social · last yr.

Some more fun Streptocarpus floral symmetry issues. First photo is typical S. michelmorei, 2nd and 3rd have patterning issues, and the 4th is wonderfully/horrifically fasciated.

A purple flower with 5 petals, the 3 bottom petals have a darker purple throat that transitions to yellow as dark purple spots get smaller. 2 stamens attached to these bottom petals are fused at their tips. There are two barely visible infertile stamenodes attached to the top two petals.

Four petal flower, all with dark purple/yellow markings and 4 stamens attached at their tips in two pairs

8 petal flower, no petals have the dark purple spots or yellow marks, and there are 6 stamenodes. The top 2 and bottom 2 petals closely resemble each other. The 4 remaining petals look shoved together in groups of two, inserted in the lateral position. They have a dark purple center but nothing like the intensely pigmented throat of the typical flower.

A severely fasciated flower that nevertheless has normal dorsoventral patterning. 8/9 dark bottom petals, ~5 light petals. Stamens protrude from the bottom petals. There are 4 visible separate stigmas, although the most central one appears to be two fused together, which would make 5.

Andrew Willoughby@andrewilloughb.bsky.social · last yr.

A very pretty peloric Streptocarpus flower opened up today

A normal Streptocarpus flower, 5 pale lavender petals. The bottom 3 with deep purple highly contrasting streaks running into the center

Lucia Strader @luciastrader.bsky.social · last yr.

The lab is moving to the Salk Institute! We are thrilled to join an inspiring community where we will continue to explore plant growth and development. Deep gratitude for the years of support and collaboration at Duke/NCSU/UNC. www.salk.edu/news-release...

Plant biologist Lucia Strader joins Salk faculty to study plant growth signaling - Salk Institute for Biological Studies

LA JOLLA—The Salk Institute will welcome plant biologist Lucia Strader as a new professor and holder of the Howard H. and Maryam R. Newman Chair in Plant Biology in October 2025. Strader is an interna...

salk.edu

Mark Peifer (He, him)@peiferlabunc.bsky.social · last yr.

The community of Drosophila researchers is amazing, mutually supportive and collaborative. Right now a key resource for our community, @flybase.bsky.social , is threatened by the cancellation of its NIH grant and is seeking community help in raising short term funds 1/n 🧪 please share

Dear Fly Community,

In May 2025, the NIH terminated all grant funding to Harvard University, including the NHGRI grant that supported FlyBase. This grant also funded FlyBase teams at Indiana University (IU) and the University of Cambridge (UK), and as a result, their subawards were also canceled.

The Cambridge team has secured support for one to two years through generous donations from the European fly community, emergency funding from the Wellcome Trust, and support from the University of Cambridge. At IU, funding has been secured for one year thanks to reserve funds from Thom Kaufman and a supplement from ORIP/NIH to the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (BDSC).

Unfortunately, the situation at Harvard is far more critical. Harvard University had supported FlyBase staff since May but recently denied a request for extended bridge funding. As a result, all eight employees (four full-time and four part-time) were abruptly laid off, with termination dates ranging from August to mid-October depending on their positions. In addition, our curator at the University of New Mexico will leave her position at the end of August. This decision came as a shock, and we are urgently pursuing all possible funding options.

To put the need into perspective: although FlyBase is free to use, it is not free to make. It takes large teams of people and millions of dollars a year to create FlyBase to support fly research (the last NHGRI grant supported us with more than 2 million USD per annum).

To help sustain FlyBase operations, we have been reaching out to you to ask for your support. We have set up a donation site in Cambridge, UK, to which European labs have and can continue to contribute, and a new donation site at IU to which labs in the US and the rest of the world can contribute. We urge researchers to work with their grant administrators to contribute to FlyBase via these sites if at all possible, as more of the money will go to FlyBase. However, we appreciate that some fu…

https://wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase:Contribute_to_FlyBase

Our immediate goals are:

1. To maintain core curation activities and keep the FlyBase website online

2. To complete integration with the Alliance of Genome Resources (The Alliance).

Integration with the Alliance is essential for FlyBase’s long-term sustainability. For nearly a decade, NHGRI/NIH has supported the unification of Model Organism Databases (MODs) into the Alliance, which we aim to achieve by 2028. Therefore, securing bridge funding to sustain FlyBase over the next three years is crucial for successful integration and the long-term access to FlyBase data.

At present, our remaining funds will allow us to keep the FlyBase website online for approximately one more year. Beyond that, its future is uncertain unless new funding is secured. We will, of course, continue pursuing additional grant opportunities as they arise.

Given the uncertainty of future NIH or alternative funding sources, we are relying on the Fly community for support. Your contributions will directly help us retain the staff needed to complete this transition and to secure ongoing fly data curation into the Alliance beyond 2028.

We at FlyBase are incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support from the community during this challenging time. Your encouragement has strengthened our resolve and underscores how vital this resource remains to Drosophila research worldwide.

Sincerely,
The FlyBase Team

Andrew Willoughby @andrewilloughb.bsky.social · last yr.

A very pretty peloric Streptocarpus flower opened up today

A peloric Streptocarpus flower, 5 lavender petals all with 3 deep purple and contrasting streaks running into the circle.

John Burns @burnsajohn.bsky.social · last yr.

New #symbiosky paper from Cory Bishop and collaborators (including me 😊) on the remarkable specificity of the symbiosis between spotted salamanders and the alga in their eggs. Cory organized colleagues to get egg fluid from NC USA to NS Canada. He found extremely low... tinyurl.com/2jmwce2s

Frontiers | High partner specificity in an algal-salamander mutualism at continental scale

The mutualism between the green alga Oophila amblystomatis (“Oophila”) and egg masses of the spotted salamander Ambystoma maculatum involves acquisition of a...

frontiersin.org

Andrew Willoughby @andrewilloughb.bsky.social · last yr.

A fantastic and thorough paper, and the imaging is breathtaking

闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD@minyaaa.bsky.social · last yr.

I’m proud to present the main work from my postdoc, 3+ years in making from scratch, my ultimate #MimulusPropaganda up till now: The Moment That Symmetry Breaks. #plantscience #development #imaging #microscopy 🧪🌸🔬 w. Captain Yaowu & @biancatash.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Penelope Lindsay @penlindsay.bsky.social · last yr.

delighted to share work from my postdoc @cshlnews.bsky.social - here, we use TurboID in maize meristems to be able to resolve CLV receptor interactions, unlocking its potential to resolve in vivo receptor interactions important for meristem signaling.

bioRxiv Plant Bio@biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · last yr.

Antagonistic interactions between CLAVATA receptors shape maize ear development https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.04.667500v1