Fun times: every single train arriving to Stockholm Central is delayed

It's 2026 and diversity is still an issue in mycology, and probably beyond. 17 invited plenary & keynote speakers for IMC13, only 2 are women (<12%). There are 0 Latin-American speakers, & 2 from Africa (I'm including @kamounlab.bsky.social in this count). www.imc13.kr/html/?pmode=...

Keynote&Plenary Speakers > IMC13

IMC13

imc13.kr

Are you interested in learning how genomes of weird fungi and protists evolve and are you looking for an exciting PhD opportunity? Jolien van Hooff and I are looking for an enthusiasic PhD candidate at Wageningen University: www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/p... #TEworldwide #Fungi #Protists #Genome

PhD position in genome evolution and architecture in unicellular eukaryotes

Are you fascinated by how eukaryotic genomes evolve? Do you want to look beyond model organisms and point mutations to uncover the complexity of genome evolution?

wur.nl

If you ever wondered why visible light is those particular wavelengths, it's because life evolved to see in the narrow range where water is transparent

Our review on #lichen research in the #omics era is out in @lichenologist.bsky.social! We discuss omics-driven progress and outline several areas and methods that we think especially promising for lichen biology, such as single-cell omics and epigenomics 🖥️ 🧪 🦠 🧫 #SymbioSky doi.org/10.1017/S002...

Our new short comm introducing Ochrolechia frigida as a system for studying lichen symbiont dynamics is online now in The Lichenologist @lichenologist.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Thallus growth stage affects community-wide capacity for carbon metabolism in the alpine heath lichen Ochrolechia frigida | The Lichenologist | Cambridge Core

Thallus growth stage affects community-wide capacity for carbon metabolism in the alpine heath lichen Ochrolechia frigida

cambridge.org

On similar lines, if we’re not careful: A. Scientific journals will only accept submissions from established researchers working within institutions. B. Data we’ve spent ages making open will be hidden to avoid the expense of continued download by bots.

Daniel Knowles@dlknowles.bsky.social · 2w ago

Some unintended consequences I suspect the rise of AI agents will create: 1. Restaurants that only take reservations by hand written letter, or more likely, don't take them at all. 2. Gigs where you can only buy tickets in person. 3. Businesses that operate without websites.

Sweden's Social Democrats on target to get 99 seats in parliament (out of 349). That's their worst result since 1928. In March, Denmark's Social Democrats had their worst election result since 1903. What to they have in common? Mimicking "hard line" right-wing policies. It's a recipe for disaster.

Very depressing and very on point imo

Martin Gelin@martingelin.bsky.social · 4w ago

My latest piece for The Guardian: In Sweden, previously unthinkable far-right ideas are now comfortably embedded in the mainstream. The past four years were characterised by an astonishing acceptance of ethnonationalist views, xenophobic rhetoric and authoritarian policies often targeting children.

The wealthy countries seem to have a core of 15-30% of their voting populations who *just fucking hate foreigners*. This section of the electorate are for various reasons disproportionately well represented among the ultra-wealthy and thus are able to secure some favourable media coverage.

Gaia Vince@wanderinggaia.bsky.social · 4w ago

The normalisation of far right rhetoric and policies across Western Europe and including Scandinavia is utterly depressing this century

Our new preprint is out! 🍄 Decoupled evolution of antimicrobial repertoires in lichen-forming fungi We compared many lichen-forming fungal genomes to ask how different photobiont associations relate to their antimicrobial repertoires.

Last year, I publicly complained multiple times (see e.g. elevanth.org/blog/2025/07...) that the open access movement had been captured by publishers, and we are now worse off than before open access. Well people got mad at me for saying it. But I think things are still getting worse.

Eric Schares@eschares.bsky.social · last mo.

🚨Update: Our analysis of global APC expenditure has now been expanded to cover more publishers (7 -> 14) and more years (2019-2025). We estimate $15B in APCs paid over seven years, $3.7B in 2025 alone. Elsevier crosses the $1B threshold by itself in 2025. arxiv.org/abs/2608.16322 #ScholComm

3 new GitHub repositories from me! I put what I'm teaching on GitHub. Module 1: github.com/cxli233/Sect... Module 2: github.com/cxli233/Sect... Module 3: github.com/cxli233/Sect... #Rstats #Datavis

Huge climate demonstration i Stockholm today. Media report at least 50 000 while organisers say between 50000-100000 people. This is ahead of elactions in september in which most parties have totally ignored the climate issue in favour of law and order and racist immigration policies…

📝 NEW PREPRINT It’s with an immense joy that our preprint is finally out and it’s my first first co-author paper!!! 🧬🍄 What is the diversity of 3D genome architectures in fungi? We reconstructed the 3D genome architecture of public Hi-C data from 55 fungal. Preprint: lnkd.in/enxTh2Cm

Thrilled to share that I'll be starting my lab at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm as a DDLS Fellow in November! 🧑‍🔬🧬🎉 Of course, we will be delving into all things mobile DNA & evolution, as well as developing AI approaches for biodiversity genomics #newPI #TEsky #TEworldwide

See thread by @metalichen.bsky.social on Tangerine - A Starship in the genomes of lichen-forming fungi - the peer-reviewed version is now online. Thanks to all co-authors. It's been a fun collaboration and there's lots more to discover!👇

Gulnara Tagirdzhanova@metalichen.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Our study on giant transposons Starship 🚀🧬 in the genome of the lichen fungus Xanthoria is now out in @pnas.org! What did we find out about Starships in #lichen fungi? 👇Updated thread below 🖥️ 🧪 🦠 🧫 #SymbioSky 1/6 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Our study on giant transposons Starship 🚀🧬 in the genome of the lichen fungus Xanthoria is now out in @pnas.org! What did we find out about Starships in #lichen fungi? 👇Updated thread below 🖥️ 🧪 🦠 🧫 #SymbioSky 1/6 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

It's out!! Using population and comparative genomics of Podospora fungi, we show that a class of genes called #NLRs display evolutionary signatures that are consistent with an immune function, much like in plants and animals! 1/n 🍄 #popgen #balancingselection #introgression doi.org/10.1093/gbe/...

NOD-Like Receptor Genes Undergo Diversity-Enhancing Evolution in a Fungal Species Complex

Abstract. Fungi harbor diverse arrays of genes encoding NOD-like receptors (NLRs), key intracellular immune proteins found in plants, animals, and bacteria

doi.org

Adding to my reading list!

S. Lorena Ament@loreament.bsky.social · 2mo ago

How do fungi distinguish conspecific self from non-self? The genetics of this fascinating topic are plagued with misunderstandings even amongst mycologists. We wrote a review/rant to address this confusion, out now! 🍄 #fungi #allorecognition #HETgenes www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

It was great to present my postdoc work at #IAL10, the International Association for Lichenology congress in Trieste! Thanks to the organizers for the invitation!

Thanks to everyone who organized the great event and selected me for a Margalith Galun Award! Congratulations to the other winners. Already looking forward to following up on all the new connections and ideas #IAL10

It's a big honour to be recognized by my community! Huge thanks to IAL and thanks Toby for nominating me!

Toby Spribille@spribille.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Congratulations to Gulnara Tagirdzhanova @metalichen.bsky.social on receiving the Aino Henssen Award last night for outstanding postdoctoral research on lichen symbiosis from the International Association for Lichenology! #IAL10

Excited to see @puginiercamille.bsky.social presenting on secreted proteins in Xanthoria. I'm blown away by the work on algal cultures and protein-protein interaction modeling! #IAL10

A teaser from @spribille.bsky.social on lichen fungi G protein-coupled receptors in the context of the symbiosis evolution. A lot of independent data points to them being a key to the symbiosis #IAL10

Very clever study design by @ddiazescandon.bsky.social, who grouped lichen fungi based on which sugar they receive from their symbiotic partner and discovered patterns in their genomes that reflect how this fungi evolve to rely on their partners. Coming soon to the bioRxiv near you! #IAL10

Absolutely ground breaking stuff presented by @veera-t-nogerius.bsky.social. Structurally chimeric lichen made by intertwined hyphae of an ascomycete and a basidiomycete present in nearly 1:1 ratio! #IAL10

Very happy to attend the 10th International Association for Lichenology symposium in Trieste ! #IAL10 And very honoured to be presenting tomorrow our work on lichenization in Xanthoria parietina

Amazing talk by @skaloud.bsky.social on parallels between coral and lichen symbioses, with lots of exciting data on photobiont switching #IAL10

Toby Spribille@spribille.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Pavel Škaloud opens day two of #IAL10 with a riveting lecture on symbiosis from the distant mists of time up to the present. Nice to have this much emphasis on symbiosis at this IAL meeting!

Excited to present during the workshop on overcoming hurdles in lichen omics. Thanks to @philippresl.bsky.social and Julia Gerasimova for the invitation! #IAL10