Very happy to share that the @erc.europa.eu has selected PHYTOPOGON for funding! 😁🌱 In this project, we will test whether plants have greenbeard genes — an evolutionary mechanism that could allow them to recognize the genetic identity of their neighbours.

Our study on the evolution of shade avoidance, a "selfish trait" in plants, over 80 years of soybean breeding history. Led by @lukecoevo.bsky.social and Emanuel Kopp, and published here: doi.org/10.1111/eva..... Great stuff!

Shade Avoidance Restricts Soybean Breeding Progress and Increases Herbivore Susceptibility

High planting densities expose field crops to competition for light, which typically induces shade avoidance responses such as stem elongation. While adaptive in natural environments, these responses...

doi.org

... and here is the press-release from Hokkaido University (only in Japanese, sorry). www.hokudai.ac.jp/news/2026/06...

Next fall, Paris-Saclay will host what promises to be a major scientific event for agroecology: the Mix4Agroecology conference.

🌺 PhD position in Theoretical Evolutionary Biology! 🌺 There is about two weeks left to apply to come work with me on the evolution of plant reproductive strategies at @unifr.bsky.social ! Contact me or visit here or for more info: tinyurl.com/monoecy Please share! 🌱

Thomas Lesaffre 🌱@thomaslesaffre.bsky.social · 6mo ago

🚨 PhD position available ! 🚨 I am hiring a PhD student to work with me on the evolution of plant sexual systems 🌺 at @unifrbiology.bsky.social ! The position is funded for 4 years by @snsf.ch as part of my Ambizione fellowship. More info here: tinyurl.com/monoecy 🌱 Please RP and share widely ! 🌱

New preprint with Kosuke Hamazaki is out in bioRxiv. The beta version of its R package is available via GitHub at github.com/yassato/rNei...

GitHub - yassato/rNeighborLMM: rNeighborLMM: Fitting mixed models for oligogenic and polygenic indirect genetic effects

rNeighborLMM: Fitting mixed models for oligogenic and polygenic indirect genetic effects - yassato/rNeighborLMM

github.com

bioRxiv Genetics@biorxiv-genetic.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Dissecting oligogenic and polygenic indirect genetic effects through the lens of neighbor genotypic identity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.31.715746v1

🚨 PhD position available ! 🚨 I am hiring a PhD student to work with me on the evolution of plant sexual systems 🌺 at @unifrbiology.bsky.social ! The position is funded for 4 years by @snsf.ch as part of my Ambizione fellowship. More info here: tinyurl.com/monoecy 🌱 Please RP and share widely ! 🌱

Come visit us at @unil.bsky.social ! 😃

Charles Mullon@charlesmullon.bsky.social · 6mo ago

With @saramitri.bsky.social, @sonjalehtinen.bsky.social and L. Lehmann we’ve launched the UNIL Center for Theory in Ecology and Evolution @unil.bsky.social🇨🇭 To kick things off, we’re offering short visiting fellowships for theorists in ecology & evolution. Apply & pls RP 😀 tinyurl.com/2wem36zz

We just published a review article as a book chapter of Advances in Ecological Research. This review focuses on interdisciplinary fields between genome-assisted breeding and community genetics. Please DM if you want a reprint. doi.org/10.1016/bs.a...

Many organisms, including humans, reshape their environments in ways that influence the conditions faced by future generations. We ask whether this can favour biological variation with @irisprigent.bsky.social in our new paper. Thanks to @dee-unil.bsky.social @snsf.ch www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

A sex-determining gene region in ants, bees, and wasps has maintained its function for over 150 million years through its chromosomal position rather than its DNA sequence, as evidenced by the lack of sequence homology among lineages. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/n9eU50XWipU

Excited to share that I’m starting a research group at MPI for Biology Tübingen — and we’re recruiting PhD students! We are offering two fully funded PhD positions on sex determination and development in Hymenoptera 🐜🐝. Please share with prospective students who might be interested.

MPI for Biology Tübingen & Friedrich Miescher Laboratory@mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social · 10mo ago

🚀 Ready to explore life science research at the highest level? Then apply for a fully-funded biology #PhD position at the Max Planck Institute for Biology @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social and Friedrich Miescher Laboratory! Find out about the projects you could be working on: www.phd.tuebingen.mpg.de #IMPRS

Sign up now for EMBO Workshop "Molecular mechanisms of selfish elements and strategies" in Bern, Switzerland, 8–11 February 2026. Abstract submission/Registration by: 15 December 2025/15 January 2026 https://meetings.embo.org/event/26-selfish-elements #EMBOselfishElements #GeneSky #EMBOevents 🧪

Molecular mechanisms of selfish elements and strategies

Certain genes, chromosomes, organelles, or entire sets of chromosomes can bias their transmission to the next generation, propagating themselves at the expense of the rest of the genome. Referred to …

meetings.embo.org

Check-out this very interesting result by Clément Plessis, PhD student in our group! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A La Carte Seed Harvesting: Messor barbarus Ants Select Durum Wheat Genotypes

Our study shows that the harvester ant Messor barbarus exhibits genotype-specific preferences for durum wheat, linked to a major QTL on chromosome 2A. Ant predation is also influenced by spike size, ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

🌱 RESEARCH 🌱 Wheat varieties with a high root projected area in pure stands experience a strong relaxation of below-ground competition in mixtures at the seedling stage under resource-limited conditions – Montazeaud et al. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/... #PlantScience 🧪 @germtz.bsky.social

Check out this cool work from @crouxevo.bsky.social and others, congrats!!! 🥳 Rapid establishment of species barriers in plants compared with that in animals | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Rapid establishment of species barriers in plants compared with that in animals

Speciation, the process by which new reproductively isolated species emerge from ancestral populations, results from the gradual accumulation of barriers to gene flow within genomes. To date, the noti...

science.org

Save the date! Next fall (2026), we will be hosting an interdisciplinary conference on crop diversification in Paris.

PhD fellowship available 📢! We are offering a 3-year fully funded PhD fellowship at the interface between functional ecology and quantitative genetics in Montpellier FR ! (Application deadline 31 July)

Last chance to attend the school for free if you're doing your PhD in an Official Development Assistance (ODA) country ! Apply by 15 May for a full scholarship covering tuition, travel, accommodation, and meals.

Charles Mullon@charlesmullon.bsky.social · last yr.

Applications now open for UNIL Summer School on Modelling for Evo Bio (1–6 Sept 2025, Lausanne)! Aimed at PhD students interested in formal approaches to evolutionary ecology questions like sexual selection, social & life-history evolution. Scholarships available. Pls share! www.shorturl.at/znk5g

New paper out in @jxbotany.bsky.social! 🌱🌾 We found that mixing different wheat varieties can decrease belowground competition at early growth stages, especially under resource limited conditions.