Ewout Crombez
@ewcro.bsky.social
PhD student interested in the evolution of polyploidy in plants, using bioinformatics and duckweeds as a model system Van de Peer lab, University Ghent
This fungus infects plants, hijacks them, and makes its own fake flowers where the real ones should be www.scientificamerican.com/article/this...
This Flower Is Really a Fungus in Disguise
In Guyanese savannas, a fungus infects grasslike plants, sterilizes them and produces bizarre all-fungal “flower” doppelgängers
scientificamerican.com
Our paper on the evolution (duplicated) gene expression divergence in spatially resolved plant transcriptomes is now out @theplantcell.bsky.social w/ @yvdp.bsky.social #PlantSci #Evolution academic.oup.com/plcell/advan...
Gene expression divergence following gene and genome duplications in spatially resolved plant transcriptomes
After gene and genome duplications, expression divergence across cell types is not random, and it can be explained by a combination of gene age, gene funct
academic.oup.com
Sequencing the Human Genome 25 years ago had profound effects for the Life Sciences, and in many ways it was like the discovery of quantum mechanics for physics: both represented a fundamental shift in understanding the basic units of their respective domains — the cell and the atom.
My first paper is finally out! 🥳 We explored how genes get lost in the process of rediploidization following polyploidization and found out that this loss primarly occurs through DNA deletion, rather than pseudogenization. #polyploidy @yvdp.bsky.social @zhen-li.bsky.social rdcu.be/evxBs
The subordinate role of pseudogenization to recombinative deletion following polyploidization in angiosperms
Nature Communications - Extensive gene loss is a hallmark of rediploidization following polyploidization, but its molecular basis remains unclear. Examining pseudogenization from ancient...
rdcu.be
Polyploid success isn’t just about growing fast—it’s about outcompeting progenitors! 🌱 We had neopolyploid duckweed and their progenitor invade each other, testing how stress & frequency-dependent growth shape WGD success... or failure. @yvdp.bsky.social #polyploid #duckweed doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Polyploid - diploid coexistence in the greater duckweed Spirodela polyrhiza
Polyploidy, resulting from whole-genome duplication (WGD), is widespread among plants and originates in sympatry with their lower-ploidy progenitors. New polyploids can only succeed when they overcome...
doi.org