Laura Leventhal
@lauracleventhal.bsky.social
Plant evolutionary ecologist! PhD candidate in Exposito Alonso lab.
Excited to present my PhD work today on adaptation and maladaptation under climate change in Arabidopsis at #evol2026 at 4:45pm in Evolutionary Ecology: Adaptation! Come by to learn about what happened under this rainbow as well as my new final chapter quantifying global adaptation lag! 🌱🌱🌱
The amazing Amanda Peake is presenting this work at #Evol2026. Go check it out, where she boils down several years of work into 15 minutes! Ecological Genetics II, 4:30 - 4:45, Room 24, Monday 6/22/2026.
John Stinchcombe@johnstinchcombe.bsky.social · 3mo agoWhy are leaves the shape that they are? What controls intraspecific, genetic variation in leaf shape? New from my lab, in collaboration with many others, led by PhD student Amanda Peake: mapping the leaf shape polymorphism in Ipomoea hederacea.
Come see my poster tn! For 3 yrs, populations evolved at 43 sites worldwide. I built kMate, an alignment-free, pangenome k-mer method to track SNP & SV frequencies across space & time, opening the door to accurately and efficiently mapping climate-adaptive variants on evolution experiments! #PEQG26
Why are leaves the shape that they are? What controls intraspecific, genetic variation in leaf shape? New from my lab, in collaboration with many others, led by PhD student Amanda Peake: mapping the leaf shape polymorphism in Ipomoea hederacea.
bioRxiv Plant Bio@biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · 3mo agoNewly arisen indel governs a leaf shape polymorphism in the Ivy Leaf Morning Glory (Ipomoea hederacea) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.04.730136v1
Happening today! 🚨 Don’t miss the first lecture in the GSA Award Seminar Series with 2026 GSA Early Career Medal recipient @mexpositoalonso.bsky.social of @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social, presenting “Genetics in the Wild.” Join us at 1 p.m. EDT. 🔗 Make sure you're registered: buff.ly/SRiwOFt
For more than 15 years, botanist Naomi Fraga has been trying to collect seeds from the rare Death Valley sage, for safekeeping in a vault of native California seeds. n.pr/4ttOsq4
A botanist searches for the seeds of the rare Death Valley Sage
For more than 15 years, botanist Naomi Fraga has been trying to collect seeds from the rare Death Valley sage, for safekeeping in a vault of native California seeds.
n.pr
Finally encountered wild Arabidopsis thaliana!! I’ve known this plant well for 5 years now, and we happened to stumble upon it on the last day of Moi’s field course in Yosemite! 🌱🏔️
Our new experimental evolution study across 30+ locations using the plant Arabidopsis thaliana —— we direct "see" adaptation and extinction to different climates at the genetic as it happens! Read it in Science dx.doi.org/10.1126/scie... @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social @hhmi-science.bsky.social
Flowering desert lily underneath yesterday's sunset lenticular clouds (Photo: Sicco Rood).
Yay to spending time with plant nerds! Thank you for the tour and specimen viewing at @stanfordjrbp.bsky.social
David Lowry@davidlowry.bsky.social · 10mo agoGreat visit this morning to the Carnegie Institution for Science and Jasper Ridge with Joanna Feehan and @lauracleventhal.bsky.social. Sat at the “co-evolution” table and found some photos of young Clausen, Keck, and Hiesey.
Very proud to present our first paper from the Moi Lab Carnegie common garden! @mexpositoalonso.bsky.social
Laura Leventhal@lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 10mo agoSynthetic experimental populations of Arabidopsis thaliana with differing genetic backgrounds planted in a 14-level precipitation alteration common garden. Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵👇
Synthetic experimental populations of Arabidopsis thaliana with differing genetic backgrounds planted in a 14-level precipitation alteration common garden. Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵👇
We are searching for a technician in Next Generation Sequencing! Come to our lab University of California, Berkeley Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) See ad: careerspub.universityofcalifornia.edu/psp/ucb/EMPL...
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careerspub.universityofcalifornia.edu
Apply for our PhD program on Evolution Ecology Organismal Biology (Integrative! Biology) Dec 1 2025 deadline Check out the Flyer below for more information on our #MOILAB! Link to Flyer docs.google.com/document/d/1... @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social @hhmi.org
Human-mediated land-use and climate change occur simultaneously, but how do they interact to shape adaptive dynamics? Super excited to share the first paper from the Kreiner lab, led by postdoc extraordinaire @rpineau.bsky.social
bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 11mo agoThe genomic response to drought across spatiotemporal scales in Amaranthus tuberculatus https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.02.679894v1
1/5 ✨Proud✨ to see our review with Katie Peichel as featured content in Trends_Ecol_Evo, with my beloved alpine lineages of Arabidopsis arenosa on the cover. Hope that you find it interesting! doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2023.11.007
Super excited to release a huge evolution project on the works for many years: Evolution experiments synchronized across climates to understand rapid adaptation Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025... All data available: www.grene-net.org/data #MOILAB @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social @hhmi.org 🧵👇
Undescribed species diversity in Brewer's #jewelflower illuminates potential mechanisms of diversification associated with serpentine endemism New #AJB research by Kyle Christie, N. Ivalú Cacho, Jacob Macdonald et al. doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany #plantscience #biodiversity #Brassicaceae
Today is the last day to oppose the gutting of the Endangered Species Act, I just did and it’s not hard:
David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · last yr.Two days remain to comment on the US FWS and NMFS rule change that undermines the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This proposal rescinds the definition of “harm,” limiting protections to actions that directly injure or kill listed species, leaving their habitats vulnerable. Please submit comments! 🧪
A fried egg poppy in that “just cracked” stage 🥚 (Matilija poppy or Romneya coulteri)
A special find was this chaparral clarkia, Clarkia affinis, which I only found one of and it was growing proudly on this large rock.
The *close up* of one of my faves, the white globe lily! Those hairs!
Very fun spring wildflower spotting this weekend on a hike at Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve! 🌸🌼🌱 (peep Castilleja foliolosa, Dipterostemon capitatus, Calochortus albus, and Stachys rigida)
A forgotten soil cube harbors this hearty hermit.
Excited to share my first first-author paper! 🌱🧬 'Planting Genomes in the Wild: Arabidopsis From Genetics History to the Ecology and Evolutionary Genomics Era' with Dr. Megan Ruffely and @mexpositoalonso.bsky.social doi.org/10.1146/annu... #PlantScience #Genomics #Arabidopsis #EvoEco
Planting Genomes in the Wild: Arabidopsis From Genetics History to the Ecology and Evolutionary Genomics Era | Annual Reviews
The genetics model system Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. lives across a vast geographic range with contrasting climates, in response to which it has evolved diverse life histories and phenotypic ada...
doi.org
Check out this funny Arabidopsis grown outside in our common garden at UC Berkeley. This plant experienced a lot of herbivory and the herbivorized center became very woody?
Very happy to share this preprint utilizing herbarium specimens to examine how California wildflowers (Streptanthus and Caulanthus clade) respond to precipitation timing and amount. Proud to be part of this collaborative work led by Megan Bontrager with the team at UC Davis!
UCDavisPlants@ucdavisplants.bsky.social · 2y ago🌱Megan Bontrager, Samantha Worthy, Laura Leventhal, Julin Maloof, Jennifer Gremer, Johanna Schmitt and Sharon Strauss discussed the ways precipitation timing and amount can shape #herbarium specimen #phenology, but reproductive success remains buffered. ▶️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
