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Jason Holliday @jholliday.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Excited to share our new Science paper on American chestnut restoration. >10 years of collaboration with TACF, Hudson Alpha, and a community of scientists, students, and staff. Thousands of GBS and WGS libraries and so many hours of HPC wrangling... www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.org

Genomic approaches to accelerate American chestnut restoration

More than a century after two introduced pathogens killed billions of American chestnut trees, introgression of resistance alleles from Chinese chestnuts has contributed to the recovery of self-sustai...

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Alayna Mead @alaynamead.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Very happy to see our article comparing the responses of hybrid poplars in 17 common gardens, out now in @newphyt.bsky.social! We estimated reaction norms to predict how warming winters could change where different ancestries are favored. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Variation in predicted reaction norms in response to mean coldest month temperature (MCMT) across admixed Populus genotypes. The reaction norm of each genotype is shown as a separate line colored by species ancestry, with green indicating Populus trichocarpa and blue indicating Populus balsamifera. Predictions for the overall model (a, d) incorporate both yearly growth increment in centimeters (cm) and the probability of mortality; predictions for the conditional model (b, e) only predict growth, ignoring the probability of zeros arising from other processes including mortality; and predictions for the zero-inflated model (c, f) predict the probability of zeros arising from mortality. (a–c) Responses across the range of MCMT values at garden and home climates. Actual values of home climates (|) and garden climates (circle) used for model training are shown on the x-axis. (d, e) Responses based on distance from climate of origin (garden–home MCMT); positive values indicate a warmer climate and negative values indicate a colder climate. If genotypes perform best in environments similar to their home environment, growth should be highest and mortality should be lowest when the transfer distance is 0.

Maps showing the predicted shift in species ancestry in the Populus hybrid zone, based on genotype-specific responses to mean coldest month temperature (MCMT). In (a, b), the color of the base layer shows the species ancestry of the studied genotype which is predicted to have the highest fitness (as measured by growth and mortality) in that location under historic (a) and future climates (b). (c) The change in optimal species ancestry between future (b) and historic (a) climates, indicating regions where increased Populus trichocarpa ancestry is expected to be beneficial in green, and regions with no change in gray. As MCMT increases, we predict that genotypes with higher P. trichocarpa ancestry may be able to outcompete genotypes with higher Populus balsamifera ancestry in some portions of the P. balsamifera range, favoring a northeastern shift of the P. trichocarpa range and the hybrid zone and into historically colder, more continental regions. Regions with MCMT values outside of the range measured in the common gardens (−13.05°C to 10.85°C) are masked and colored white. Actual ancestry of collected genotypes is shown as circles. Species ranges are shown as dark blue and green outlines (Little, 1971). The same predictions are mapped across North America, including the common garden sites (Supporting Information Fig. S15).

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Lily Franklin @lilyfordelegate.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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Matthew Wilson @mttwls.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Looks like the Dems will pick up 12 seats in the VA House of Delegates, which will go from 51-49 to 63-37 D-R. That's an honestly shocking result.

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Jill Hamilton @jillahamilton.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Excited by new #NSFFunded research from #PopUpPoplars led by @michellezavala.bsky.social that shows the importance of considering cytonuclear interactions to plant function The role of cytonuclear interactions to plant adaptation across a Populus hybrid zone www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.org

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Jason Holliday @jholliday.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

6yo asking if heaven is a real planet and I’m not sure where to begin.

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Reposted by Jason Holliday

Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

New genomic & genetic insights into Mendel’s pea genes, including previously uncharacterised alleles 159 years after Mendel published his work, this is a real delight (especially for a geneticist) 🧪 @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Genomic and genetic insights into Mendel’s pea genes - Nature

Characterization of the genetic architecture underlying the 7 pairs of contrasting traits studied by Mendel and the over 70 additional agronomic traits in pea (Pisum sativum) reveals their m...

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Jason Holliday @jholliday.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Maybe we should have an analog to the bar association but for academic science. Changing 12 alleles and earnestly claiming you’ve resurrected an extinct species would surely be grounds for disbarment.

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Jason Holliday @jholliday.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Low range 4wd barely sufficient today

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Reposted by Jason Holliday

John Lovell @jotlovell.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Our paper on the past, present, and genomics-enabled future of American chestnut (Castanea dentata) tree breeding for resistance to invasive pathogens is on BioRxiv. 🧵with some background and a few things we found 👇 bsky.app/profile/bior...

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Jazlyn Mooney @jazlynmooney.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

First major paper from the lab! The work was led by super talented postdoc Maria Akopyan. She explored how reference bias skews estimates of diversity, demography, divergence & recombination rate with help from @elliecat.bsky.social & awesome ungrad Matthew. Full thread coming soon 🤓

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Jason Holliday @jholliday.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

We are hosting an information session for our Virginia Tech Translational Plant Sciences Center graduate program this Thursday. Prospective Ph.D. applicants can register and get the Zoom link here: virginiatech.questionpro.com/tpscvirtualr...

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Jason Holliday @jholliday.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Big hill on our backyard but little snow the last few years. Call it adaptation to climate change…

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Will Ratcliff @wcratcliff.bsky.social · 26/10/2024

New preprint up! We sequenced hundreds of samples from across one of Earth's oldest living organisms - the Pando aspen clone - to understand how mutations accumulate and spread in long-lived clonal organisms. Our results were…surprising. 1/30

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David Lowry @davidlowry.bsky.social · 08/11/2024

Just wanted to let folks know that I am still looking to fill this position. I am hoping to start reviewing applications on Monday. Thanks for passing this along to anyone who might be interested.

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