Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 23/06/2026Excited 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! 🌱🌱🌱 071
Reposted by Laura LeventhalJohn Stinchcombe @johnstinchcombe.bsky.social · 22/06/2026The 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. 0215
Reposted by Laura LeventhalTatiana Bellagio @tbellagio.bsky.social · 11/06/2026Come 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 1256
Reposted by Laura LeventhalJohn Stinchcombe @johnstinchcombe.bsky.social · 07/06/2026Why 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. 38333
Reposted by Laura LeventhalGenetics Society of America @genetics-gsa.bsky.social · 28/05/2026Happening 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 0106
Reposted by Laura LeventhalNPR @npr.org · 03/04/2026For 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/4ttOsq4n.prA botanist searches for the seeds of the rare Death Valley SageFor 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. 542874
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 08/04/2026Finally 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! 🌱🏔️ 0160
Reposted by Laura LeventhalMoi Expósito-Alonso (MOILAB) @mexpositoalonso.bsky.social · 26/03/2026Our 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 1187104
Reposted by Laura LeventhalAnza-Borrego Desert Research Center @anzaborrego.bsky.social · 25/02/2026Flowering desert lily underneath yesterday's sunset lenticular clouds (Photo: Sicco Rood). 18312
Reposted by Laura LeventhalGraham Coop @gcbias.bsky.social · 23/02/2026California spring in foothills with scarlet fritillaries (Fritillaria recurva). #BloomScrolling 2365
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 22/10/2025Thanks, Seema! And yes, here is a working link: doi.org/10.1101/2025...doi.orgSimulated climate change magnifies genetic vulnerabilities from mutation load and maladaptationAs climate change intensifies, the genetic diversity and composition of natural populations will become critical for adaptation and survival. Standing genetic diversity within populations differs acro... 021
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 22/10/2025Updated link: doi.org/10.1101/2025...doi.orgSimulated climate change magnifies genetic vulnerabilities from mutation load and maladaptationAs climate change intensifies, the genetic diversity and composition of natural populations will become critical for adaptation and survival. Standing genetic diversity within populations differs acro... 000
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 22/10/2025Yay to spending time with plant nerds! Thank you for the tour and specimen viewing at @stanfordjrbp.bsky.social 051
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 22/10/2025Very proud to present our first paper from the Moi Lab Carnegie common garden! @mexpositoalonso.bsky.social 0143
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 22/10/2025In A. thaliana and other plant systems, local adaptation is stronger closer to the equatorial edge and load is highest farther from the equator, which highlights a critical vulnerability: under strong selection, these high mutation load and low local adaptation populations may be the most at risk. 031
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 22/10/2025We monitored these populations for 3 years, and found that population growth rate decreased as the treatments became more stressful. Further, "high risk" populations (either high load or low local adaptation scores) had a higher stochasticity for recovery after a single year of water stress. 231
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 22/10/2025Crucially, we found a significant interaction between load and local adaptation, which grew stronger as the environment became more stressful. This suggests a synergistic decay of fitness resulting from locally adaptive variants, globally maladaptive load, and high water stress environments. 121
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 22/10/2025We found that populations with a low number of local adaptation alleles or high mutation load had decreased fitness in our highest drought stress environments. 131
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 22/10/2025By using data from other A. thaliana common gardens and genomic prediction tools, we created synthetic experimental populations of A. thaliana that varied in their abundance of locally adaptive alleles and also in their mutational load. 141
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 22/10/2025Synthetic 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... 🧵👇 3112
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 22/10/2025Crucially, we found a significant interaction between load and local adaptation, which grew stronger as the environment became more stressful. This suggests a synergistic decay of fitness resulting from locally adaptive variants, globally maladaptive load, and high water stress environments. 000
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 22/10/2025We found that populations with a low number of local adaptation alleles or high mutation load had decreased fitness in our highest drought stress environments. 100
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 22/10/2025By using data from other A. thaliana common gardens and genomic prediction tools, we created synthetic experimental populations of A. thaliana that varied in their abundance of locally adaptive alleles and also in their mutational load. 100
Reposted by Laura LeventhalMoi Expósito-Alonso (MOILAB) @mexpositoalonso.bsky.social · 13/10/2025We 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...careerspub.universityofcalifornia.eduAn error has occurred. 0910
Reposted by Laura LeventhalMoi Expósito-Alonso (MOILAB) @mexpositoalonso.bsky.social · 13/10/2025Apply 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 02324
Reposted by Laura LeventhalJulia Kreiner @jmkreiner.bsky.social · 06/10/2025Human-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 36418
Reposted by Laura LeventhalMagdalena Bohutínská @majdabohu.bsky.social · 17/07/20251/5 ✨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 15318
Reposted by Laura LeventhalMoi Expósito-Alonso (MOILAB) @mexpositoalonso.bsky.social · 30/05/2025Super 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 🧵👇 9257103
Reposted by Laura LeventhalBotanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · 19/05/2025Undescribed 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 0195
Reposted by Laura LeventhalFrontRangeWildflowers @frwildflowers.bsky.social · 19/05/2025Today is the last day to oppose the gutting of the Endangered Species Act, I just did and it’s not hard: 13474509
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 15/05/2025A fried egg poppy in that “just cracked” stage 🥚 (Matilija poppy or Romneya coulteri) 020
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 23/04/2025A special find was this chaparral clarkia, Clarkia affinis, which I only found one of and it was growing proudly on this large rock. 020
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 23/04/2025The *close up* of one of my faves, the white globe lily! Those hairs! 040
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 23/04/2025Very 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) 030
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 10/03/2025A forgotten soil cube harbors this hearty hermit. 130
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 25/02/2025☀️ We conclude with recommendations for Arabidopsis outdoor common gardens and applications for studying (mal)adaptation with Arabidopsis in future global change experiments. 100
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 25/02/2025🏞️ and finally synthesize all Arabidopsis outdoor common garden experiments (there were 73!!!), highlighting those that have contributed to our understanding of local adaptation. 100
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 25/02/2025⏳ We detail Arabidopsis' biogeographic and demographic history, 🧬 the key advances in our understanding of adaptation through genomic approaches, 100
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 25/02/2025🧬🌱🏞️ In this review, we explore how Arabidopsis research has evolved from a genetic model to a powerful system for studying ecological and evolutionary genomics in natural environments. 100
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 25/02/2025Excited 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 #EvoEcodoi.orgPlanting Genomes in the Wild: Arabidopsis From Genetics History to the Ecology and Evolutionary Genomics Era | Annual ReviewsThe 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... 23415
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 13/02/2025Check 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? 020
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 13/02/2025Very 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! 0101
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 25/01/2025Caulanthus inflatus among abundant superbloom at the Carrizo Plains. #bloomscrolling 040
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 10/12/2024Link to streaming will be available soon! 000
Laura Leventhal @lauracleventhal.bsky.social · 10/12/2024Beautiful premiere of The Land Around Us by several lab mates! This documentary followed their journey through learning about land and our relationships to it in the Bay Area from four local experts with different approaches to stewardship and perspectives on the earth around us. 110
