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Liming Cai @limingcai.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Dead alien DNA tells the story of underground ecological interactions— Using horizontally transferred DNA, we found an undescribed parasitic relationship between Amborella and a New Caledonian endemic parasite Hachettea. Here is my blog about our new paper: methodsblog.com/2026/10/14/d...

methodsblog.com

Dead alien DNA tells the story of underground ecological interactions

Post provided by Liming Cai Much of the species diversity on Earth is driven by biotic interactions. Ecologists and evolutionary biologists, including myself, strive to characterize these phenomena…

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Liming Cai @limingcai.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

How to make cheap but still functional plant ribosome proteins? Our new preprint explores this question in broomrapes, legumes, geraniums, and Silene. We did some cool protein structure modeling as well. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Reposted by Liming Cai

Patrick McKenzie @patrickmckenzie.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Major #Botany2026 FOMO, but the drive MA->OR starts this week. So, sharing from afar: I’m recruiting grad students for my new lab at OSU! Info: www.mckenzie-lab.org . We're going to have FUN with systematics, speciation genomics, methods, natural history, and more in North Am angiosperms. Reach out!

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Reposted by Liming Cai

Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

The danger zone: The joint trap of incomplete lineage sorting & long-branch attraction in resolving the Gondwanan origin of #Rafflesiaceae and #Apodanthaceae New #AJB research by @limingcai.bsky.social, Natalia Pabón-Mora, Juan Alzate et al. doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany #plantscience

The massive bloom of Rafflesia tuan-mudae, a holoparasitic member of Rafflesiaceae, photographed in Borneo. (Photo credit: Charles Davis.)

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Reposted by Liming Cai

Genome Biology and Evolution @genomebiolevol.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

@limingcai.bsky.social et al. examined mitogenomes of 45 Orobanchaceae species, identifying genetic alterations in genomic shuffling, RNA editing, and intracellular and horizontal gene transfer en route to a nonphotosynthetic lifestyle. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag025 #genome #evolution

GBE | Recombination and Retroprocessing in Broomrapes Reveal RNA-Mediated Gene Transfer Mechanism and a Generalizable Model for Mitochondrial Evolution in Heterotrophic Plants

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