John Logsdon

Molecular Evolutionary Biologist. Associate Professor of Biology @UIowa (all opinions my own; RTs not endorsements) I study sex & occasionally rouse some rabble

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

I opened an account at the other place @johnlogsdon.bsky.social
I’m gonna stay here for a while at least. But I’m covering my bases.

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

@phylogenomics Well played, Jonathan! Would be a great title for a redux analysis.

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

@phylogenomics Looking forward to reading that paper!

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

@phylogenomics Ditto. The emperor has no clothes is a hard gig in science.

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

@RussellMorris @Bunnymen I came here to say that.

[Bryan Ferry @bryanferry]

Please join us in wishing Bryan Ferry a very happy birthday today!
#bryanferry #happybirthday #onthisday

[Niko McCarty. @NikoMcCarty]

The only rule in biology is that there are exceptions to every rule. This is what makes biology infinitely exciting; even when you think you’ve got the complete view, the floor can drop out from underneath you at any given moment.

Case-in-point: The nucleus is the thing that makes eukaryotes...well, eukaryotes. It's the part of the cell that stores the genome, separating DNA from the cytoplasm and other organelles. (Bacteria do not have nuclei.) For decades, scientists thought that each nucleus contains one or more haploid sets of chromosomes.

But there are exceptions. Red blood cells, for example, don’t have nuclei at all. (They expel their nuclei during maturation to maximize hemoglobin concentrations.) Cells in the eye lens, too, lose their nuclei and organelles during differentiation, thus becoming transparent. And so on.

But now there is yet ANOTHER exception to this rule, and it’s one I hadn’t seen before. For a study in Science, researchers discovered that two types of pathogenic fungi that infect plants, called Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Botrytis cinerea, have two different nuclei. And instead of storing a full set of chromosomes in each nuclei, they instead “distribute their chromosomes such that each of their nuclei contains only a subset of the haploid chromosomes.” The authors confirmed this by throwing a kitchen sink of methods at these cells; chromosome counting, DNA measurements using flow cytometry, single-nucleus PCR, and more.

Nobody knows why the fungi do this, but the scientists claim (in their discussion) that it could enable them "to respond and adapt more effectively to local environmental stresses within their extensive mycelial networks. Nuclear shuffling may facilitate the rapid generation of new genotypes, enhancing adaptability to changing environments.” There is also evidence that the chromosomes within each nucleus may briefly collide during cell division, before going back into their separate nuclei.

This is a great paper. It is simple, to the point, and challenges the status quo. It has serious potential to become a “classic” of the genre.

Link: https://t.co/AtsN5Kufpl

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

20 hours later and your voice mail box is still full. Do your job @SenJoniErnst and at least pretend to listen to your constituents. @joniernst

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

Hello @SenJoniErnst Constituent here. I unsuccessfully tried to leave you a message today on your voice mailbox. 202 224 3254. It was full.

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

Also @joniernst

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

Hello @SenJoniErnst Constituent here. I unsuccessfully tried to leave you a message today on your voice mailbox. 202 224 3254. It was full.

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

Hello @SenJoniErnst Constituent here. I unsuccessfully tried to leave you a message today on your voice mailbox. 202 224 3254. It was full.

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

@markowenmartin Same!

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

@markowenmartin He was on my dissertation committee. Always interesting. Usually stubborn.

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

@fredguterl @LeeBillings @sciam It’s happened before. It will again. :-)

[William J. Brady @william__brady]

New paper out in @ScienceMagazine! In 8 studies (multiple platforms, methods, time periods) we find: misinformation evokes more outrage than trustworthy news, when it does it's shared more + ppl are less likely to read before sharing. w/ @killianmcl1 @Klonick @mollycrockett 🧵👇

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

@graychid I’m double dipping until 20 Jan at least.

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

@graychid Great record. Underrated. Coming over to Bluesky soon? The water (and music) are fine.

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

@PatDolan53 Ha. Do you have one? It wouldn’t qualify anyway, as it is “concert t-shirt Friday” here’s one I won’t be wearing.

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

I teach a large (~600 students) lecture class on Introductory Biology. Friday is “concert t-shirt day”. I wear one of my (many) band shirts and ask students to wear theirs and tell me about it.

Psychedelic Furs was last Friday. Tomorrow?

[soundStory 🎧 @soundstoryuk]

Question of the day.....

[John Logsdon @johnlogsdon]

@mbeisen Sabbatical.