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Kathleen Kay

@kathleenmkay.bsky.social

780 followers 480 following 79 posts

Scientist, professor, mom, trail runner, plant lover. UC Santa Cruz.

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Kathleen Kay @kathleenmkay.bsky.social · Aug 8

Is the Most Effective Pollinator Principle a zombie idea? How do plants adapted to one pollinator shift to another without traversing an adaptive valley? How should we measure fitness in pollinator selection studies? We explore these questions and more in a new review doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

Beyond the Grant–Stebbins model: floral adaptive landscapes and plant speciation

AbstractBackground. Floral diversity, a striking feature of angiosperm evolution, provides the impetus and rationale for linking pollinator-driven selectio

doi.org

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Kathleen Kay @kathleenmkay.bsky.social · 23h

Great work! Bravo!!

Reposted by Kathleen Kay

David Lowry @davidlowry.bsky.social · 2d

Excited by this breakthrough work led by Dr. Lauren Stanley (now Assistant Professor at Central Michigan University). Lauren was able to develop for the first time floral dip/spray transformation methods in the yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus). bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Just add water: A simple floral bud injection method for stable Agrobacterium‐mediated transformation in two ecotypes of Mimulus guttatus

Premise Stable transformation is the biggest barrier to studying gene function in plants. In most species, transformation requires tissue culture and regeneration methods that may be arduous and cau...

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Kathleen Kay

Mike Grillo @mikegrillo.bsky.social · 4d

I am hiring a postdoc to examine the genomic and evolutionary basis of plant microbiome variation in legumes. There are opportunities to gain teaching experience. Chicago is a great city to live in! Please help spread the word.
share.google/gukbzS1zdIx6...

Postdoctoral Researcher in Plant Evolutionary Genomics

The postdoctoral researcher will work in Dr. Michael Grillo’s plant evolutionary genetics lab. The goal of this research project is to understand the genomic basis of plant-microbiome variation in leg...

share.google

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Reposted by Kathleen Kay

Cathy Hernandez @cathyhernandez.bsky.social · 6d

Very happy to share that I will be starting as an Assistant Professor in the department of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina in January! My group will be working on environmental phage ecology and evolution, and I am recruiting for the upcoming year (more info below).

A graphic advertising phage ecology and evolution research at the University of South Carolina, showing a central image of a tide pool flanked by a photo of an agar plate containing diverse microbes and a TEM image of a virus particle.

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Kathleen Kay @kathleenmkay.bsky.social · 7d

This is a great book, and free! ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/

Applied Biostatistics

ybrandvain.github.io

Kathleen Kay @kathleenmkay.bsky.social · 15d

What's the other anther doing? Just hanging out in case something better comes along?

Reposted by Kathleen Kay

Emily Josephs @emjo.bsky.social · 19d

Application review begins in one week for the MSU herbarium director position!!!! More info here: plantbiology.natsci.msu.edu/job-postings...

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Reposted by Kathleen Kay

HL Eisthen, defective human product @hleisthen.bsky.social · 19d

I'll add here that MSU's Plant Biology Dept is world class, has a great chair, and is full of excellent scientists. #scijobs

Emily Josephs @emjo.bsky.social · 19d

Application review begins in one week for the MSU herbarium director position!!!! More info here: plantbiology.natsci.msu.edu/job-postings...

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Reposted by Kathleen Kay

Rene Bernard @renebernard.bsky.social · 20d

Publication bias continues to skew academic literature. In our new @plosbiology.org article, we outline actionable steps for journals, funders & researchers to ensure all results—not only “positive” ones—are valued. A roadmap for more reliable science: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Ending publication bias: A values-based approach to surface null and negative results

Sharing knowledge is a fundamental principle within the scientific community, yet null and negative results are still being underreported. This Consensus View discusses the problem of such publication...

journals.plos.org

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Kathleen Kay @kathleenmkay.bsky.social · 23d

Congratulations, @needhibhalla.bsky.social !!!!!

American Society for Cell Biology @ascbiology.bsky.social · 25d

🎉 Congratulations to Needhi Bhalla, UC Santa Cruz (www.bhallalab.com
), named a 2025 #ASCB Fellow! This honor celebrates her outstanding contributions to cell biology, leadership, & service. Fellows will be recognized at #CellBio2025 in Philadelphia this December. #CellBiology

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Kathleen Kay @kathleenmkay.bsky.social · 27d

no idea - just my best guess! we had a raccoon problem at one point and an exterminator suggested it. someone needs to go to this festival and find out

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Kathleen Kay @kathleenmkay.bsky.social · 27d

mountain lion pee -- you can actually buy it

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Reposted by Kathleen Kay

Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 27d

www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

A host organelle (in sea slugs) integrates stolen chloroplasts for animal photosynthesis

A host organelle integrates stolen chloroplasts for animal photosynthesis

Sea slugs steal foreign chloroplasts and store them in specialized organelles that facilitate photosynthesis and eventual digestion to mediate starvation resistance.

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Kathleen Kay

OK Doomer ☮️🏳️‍🌈🤷‍♂️🙈🙉🙊💙 @manqueman.bsky.social · 29d

Sadly timely from @mcsweeneys.net: www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/who...

Who Radicalized You: An Elite University or a Discord Server?

“The Utah man being held in the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk used the social media platform Discord to send messages about the ri...

www.mcsweeneys.net

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Kathleen Kay @kathleenmkay.bsky.social · Sep 14

Also: "The advent of AI slop means that instructors (and TAs) must either endure the slings and arrows of em-dashes or take arms against a sea of cheaters—a battle enormously costly in time and effort." 😂

Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · Sep 13

"Everything has gotten worse and nothing has gotten better when it comes to U.S. doctoral admissions or the likely experience of a five- to seven-year commitment during the Trump administration...Sometimes, there are lost generations; this will be one of those times." 💔

Don't Do a Ph.D. Now

At least in the United States

musgrave.substack.com

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Reposted by Kathleen Kay

Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · Sep 12

Everyone is focusing on “Catch this, fascist”, and Ciao Bella being an anti-fascist song and reading that as literal. But these are both used in the video game Helldivers2 - which is a parody of authoritarianism. “Catch this, fascist” is satirical anti-fascism. 1/

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Reposted by Kathleen Kay

Camille Roux @crouxevo.bsky.social · Sep 12

Hybridization and introgression are major evolutionary processes. Since the 1940s, the prevailing view has been that they shape plants far more than animals. In our new study (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
), we find the opposite: animals exchange genes more, and for longer, than plants

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Reposted by Kathleen Kay

Albert Ch. Soewongsono @albertchristian.bsky.social · Sep 11

Today at WashU’s EEB seminar, I presented a new species diversification model that incorporates regional species diversity into rates of evolution through time (a joint work w/ @landismj.bsky.social).

Slides here: sites.google.com/view/albert-...

Preprint hopefully will be here this month #evobio

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Reposted by Kathleen Kay

Josef Uyeda @pseudacris.bsky.social · May 21

Unsolicited listicle: My list of the most criminally underused/underappreciated phylogenetic comparative methods. Note, I am not involved in ANY of these methods; but I see them as things people are often asking of comparative data but have been surprised at how infrequently they have been cited.

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Kathleen Kay @kathleenmkay.bsky.social · Sep 11

Amazing opportunity to work with a brilliant, creative, and kind mentor!

Kathy Darragh @kdarragh.bsky.social · Sep 11

I'm looking for PhD students to join the lab starting August 2026. We study the evolution of insect chemical signals so if you're interested in evolutionary biology, chemical ecology, molecular biology, behavior, or genetics, this could be a good fit for you! More info here: tinyurl.com/mrxchwfm

Reposted by Kathleen Kay

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Sep 9

So... I did some analysis of grants that did receive noncompetitive renewals.

In particular, I looked a those award where the title of the grant changed.

Warning: The results are just what I expected, but oooph...

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a man with his eyes closed is wearing a plaid shirt and a blue jacket .

ALT: a man with his eyes closed is wearing a plaid shirt and a blue jacket .

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by Kathleen Kay

Jesús Martínez-Gómez @jesusgm.bsky.social · Sep 2

Almost 10 years ago Smith and Baum's textbook introduced me to Phylogenetic Comparative Methods.

We now have our own review on PCM! Come for history, traits and spicy takes!

We welcome any comments/ concerns/ jokes!

@tribblelab.bsky.social @crothfels.bsky.social and MRM!

doi.org/10.32942/X28...

doi.org

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Kathleen Kay @kathleenmkay.bsky.social · Sep 2

Ooooo can't wait to read this!!

Reposted by Kathleen Kay

Evolution @journal-evo.bsky.social · Sep 2

Considering submitting to Evolution? The EELS program offers free, light-touch English language editing for prospective authors. Learn more: www.evolutionsociety.org/publications...

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Reposted by Kathleen Kay

Stephen I Wright @stepheniwright.bsky.social · Aug 27

Please share broadly: I am looking for a postdoctoral fellow to work on a collaborative project on the temporal population genomics of invasive Capeweed (using contemporary and herbarium genomics), with ‪‪@shaky-dingo.bsky.social‬ and colleagues

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