Rowena Hill
Researching fungi @earlhaminst.bsky.social
📍 Norwich, UK
🔗 rowena-h.github.io
- Reposted by Rowena HillHi everyone! The talk I had the chance to give with @fnucleosome.bsky.social last October is now out on Youtube! If you like evolution, 3D genomics, biodiversity and/or fungi, I think you might like it! 🧬🧪🍄 The submission of this paper has never been that close! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Plez...
- Reposted by Rowena HillCalling all OrthoFinder users! We’ve just released GLADE, a tool to infer gene gains, losses, duplications, and ancestral genomes across a phylogeny. GLADE runs directly on OrthoFinder results. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... github.com/lauriebelch/... (1/10)
- Reposted by Rowena HillThis article is now published! academic.oup.com/nargab/artic... We’ve added a few new analyses. First off, we show that, while gene presence absence variation (PAV) scales with evolutionary distance in both plants and animals, the base level and rate of accrual are both twice as high in plants.
- Determining presence-absence variation (PAV) across reference genomes is a major goal of pangenome analysis. It turns out that A LOT of gene PAV is due to methodological artifacts. We explore the causes of this in soybean and cotton datasets in our recent preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Rowena HillWhat enables a fungus to invade a mammal host? @marco-guerreiro.bsky.social unravels signatures of translation adaptation among pathogenic and non-pathogenic species of Trichosporonales. See more: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Rowena HillI'm delighted to inform you that our paper "Ecological genomics of saprotrophy to biotrophy transitions in the genus Clitopilus" was published in IMA Fungus. A long standing collaboration with Zhilin Yuan at RISF, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Hangzhou: imafungus.pensoft.net/articles.php...
- Reposted by Rowena HillIn this review in Fungal Ecology, Håvard Kauserud (@drhyfe.bsky.social) argues that while the ITS region is by far the best DNA (meta)barcoding marker for fungi, we should not use it naively or simplistically doi.org/10.1016/j.fu...
- Reposted by Rowena HillOpen for applications: Massee Arts Grant: up to £5000 to support novel arts projects focused on fungi. For artists from all disciplines & all geographic locations who can help us encourage engagement and learning about mycology. Find out more & apply here: www.britmycolsoc.org.uk/massee-arts-...
- Reposted by Rowena HillMutualistic microbes drive niche expansion yet constrain diversification biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
- Reposted by Rowena Hill[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Rowena Hill[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Rowena HillOur raxtax tool for taxonomic classification is published: it is 2.7–100 times faster than competing tools but equally accurate - raxtax has increasing speedups with growing query and reference sequence numbers compared to existing tools: academic.oup.com/bioinformati...
- Reposted by Rowena HillDOE's Office of Science is making a big push into AI, and that includes our work at the @jgi.doe.gov . We want to hear your thoughts (+ and -) on AI-enabled biological data. Consider joining one of our interviews or focus groups by filling out this form! 🧪🧬🦠🖥️ #secmet jointgeno.me/PortalStorie...
- Reposted by Rowena Hill[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Rowena HillAnother fine outcome of my long-standing collaboration with Zhilin Yuan and Long Peng at RISF in Hangzhou: Endophytes with mycorrhizal potentials: biological and ecological implications - New Phytologist nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
- Reposted by Rowena Hill[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Rowena Hill[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Rowena HillWe're looking for a PhD student! If you're interested in #fungal #genomics & #TEs, meiotic drive, or pathogens, please consider applying. The project is about toxin/antidote genes in the human fungal pathogen A. fumigatus. uu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
- Reposted by Rowena HillOur latest pre-print on TE-mediated tandem duplication of the ToxB effector is now online...still a puzzle for us but we think it is in a Helitron! Together with amazing collaborators, Reem Aboukhaddour and Ryan Gourlie #TE #fungi www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Rowena HillFungal fossils tell a story of resilience: research by Worobiec et al. published in #FungalBiology (Aug 2025) traces dark septate endophytic (DSE) microsclerotia from the Eocene to today, revealing long-term plant–fungus associations. 👉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Reposted by Rowena HillKnow metagenomics and could spare 2 mins? I'm applying for funding to build a visual repository for metagenomic classification data (not sequence data). To support the application, I have a short 2 minute survey and it would be a big help if you could fill it in: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
- Reposted by Rowena HillNew study from @mvanderheijden.bsky.social lab, showing that many commercial mycorrhizal inoculants are snake oil. So important for this data to be published! Between this, @lizkoziol.bsky.social and Matt Salomon’s work… well I think we make a strong point. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
- Reposted by Rowena Hill🌿🍄🟫🌱🍄We’re recruiting!!🌿🍄🟫🌱🍄 I’m looking for two postdocs and a technician to join my group @sheffielduni.bsky.social @sheffieldpps.bsky.social to work with me on my exciting @royalsociety.org Faraday Discovery Fellowship project, details for each post as follows:
- A quick tutorial blog on a method I haven't seen before to plot gene gain/loss from e.g. CAFE5 across a phylogeny - and clearly shows I always have fungi on the mind 🤓🍄 #rstats #ggplot2 rowena-h.github.io/data-visuali...
- Reposted by Rowena Hill[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Rowena Hill1/ Ever needed to annotate TEs in a fungal genome, but didn't know where to start? We have released #MycoMobilome, a community-focused non-redundant database of transposable element consensus sequences for the fungal kingdom, constructed from >4,000 fungal genomes! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Rowena Hill📣 Now announcing the journal publication 📄 of our work in @newphyt.bsky.social on how Verticillium undermines the plant's 🌱 "cry for help": terrific work by @antonkraege.bsky.social & @wolki95.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/nph....
- Reposted by Rowena HillOur MARTi @nanoporetech.com paper is now out in @genomeresearch.bsky.social after several years of development (particularly Ned Peel and Sam Martin). We'd love to hear from users about how you're using it, or suggestions for new features. @earlhaminst.bsky.social genome.cshlp.org/content/earl...
- Reposted by Rowena HillPHD: What does an ‘optimal’ community of #bacteria and #fungi look like for #pathogen suppression? That's a key question to explore in this fully-funded #PhDproject with @neilhall.bsky.social, @mcmullan0.bsky.social and @rowenahill.bsky.social at the Earlham Institute.
- Reposted by Rowena HillFungal #GenomeSize variation is largely driven by TEs & lineage-specific genome defenses. @tbadet.bsky.social & @danielcroll.bsky.social show that presence/absence of RIP mutation systems influences #genome architecture, identifying a likely novel defense mechanism @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4hcC5tx
- Reposted by Rowena HillPhD studentship Come help us understand the wheat rhizosphere at the Earlham Institute 🦠 Working at the interface of fungal antagonists & pathogens (@rowenahill.bsky.social @neilhall.bsky.social ), host genetic diversity (Simon Griffiths -JIC) and bacterial community diversity (Jacob Malone -JIC)
- Reposted by Rowena HillWant to understand how entire fungal chromosomes can be horizontally transferred? Join us to unravel the mechanism/consequences of horizontal chromosome transfer in a fungal pathogen as part of an ERC-funded project. Postdoc/PhD positions available. fungal-evolutionary-genetics.de/open-positio...
- Reposted by Rowena Hill🍄 Today marks #UKFungusDay where we get to celebrate the weird and wonderful kingdom of Fungi. As well as being fundamental to a healthy ecosystem, and often fascinating to spot, #Fungi can be devastating to plant and animal populations.
- Reposted by Rowena HillSuch a delight to share our work on the evolution of a cheese rind fungus in @currentbiology.bsky.social. This is the fantastic PhD work of @nicolasleonlouw.bsky.social and resulted from amazing collaborations, a wedding proposal(!), an undergrad course, & more! 🧵 www.cell.com/current-biol...
- Was a pleasure to contribute a small part to this massive WGS effort of Kew's fungarium! @estergaya.bsky.social @rbgkew.bsky.social Check out the paper @newphyt.bsky.social 👉 doi.org/10.1111/nph.70472
- Very excited to share that my first 1st author publication is available at the journal of #NewPhytologist ! Congratulations to the entire team that worked on this project including the #KewFungarium Team. 👏 🍄🟫 If you are interested in the topic, feel free to read it here: doi.org/10.1111/nph....
- Reposted by Rowena Hill[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Rowena HillAn opportunity of a lifetime for budding lichenologists. The National Trust and the Royal Botanics, Edinburgh are offering a PAID lichen traineeship in #Scotland! The work programme looks fascinating and a great opportunity to develop skills. Deadline: 3/10/2025. www.asva.co.uk/jobs/trainee...
- It was a delight to have Guillaume Delhaye and Torda Varga (@rbgkew.bsky.social) at @earlhaminst.bsky.social last week, talking to a packed Norwich Research Park audience about mushroom-forming and mycorrhizal fungi from molecule to ecosystem! 🍄🧬🌳 @neilhall.bsky.social @norwichmicro.bsky.social
- Reposted by Rowena HillDetermining presence-absence variation (PAV) across reference genomes is a major goal of pangenome analysis. It turns out that A LOT of gene PAV is due to methodological artifacts. We explore the causes of this in soybean and cotton datasets in our recent preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Rowena Hill📣 NEW PREPRINT 📝 We identified evolutionary origins of many fungal effectors! We show that fungi secrete lots of antimicrobial proteins, and that some of them were repurposed by plant pathogens for host immune suppression. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... cc @teamthomma.bsky.social
- Reposted by Rowena HillNew #preprint from talented graduate student for a workflow we have been using for a while into a formal usage www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Rowena HillOur paper mapping plant and mycorrhizal fungal diversity correlations is out! Relationships are weak at the global level, but both positive and negative at smaller scales. Plants are not always proxies for fungi — fungi need their own conservation focus @spun.earth @ethz.ch doi.org/10.1038/s414...
- Reposted by Rowena Hill📣 Happy to see the journal publication 📄 of our work on Starships 🚀 in Verticillium fungi: terrific work led by @yukiyosato.bsky.social rdcu.be/exBSp
- Reposted by Rowena HillOrthoFinder just dropped a major update It’s faster, more accurate, and ready for thousands of genomes Let’s break it down (1/10) github.com/OrthoFinder/... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Rowena Hill[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Rowena Hill[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Rowena Hill🚨 Job Alert at RBG Kew! We are looking for Lab Research Assistants in genomics to join our Fungarium Sequencing Project! Do you like Fungi? Do you want to develop new -omics techniques? Interested in historical collections? Join the team! Posts to start ASAP. Apply here:https://lnkd.in/e2BpWJpA
- Reposted by Rowena HillMarine Fungi are found everywhere in the ocean. They are recyclers, a goldmine of compounds and symbiotic with other marine life. I chat about Marine Fungi in the BBC programme 'Secrets of the Sea'. Follow the link 👉 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p... @thembauk.bsky.social @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social
- Reposted by Rowena HillHey, Miles' @milesroberts.bsky.social beautiful paper showing that sequence diversity missed by standard methods contributes to Lewontin's paradox is officially published in @evolletters.bsky.social. academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...
- Reposted by Rowena HillOur newest special issue is now live! Check it out to discover more about diverse and beautiful Fungi🍄🍄🟫🍄 On the cover: the fly agaric, Amanita muscaria, releasing its spores in the early morning light. www.cell.com/current-biol...
- Reposted by Rowena HillThe #GENETICS June cover features an illustration of Starships, giant cargo-mobilising transposable elements found in fungal species of the subphylum Pezizomycotina. Starship elements are highly variable in overall length & genetic content. 1/2🧵
- Our paper on phylogenetics of fungal Starship TEs is now on the cover of the June issue of Genetics @genetics-gsa.bsky.social 🙂 academic.oup.com/genetics/iss... @mcmullan0.bsky.social @earlhaminst.bsky.social @rothamsted.bsky.social
- Starship giant transposable elements cluster by host taxonomy using k-mer-based phylogenetics. #TransposableElements #TEs #Kmer #Phylogenetics #Genomics #Bioinformatics #G3 🧬 🖥️ academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...
- Reposted by Rowena HillThis #FungiFriday we want to share the latest issue of Field Mycology! This is the first issue to be edited by Kew Mycologist @clareblencowe.bsky.social and marks the publication now being #OpenAccess Check it out at fieldmycology.org
- Reposted by Rowena Hill🍄The Last of Us - NIHR HPRU PhD opportunity🍄 Very exciting project on developing a genomic epidemiology toolkit for fungal outbreaks with @mcdonaldmeganc.bsky.social @drjorhodes.com @scalene.bsky.social and the Mycological Reference Lab Bristol www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
- Reposted by Rowena Hill[Not loaded yet]