Really enjoyed working with Yongfeng Zhou🍇🍷周永锋@[email protected] and Nan Wang who provide a great demonstration of the utility of genome-level data to address multiple issues related to crop wild relative conservation!

We have seminars from three candidates for a USDA-ARS Research Geneticist position on the mornings of 27-29 June at 9:00 am in 491 Borlaug Hall. There are also meetings with the candidates in the same room at 1 or 2 pm each day. DM for a Zoom link to the seminar.

I have a piece in The NYT this morning. A Minneapolis suburb hired a Black chief and assistant chief. Over half the department quit. Yet the world didn’t end. If cops would rather quit than respect the people they serve, maybe it’s okay to let them go. nytimes.com/2023/07/02/opi…

The wild relatives of domesticated plants have genetic diversity that could help crops adapt to #ClimateChange. Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra Mitchell Feldmann Peter L. Morrell &co look at how wild relatives and traditional varieties can be utilized to improve #crops. plos.io/3XPnVF0

An effective and efficient avenue for incorporating crop wild relative diversity into modern germplasm is to use wild relative alleles already present in traditional varieties housed in germplasm banks. dx.plos.org/10.1371/journa…

Tomorrow is the first day of legal recreational marijuana in Minnesota. It was great to get to talk to Cathy Wurzer MPR News! Thanks gretchen brown, real snoopy enjoyer University of Minnesota CFANS! The science behind growing your own cannabis mprnews.org/episode/2023/0…

UDP-glucosyltransferase HvUGT13248 Confers Type II Resistance to Fusarium graminearum in barley (Gerit Bethke, Yadong Huang, Goetz Hensel, Shane Heinen, Chaochih Liu, Skylar R Wyant, Xin Li, Maureen B Quin, et.al.) buff.ly/3qNk8M8 Peter L. Morrell ASPB

We're pleased to announce that Alton Standifer, alumnus and current deputy chief of staff to President Morehead, has been named vice provost for inclusive excellence and chief of staff to the provost. t.uga.edu/9os

How do instructors manage unexcused absences? What if the absence includes the first exam? I’ve always tried to be as accommodating as possible around excused absences, whatever the reason. Never had a great answer to “I’m going on a fun trip and want my exam rescheduled for ...”

Our manuscript is out! Please check out if you are interested in the model perennial grass Brachypodium sylvaticum: reference genome and abiotic stress responses of the model perennial grass Brachypodium sylvaticum academic.oup.com/g3journal/arti…

More on medical cannabis. UMN medical cannabis study highlights the differences in THC and CBD mndaily.com/?p=280265

Adaptive gene loss in the common bean pan-genome during range expansion and domestication biorxiv.org/cgi/content/sh… #bioRxiv

Our manuscript (with Chaochih Liu,Peter L. Morrell, @justinfay,Skylar R. Wyant, and other amazing colleagues) about the sodium azide mutagenesis inducing a unique mutation pattern comes out! biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

This looks useful. Natural language queries to accomplish tasks in the UNIX shell. warp.dev/blog/agent-mode Warp

Our manuscript with Peter L. Morrell Chaochih Liu et al about “Phenotypically wild barley shows evidence of introgression from cultivated barley”is here: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Congrats to Ed Buckler (USDA-ARS) who has been chosen as the 2025 recipient of The Barbara McClintock Prize for Plant Genetics and Genome Studies by the Maize Genetics Cooperation!

University of Minnesota confronts growing backlog of building repairs startribune.com/university-of-…

Gmail accounts are ending abruptly for anyone leaving a university. Tracking down an alternative email for folks still involved in research can be a challenge. University of Minnesota could follow other universities in setting up a forwarding service. Minimal investment insidehighered.com/news/tech-inno…

For transparency, we should insist retailers list the amount of new federal sales tax on each item. Ideally this would appear both on price listings and on receipts as the “Trump tariff“ charge. If Trump’s signature was on stimulus checks, he also deserves credit for new taxes!

Uneven font sizes, no mention of my name or anyone else's, and the invitation to click a link to find out about salary changes. ChatGPT says this is likely spam or phishing. Or maybe University of Minnesota HR is sending out salary adjustment announcements that smell exactly like phishing?