Evolutionary ecologist ā¢ Plant-insect interactions ā¢ Local adaptation ā¢ Biogeography
| Assistant Professor at Illinois State U |
| Formerly at Cornell U |
Insect lover and passionate salsa dancer
Website: https://goldarlab.weebly.com/
Today our undergraduate student, Rylie Swinford, from the lab presented her work at the School of Biological Sciences Phi Sigma Symposium at @illinoisstateu.bsky.social about seed size-germination-defense tradeoffs in milkweeds.
She has been only 2.5 months in the lab!
#milkweed #plantdefense
š“New paperš“Costs of toxin ingestion versus costs of sequestration in a community of specialized herbivores
Herbivore specialists with shared adaptations show minimal costs of ingestion but similar costs of sequestration
@anurag-asclepias.bsky.social @paolarb93.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
Abstract. When multiple insect herbivores specialize on well-defended plants, they often show convergent adaptations to a class of phytochemical defences.
Here is the Cornell Chronicle article about our PNAS paper on the evolution of milkweed toxins (N,S-cardenolides), to which the monarch butterfly is sensitive, despite being co-evolved with milkweeds!
@cornellentomology.bsky.social
news.cornell.edu/stories/2026...
Open postdoc position in my lab at Cornell, conducting comparative and experimental studies on transcriptomic responses to diet and toxins, utilizing the milkweed-insect community. Background in molecular bio & herbivory desired. academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/31867
This is what the motherās ovipositor looks like (Dr. @jnpelaez.bsky.social and current Hanna Gray Fellow www.hhmi.org/scientists/j... made these beautiful photos and discoveries):
Temperate tree species show crossātolerance to heat, drought, and late springāfrost stress
Kunert et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Milkweed has found a new strategy in its epic evolutionary battle with monarch butterflies: structurally upgrading its toxins to outmaneuver monarchs' resistance.
Paul Ehrlich has died. Most will remember him for "The Population Bomb." But for many of us, Ehrlich and Raven 1964 was a foundational read that influenced our careers. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
One of the most-viewed PNAS articles in the last week is āDepth of nutrient uptake by deep-rooted plants is regulated by water availability.ā Explore the article here: https://ow.ly/IBTl50YCsrZ
For more trending articles, visit https://ow.ly/vjRt50YCss2.
š³Climate-driven range shifts in alpine plants require recruitment beyond tree lines. For P. cembra, seed origin & maternal reproductive traits drive seedling establishment, potentially outweighing microclimate & maternal genetics @valgra.bsky.social @aaronkauffeldt.bsky.social šļø buff.ly/NyNPcJb
#Bugsky ššæ Shared with me by a fof in SoCal - this is a gynandromorph (both male & female) valley carpenter bee (Xylocopa sonorina). Females are black, males orange, so the extreme color dimorphism really stands out. Per Doug Yanega at UC Riverside, bee gynandromorphs heās seen are mosaic insteadā
Job #AJO31867, WDR-00057721 Postdoctoral Associate, CALS Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US
After injection, they hatch and we take the damp tip of a wee paintbrush šļø and make a tiny cut in the petiole with the beveled edge of a needle, and put the larva head-first into the wound. Normally they would mine from the wound their mother laid. See: www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/s...
This drosophilid leafminer was injected as an embryo with CRISPR reagents by Dr. Ben Goldman-Huertas! Tedious because they wonāt lay eggs on and canāt be reared on media (bug and featureāobligate endoparasitism is why we study them)ā¦eggs coaxed out of wounds, injected, and transferred to new leaf.
