@SandyKnapp profile picture
Sandra Knapp @SandyKnapp

Taxonomist of tomatoes, potatoes etc. #iamabotanist

Joined January 2011
  • Tweets 16,820
  • Following 127
  • Followers 5,917
2,680 Photos and videos
Was absolutely the best of fun! And to complete your potato week new paper on origin of the mighty spud out in @CellCellPress cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092…

Ancient hybridization underlies tuberization and radiation of the potato lineage

Genomic and functional analyses reveal that the potato lineage originated from a homoploid interspecific hybridization event between the Tomato and Etuberosum lineages 8–9 million years ago. The...

cell.com
Infinite Monkey Cage@themonkeycage
31 Jul 2025
This week @ProfBrianCox & Robin Ince bring together a mash made in heaven! @SusanCalman @SandyKnapp & Glenn Bryan peel back the surprising science of the mighty spud 🥔 they uncover genomes, wild species..plus a potato keyboard finale you never knew you needed!!
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Sandra Knapp retweeted
Infinite Monkey Cage@themonkeycage
31 Jul 2025
This week @ProfBrianCox & Robin Ince bring together a mash made in heaven! @SusanCalman @SandyKnapp & Glenn Bryan peel back the surprising science of the mighty spud 🥔 they uncover genomes, wild species..plus a potato keyboard finale you never knew you needed!!
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Too true
Morgan Kelly@MorganWKelly
5 Sep 2024
Lots of new grad students starting in research labs this month, including many who have been taught (in subtle or overt ways) that they need to fight to prove they belong. It’s an exhausting way to spend your career. So I’m re-upping this for anyone who needs to hear it today:
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It's finally out! We desceibe 6 Globba species new to science from 3 different states where one is named #paschimBengalensis - no guesses there! And our 2nd species from the lab named after #JanakiAmmal #GlobbaJanakiae Also, a key to all Indian Globbas for the Ginger nerds!
PhytoKeys@PhytoKeys
5 Sep 2024
Six new species of the dancing girl ginger Globba from India. The study highlights the need for taxonomic studies in these highly biodiverse areas and provides notes and recommendations on the taxonomic challenges in this ecologically sensitive region. doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.24…
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The importance and wonderfulness of enthusiastic botanists confirmed (if it ever needed confirming 🌷) congratulations all @BSBIbotany members for all your finds!!!
BSBI: Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland@BSBIbotany
27 Aug 2024
Huge thanks to top environmental journalist @horton_official for covering the #GhostOrchid story in today's @guardian theguardian.com/environment/… Congrats to @thenewgalaxy on refinding this most elusive of orchids & to @BSBIscience who visited the (secret) site to verify the find.
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Sandra Knapp retweeted
Science Magazine
@ScienceMagazine
6 Aug 2024
A new study in Science finds that some of the independent origins of plant prickles share a common genetic basis, providing a gene editing target to facilitate the removal of these sharp projections in cultivated plants. 📄: scim.ag/7VQ
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So happy to have been part of this amazing study on #solanum prickles, goes to show how wide collaboration brings great benefits!
SOLbreeding@SOLbreedCOMAV
2 Aug 2024
We are thrilled to announce a significant milestone for our lab published in Science. A massive interdisciplinary collaboration with incredibly brilliant researchers. Thanks to all the participants and our past and present lab members who have contributed to this breakthrough 🍆
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Sandra Knapp retweeted
NHM Botany@NHM_Botany
3 Aug 2024
Scientists genetically remove prickles from flowering plants nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2024…

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Paper due out in Science next week!
Silvia Manrique (@tank-silvia.bsky.social)@tank_silvia
27 Jul 2024
Jack Satterlee is presenting the joint work by Zach Lippman lab from @CHSL and @SOLbreedCOMAV (among other labs like @SandyKnapp) where they revealed, starting with 🍆, that development of prickles is a case of convergent evolution in plants. Keep tuned for the paper! #IBC2024
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New monograph for Lycianthes (#solanaceae) in tropical Asia out in @PhytoKeys ! Convergent flowers with #Solanum (porocidal anthers) sister group to #Capsicum - extremely variable plants for which there are thousands of collections..... phytokeys.pensoft.net/articl…

A revision of Lycianthes (Solanaceae) in tropical Asia

The genus Lycianthes (Dunal) Hassl. (Solanaceae) has in the past been treated as a section of the large genus Solanum L. but is more closely related to Capsicum L. Outside of the Americas, where the...

phytokeys.pensoft.net
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Very cute plants though!!!
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Never noticed this before, but when handing over my passport checking to go home from @ibc2024 I see embossed on the back are the plants of the UK - shamrock, thistle, daffodil and rose!
Embossed plants

ALT Embossed plants

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Botany is everywhere!!
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Homoplasy as a factor in why big genera are big Joe Charboneau from @UMich in the Big Genera symposium using Astragalus as a model… the biggest of them all! @ibc2024
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Flower iridescence as “bling” to attract pollinators 😂😂🌺🌷@Beverley_CUBG @ibc2024
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Tour de force on the origins and diversity of the African flora by Muthama Muasya @ibc2024 read the papers in @annbot special issue!
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What does open mean? Do we want open by default or open by design? @nickynicolson @ibc2024 says the latter
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A collective gasp at a response to the Q what do you do with indet specimens in your herbarium -some said “we throw them out!” Yikes!!!! Celua Aceae (@celiaceae on Insta) @ibc2024
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It’s not about the survival of the planet, it’s about the survival of us. The planet can recover, it has done so in the past. It’s now the time to bring our science to bear on our own future Carlos Jaramillo @ibc2024
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