Research Fellow at @OxfordBiology @QueensCollegeOx interested in the evolution of plants and algae
Joined December 2012
- Tweets 2,739
- Following 1,267
- Followers 1,232
- Likes 8,620
281 Photos and videos
Alex Bowles retweeted
Jun 11
The Venus flytrap is renowned for its ultrafast snap traps, which can capture insects in a fraction of a second.
New research reveals that trap closure is triggered by a rapid softening of the epidermal cell walls, uncovering the physical mechanism behind this remarkable movement.
Learn more this week in Science: scim.ag/4fG2Bg3
ALT A Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) leaf closes around a trapped fly. Photo: Alex Hyde/NPL/Minden Pictures
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Jun 8
Freshly published! My new paper exploring Aquatic Plants as part of a special issue on Plant Evolution in @CurrentBiology
authors.elsevier.com/a/1nEdl…
@OxfordBiology @UniofOxford
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Jun 5
🌹 Stop and smell the roses
From ancient wild roses to today's fragrant, colourful cultivars, every bloom carries a remarkable hidden history.
Read more: shorturl.at/GTbd5
#Roses #Gardening #PlantScience #Evolution #Nature
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Alex Bowles retweeted
Jun 5
Mangrove forests are healing after decades of human destruction bbc.in/43OJ5GZ
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Alex Bowles retweeted
May 26
New Editorial: "Remembrance of plants past" rdcu.be/fkN8D
The timescales on which plants operate are both much shorter and much longer than those on which we function. All we can observe are the traces they leave behind.
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Alex Bowles retweeted
The rise of polyploids during environmental upheaval: Cell cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092…
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Alex Bowles retweeted
New Article: "Water lily complete genomes illuminate the innovations of water lilies and early angiosperms" rdcu.be/fhdEb
Gapless genomes for three water lily species: genetic keys to fertilization, floral colour and scent, and evolution of early flowering plants.
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May 1
Spring as a symphony of plant chemicals 🌿 the molecules that turn a simple walk into a sensory explosion
Apr 24
New Editorial: "Smells like spring spirit" rdcu.be/ffaAx
The return of spring is an excellent occasion to celebrate the secondary metabolites that are the basis for the wonderfully diverse aromas and tastes of plants, which are used for our culinary pleasure.
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I'm a data scientist @OurWorldinData and I need help from a botanist or someone local to Kyoto, Japan! 🌸
We present one of the world’s longest climate records: 1,200 years of peak cherry blossom dates in Kyoto.
The researcher who maintained it, Professor Yasuyuki Aono, sadly passed away last year.
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Apr 8
Great to chat with @caordonezparra about my research @OxfordBiology @UniofOxford
On the ordinary yet extraordinary lives of plants for @botanyone @annbot
botany.one/alex-bowles-on-th…
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Alex Bowles retweeted
Our new experimental evolution study across 30 locations using the plant Arabidopsis thaliana —— we direct "see" adaptation and extinction to different climates at the genetic as it happens!
Read it in Science
dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.a…
@UCBerkeley
@hhmi_science
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Alex Bowles retweeted
New research provides insight into succulent development and could be applied in agricultural contexts to engineer water conservation strategies.
Learn more in this week’s issue of Science Advances: scim.ag/3Pkc5mb
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Nature research paper: Genomic history of early dogs in Europe
go.nature.com/4uSIm3T
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Alex Bowles retweeted
Mar 25
The smallest bacterial genome, further blurring the bacteria-organelle boundary!
Convergent extreme reductive evolution in ancient planthopper symbioses
nature.com/articles/s41467-0…
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Researchers are pulling clues from genetic material in ice age soils and rewriting chapters of human history
go.nature.com/4lQJEIr
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Alex Bowles retweeted
Mar 14
I’m happy to share that the third chapter of my doctoral dissertation has been published in Global Ecology and Biogeography: Diversification and Evolutionary Dynamics in Tropical Montane Regions
Huge thanks to my co-authors for their support!
doi.org/10.1111/geb.70218
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Alex Bowles retweeted
Hiding in plain sight! 2.3M conserved non-coding sequences traced back 300M years across 284 plant species
Ground-breaking study in First Release @ScienceMagazine from labs of Madelaine Bartlett, Idane Efroni & Zach Lippman
▶️ doi.org/10.1126/science.adt8…
▶️ slcu.cam.ac.uk/news/hiding-p…
ALT Phylogeny of the 284 species of plants included in Conservatory data set. Conservatory uncovered ~2.3 million conserved non-coding DNA sequences across 284 plant species from 72 families including eudicots, monocots, gymnosperms, and algae. Illustrations by Professor Madelaine Bartlett.
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Alex Bowles retweeted
Mar 9
Petunia hybrida has been bred into an incredible diversity of colors and patterns.
Most arise from mutations in the anthocyanin pathway or post-transcriptional gene silencing that turns pigment genes on and off 🧬🎨
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Alex Bowles retweeted
Around the world, the total toxicity and ecological harm from agricultural pesticides are rising, despite recent United Nations commitments to halve pesticide use and risks by 2030, according to a new study in Science.
The findings establish a global, toxicity-weighted baseline for pesticide use and identify a subset of pesticides, crops, and countries driving the most biodiversity impacts. scim.ag/3ZXmwxL
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Alex Bowles retweeted
Jan 16
The first-place-winning video in Nikon’s Small World in Motion Competition 2025 documents the self-pollination of a thymeleaf speedwell flower. Filming at 5X magnification, winner Jay McClellan used a custom-built motion-control system to capture the flower. on.natgeo.com/4jMSUwn
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