Goffinet, B. & T. Pócs. 2025. Reporting Rhachithecium perpusillum H. Rob. new to Uganda. In Ellis M. Alataş, Sk. N. Ali, D. J. Alvarez, A. M. Aponte Rojas e, J. J. Atwood f, N. Batan g, H. Bednarek-Ochyra, M. J. Cano, Ž. L. Cimerman, T. Colotti, M. J. F. Costa, E. Enkhjargal, H. Erata, P. Erzberger, B. Espinoza-Prieto, M. Evangelista-dos-Santos, T. Ezer, L. Fatková, V. E. Fedosov ,R. Gabriel, L. Gil, B. Goffinet, A. Graulich, Yu-Chwen Hsu, T. Kiebacher, J. M. Kocjan, S. S. Krajšek, S. Kubešová, J. Kučera, J. Larraín, E. Lavocat-Bernard, Y. Mamontov, P. M. Mir-Rosselló, C. P. Morales, R. Natcheva, M. A. Negritto, Juan D. Ospino-C, M. Paul, B. Papp, T. Pócs, E. Rodríguez-Quiel, M. Rogošić, K. Ramírez-Roncallo, A. A. Roque, A. D. Sabovljević, M. S. Sabovljević, A. Schäfer-Verwimp, V. Šegota, C. Sérgio, P. H. Sette-de-Souza, D. Singh, P. Širka, A. Sotiaux, G. M. Suárez, D. Ya. Tubanova, Kuei-Yu Yao & G. Winter. New national and regional bryophyte records, 79. Journal of Bryology 46: 295–318. 

The voucher is this species added to the flora of Uganda is in the CONN herbarium.

Graham, M.R., N. Kaur, C.S. Jones, K.  Lamour & B. A. Connolly. 2025. A phoenix in the greenhouse: characterization and phylogenomics of complete chloroplast genomes sheds light on the putatively extinct-in-the-wild Solanum ensifolium (Solanaceae). BMC Plant Biology 25: 320. pdf

Abstract reads:

Background: The genus Solanum is a diverse group of flowering plants with significant economic importance. Within this genus, the subgenus Leptostemonum, comprising spiny solanums, is particularly noteworthy due to its high species diversity and endemism. Solanum ensifolium, a member of this subgenus, is a critically endangered species endemic to Puerto Rico and known locally as erubia. The species survives in greenhouses and botanical gardens and is thought to be extinct in the wild, but with reintroduction efforts in progress. Despite its conservation status, genomic data for S. ensifolium remains scarce, limiting our understanding of its evolutionary history and potential adaptations.
Results: The S. ensifolium chloroplast genome (155,295 bp) exhibits a typical quadripartite structure and encodes 151 genes, including 95 protein-coding genes involved in photosynthesis, transcription, translation, and other essential cellular functions. Gene content and genome organization are similar to those observed in closely related Solanum species. Comparative genomic analysis of the annotated genome with that of closely related Solanum species revealed differences in nucleotide diversity between the large single-copy (LSC) and small single-copy regions (SSC), and the inverted repeat (IR) regions. Additionally, phylogenetic analyses confirmed placement of S. ensifolium within the Leptostemonum subgenus, affirming its suspected close relationship with S. crotonoides and S. aturense. Furthermore, of the three individuals of S. ensifolium for which chloroplast genomes were obtained, no genetic variation was observed.
Conclusions:  The availability of the S. ensifolium chloroplast genome provides insights into its evolutionary history and conservation needs. Comparative genomics uncovered evolutionary differences in Solanum chloroplast genomes, including nucleotide diversity and structural variations. Phylogenetic analyses confirmed the close relationship between S. ensifolium and other Leptostemonum species. These findings enhance our understanding of this critically endangered species’ evolution, guiding effective conservation strategies like using chloroplast variation to assess genetic diversity for ex situ conservation and reintroduction programs. The uniformity of the chloroplast genome in S. ensifolium may reveal that this species has undergone a genetic bottleneck. To prevent inbreeding depression and maintain evolutionary adaptability, efforts should be made to generate and preserve as much genetic diversity as possible.

Coca L.F., H.T. Lumbsch, J.A. Mercado-Díaz, T. Widhelm, B. Goffinet, P. Kirika & R. Lücking. 2025. Diversity, phylogeny, and historical biogeography of the genus Coccocarpia (lichenized Ascomycota: Peltigerales) in the tropics. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 206: 108312. pdf

Abstract reads: Coccocarpia Pers. currently comprises 28 mostly broadly distributed tropical species of fungi associated with cyanobacteria. Three of these taxa, C. erythroxyli, C. palmicola, and C. pellita, are presumably pantropical to subcosmopolitan, with broad morphological variation across their range. This study provides the first global phylogeny of the genus, to test current species concepts and infer distribution patterns, based on samples from Colombia, Puerto Rico, Gabon, Kenya, Thailand, Fiji, and Hawaii. We also estimate divergence times within the clade and provide a first reconstruction of its biogeographic history. Based on phylogenetic reconstructions inferred from maximum likelihood and Bayesian approaches of four molecular markers (mtSSU, nuLSU, ITS, RPB2), Coccocarpia was recovered as monophyletic. However, the currently accepted taxa are largely polyphyletic entities and the underlying diversity in this genus is much higher than currently understood. Different methods for species delimitation boundaries came to agree on a scenario involving more than 150 species in the available, albeit still small, dataset. This suggests that with broader sampling, Coccocarpia may indeed represent a hyper-diverse genus, potentially containing over 200 species. The phylogeny is geographically structured: one clade is exclusive to the Paleotropics, one to the Neotropics, and one is pantropical. Coccocarpia likely emerged during the Late Cretaceous (90 ± 10 Mya) in the tropical regions of Australasia-Oceania, initially colonizing Oceania, and Asia and subsequently the Neotropics. The three main clades diverged between the Late Cretaceous and the Paleocene, with significant diversification in the Oligocene, during which the neotropical clade gave rise to morphological novelties, including the epiphylla and stellata clades.

Kirbis A., N. Rahmatpour, S. Dong, J. Yu, L. Waser, H. Huang, N. van Gessel, M. Waller, R. Reski, D. Lang, S. A. Rensing, E. M. Temsch, J. L. Wegrzyn, B. Goffinet, Y. Liu & P. Szövényi. 2025. Comparative analysis of the Funaria hygrometrica genome suggests greater collinearity in mosses than in seed plants. Communication Biology 8: 330. pdf

The voucher for this collaborative genome study is in CONN!

Abstract reads: Mosses, the largest lineage of seed-free plants, have smaller and less variable genome sizes than flowering plants. Nevertheless, whether this difference results from divergent genome dynamics is poorly known. Here, we use newly generated chromosome-scale genome assemblies for Funaria hygrometrica and comparative analysis with other moss and seed plant genomes to investigate moss genome dynamics. Although someaspects of moss genome dynamics are seed plant-like, such as the mechanism of genome size change and de novo gain/loss of genes, moss genomes retain higher synteny, and collinearity over evolutionary time than seed plant genomes. Furthermore, transposable elements and genes are more evenly distributed along chromosomes in mosses than in seed plants, a feature shared with other sequenced seed-free plant genomes. Overall, our findings support the hypothesis that large-scale genome structure and dynamics of mosses and seed plants differ. In particular, our data suggest a lower rate of gene order reshuffling along chromosomes in mosses compared to seed plants.Wespeculate that such lower rate of structural genomic variation and unique chromosome structure in mosses may contribute to their relatively smaller and less variable genome sizes.

Lee, Y.J. & Z. Lei. 2024. A new cicada species of the genus Kosemia Matsumura (Hemiptera: Cicadidae: Cicadettinae) from Xinjiang, China. Journal of Insect Biodiversity 57(1): 13–18. pdf

Abstract reads: Kosemia brevis sp. nov. (Hemiptera: Cicadidae: Cicadettinae: Cicadettini) is described from Xinjiang, China. This species is morphologically closest to Kosemia yezoensis (Matsumura, 1898) as its forewing median vein and cubitus anterior vein are fused at the base. However, the new species can be distinguished from K. yezoensis by the size and color of the anal styles. Its body is much smaller but plump, and its forewing is comparatively short, compared to K. yezoensis.

Vuruputoor V.S., A. Starovoitov, Y. Cai, Y. Liu, N. Rahmatpour, T. Hedderson, N. Wilding, J.L. Wegrzyn & B. Goffinet. 2024. Crossroads of assembling a moss genome: navigating contaminants and horizontal gene transfer in the moss Physcomitrellopsis africana. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics 14(7): jkae104. pdf

Abstract reads: The first chromosome-scale reference genome of the rare narrow-endemic African moss Physcomitrellopsis africana (P. africana) is presented here. Assembled from 73 × Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) long reads and 163 × Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI)-seq short reads, the 414 Mb reference comprises 26 chromosomes and 22,925 protein-coding genes [Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Ortholog (BUSCO) scores: C:94.8% (D:13.9%)]. This genome holds 2 genes that withstood rigorous filtration of microbial contaminants, have no homolog in other land plants, and are thus interpreted as resulting from 2 unique horizontal gene transfers (HGTs) from microbes. Further, P. africana shares 176 of the 273 published HGT candidates identified in Physcomitrium patens (P. patens), but lacks 98 of these, highlighting that perhaps as many as 91 genes were acquired in P. patens in the last 40 million years following its divergence from its common ancestor with P. africana. These observations suggest rather continuous gene gains via HGT followed by potential losses during the diversification of the Funariaceae. Our findings showcase both dynamic flux in plant HGTs over evolutionarily “short” timescales, alongside enduring impacts of successful integrations, like those still functionally maintained in extant P. africana. Furthermore, this study describes the informatic processes employed to distinguish contaminants from candidate HGT events.

Muzio, F. M., & Rubega, M. A. 2024. What do we really know about the water repellency of feathers?. Journal of Avian Biology, 2024(11-12), e03259. pdf

Abstract reads: Feathers are complex integument structures that provide birds with many functions. They are vital to a bird’s survival, fundamental to their visual displays, and responsible for the evolutionary radiation of the avian class. Feathers provide a protective barrier for the body; their water repellency is a key feature. Despite hundreds of years of ornithological research, the available literature on how feathers repel water is both limited and puzzling. Most hypotheses from the early 1900s suggested uropygial gland oil provided feathers with a hydrophobic coating. Subsequent studies showed that the feather’s hierarchical structure creates a porous substrate that readily repels water with or without oil. Numerous studies and methods have been published attempting to explain, quantify, and compare the water repellency of feathers. Many overlook the role of barbules and the effect of their variation, which both likely play a crucial part in water repellency. The goal of this paper is to synthesize this research to better understand what has been done, what makes sense, and more importantly, what is missing. Previous reviews on this subject are mostly over 30 years old and did not use modern methods for systematic review. Here, we performed a systematic review to capture all relevant published papers on feather water repellency. We emphasize the crucial role of barbules in feather water repellency and why their morphological variation should not be ignored. We answer the question, what do we really know about the water repellency of feathers?

Drs. Caira, Menard and Goffinet were awarded $696,447 (DBI—2333910) from the national Science Foundation for a project: Lions and tiger sharks, and hares…oh my! Stabilizing and providing digital access to eight decades of parasites from vertebrates. 

Overview: This project focuses on nine historical collections of vertebrate metazoan parasites donated to UConn’s Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology’s Biodiversity Research Collection facility over the past two decades. These collections are the result of 80 years of fieldwork by expert parasitologists and students. The collections comprise 113,800 microscope slides, 13,850 vials, and 528 jars of fluid-preserved specimens complemented by 10,479 necropsy sheets and cards detailing host specimen data. Hosts include at least 716 species in 430 genera representing 74 vertebrate orders. The three most speciose phyla of vertebrate parasites (i.e., Platyhelminthes, Arthropoda, and Nematoda) are represented. We have focused our immediate efforts on stabilization and curation, which has revealed the scope of curatorial work needed to showcase these unique collections. Over 3,500 slides need remounting, 3,200 slides need their labels to be re-attached, and 9,520 vials must be replaced with archival vials and lids. We also now recognize the magnitude of manpower required to properly accession and digitize the approximately 128,000 specimens and containers. We are seeking funds to complete these tasks. The full curation of these unique collections and dissemination of all their data publicly through the Lawrence R. Penner Parasitology portal, iDigBio, and GBIF, will make it possible for these irreplaceable collections to achieve their full potential as a resource for discovering novelty and exploring a wide array of questions about the ecology and evolution of vertebrate parasites.

See 2024 NSF Collection grant for more info.