Pia Schwarz

#IchbinHanna-Gründerin schmeißt hin: Amrei Bahr wurde Juniorprofessorin – und verlässt die Wissenschaft Mit ihrem Einsatz für bessere Arbeitsbedingungen an Unis wurde Amrei Bahr bekannt und löste eine Bewegung aus, die das Wissenschaftssystem ändern will. Jetzt gab die Juniorprofessorin ihren Ausstieg a...

Gestern hab ich bekannt gegeben, dass ich spätestens 2028 aus der Wissenschaft aussteigen werd — darüber schreibt @evamurasov.bsky.social nun im @tagesspiegel.de. Zig Kommentare & Nachrichten zeigen mir: Sehr viele Wissenschaftler_innen hadern. Bedingungen müssen dringend besser werden! #IchBinHanna

Brown treesnake photo and karyogram of a haplotype phased genome assembly.

Biological invasions present an interesting paradox: often little genetic variation is accompanied by dramatic ecological success. Led by PhD student Chris Osborne, we evaluated genetic diversity in a classic invader, brown treesnake on Guam. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Photo: Pavel Kirilliov

@stressedbranch.bsky.social

Pan-genomes Meeting - 2026 Population, Evolutionary, and Quantitative Genetics Conference Visit our website to learn more.

We’re excited to share the Pan-genomes Doorstep Meeting @ #PEQG26! Join this 3-hour workshop on evolutionary applications of pangenomics, covering construction, analysis, phylogenetics, annotation & graph QC. Register separately or as an add-on to PEQG: genetics-gsa.org/peqg-2026/do...

This article is now published! academic.oup.com/nargab/artic...
We’ve added a few new analyses. First off, we show that, while gene presence absence variation (PAV) scales with evolutionary distance in both plants and animals, the base level and rate of accrual are both twice as high in plants.

SLiM 5: Eco-evolutionary Simulations Across Multiple Chromosomes and Full Genomes Abstract. Evolutionary simulations of multiple chromosomes, even up to the scale of full-genome simulations, are becoming increasingly important in populat

Slim 5 can now simulate genomes with multiple chromosomes like autosomes, sex chromosomes, mitochondria and chloroplast dna academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

We integrate #ddRAD, #lcWGS and #mtDNA datasets. lcWGS and ddRAD approaches yield similar overall results for population genetic structure; however the two approaches differ in estimates of the magnitude of population genetic differentiation.

We reveal complex population structure and a temporally stable mosaic of #hybridization across the contact zone. We identify both active and stable states of hybridization, supporting the hypothesis that niche partitioning by stream size helps maintain species identity.

This paper is my first first-author publication, and especially meaningful to me, as it began as my undergraduate honors thesis.

Mosaic tri-lineage secondary contact shapes diverse genomic outcomes in darters Abstract. Speciation does not always lead to complete reproductive isolation, which can result in hybrid zones with gene flow. In freshwater fishes, second

I am very excited to share our new paper with my amazing co-authors and mentors @dmacguig.bsky.social @fishgenomes.bsky.social @tjnear.bsky.social . We investigate a secondary contact zone in #darters. track.smtpsendmail.com/9032119/c?p=...

This paper is especially meaningful to me, as it began as my undergraduate honors thesis.

We integrate #ddRAD, #lcWGS and #mtDNA datasets. lcWGS and ddRAD approaches yield similar overall results for population genetic structure; however differ in estimates of the magnitude of population differentiation.

Revealing complex population structure and a temporally stable mosaic of #hybridization across the contact zone. We identify both active and stable states of hybridization, supporting the hypothesis that niche partitioning by stream size helps maintain species identity.

Go read our new pre-print!

a woman is holding a piece of paper with the words what the what written on it ALT: a woman is holding a piece of paper with the words what the what written on it

At the same time, Dr. Megan Frayer was finding that these two species have a ✨sorted✨ history of gene flow, including introgression of a large chromosomal inversion that has been previously implicated in hybrid seed inviability

a man in a red jacket is eating popcorn with the words oh this is getting spicy below him ALT: a man in a red jacket is eating popcorn with the words oh this is getting spicy below him

but here's where things get spicy: in her rotation project, Pia showed that the genetic basis of hybrid seed inviability is in fact SHARED between two such incidences involving two different (and phylogenetically distinct) species.

She followed up with super awesome embryo rescues to show that these incidences of hybrid seed inviability arise in the endosperm, & that hybrid seeds show parent-of-origin biased growth effects, following some predictions that hybrid seed inviability may be evolving via parental conflict

a man in a tie is sitting at a desk with his mouth open ALT: a man in a tie is sitting at a desk with his mouth open

Then Hagar stepped up to the plate: she showed that RI follows a geographic rather than phylogenetic pattern: populations that are closer together have the same patterns of crossing. Importantly, these patterns TRANSCEND SPECIES BOUNDARIES, creating a complex landscape of hybrid seed inviability.

a woman is looking at a triangle with a mathematical equation written on it . ALT: a woman is looking at a triangle with a mathematical equation written on it .

This is work that I first started as a postdoc: I was befuddled about why we saw hybrid seed inviability evolve so many dang times in such a short period of time in monkey flowers, so I started just doing a ton of crosses.... like truly an unhinged amount...

We're on a roll: Super proud of this paper lead by Dr. Megan Frayer & GS Hagar Soliman (with a major contrib from GS Pia Schwarz): Introgression and Parental Conflict Shape Repeated Occurrences of Postzygotic Isolation @hybridzones.bsky.social @hagarsoliman.bsky.social @pfschwarz.bsky.social

Bryophytes hold a larger gene family space than vascular plants - Nature Genetics A super-pangenome analysis incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes reveals that bryophytes exhibit a larger number of unique and lineage-specific gene families than vascular plants.

Very important paper and resource. Bryophyte genomes expanded by one order of magnitude. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Unique genetic bases of repeated life-history divergence associated with high altitude adaptation in Mimulus perennials Understanding evolutionary repeatability is a central question in biology, as it informs how predictably organisms respond to similar selection pressures. However, the extent to which phenotypic repea...

This was a HUGE effort, taking years of diligent work. Hongfei was a true leader, and I'm really proud of this cool piece. We'd love any feedback y'all might have. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Lots of cool data to dig into, but the big take homes: Phenotypic evo is repeatable, but the genetic bases of these traits is largely not. Of the QTL we do find in more than one cross, QTL with large effect sizes or those implicated in more than one trait tend to pop up in more than one cross!!!!

Late to the party, but I'm so excited about the first paper from our lab: ✨Unique genetic bases of repeated life-history divergence associated with high altitude adaptation in Mimulus perennials ✨

This work was led by the ABSOLUTE ROCKSTAR Hongfei Chen!

I hope to take a PhD student in the coming application cycle. Please reach out if you are interested in joining our lab in EEB at Yale, especially if interested in working on the natural history/ phylogenetics/ morphology/ population biology/ development/ genomics of siphonophores. dunnlab.org

New manuscript by graduate student @kmeaton.bsky.social. Along with UG students she found that Pinfish pops have similar max thermal tolerance despite experiencing different water temps. This can make southern pops more susceptible to #climatechange & #oceanwarming
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Origin of the Laurentian Great Lakes fish fauna through upward adaptive radiation cascade prior to the Last Glacial Maximum - Communications Biology Laurentian Great Lakes fish diversification predates the Last Glacial Maximum and was likely driven by novel habitats and predator–prey dynamics.

New paper on the timing and geological context of two co-evolving salmonid fish radiations (predator-prey system) driven by adaptation-to-depth in the Great Lakes: www.nature.com/articles/s42...

I had a great time presenting my undergraduate thesis at #Evolution2024 #Evol2024. Stay tuned for more, the manuscript is submitted!!!

July 30th - Hybridization I 00:00 - Ben Schultz 13:48 - Elizabeth Mandeville 27:54 - Sofia Mendes 41:58 - Katherine Drotos 55:57 - Pia Schwarz

In case you missed my talk at #Evolution2024 #Evol2024 on mosaic hybridization and secondary contact of three darter lineages with @fishgenomes.bsky.social, Tom Near and @dmacguig.bsky.social you can see it here (starting at 56:00)
youtu.be/H-vue8TJsrA?...