Mussels, Mussels, Mussels

Excellent news! In collaboration with Carla Atkinson at UA and Colin Jackson and Ryan Garrick at Ole Miss, we have received funding from the NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity Program to investigate biodiversity in freshwater mussels in the southeastern USA, which is THE biodiversity hotspot for these imperiled organisms. The project is highly multi-disciplinary, including population genomics, microbiome, phylogenomics, and functional traits/ecosystem ecology! This is very exciting for us, check out the brand new project website: mussels.ua.edu. We are looking to get lots of people on board, including postdocs, grads, and undergrads, so check out the opportunities page.

In addition, in collaboration with Carla and Matt Jenny at UA, we have received funding from UA's Alabama Water Institute to sequence the genomes of several species of freshwater mussels. So we're expanding on the bees, into the world of another set of cool species, the Unionid mussels!

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