Milis A., P. Mäder, M. De Haan, P. Ballings, I. Van Der Beeten, B. Goffinet & A. Vanderpoorten. 2025. Time to spice-up paleoecological records with bryophyte spores. Trends in Plant Sciences in press

Abstract reads: Paleovegetation reconstructions rely virtually exclusively on inferences from vascular plants, particularly pollen grains, ignoring other components of the land flora. Artificial intelligence (AI) opens the door to the identification of other microfossils, particularly bryophyte spores, which offer a new, higher magnification lens to characterize past climatic environments.

Finally, the study first completed by Nasim Rahmatpour for her Ph.D. and then picked up by former postdoc Niki Patel and current Ph.D. student Vidya Vuruputoor is now published in the New Phytologist! Amazing study highlighting the “Immediate premeiotic transcriptomic effects following nonchemically induced whole genome duplication in the moss Funaria hygrometrica” pdf  Congratulations to all and thank you to our collaborators, Drs. Yang Liu, Shanshan Dong and Peter Szövényi.

Patel N.*, V. Vuruputoor*, N. Rahmatpour, Y. Liu, P. Szövényi, B. Goffinet & J. Wegrzyn. 2025. Induced whole genome duplication triggers immediate shifts in gene expression in an emerging moss model. New Phytologist 247: 24–32.

Brenden Thomson earned his MSc degree having completed his thesis on the phylogenetic diversity of Physcomitrium (Bryopsida) win North America. Well done and congratulations.

Crystal Zhu, graduated this weekend, with honors and as UConn Scholar. She earned the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History Award for outstanding scholarship and original research concentrating on the natural history, behavior, or overall biology of a focal organism for her honors’ thesis “Unveiling and Illustrating the Diversity of Lichen-Forming Fungal Species in Chile”. Congratulations. She will pursue her interests in lichens, right here starting in the fall.

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.

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  Google Scholar

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

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.

Crystal Zhu, Zach Muscavitch and Bernard were invited to join the multidisciplinary expedition to parts of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve.

Crystal and Bernard focused on various groups of Peltigerales (lichens) whereas Zach explored the whole diversity. Together we came back with ± 700 collections, which will be added to the CONN herbarium, with duplicates in Chile.

Amazing fieldwork. We are grateful to our Chilean hosts and to all who supported Crystal’s and Zach’s participation by acquiring lithographs of Sowerby. Hope to go back soon…

Former postdoc Antoine Simon and honors student Dinah Parker led a study now published on photomorphs of New World Peltigerales:

Buck, W.R. & B. Goffinet. 2024. A new checklist of the mosses of the continental United States and Canada. The Bryologist 127: 484–549. pdf

The list is being and will continued to be updated on this site.

Abstract reads:  The checklist includes a listing of the genera and species of North American Bryophyta thought to occur in the continental United States and Canada. The floras of Mexico, Hawaii and Greenland are not included. The current list recognizes 1565 species, 12 subspecies, 34 varieties and one form (for a total of 1612 taxa) in 366 genera and 100 families. As a preface to the list, a systematic arrangement of the families and included genera for North America is presented. Many changes from the previous checklist are documented via footnotes that provide references to where changes were made. Only synonymy since the previous checklist is included. Twenty nomenclatural changes are made. These include 19 new combinations: Bryum brassicoides (≡ Gemmabryum brassicoides), B. pacificum (≡ Ptychostomum pacificum), B. torenii (≡ Imbribryum torenii), B. vinosum (≡ Gemmabryum vinosum), Chionoloma maragniphyllum (≡ Oxystegus maragniphyllus), Lescuraea tribulosa (≡ Pseudoleskea tribulosa), Pterygoneurum ×kieneri (≡ P. subsessile var. kieneri Habeeb), Pylaidiadelpha canadensis (≡ Brotherella canadensis), Streblotrichum convolutum var. eustegium (≡ Barbula eustegia), Streblotrichum convolutum var. gallinula (≡ Barbula convoluta var. gallinula), Voitia angustata (≡ Splachnum angustatum), V. mnioides (≡ Splachnum mnioides), V. pallida (≡ Tetraplodon pallidus), V. paradoxa (≡ Splachnum paradoxum), V. urceolata (≡ Splachnum urceolatum), Warnstorfia badia (≡ Hypnum badium), W. straminea (≡ Hypnum stramineum), W. straminea var. patens (Lindb.) (≡ Amblystegium stramineum var. patens), W. wickesiae (≡ Calliergon wickesiae). A new order is also introduced: Rhizogemmales W.R.Buck & Goffinet (≡ Rhizogemmaceae Bonfim Santos, Siebel & Fedosov).