My research has been focused on the evolution and ecology of infectious disease in natural population. My fundamental concern is human infectious disease but, somewhat unusually, I have used plants as tractable, accessible models with which to investigate the transmission and dynamics of pathogens in nature. We have researched diseases in organisms as diverse as bumble bees, mice, and primates, and include human data sets in our analyses. I also have an interest in the history of germ theory, and self-sustaining ecological systems. I retired from teaching eleven years ago, and alas I am not taking on graduate students or new post-docs. I now focus on research and writing. I have been fortunate to have funding from NIH, NSF, and the Humboldt Foundation, and still collaborate in research with the labs of Mandy Gibson, here at University of Virginia, and Emme Bruns (University of Maryland), Michael Hood (Amherst College), Mike Boots (University of California, Berkeley) and Matthias Rillig (Free University, Berlin). I also recently became a Research Associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh.
JANIS ANTONOVICS
NEWS and UPCOMING ACTIVITIES 7 July 2026
​I meet regularly with the labs of Drs. Emme Bruns (University of Maryland), Michael Hood (Amherst College), and Mandy Gibson (University of Virginia), and interact online with the lab of Dr. Matthias Rillig, Free University, Berlin.
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Papers online:
Antonovics, J. 2026. Burdon Sanderson’s 1849 undergraduate essay on ‘Vegetable Embryology’. LibraOpen UVA
​https://libraopen.library.virginia.edu/handle/item/9787​
Amundsen, I., and Antonovics, J. 2026. The consequences of mixed-mode transmission for disease prevalence. BioRxiv
https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.22.740081
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​​​Talks and participation:
In June 2026, I participated in field work in Italy with Emme Bruns and Michael Hood. I continue as a member of the Science Advisory Board of the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, and became a member of the Botanical Society of Scotland. I have also taken part in the field trips of the Scottish Section of the British Pteridological Society.
RECENT PAPERS
​Jiang, S,, Halbleib, A., Antonovics, J., Remus-Emsermann, M., Rillig, M. C., Mansour, I. 2026. Rapid evolution in necromass use under resource limitation reduces persistence in producer-decomposer microbial biospheres. Communications Biology 9:755. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-10390-x
Taberski, S. G., Bruns, E. L., Antonovics, J., Carasso, V., and Hood, M. E. 2026. Contrasting sensitivities to seasonal warming among co-occurring diseases. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Series B. 381:20250118.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2025.0118
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Amoroso, C. R. and Antonovics, J. 2026. Disentangling host genetic variation for avoidance and resistance to pathogens. BMC Biology 24:56. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-026-02516-8
Hood, M. E., Bruns, E. L., Antonovics, J., Davis, I., Launi, M., Bulzoni, S. and Rothberg, S. E. 2024. Genetic independence of naturally correlated variation in resistance to endemic and novel pathogens. Ecology Letters 27: e14553. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14553
​Chapman, M. A., Hiscock, S. J., Antonovics, J., Barrett, S. C. H., Brennan, A. C. and Liu, J. 2024. Reflections on the life and work of Richard Abbott (1945–2024). Molecular Ecology 33:e17439. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.17439
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Antonovics, J. and Alexander, H. M. 2024. Early research on anther-smut disease: a fuller view of science. Ecology and Evolution 14: e11483. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.11483