Irene Mota

Charting the 3D regulatory landscape of sex determination with geostatistics Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 06 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s41594-026-01750-6METALoci, a computational framework to study the 3D genome, reveals a prominent rewiring of regulatory interactions during sex determination. This geostatistics-inspired method also uncovered a previously unknown non-coding regulatory region at the Fgf9 locus and identifies Meis genes as crucial regulators of sex differentiation.

ICYMI: New online: Charting the 3D regulatory landscape of sex determination with geostatistics

🚨JOB ALERT🚨PLEASE SPREAD and RT

Searching for a motivated Master’s student @bokelab.bsky.social @crg.eu @prbb.org to investigate how proteostasis in oocytes influences dormancy and fertility.

Reach out to me (adriano.bolondi@crg.es) to join us in sunny Barcelona!

See details below👇

Amazing work now published at Nature Structural & Molecular Biology!

This paper results from a tight collaboration between the teams of Blanche Capel from @dukepress.bsky.social, @mamartirenom.bsky.social from @cnag-eu.bsky.social and @dariloops.bsky.social at the #CABD!

Check the details ⤵️

🙌 This was a great collaborative effort — many thanks to all authors! Special thanks to @jrotwitguez.bsky.social , @dariloops.bsky.social and @mamartirenom.bsky.social for making this possible.

Chromatin spatial analysis by METALoci unveils sex-determining 3D regulatory hubs Nature Structural & Molecular Biology - METALoci, a new three-dimensional genome computational tool, reveals a major rewiring of regulatory interactions during sex determination. By combining...

🚨 Happy to see that my PhD work is finally published!

We present METALoci, a tool that integrates #3Dgenome and #Epigenetics to identify regulatory hubs.

Applied to #sexdetermination we uncover:
✔️ Non-coding regulatory region controlling Fgf9
✔️ Meis genes as key players

👉 rdcu.be/e5sm2

New preprint!! 🚨 Did you know that many vertebrate species determine sex based on environmental conditions rather than chromosomes? Some turtles, like Trachemys scripta, rely on temperature. We learned more about how this happen molecularly.👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🚨JOB ALERT🚨

FRIENDS PLEASE SPREAD and RT

We are building a small expert team within the @bokelab.bsky.social at @crg.eu @prbb.org to investigate fundamental questions in oocyte cell biology, focusing on how proteostasis regulation influences dormancy and fertility.

See below 2 calls👇

🚨🚨🚨

Please RT!

We're looking for a postdoc to join an exciting joint project between our lab @upf.edu & @crg.eu (Barcelona) and the Sander lab @mdc-berlin.bsky.social (Berlin) investigating how alternative splicing and microexons influences the maturation of pancreatic islets.

Deadline: 30/09/25👇

A single-cell multiomics roadmap of zebrafish spermatogenesis reveals regulatory principles of male germline formation Spermatogenesis is the biological process by which male sperm cells (spermatozoa) are produced in the testes. Beyond facilitating the transmission of genetic information, spermatogenesis also provides...

Ever wondered how sperm are formed? Spermatogenesis is a microscopic marathon that starts in the testes and ends with fully functional sperm! Our new preprint bitly.cx/jC4Qg takes a deep dive into zebrafish spermatogenesis, mapping out every fascinating step. 🧵👇 1/7

Caption by professor B Gronnow. Water color by Nuka Konrad Godtfredsen (2021). Copyright: The National Museum of Denmark. "Hunting a herd of swimming caribou from kayak at the site, Aasivissuit, in the early 18th century West Greenland as interpreted by the Greenlandic artist, Nuka Godtfredsen. Through communal drive hunts the Inuit secured large amounts of caribou meat and fat for consumption as well as hide and antler for raw materials and trade. Large heaps of bones from the butchering of the animals piled up as waste in the midden area of the settlement, Three centuries later archaeologists excavated the bones, which were analyzed, including studies of preservation conditions of ancient DNA contained in the bones and soil."

New paper out! 📄
My first adventures in (ancient) metagenomics. 🦠

“Exploring DNA degradation in situ and in museum storage through genomics and metagenomics” www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Curious about the water color painting (see ALT text)? 🦌

Thread (Bluetorial?) with findings!
🧶👇 (1/n)

Job alert!

We are seeking a research technician and lab manager to join our lab and an ERC funded project. If you'd like to work with beautiful insects in beautiful Barcelona, don't hesitate and contact us:
www.mayflyecoevodevo.com/joinus

Deep conservation of cis-regulatory elements and chromatin organization in echinoderms uncover ancestral regulatory features of animal genomes Despite the growing abundance of sequenced animal genomes, we only have detailed knowledge of regulatory organization for a handful of lineages, particularly flies and vertebrates. These two groups of...

Thrilled to share this new work resulting from a great collaboration of my lab with the labs of Ignacio Maeso and Veronica Hinman, started with the dear José Luis Gómez-Skarmeta many years ago. Take a look!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The emergence of Sox and POU transcription factors predates the origins of animal stem cells Nature Communications - The pluripotency program is maintained by transcription factors from the Sox and POU families. Here they identify SOX and POU factors from unicellular relatives of animals...

SOX and POU are crucial Transcription Factors in animal development, believed to be innovations of this group. Here we find them in unicellular relatives of animals. And hold tight, you can use a choanoflagellate 🦠 SOX gene to make a full chimeric 🐁 ! Read more here 🧵: rdcu.be/d0dPN 1/6