@germline
Germline genome regulation & genetic conflicts piRNAs | paralogs | epigenetics | transposons | flies Group leader, Aarhus University, Denmark (https://mbg.au.dk/pan) YOLO but germ cells are immortal and I wanna know how they do that.
Happy to see our work on defining a dependency map of short linear motifs out. We use base editing screens to install more than 80000 mutations into SLiMs in more than 4000 proteins to determine their contribution to cell fitness. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Excited to share this preprint that describes my latest work on using GPUs to accelerate processing of RNA-seq data.
The title says it all: "RNA-seq analysis in seconds using GPUs" now on biorxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... and github github.com/pachterlab/k...
Figure 1 shows they key result
Considering my book "The Tree of Life" for introductory evolution class? I have a few complimentary copies to evaluate. Please DM me. And please repost.
Review in Science described it as "..a fantastic informal introduction to a course on evolution.. recommended it to my first-year students".
Want to map protein-RNA interactions? Check out our new iCLIP3 protocol. Featuring steamlined library prep and visualisation of protein-RNA complexes without radioactivity! Bioinformatics workflow on top :)
With the Müller-McNicoll and Zarnack labs!
@zarnack-group.bsky.social @mixmue.bsky.social
Postdoc positions available in my lab in Aarhus, Denmark on 'Mammalian Nuclear RNA Production and Turnover Systems'. Please get in touch for further information or simply apply here:
mbg.au.dk/en/news-and-...
Join us at the EMBO Workshop “RNA-guided genome protection” 🇨🇭 June 16–20. Transposon silencing • stem cell biology • RNA-guided immunity. Keynotes: Déborah Bourc’his + Ian MacRae. Register now + submit your abstract! meetings.embo.org/event/26-gen...
We are delighted by the publication of our work identifying human LBR and LAP2 as key heterochromatin tethers at the nuclear envelope.
Their loss massively changes 3D chromatin organization, and causes defects in epigenetic maintenance and cell fate determination.
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Do you work on DNA or RNA protein complexes? 🧬
Come to Machines on Genes this June in Crete! ☀️
Super early discount is ending this Sunday so register now! 😃
With Eugene Koonin, we propose a concept of “the selfish ribosome”, under which evolution of life is viewed as a ribosomal takeover, where the ribosome evolved to consume most of the cell’s resources, while other cellular componentry ensures the propagation of the ribosome. arxiv.org/abs/2602.23268
MBE | The evolutionary genomics of meiotic drive Meiotic drivers gain transmission advantages by distorting equal, Mendelian segregation. This review discusses the evolutionary genomics of meiotic drive. The figure highlights the interactions of meiotic drive elements with other classes of selfish genetic elements including: direct interactions between drivers and transposable elements (TEs) (A) or satellites (C) that can facilitate the spread of drivers; other drive systems that cause the mutual destruction of all gametes (B; e.g. the presence of multiple toxin-antidote systems); indirect interactions where the host machinery responsible for silencing TEs are recruited to silence drivers (D); dosage-sensitive interactions involving sex-linked drivers that result in gene amplifications (E); and tradeoffs between suppressing drive and TEs (F).
For a new MBE Review, Presgraves et al. argue that many features of genome evolution, content, and organization seemingly inexplicable by adaptation or nearly neutral processes are instead best accounted for by meiotic drive.
🔗 academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
#evobio #molbio
"we propose that the protoribosome was a parasite (...). If this view is correct, then like the spliceosome in the stem eukaryote, a repurposed host-parasite interaction led to a dramatic change in cell biology at the base of the tree of life, in this case leading to the exit from an RNA world"
Our Lab is searching a postdoc for an exciting ERC-funded project that will start this summer. Apply if you’re passionate about multi-omics, cutting-edge computational approaches, and exploring biological questions across the animal 🪼 🪱 🐞 🦎 🦋 🕷️ tree of life www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/open-positio...
Passionate about transcription?
🚀 We’re recruiting a PhD student in Transcriptional Regulation at @ucph.bsky.social Start Summer 2026
Work with RNA, CRISPR, sequencing & proteomics in the Gregersen Lab @cgen2025.bsky.social
Meet us: gregersenlab.com
Apply by Apr 10, 2026👇
tinyurl.com/PhD-CGEN
I just made an account and voted for this biology laboratory made of LEGO to "promote biological research and inspire more people into the world of biology". They need 10K votes. Reposting and/or voting below would be helpful. 🤗
beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...
Final version @nature.com of our paper describing unconventional multicellular development in a choanoflagellate inhabiting an extreme environment. A ton of new data since the first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint (which we've kept updating).
A brief 🧵 (carried over from the old place)
We wrote a piece on how easy it is to write gene regulatory sequences. - Turns out, it isn't that easy even though we know a lot about cis-regulation.
huge credit to @carldeboer.bsky.social to seeing this through so our thoughts aren't lost. I promise, it's a worthwhile read!
I’m thrilled to share that my PhD work has been just published in Cell. After a long and bumpy ride, we uncovered the core function of nuclear speckles -splicing of GC-levelled exons- and traced the evolution of this gene architecture and condensates themselves to amniotes.
1/New preprint just dropped! 🔥🔥 We investigate how the genome is destroyed in apoptotic cells in a way that prevents DNA fragments from spreading beyond the dying cell 🧬⚰
Done here at @imbavienna.bsky.social & in the super @rcollepardo.bsky.social & Rosen labs:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Have you ever wondered 🤔... Does phenotypic variance respond to environmental perturbation? Does it have a genetic basis? Are mean and variance regulating loci exposed to different selection pressures? These and more questions are explored in our new preprint 🔥
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Join us for a day of talks, posters, and discussions, featuring a morning joint lecture with Nobel Laureates Eric F. Wieschaus and Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard!
Date: Monday, May 4th, 2026
Location: University of Copenhagen, Mærsk Tower
sites.google.com/view/emergin...
Free to participate
Mutation can be stranded (e.g. APOBEC3G C>U on (–) DNA during RT) – but maybe not a general mech..
There are also retroviruses w other nucleotide biases (e.g. HTLV's C bias), so specific composite models for each virus seem likely imo (mut bias, RT effic, codon selection, defence avoidance, etc).
Excited to announce the upcoming Jacques Monod Conference on the mechanistic and evolutionary basis of programmed DNA elimination (Sept 21–25, 2026):
cjm.sb-roscoff.fr/en/conferenc...
Organized by @laurarossevo.bsky.social and myself.
So excited to share this manuscript led by the inimitable Cara Brand, who discovered that Topoisomerase II evolution causes hybrid female lethality in Drosophila.
Congrats to Cara, @nickbr0wn.bsky.social, Anirban, and
@buszczaklab.bsky.social!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Really looking forward to reading this in detail. Congrats to all of you 🥳
🔬 Recruiting a Postdoc!!!!
I’m looking for a motivated postdoc to join my lab and work on characterizing the role of a heterochromatin protein involved in a sex-ratio meiotic drive system in Drosophila.
If you know someone who might be interested, please share widely!
The political effects of X's feed algorithm https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10098-2 Received: 16 December 2024 Accepted: 4 January 2026 Published online: 18 February 2026 Open access • Check for updates Germain Gauthier,5, Roland Hodler?5, Philine Widmer35 & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya3,4,5 m Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects'. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk's platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects. Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users' feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X's algorithm has persistent effects on users' current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.
A new paper shows that less than 2 months of exposure to Twitter’s algorithmic feed significantly shifts people’s political views to the right.
Moving from chronological feed to the algorithmic feed also increases engagement.
This is one of the most concerning papers I’ve read in awhile.
Time-calibrated phylogeny of the family Drosophilidae showing major species groups, surrounded by representative adult flies that highlight the remarkable morphological diversity of this model insect group. The composite image was created using Microsoft PowerPoint. Fly photographs were taken by Darren J. Obbard and are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License with permission.
The #fly community aims to achieve a comprehensive genomic study of the Drosophilidae family. @pankajd.bsky.social @bernardkim.bsky.social @petrovadmitri.bsky.social @darrenobbard.bsky.social present a comparative gene annotation for 301 #Drosophilidae species @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4c3pyrI
Read how @embopress.org is expanding its focus on molecular ecology and evolution as central underpinnings of functions/interactions/diversification of biological systems – by @yehumoran.bsky.social, @berndpulverer.bsky.social, and our new team of Editorial Advisors
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
A 🆕 #Ichthyosporea story
Led by@margaridaaraujo.bsky.social, in Co. @gautamdey.bsky.social & @hiralshah.bsky.social+🔥team across @embl.org & @sciencesunige.bsky.social
We finally have a look at what #microtubules are doing during #cellularization in #Sphaeroforma
▶️ tinyurl.com/MTSARC
#ProtistsOnSky
We’re recruiting! Three-year, fully funded #postdoc opportunity: pancreatic cancer #epigenetics & potential new treatments (funded by @ncn.gov.pl & @dfg.de ). Collaboration with @akispapantonis.bsky.social, University of Göttingen (OPUS-LAP). See the ad & contact me! drive.google.com/file/d/1vrFd...