FastGA -> ALNview; step into the centromeric matrix! github.com/thegenemyers Probably the best dot plot software on the planet...

An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Some impressions from the rather fabulous #EMBOmobilegenome Mobile Genome meeting in Heidelberg Morning walk through the woods, exciting panel discussion, flash talks, lab community, drosophila friends, … @events.embl.org The transposon community is going very strong. see you all again in 2027!!

After 5 years of waiting, the new #CRISPR classification by Makarova et al. is out @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

BehaveAI is live! Our biologically inspired video analysis tool sees motion as colour. Track animals or objects, classify their behaviour, and handle complex natural scenes with ease. Semi-supervised annotation, no GPUs required, user-friendly, free & open source. Pre-print tinyurl.com/BehaveAI

Magnus Nordborg of the GMI from the @oeaw.bsky.social has received a Synergy Grant from the @erc.europa.eu. With Richard Durbin and @felipekteixeira.bsky.social, they will investigate how transposable elements shape genome evolution in eukaryotes. Read more: www.oeaw.ac.at/gmi/news-eve...

Very excited to share our work published in Nature Comms last week! Here we describe a range of cool things that can be done once you have the power to control deposition of H3K4me3… rdcu.be/eNEf4 A short thread:

Our latest paper has just been published in Cell! doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... We developed a new method called MCC ultra, which allows 3D chromatin structure to be visualised with a 1 base pair pixel size.

great to be at the #EMBOMobileGenome meeting in Heidelberg with a wonderful bunch of colleagues, speakers and attendees. this meeting is a good reflection of the excitement and collegiality in the transposon field. kindly sponsored by @embo.org

‘Epigenetic serum’ makes you wonder !

Lab’s first paper is out!! We show the first structures of #Asgard #chromatin by #cryo-EM 🧬❄️ Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Really cool work by the @dodonova-sveta.bsky.social lab @embl.org www.cell.com/molecular-ce... #archea #evochromo

We are recuiting two new Associate Professors here in Oxford Biochemistry. Come join us! Reach out to me if you have any questions. Please repost! tinyurl.com/mr3m7bd3

Genome maintenance by telomerase is a fundamental process in nearly all eukaryotes. But where does it come from? Today, we report the discovery of telomerase homologs in a family of antiviral reverse transcriptases, revealing an unexpected evolutionary origin in bacteria. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

1/10 Genome maintenance by telomerase is a fundamental process in nearly all eukaryotes. But where does it come from? Today, we report the discovery of telomerase homologs in a family of antiviral RTs, revealing an unexpected evolutionary origin in bacteria. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Crazy red flesh apple - tastes good too! 🍎

Out in @science.org this week: A new FRET sensor for salicylic acid gives insight into spatial dynamics of pathogen infection www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... (1/2) #PlantScience

Congrats, Joe Ecker @salkinstitute.bsky.social, to receiving the McClintock Prize! Joe has been a visionary leader of the field of genetics and genomics – not only for plants – for decades www.salk.edu/news-release...

🚨 New paper alert on telomeres! 🚨 Something different from the group! Thanks to Yuxin, a talented student in the lab, we used long-reads in 75 human trios to study telomeres and their inheritance.

My HPLC was definitely overlooked www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Heading in the correct direction: After success of pilot, Ireland expands basic support payments for artists, making them permanent: www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...

Genomic Islands in Wolbachia Prophages Drive Amplification andDiversification of Cytoplasmic Incompatibility Genes in Culex pipiens https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.03.680192v1

Delighted that our paper about the distribution of genomic spans of clades/edges in genealogies (ARGs), and using this for detecting inversions and other SVs (and other phenomena that cause local disruption of recombination) is out in MBE academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... (1/n)

Russell R. Geiger Professorship of Crop Science www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/russell... @cam.ac.uk @camplantsci.bsky.social

CDCA7 facilitates MET1-mediated CG DNA methylation maintenance in centromeric heterochromatin via histone H1 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚂 The T2T train keeps rolling: "The formation and propagation of human Robertsonian chromosomes" with Gerton and Garrison labs is out! What's a Robertsonian chromosome? Let Jen tell you herself in this great video, or read our paper: [1/3] 📺 youtu.be/JmlY5omxQVc 📄 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Out First Release in @science.org this week: A large scale analysis of the epigenetics of transposable elements in Arabidopsis shows transgenerational stability www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #PlantScience

Excellent work from @piotraz.bsky.social group demonstrating juxtaposition of heterozygous & homozygous regions in maize attracts meiotic recombination to het regions rdcu.be/eHmn9 @natplants.nature.com builds from work we did together in Cambridge on Arabidopsis way back in 2015. Great stuff Piotr!

Oxford Biology is growing 📢 We’re appointing 3 Associate Professors in: 🌱 Plant Sciences 🦉 Animal Behaviour 🔬 Molecular Cell Biology 3 fields. 3 opportunities. One new home for Oxford Biology. Learn more 👉 bit.ly/41S2Tc7 Apply now 👉 bit.ly/488CNW3

#1 Centromeres are epigenetic loci defined by CENP-A, positioned in unmethylated DNA flanked by highly methylated regions. Our work, published in @natgenet.nature.com in collaboration with @naltemose.bsky.social investigates the role of DNAme at human centromeres www.nature.com/articles/s41...

IT BEST HEALTH! FOR SKIN! MAYBE ELAINE FUCHS INVOLVED! NEED CELLULAR EPIGENETICS FOR EVERYTHING PLEASE!

Some nice pyrite-ammonites we found on Charmouth beach #fossilhunting

Six more years—plus a lot of blood, sweat, and tears—later, we are thrilled to finally share it: a cytological framework of female meiosis in Arabidopsis! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

What beauty!

The original circos plot? From the 1947-1948 Carnegie Yearbook, the page prior to McClintock's Mutable Loci in Maize paper.

Out after peer review now, follow up from our 2019 pna-NLRome paper (which was based on enrichment and long-read sequencing). It is remarkable how much more can be learned with complete genome sequences. Next. pan-NLRome from hundreds of A. thaliana long-read genomes! Big thanks to the entire team!

Introducing the 1,000 Flower Collection 🧬🌹 I’m creating 1,000 genetically designed flowers each crafted with new colors, patterns, and shapes. Here’s how I’m making it happen… and how you can join me on this journey 🧵(1/7)

Oatk: a de novo assembly tool for complex plant organelle genomes link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Hi-reComb: constructing recombination maps from bulk gamete Hi-C sequencing. #HiC #RecombinationMaps #GameteSequencing #Genomics #Genetics academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

Are you passionate about #genetics and #communication? We're looking for an Editor for our magazine. Training funds are available, you will be a trustee of the society and get free attendance to all of our conferences. Application deadline: 12 September! genetics.org.uk/committee-va...

Escherichia coli with a 57-codon genetic code | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Spindle checkpoint can secure additional cheating time for selfish expanded centromeres cell.com/current-biol... @currentbiology.bsky.social @takashiakeralab.bsky.social

1 To predict the behaviour of a primate, would you rather base your guess on a closely related species or one with a similar brain shape? We looked at brains & behaviours of 70 species, you’ll be surprised! 🧵Thread on our new preprint with @r3rt0.bsky.social , doi.org/10.1101/2025...

New studious lab pic just dropped ! A few others to be digitally added in due course!

last call! submit your abstract by tonight to be selected for one of the many oral presentations at the leading European Transposon Meeting. We are very much looking forward to your contribution and attendance!

Annual 307 laboratory day on the river!

Happy to share our new work with exciting findings, incl. different centromere organisations and all kinds of weird polyploids giving rise to the mysterious carnivorous sundews! Great word led by my postdoc Laura in collaboration with @plantgenomes.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The first paper of my PhD is now available as a preprint! 🎉 Transposable elements (TEs) don't just jump within fungal genomes, they also move extensively between species. In this study, we screened over 1,300 fungal genomes and found a conservative estimate of 5,500+ horizontal transfer events.

Today is Asgard Friday! So happy that the project that has taken a big chunk of my PhD journey is out as a preprint (for now!) “Phylogenomics of Asgard archaea reveals a unique blend of prokaryotic-like horizontal transfer and eukaryotic-like gene duplication” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Telomere-to-telomere DNA sequencing is set to transform the field of human genetics in coming years. For a flavour of what's coming, see this exciting work on nearly complete genomes of 65 individuals from diverse populations, out today in @nature.com by @glennislogsdon.bsky.social & colleagues. 👇🧬🧪