We are happy to share our latest work in @nature.com . We study the genomic and cellular basis of facultative symbiosis in Oculina patagonica - a Mediterranean coral remarkable for its ability to survive long periods without algal symbionts. Led by Shani Levy and @xgrau.bsky.social rdcu.be/eLbaZ

Tissue-specific transcriptomics, comparative genomics and genome editing identify a taxon-specific promoter of a Hox gene that controls eyespot size plasticity and probably contributed to wing eyespot diversity in satyrid butterflies 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

My book 'The Tree of Life' is published in the USA and Canada today. Available as book, on kindle and as audio. I would be really grateful for reposts. www.amazon.com/Tree-Life-So... www.amazon.ca/Tree-Life-So...

🗨️ Just published in Nature Biotechnology: Our CellWhisperer AI enables chat-based analysis of single-cell sequencing data. You can talk to your cells & figure out the biology without writing any computer code. Paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Annotated walkthrough in a thread below (1/11)

Lophophorata is monophyletic! Super excited to see this work out in Current Biology - we sequenced a phoronid genome and used shared chromosome fusions to confirm the monophyly of Lophophorata. A big team effort from the Luo Lab @yjluo.bsky.social! More here: authors.elsevier.com/c/1m3mV3QW8S...

Pleased to share our latest paper led by @tomlewin.bsky.social, now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social! We present the first chromosome-level genome of a phoronid and show that shared chromosomal fusions unite phoronids and bryozoans as sister groups. www.cell.com/current-biol...

2025 spirit animal: the upside-down jellyfish 🪼🙃 Find out about their amazing biology here👇 www.cell.com/current-biol... by Noémie Buratto& @elisjthore.bsky.social

New preprint! We unexpectedly discovered that some Caenorhabditis species delete parts of their somatic genome early in development, which fragments their chromosomes and eliminates key germline genes. Multiple lines of evidence suggest this bizarre process was present in the ancestors of C. elegans

Apply Now! Tenure-track Faculty Position in Marine Bioscience at the University of Florida's Whitney Lab. explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/53...

Latest work out today in @currentbiology.bsky.social We find the fly development gene bicoid is much older than previously thought (~20 million yrs older!) 🪰🧬 To pinpoint its origins we tackled the Diptera phylogeny, providing some resolution (many open questions remain). 🔗 tinyurl.com/2vyuevpy

How to swap the foot for a tentacle and vice versa? Find out in our new story featured in @dev-journal.bsky.social uncovering a transcription factor toggle switch behind the identity of Hydra's extremities.

Great pleasure hosting Jochen Rink @mpi-nat.bsky.social in Taipei with @tosuke-s.bsky.social and Tasuku—perfect weather, good hike, and great science chats on Elephant Mountain.

🥳 Congratulations to our postdoc, Dr. Anna Czarkwiani @aniaczark.bsky.social, on receiving the ERC Starting Grant @erc.europa.eu! With €2 million in funding, Anna will explore the biology of gravisensation and uncover insights into related disorders. 🧠 #CMCBnews @tudresden.bsky.social #ERCStG

We're excited to share with everyone a preprint of our manuscript that resolves the cellular origins of the symbiosome in cnidarian-algal symbiosis through proteomics of the symbiosome, RNAi, and CRISPR/Cas9 experiments. ⬇️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Read on below! 1/12 🧵

"Why sequence the #genome of every species? A view from evolutionary biology" Did you catch this amazing new review in our journal by @peterhox.bsky.social? REad it for FREE here now: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... @thembauk.bsky.social #dnasequencing #chromosome #mutation #evolution

A Nobel-winning scientist of great modesty and humour, John Gurdon died on 7 Oct. Not only did he make a discovery that laid the foundations for stem cell research, he also created one of the best environments for research at the Wellcome/CRUK Gurdon Institute wellcome.org/news/sir-joh...

I am very happy to announce that the Echinox Lab will open in the BIOM unit at @obs-banyuls.fr in January 2026!! 🥳 We will use several echinoderm species to study animal body plan evolution. 🔽 Check our brand new lab website if you want to learn more about our future research www.echinox.org

Happy to share the Biodiversity Cell Atlas white paper, out today in @nature.com. We look at the possibilities, challenges, and potential impacts of molecularly mapping cells across the tree of life. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Very happy to have contributed to this review on "non-CG" #methylation in animals now out in @natgenet.nature.com. Working again with @obog.bsky.social and Tirsa is always a pleasure. We think this not so well studied form of methylation should be more widely considered, please read: rdcu.be/eFAEk

Latest from ours: www.cell.com/cell-reports... This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵

How did animals repeatedly conquer land? 🌊➡️⛰️ We analysed ~1,000 gene repertoires (24M genes!) from all animal phyla to uncover how this happened. Work led by @gemmaeling.bsky.social & Klara Eleftheriadi, both first coauthors of this titanic effort! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

📢🦋 Our paper ‘Global selection on insect antipredator coloration’ is out and featured on the cover of @science.org We ran a huge experiment to find out how ecological context favours camouflage and warning colouration as antipredator strategies. 1/6 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Why are some species widespread while others are found only in small, isolated areas? A study in Nature Communications shows that species with narrow ranges, and thus higher extinction risk, are often island-restricted, poor dispersers, and have evolved relatively recently. #evosky 🧪

New short paper from our lab @currentbiology.bsky.social, in which we discover of a new mode of cell motility for choanoflagellates: flagellar gliding. www.cell.com/current-biol... - A 🧵

How many chromosomes can an animal have? In our paper out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social we show that the Atlas blue butterfly has 229 chromosome pairs- the highest in diploid Metazoa! These arose by rapid autosome fragmentation while sex chromosomes stayed intact. www.cell.com/current-biol...

🧪Discovery of calcarins in @elife.bsky.social, a protein family in the sponge Sycon ciliatum, clarifies spicule formation and suggests parallel evolution of carbonate biomineralization in sponges & corals—key for animals as ecosystem engineers of reefs. @lmumuenchen.bsky.social #molpalmuc

Congrats! Such a needed message, this debate has gone very quickly from "probably no macrosyntenic conservation in animals", to "holy molly, sponges to amphixous are the same!", to "look, new rearrangements must be adaptive". Neat to see such a clear link with rate of molecular evolution.

My dispatch on early echinoderms (www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...) is now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

My first steps into paleontology!! 😀 Big thanks to @imranrahman.bsky.social for having me on this cool project to look at some fascinating echinoderm fossils ⭐

Delighted to share the peer-reviewed version of our study led by @tomlewin.bsky.social now out in Genome Biology @bmc.springernature.com! We analyzed 64 chromosome-level genomes across 15 animal phyla and found that extensive genome rearrangements are the norm in bilaterians. doi.org/10.1186/s130...

Delighted to share the peer-reviewed version of our study led by @tomlewin.bsky.social now out in Genome Biology @bmc.springernature.com! We analyzed 64 chromosome-level genomes across 15 animal phyla and found that extensive genome rearrangements are the norm in bilaterians. doi.org/10.1186/s130...

Chaetognaths have lost gene body methylation and shifted #5mC back to Transposable Elements. This reversion to the ancestral state is coupled with a simplification of DNMT3 architecture. We posit that trans-splicing might compensate. It is an honour to have contributed to this 20y struggle ⛰️.

#BiologyLetters A review of animal–chlorophyte photosymbioses explains how symbiosis drives adaptation and shapes animal life in diverse and dynamic environments. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #ecology #evolution #developmentalbiology

A genome sequence and single-cell atlas of a marine worm species point towards bursts of gene emergence, duplication and loss as the drivers of lineage-specific body traits go.nature.com/4oAI2nf

After nearly twenty years in the making, our attempt at understanding what makes the chaetognath phylum so unique has finally been published! www.nature.com/articles/s41... with #LauraPiovani @dariagavr.bsky.social @alexdemendoza.bsky.social @chemamd.bsky.social and others /1

These genome structure papers on obscure animals keep getting wilder! 🧪🦑

A feature in Nature reports on how journals and funders are trying to boost the speed and effectiveness of the peer review processes that are under strain. #Academicsky 🧪

Very happy to share the peer-reviewed version of our work on the cis-regulatory determinants of #microexon #splicing regulation by SRRM3/4, published in @natsmb.nature.com! rdcu.be/ezGqT Work led by @sobonnal.bsky.social, with Simon Bajew & @rmartinezcorral.bsky.social. @crg.eu @upf.edu

Calling all scientists with an interest in photography! The @royalsocietypublishing.org Photography Competition closes this coming Friday 15 August, with categories including Astronomy, Behaviour, Earth Science & Climatology, Ecology and more: #RSPphotocomp royalsociety.org/journals/pub...

Happy to see our latest work out in @molbioevol.bsky.social. We revisit the evolution of 5-methylcytosine across neglected eukaryotic supergroups, establishing an ancestral repressive role silencing genome invaders, both transposons and viral elements👾: academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-... 🧵 1/7

We're recruiting a postdoc to study animal–algal symbiosis in green hydra at Academia Sinica, Taipei. If you're interested in symbiosis, genome biology, and sequencing technologies, get in touch! More at: sgel.biodiv.tw

Congratulations to Jana Ordon and all coauthors!!! Our new study is published in @natureplants.bsky.social "Conserved immunomodulation and variation in host association by Xanthomonadales commensals in Arabidopsis root microbiota" (0/n) rdcu.be/eauzt

Delighted to share our paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social iology.bsky.social‬ with a palaeo-evo-devo perspective on the evolution of symmetry in echinoderms. Led by Steffi Woodgate with Frankie Dunn, @echinerd.bsky.social, @laurentformery.bsky.social & Sam Zamora www.cell.com/current-biol...-5

Corey Allard and Amy Lee discuss curious "solar-powered" animals that steal and maintain foreign chloroplasts for photosynthesis and starvation resistance. @harvardcellbio.bsky.social, @danafarbernews.bsky.social. news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...

90% of doing science is being open to new ideas.

For the recent coral reef science arrivals, here are two starter packs so you can find your people! If you want to be added, please let me know. I have been adding people as they come through my feed. go.bsky.app/Qo5Gh2H go.bsky.app/QSafBeL 🌎🌊🧪🌐🐟🪸🐙🌿

Zancolli, @marcrr.bsky.social @agneeshbarua.bsky.social et al. show that venom glands in marine predatory snails evolved via functional divergence from digestive organs, involving gene expression shifts and enhanced secretory machinery. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf095 #evobio #venom #mollusca

We looked into details of the stem cell system of catenulids. Surprisingly, it was very different from the canonical neoblast-based systems of other flatworms. What does it tell about the evolution of stem cells and regeneration? Check in our latest paper in @naturecomms.bsky.social: bit.ly/3WK2ZzR

Our review "Predicting gene expression from DNA sequence using deep learning models" is finally out! 🤗

Finally out - our paper on shell field and spicule #EvoDevo in a variety of #mollusks such as #scaphopods, #cephalopods, #aplacophorans, and of course #polyplacophorans. Among others we show evolutionary highly conserved gene expression in aculiferan spicules onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...