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

Amjad Khalaf follows the symbiosis genomics session at #biodiversity25 presenting about #microsporidia tetraploid genomes. Most of them are recent autotetraploids. An interesting model of reproduction is proposed with two different paths: sexual and asexual reproduction.

Oh hello! He's only gone and re-written the Microsporidian reproductive tree and published it in @plosbiology.org! Heroic effort, Amjad. Congrats to all the authors! You can read about Amjad and his doctoral research in the blog I wrote all about him: sangerinstitute.blog/2025/07/29/s...

#Microsporidia are #parasites of growing importance. @amjadkhalaf.bsky.social @mblaxter.bsky.social @marakat.bsky.social &co present 40 new genomes from #DarwinTreeofLife sequencing of their arthropod hosts, revealing insights into #tetraploidy & #reproduction @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/48HsAQJ

Really, really happy that our work on microsporidian genomes is now out in @plosbiology.org! A huge thank you to my coauthors, my supervisors @mblaxter.bsky.social & @marakat.bsky.social, the editors @roliroberts.bsky.social & Joseph Heitman, and the reviewers ❤️ plos.io/48HsAQJ

Preprint Alert! 🦥 We produced complete genomes for 2 Xenarthra and placed them in a mammalian comparative framework. We found that Xenarthra harbour the largest number of retrocopies in mammals! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Meet Amjad Khalaf – who has spent his PhD panning for parasite DNA, allowing him to create a goldmine of information for the research community🔎 Amjad shares what first brought him to the Sanger Institute, his research and what he is dreaming about next: sangerinstitute.blog/2025/07/29/s...

it's really an honour to be interviewed by the wonderful @carmcdhume.bsky.social -- a huge thank you! ❤️🫂

it was so so lovely to do this together! 🇭🇷❤️🇵🇸

New preprint! We generate 40 new high-quality microsporidian genomes from infected arthropod hosts that were sequenced to create reference genomes by the Darwin Tree of Life project. 8 of our genomes are chromosome-level, and we’re able to generate Hi-C data for 7! 🧬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Struggling to find the tiny microchromosomes in draft bird genome assemblies? Our new #preprint introducing MicroFinder can help: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 below (1/n) @sangerinstitute.bsky.social