🪱 Selfish genes are everywhere and drive some of biology’s biggest innovations (CRISPR, antibody recombination, epigenetics). Yet almost no one asks the obvious question: how does a selfish gene begin? Our new manuscript uncovers how selfishness can emerge directly from the host genome.

Intrigued by a long-standing conundrum in small RNA biology—how nuclear Argonaute proteins silence transposons when they *need* target transcription for their own recruitment—we studied the piRNA pathway. And found a hidden RNA-decay axis from Piwi to the RNA exosome.

The main project of my postdoc with @spo11rulz.bsky.social is now available on bioRxiv! By systematically integrating structural information with molecular evolution analyses, we gained new fascinating insights into the evolution of key meiotic recombination proteins: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

[Please RT] (1/3) Deadline extended to the end of the year for the EMBO workshop on Molecular Mechanisms of Selfish Elements and Strategies. Held in Bern, Switzerland, from 8 to 11 February 2026. meetings.embo.org/event/26-sel... #EMBOselfishElements #EMBOevents

Absolutely thrilled to share the latest work from my lab focused on the variation and evolution of human centromeres among global populations! We assembled 2,110 human centromeres, identifying 226 new major haplotypes and 1,870 α-satellite HOR variants. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The first ever cover art from my lab! And an awesome story about how chromatin changes in response to the N/C ratio from my first grad student, Anusha Bhatt!

📢 Telomere community: Registration and abstract submission are now open for the EMBO Workshop “Telomere function and maintenance in health and disease”, May 25–30, 2026, in Lazise, Italy 🇮🇹. Looking forward to an exciting meeting! Please re-post. meetings.embo.org/event/26-tel...

Patrick Walsh in the @ericjoyce.bsky.social lab defends his thesis tomorrow!

🗞️ New preprint from the lab, led by our postdoc Ana Garoña (not on here) in collab with @andreagiometto.bsky.social: “Experimental evolution of cellular miniaturization reveals a mechanism for cell size evolution”, aka: “honey, we shrank the yeasts!” 🎥 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

@pravrutharaman.bsky.social got super intrigued about EZHIP/CATACOMB, previously identified as a histone H3K27M mimic of PRC2. You can read about her efforts here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We hope these analyses will help spur more analyses in this very cool gene! 1/

Took us a bit, but proud of this published version. We now examine the genetic interaction of phosphorylation with oligomerization and where bulk and phospho-Swi6 localize. Wonder if chromatin affinity tuning to enable Suv39 H3K9me3 spreading is a conserved mechanism ? doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

Four days of great science, fun interactions, and breathtaking views at #EMBOevoChromo25 in San Feliu 🇪🇸 BIG THX to organizers @arnausebe.bsky.social @tobiaswarnecke.bsky.social & co @levine-lab.bsky.social @sandraduharcourt.bsky.social Nick Irwin 🙏👌

#cellbio2025 please stop by my talk (Mon 4:35 evolution) and poster (Mon 12:45 #B479 optogenetics) tmr! Title: Intraprotein domain competition dictates pulsatile response of photoreceptors shaped by temperature and evolution. BcLOV4 as a model. I’m also looking for postdoc opportunities!

Attending #EMBOevoChromo25 next week? Our Reviews Editor @ingridtsang.bsky.social will be attending - feel free to talk to her about the journal or @biologists.bsky.social activities!

I am very excited to share our collaborative work on multiome profiling of gene expression and chromatin accessibility of more than 1 million immune cells in pancreatic lymph nodes and spleens in human type 1 diabetes in @sciimmunology.bsky.social scim.ag/4o12TOZ

SAVE THE DATE: the yearly NY Population Genetics meeting will be back on March 9 2026, generously hosted by the @simonsfoundation.org. Details to follow. Please RT.

Check out this terrific thread by first author, @sungyalin.bsky.social, whose creativity, bravery, exactitude, and perseverance made this project a reality.

How to keep in step when your (protein) partner speeds up… Here we investigated the adaptive remodeling of a protein-protein interaction surface essential for telomere protection. Congrats to whole team! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

How do new centromeres evolve while staying compatible with the division machinery? Discover it in our new Nature paper! We show centromeres transition gradually via a mix of drift, selection, and sex, reaching new states that still work with the kinetochore. 👉 doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09779-1

Deeply saddened by the passing of my colleague, Prof. Meng-Chao Yao, a remarkable scientist and mentor. He left an indelible mark on all of us fortunate enough to know him. His legacy in molecular and ciliate biology will endure. Rest well, my friend. 1/ obituaries.seattletimes.com/obituary/men...

I am looking to hire a postdoc interested in combining genetics and evolution to understand why telomeres vary so much in plants. My group has been developing Mimulus a genetic model for studying plant telomeres and we have really cool research brewing. Please check ad for detail. Deadline is 12/31.

Our NY area population genetics meeting is back and "upgraded", as Simons Foundation @simonsfoundation.org generously agreed to host. Please save the date: March 9, 2026. Look forward to seeing many of you from NY and beyond.

Our lab's paper describing the North American H5N1 epizootic is out now in Nature! So thrilled to have this out, and congratulations to @lambod50.bsky.social for all the fantastic work on this: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I am so excited to share new work on a TE insertion that regulates iridescence in swordtails, led by fantastic grad student @nadiahaghani.bsky.social and with help from many coauthors! In a time that has been so difficult to navigate, this & other projects have kept my spirits up: shorturl.at/NE65A

Are you an early-stage graduate student (2nd or 3rd year) or early-stage postdoc based in the US or Canada, working primarily in Drosophila? Would you like to help improve the experience of all trainees working in Drosophila research? If so, read on. (Please repost to reach a broad audience.)

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!!

Come be our colleague! The University of Rochester is hiring a TT Assistant Professor in evolutionary genetics and genomics: apply.interfolio.com/173431.

(1/9) Join us in Bern, Switzerland (8–11 Feb 2026) for our EMBO Workshop on Molecular Mechanisms of Selfish Elements and Strategies! Organized with Tanja Schwander, Laura Ross (@laurarossevo.bsky.social) and Axel Imhof. meetings.embo.org/event/26-sel... #EMBOselfishElements #EMBOevents

How does life evolve to adapt to modern cities? Out now in Science, my PhD work with @lindymcbr.bsky.social uncovers the ancient origin of the “London Underground mosquito” – one of the most iconic examples of urban adaptation. 🧵(1/n) @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady4515

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...

Our latest paper on a histone methyltransferase-independent function of PRC2 controlling small RNA dynamics during programmed DNA elimination in Paramecium is now published in #NAR. #RNAbiology #TEsky #smallRNAs #PRC2 #DNAelimination 1/5 academic.oup.com/nar/article-...

🚨 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.

Long-read sequencing reveals telomere inheritance patterns from human trios https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.07.680721v1

Check out this new Levine-Lampson collaboration, led by the talented Hyuk-Joon Jeon. We explored the consequences of inheriting long telomeres from dad and short telomeres from mom. Or the reciprocal. Turns out, parent-of-origin matters (in mice, at least). authors.elsevier.com/c/1loW-3QW8S...

Registration deadline for @embo.org workshop EvoChromo extended until September 30. meetings.embo.org/event/24-evo...

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...

This was a HUGE effort, taking years of diligent work. Hongfei was a true leader, and I'm really proud of this cool piece. We'd love any feedback y'all might have. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to share a new method developed from my group thats published at Genome Biology. This was an amazing effort by my grad student Linh @linhngk.bsky.social. We developed Topsicle, a method that analyzes long read data for telomere analysis and length measuring. doi.org/10.1186/s130...

Love RNA biology? Join us to explore the piRNA pathway with structural and genetic approaches (see 👇👇). PhD student/postdoc position co-supervised by Clemens Plaschka & myself. DM or email us if you’d like to know more! @vbcscitraining.bsky.social @imbavienna.bsky.social @impvienna.bsky.social

I’m super happy to present the first discoveries of the RIKEN-Cambridge Joint Crop Symbiosis Research Team, based in Japan 🇯🇵 doi.org/10.1101/2025... A thread 👇

Really excited to share our latest paper led by @simonaube.bsky.social. Fascinating results examining whether regulatory mutations can lead to adaptation as fast as coding mutations do. #mevosky #evobio #evoSky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Please re-post: Interested in chromatin and its evolution? Good news! There's still time to join us in beautiful Catalonia (9-12 Dec) to discuss eukaryotic, bacterial, archaeal, and viral chromatin and how it all hangs together meetings.embo.org/event/24-evo... Abstract deadline: 30 September

New from the lab led by @natrigg.bsky.social. We started by characterizing mRNA in sperm, EVs, and the epithelium across epididymal transit. This revealed evidence that sperm acquire specific mRNAs through fusion with epididymal EVs, which we further established with in vitro co-incubation assays

🚨 Excited to share my main postdoc work from the @jenscs83.bsky.social lab, now out in Cell Reports! 👉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... We dissect how shelterin proteins organize at telomeres in human cancer cells—revealing distinct subcomplexes that maintain chromosome ends. 🧵

Hey Drosophilists: Might you maintain Fuyama's original gynogenetic "gyn-F9" (BDSC #5353) stock in your library? The current stock from Bloomington is not producing progeny with ms(k81) males. Thank you!!!

FlyBase needs your help! We ask that European labs continue to contribute to Cambridge, UK FlyBase, whereas US and other non-European labs can contribute to US FlyBase. For more information and how to donate: wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...

🚨New preprint from the lab🚨 🧬 What keeps certain chromatin domains anchored at the nuclear periphery? Our new genome-wide HiDRO screen uncovers a key role for RNA-binding protein hnRNPK. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The Sudmant lab at UC Berkeley is seeking a postdoc to work on a fully funded NIH project to understand differences in DNA repair and somatic mutation across the primate tree of life. Please spread widely to those who may be interested aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05052