We are looking for a Postdoc to join our lab at @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social. This is a dry-lab focused post on the computational analysis of long read single-cell sequencing data to understand the role of transposable elements (TEs) in early development. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru... #TEsky

There is accumulating evidence that sperm miRNAs function to regulate embryonic gene expression and transmit inherited phenotypes to offspring but how does this work since sperm cargo is massively diluted in the egg upon fertilization. Here we directly address this ? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

#TEsky Another paper in our TE ecology exploration of the Octopus out in BioEssays. Types of niches for TEs and what that could mean for their expression in neural tissue doi.org/10.1002/bies...

Today the EMBO Journal special issue on molecular ecology and evolution is finally published. It was a pleasure coordinating this collection together with @berndpulverer.bsky.social and many outstanding authors. Editorial: link.springer.com/article/10.1... Cover art by @munafomarzia.bsky.social

🔥Fantastic paper!🔥 TE with a role in vegetative phase change and gametogenesis, mediated by 24-nt siRNAs acting in trans to a wide range of genes. Found by GWAS in A. thaliana 🌱. Congratulations to the authors! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 #epigenetics #plantscience www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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...

Are you ready for *the* meeting about the evolutionary biology of Caenorhabditis and other nematodes?? EvoWorm 2026 will be held at McMaster University from June 16–19 Abstract submission deadline: April 15 Registration deadline: June 1 Further details can be found at evoworm.org

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...

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...

Our paper is now out in Nature: “Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres” www.nature.com/articles/s41... A short thread on how retrotransposons helped give rise to yeast point centromeres. 1/14

How does the piRNA pathway solve the self vs. non-self problem? 🧬 Since piRNAs come from single-stranded RNA, how does the cell choose the right ones? For years, "piRNA clusters" were seen as THE privileged source. But are they really special and earmarked for biogenesis? (1/19)

Congrats to talented graduate student Aaron Lemus for leading this litterature review on #transposons and #epigenetic remodeling with #aging! @uscleonarddavis.bsky.social

New preprint from the lab! We dig into the regulatory roles of TEs in the mouse placenta, with some surprising findings. Led by the awesome @smamante.bsky.social. Particular kudos to him for navigating the many twists and turns of the project.

Today, we're sharing an open letter from our Chief Executive, Professor Sir Ian Chapman, outlining changes to UKRI investment approach, and addressing concerns about research funding and the financial position of STFC. Read his letter here: www.ukri.org/news/open-le...

Huge congratulations to @juancruedas.bsky.social for successfully passing his PhD viva with minor corrections yesterday! 🧬We’re incredibly proud of you! And even more exciting, the manuscript is on the way. Stay tuned! 👏🥳 @cambiochem.bsky.social

One protein. One pathway. A whole germline fate. New paper from my postdoc @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social out in PNAS: Germline fate determination by a single ARGONAUTE protein in Ectocarpus www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

It is finally out! If you are interested in TE-derived CREs, and newly described, but evolutionary old KZFP-TE mechanistic modalities, read it at www.cell.com/cell-reports.... Thankful to everyone who took part in this work, namely @orpsf.bsky.social and other @trono-lab.bsky.social members. 🫀🧬✨

Crushed to hear of Mark Batzer’s passing. He was the Boyd Professor at Louisiana State University. His influential research revealed how mobile elements shape the genomes of humans & other mammals. Mark’s personality, generosity & positivity were larger than life. He lifted everyone up. HUGE loss 💔

We had a great time at the @cambiochem.bsky.social Away Days, learning about the exciting research across the Department! It was a pleasure to share some of our group’s projects thanks to @migueldvalmeida.bsky.social and @ecwalsh.bsky.social . All set for a year full of science! Stay tuned!

Interested in the unexpected? How about a link between piRNAs and maternal histone mRNAs … Great collab with @sebastianfalk.bsky.social, @koenig-lab.bsky.social and Florian Steiner. #piRNA #histone #mRNA #maternal #RNAbiology #RNASky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New Year, New Paper!🎊 Pervasive cis-regulatory co-option of a transposable element family reinforces cell identity across the mouse immune system www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Centerpiece of Jason Chobirko's PhD, talented PhD student co-mentored by Andrew Grimson & me. Really excited about it!🧵

Need a bit of escapism? Not exactly Lord of the Rings, but in similar vein: doi.org/10.1038/s443...

Very happy to see this preprint out! 🎉 This was the last project I started during my time in the Ketting lab, which was later picked up by Shamitha, who did an amazing job extending our initial observations on C. elegans GTSF-1 to other nematodes + further insights into RdRP interaction.

Happy to share two BioRxiv manuscripts from our lab. One on genetic Argonaute interaction and unexpected non-correlation between small RNAs and their targets: doi.org/10.64898/202... The second on IDR processing and IDR-mediated Argonaute loading control: doi.org/10.64898/202... Merry Xmas😊

☕Earl Grey v7.0.0 brewed fresh☕ Nested TEs finally get the treatment they deserve: iterative detection of deep nesting, cleaner GFF annotations, and coverage stats that don’t double-count genomic space + a RepeatCraft edge-case fix. Happy new year to the TE folks! 🧬 github.com/TobyBaril/Ea...

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.

Very happy to share that I have been awarded an ERC CoG to build predictive and mechanistic models of pigment pattern development and evolution across cichlids!! 🐠🎨 I've been dreaming about this for a long time, and I’m incredibly excited that we can now pursue it in full. #ERCCoG @erc.europa.eu 1/3

WormTagDB: A Systematic Survey of Endogenously Tagged Proteins in C. elegans and Roadmap Towards the Tagged Proteome https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.02.691955v1

High-quality mouse reference genomes [PacBio Long Read genomes of 17 strains] reveal the structural complexity of the murine protein-coding landscape, Cell Genomics. www.cell.com/cell-genomic... Genomes and annotations here: projects.ensembl.org/mouse_genomes/

Rapid compensatory evolution within a multiprotein complex preserves telomere integrity www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @levine-lab.bsky.social very cool work

All hail Caenorhabditis elegans, one of the most researched organisms on Earth. Collaborative data sharing in the nematode research community led to four Nobel Prize-winning discoveries about human development and disease. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/uNqU50Xyj4e

Happy to share that my PhD project is finally published!🪱✨ Selfish genes are found across the tree of life. They can disrupt inheritance patterns and at the same time act as units for molecular innovation. Here we tried to answer one big question: how do selfish genes emerge in the first place?

Roussel, Suh, @fjruizruano.bsky.social & @amdioncote.bsky.social characterized TE content in naturally occurring killifish hybrids, finding higher TE load and accumulation of Neptune subfamilies in hybrids. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf266 #evobio #molbio #TEsky

Looking for a PhD in RNA biology? The deadline is approaching fast! This is a great opportunity to do a PhD together with an industry partner fully funded by @nrpdtp.bsky.social BBSRC Case studentship.

piRNA-directed DNA methylation may not be a mammalian invention, but can already be found in the germline of axolotl salamanders Donal O’Carroll and coworkers www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Out today, our take on 6-methyladenine #6mA evolution in Eukaryotes @natgenet.nature.com. We asked a simple question, is really DNA 6mA common across the eukaryotes? The answer is "yes" if you're a unicellular eukaryote 🦠, not so if you're multicellular 🐝🌱🍄. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/9

🚨 New preprint alert! Our latest work from @immler.bsky.social lab 🐟🧬 Sex-specific responses of small RNAs and transposable elements to thermal stress in zebrafish germ cells #TESky #TE #piRNA #miRNA #zebrafish #DanioDigest 🔗 Read here www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A thread 🧵...

Thrilled to share our new review in Current Opinion in Genetics & Development on TE driven innovation in gene regulation🤘. I am honored to be part of this with two major TE aficionados @cedricfeschotte.bsky.social and @trono-lab.bsky.social #TEsky #TEworldwide authors.elsevier.com/c/1m6MC,LqAZ...

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

TEs aren’t just genomic parasites, they’re also engines of genomic novelty. Our new study with ~2,000 Z. tritici genomes shows repeated TE mobilization waves during global expansion. With @danielcroll.bsky.social & @guidopuccetti.bsky.social 🧬 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #TEworldwide

Excited to share our new preprint on BioRxiv! A collaborative effort spanning many years and several labs to uncover what the germline chromosomes of Paramecium really look like. 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/5

PhD opportunity in plant developmental biology for UK based students of Black heritage! How do they know when to grow up? Join us at the University of Bristol to find out. Application deadline Jan 6th www.findaphd.com/phds/project... #PlantSciencePhDs @blackinplantsci.bsky.social

Having a lot of fun at #EMBOMobileGenome 😃 Perfect timing for our paper from the lab of @toddmacfarlan.bsky.social to be out @natcomms.nature.com!! …and I’m currently on the job market looking for a new scientific home! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Welcome to Day 1 of 'The mobile genome: genetic and physiological impacts of transposable elements'! 🧬 The opening remarks by Julius Brennecke accompanied by his fellow scientific organisers: 🔹Déborah Bourc'his 🔹Josefa González 🔹Joseph Peters #EMBOMobileGenome

1/ Ever needed to annotate TEs in a fungal genome, but didn't know where to start? We have released #MycoMobilome, a community-focused non-redundant database of transposable element consensus sequences for the fungal kingdom, constructed from >4,000 fungal genomes! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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

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...

PREACH! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Evolution of chromatin accessibility associated with traits of cichlid phenotypic diversity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.09.681187v1

#TEsky The phenotypic variation of widefins medaka is due to the insertion of a giant transposon containing a viral genome within hoxca cluster doi.org/10.1093/gene...