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Sean Montgomery

@seanamontgomery.bsky.social
895 followers 548 following 36 posts

Postdoc in the Sebé-Pedrós lab at the CRG studying heterochromatin diversity and function across eukaryotes. Can be found chasing frisbees when not in the lab.

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Reposted by Sean Montgomery
Archaea Biology Vienna @archaea-vienna.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Our paper on the dynamics of Asgard archaea (Promethearchaeota) is now out in Nature! Huge thanks to the reviewers for helping make the manuscript stronger. www.nature.com/articles/s41... Two “Lokis” stained for Lokiactin (FastAct, magenta), reaching toward each other to celebrate 🎉 #archaea
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Svetlana Dodonova @dodonova-sveta.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
New preprint from Dodonova lab 🔔! Capturing multiple states by cryo-EM❄️, we show for the first time how archaeal RNA Polymerase engages a nucleosome and forms direct contacts with histones! 🧬 Great work by Gabriele & a fantastic collaboration with Dina Grohmann! 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Cedric Feschotte @cedricfeschotte.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Thrilled to see this published today! Truly special because we made the initial discovery >15 yrs ago! We found two copies of a human gene called BC200 embedded in a human poxvirus. BC200 blurs the line between gene & transposon—both functional & mutagenic! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵1/n
science.org
Escape of the BC200 gene to a human poxvirus reveals its persistent transposition in primates
Transposable elements mobilize within and occasionally between genomes, including from host to virus. We identified two insertions of the human BC200 noncoding RNA gene in the poxvirus molluscum conta...
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Maya Voichek @mayavoichek.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Super excited to share my postdoctoral work at @imbavienna.bsky.social @viennabiocenter.bsky.social - We discovered that some retrotransposons, or "jumping genes" 🧬, are able to spread from cell to cell via a new viral infectivity route. A short thread: 🧵👇 (1/7)
AI-generated illustration of the soma-to-germline transmission of retrotransposons described in our work
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Centre de Regulació Genòmica (CRG) @crg.eu · 21/09/2026
The CRG's 2027 PhD call is now open! We have multiple, fully-funded positions across fifteen different research groups. Successful candidates will spend four years pursuing cutting-edge questions at our labs in Barcelona. Deadline is 22 November. www.crg.eu/en/content/t...
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Laura Ross @laurarossevo.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Ever wondered why diverse organism shrink their genome in specific cells? We try to make sense of these curious cases of programmed DNA elimination in a review that came out today @naturerevgenet.bsky.social trebuchet.public.springernature.app/get_content/... @sandraduharcourt.bsky.social
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Anton Goloborodko @golobor.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
1/ out in @science.org! We found a new asymmetry in large-scale chromosome structure: sister chromatids are shifted by hundreds of kb in the 5′→3′ direction of their inherited strands! A close collaboration w/ @gerlichlab.bsky.social , led by @flaviacorsi.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Peter Andersen @germline.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Finally - the 🧵! So, the piRNA pathway defends the animal germline from transposons. But most of what we know comes from narrow developmental windows like late oogenesis, where it's easiest to study. We asked if the pathway is the same across development. It is not! /+
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Tobias Warnecke @tobiaswarnecke.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Who needs chromatin anyway...? NOT THIS GUY! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/n
biorxiv.org
Chromatin is dispensable for bacterial life
Inside cells, DNA is intimately associated with proteins, forming chromatin. The protein constituents of chromatin vary across the tree of life: histones are the principal building blocks of chromatin...
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Franzi Lorbeer @florbeer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
0/ New preprint from the Stark and Grün labs! @reyna-rosales.bsky.social @dominicgrun.bsky.social @alex-stark.bsky.social We developed BARe-seq to ask what in the DNA controls transcriptional bursting - key findings for anyone working on transcription, gene regulation, or cis-regulatory elements 🧵
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Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology @gmivienna.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
The GMI @gmivienna.bsky.social of the @oeaw.bsky.social seeks to appoint a Scientific Director (f/m/x) to lead one of Europe’s premier research institutes in plant biology. Apply by Nov. 15 via GMI.search.director@oeaw.ac.at. More information: www.oeaw.ac.at/de/gmi/join-...
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callista yee @csybio.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
hiiii everyone! my department @zoology.ubc.ca is hiring an assistant professor in cell and developmental biology! deadline is october 1! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32408 // please share!!!!!
academicjobsonline.org
University of British Columbia, Department of Zoology
Job #AJO32408, Assistant Professor in Cell and Developmental Biology, Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, CA
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Alex de Mendoza @alexdemendoza.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Sailing in @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social ready for summer, our study on the iconic Portuguese man o' war 🪼 is out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6.... We use (epi)genomics to understand a critter that fascinates me since childhood. Massive team effort with @obog.bsky.social, Cummins and Neely groups. 🧵
the indo-pacific bluebottle (Physalia utriculus)
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Kaushik Ragunathan @kaushikr.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Our new study shows a CHD-family remodeler can nucleate and spread H3K9 methylation de novo, inverting the canonical hierarchy between writers and remodelers. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Nucleosome remodeling by a CHD enzyme promotes H3K9 methylation establishment and spreading via remodeler-writer feedback
In Schizosaccharomyces pombe , the conserved CHD remodeler Mit1 function within the SHREC remodeler-deacetylase complex (a homolog of the metazoan Mi-2/NuRD complex), which is essential for H3K9 methy...
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jpgerdt.bsky.social @jpgerdt.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Ruibao's first paper from the lab is out in @nature.com . www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Collab with @multicellgenome.bsky.social & @jennahed.bsky.social. How did cells stick together and form the first animals? The protist Ministeria suggests cellular aggregation had a role. @iuqcb.bsky.social
nature.com
A unicellular relative links aggregative multicellularity to animal origins - Nature
Aggregative multicellularity was key to the evolution of the multicellular animal genetic toolkit.
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Sean Montgomery @seanamontgomery.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Glad to see this out at last! Check out Arnau's summary below for all the highlights
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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
New preprint! 🧵 Best #Cercozoa genome alert! For a decade, I’ve studied protist ecology through questions like who eats whom. But beyond “they eat this, they eat that,” what do #protists do to their environment, biochemically speaking? #protistsonsky @huesnaoeztoprak.bsky.social
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Varsha Mathur @varshamathur.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
So happy to share our new paper out now in @natmicrobiol.nature.com! We establish Pirsonia-Coscinodiscus as a model pathosystem and uncover how this tiny parasite infects and kills bloom-forming marine diatoms 🌊🦠 rdcu.be/fuQyF
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Antoine Molaro @antoinemolaro.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Hello World ! We have another postdoc position open in the lab! Are you a freshly minted Ph.D. with a passion for chromatin and evolution ? Come join our ERC project #EvoEpi ! Inclusive environment + cool people + great science = success details 👉 tinyurl.com/3r6zk54n Repost are always appreciated
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Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾 @xgrau.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
I'm happy to share our latest on #coral single-cell biology: a transcriptomic timecourse of heat stress in Stylophora pistillata, from bleaching to recovery 🪸🌊 This project was spearheaded by Shani Levy and carried through in @arnausebe.bsky.social's lab at @crg.eu. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Stylophora pistillata colony from the Red Sea. Picture by Hagai Nativ.
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Peiwei Chen @peiwei-chen.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
How do transposons jump when they’re released from host control? I babysat two chromosomes for 2 years, making sure they are ok without most piRNAs. Here’s what we found & excited to share my 1st postdoc paper: “piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts
In Metazoa, transposon expression is suppressed by the piRNA pathway, and disruption of this pathway leads to rampant transposon expression. However, it remains unclear whether increased transposon ex...
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CGUE 2026 @cgue2026.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
⏰ The countdown is on! Only 7 days remain to register for CGUE2026. Five days of cutting-edge science, inspiring discussions and networking with the international community studying the evolution and diversity of unicellular eukaryotes. #ComparativeGenomics #Protistology #Protists #Microbiology
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Jakob Schnabl-Baumgartner @jakobschnabl.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
www.cell.com/molecular-ce... I'm happy to see our work published! If you are interested in transposons, transcriptional regulation and Pol III come and check it out 👀 🧫 🧬
cell.com
ChAHP silences SINE retrotransposons by inhibiting TFIIIB recruitment
SINEs are short transposable elements that make up large fractions of mammalian genomes. Known to be transcribed by RNA polymerase III, their regulation has remained largely unexplored. Schnabl-Baumga...
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Chung Hyun Cho @chc-evobio.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Excited to share our new preprint led by Fred and me in collaboration with the archaeal community! We found that the molecular foundation of histone-based chromatin has pre-eukaryotic roots in Asgard archaea. (1/4) #ArchaeaSky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Emergence of histone-based chromatin complexity in Asgard archaea
The emergence of the eukaryotes coincided with the diversification of histone proteins and their post-translational modifications by enzymes that constitute the core of eukaryotic chromatin. Yet the e...
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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Happy to announce our study that has just been published from work done during my PhD at the University of Bristol working in Prof. Jill Harrison's lab. It's about WOX genes and sporophyte development in the model moss, Physcomitrium patens. Take a look 🧵👇
A wild-type shoot with a single apical sporophyte (left) beside a Ppwox13lc mutant with three sporophytes on the same shoot (right).
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Svetlana Dodonova @dodonova-sveta.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Excited to share our new preprint! 🧬❄️ by brilliant @mdreimann.bsky.social and great collaborators! Using cryo-ET&EM, we reveal archaeal chromatin in a near-native state: variable-beads-on-a-string fibers shaped by growth phase and histone composition #ArchaeaSky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Marion Clavel @thevirusmc.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Our work is out now! (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...). We discover a selective autophagy pathway that protects plants from the mess caused by RNA viruses. Intrigued? Follow the spaghetti trail for a summary of our findings🧵-->
science.org
Selective autophagy fine-tunes plant immunity to promote cell survival during viral infection
RNA viruses co-opt host endomembranes to form replication complexes, often triggering cellular stress and immune responses. Here, we show that Arabidopsis thaliana activates selective autophagy to res...
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Eva-Sophie Wallner @eswallner.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Happy to announce that I have started my own research group at the MPIPZ and that I am looking for a postdoc who would like to investigate Marchantia prothallus development with me! Please spread the word and/or apply if interested :)
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Alex de Mendoza @alexdemendoza.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
New preprint! In an fun collaboration with @imaeso.bsky.social and @mirimiam.bsky.social led by Manu F-M, we set to explore the potential adaptation of transposable elements 👾 to host adenine DNA methylation by recruiting prokaryotic DAM methyltransferases: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6.... 1/6
biorxiv.org
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Megan Sorensen @messorensen.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Interested in working on the evolution of photosynthetic endosymbioses? Come join us! I have 2 open positions in my new group @cemess.bsky.social in Vienna 3yr postdoc info: tinyurl.com/4emkjpn4 4yr PhD info: tinyurl.com/mtxmsjpy Apply by 1st June! Please share/repost #Protists #Symbiosis #PhD
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Bohdana Hurieva🇺🇦 @bhurieva.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
🎉Excited to share our new preprint! TIR domains from diverse animals, including human TLR4, are catalytically active and produce cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR). This enzymatic activity is widespread in animals and conserved across the tree of life. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Manuel Irimia @mirimiam.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Thrilled to present our comparative study on the evolution of zygotic genome activation (ZGA)!! 🥚🧬 Amazing PhD work of @campobes.bsky.social together with @fedemantica.bsky.social and many collaborators! @melisupf.bsky.social @crg.eu. Thread below 1/15 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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ISEP @isepprotists.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
New #ISEPpapers #preprint by @deemteam.bsky.social: Re-evaluating the eukaryotic Tree of Life with independent phylogenomic data www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #Protists #Microbes #Evolution #Eukaryotes #TreeOfLife #Phylogeny #Phylogenomics #Bioinformatics #Algae
a simplified evolutionary tree of eukaryotes with pictures of various microbes
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Facundo Romani @fromani.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
The final version of our Marchantia cell cycle paper is now published. A much improved version compared to the preprint. Cyclins, repressors, and more. Thanks to co-authors and reviewers. #PlantScience. academic.oup.com/plcell/advan...
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sandraduharcourt.bsky.social @sandraduharcourt.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Our latest publication is now out at Genome Biology! link.springer.com/article/10.1... We uncover a unique association between a H3K27me3 reader complex and active transcription. A thread with our key findings: (1/8) #TEsky #Polycomb #transcription #smallRNAs
link.springer.com
A H3K27me3 reader complex couples H3K27me3 accumulation to nascent transcription of transposable elements in Paramecium - Genome Biology
Background The ability to deposit histone H3K27-trimethyl (me3) marks is essential for transcriptional repression by Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2). This is largely attributed to Polycomb repres...
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Cécile Courret @cecilecourret.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
🔬 Recruiting a Postdoc!!!! I’m looking for a motivated postdoc to join my lab and work on characterizing the role of a heterochromatin protein involved in a sex-ratio meiotic drive system in Drosophila. If you know someone who might be interested, please share widely!
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Peter Andersen @germline.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Germ cells have their own versions of core transcription factors and fertility depends on them. We're hiring a PhD student to figure out how! 📢 Fly genetics + proteomics + genomics. Fully funded. Aarhus University 🇩🇰 Deadline May 1 👇 Please share with anyone who might be interested!
phd.nat.au.dk
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Jaruwatana (Sodai) Lotharukpong @sodail.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Our work on chromatin evolution in brown algae is finally out! This is also my first "co-first author" paper!! I’m excited to share what we found 👇
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Nature Ecology & Evolution @natecoevo.nature.com · 30/03/2026
Chromatin plays a central role in gene regulation, but chromatin systems are only known for a few model species. This study analyses chromatin regulatory landscapes in brown algal lineages to elucidate their structural organization and evolution 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Evolution of a distinct chromatin regulatory landscape in brown algae - Nature Ecology & Evolution
Chromatin plays a central role in gene regulation, but chromatin systems are only known for a few model species. This study analyses chromatin regulatory landscapes in brown algal lineages to elucidat...
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eLife @elife.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Defining the chromatin-associated protein landscapes on <i>Trypanosoma brucei</i> repetitive elements using synthetic TALE proteins
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Defining the chromatin-associated protein landscapes on Trypanosoma brucei repetitive elements using synthetic TALE proteins
Synthetic proteins designed to bind specific repetitive DNA sequences in the Trypanosoma brucei genome allow the identification of proteins enriched over different DNA elements.
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Sdelci Lab @sdelcilab.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
New paper out in Nature Communications: www.nature.com/articles/s41... We found >250 metabolic enzymes on chromatin. Only ~20 had been reported before. This means hundreds of metabolic enzymes may have unexplored nuclear roles.
nature.com
Native chromatome profiling reveals hundreds of metabolic enzymes in the nucleus across tissues - Nature Communications
Here proteomic chromatome analysis shows metabolic enzymes widely localize to chromatin in cancer in a tissue-specific manner. Nuclear enzymes affect DNA damage/repair and transcription, revealing non...
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Dolf Weijers @dolfweijers.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
We are very excited to share a new resource from our team: spatial subcellular proteome maps in plants! We developed an MS-based method that registers localizations of about 8000 proteins in Arabidopsis roots in a single experiment. (1/9) www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
biorxiv.org
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Thibaut Brunet @thibautbrunet.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Final version @nature.com of our paper describing unconventional multicellular development in a choanoflagellate inhabiting an extreme environment. A ton of new data since the first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint (which we've kept updating). A brief 🧵 (carried over from the old place)
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Bohdana Hurieva🇺🇦 @bhurieva.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Excited to share our new paper led by a wonderful Jing Liu on designing de novo IDRs🧪🖥️
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Dominik Handler @86dominik.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
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)
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Henrik Toft Simonsen @htsbiotechmoss.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
My good friend and director of the natural history museum of Denmark is looking for a curator for #bryophytes. Thus, if you like these small #plants, you should really apply. Great place to work, great city and amazing plants. #sciencejobs #plantscijobs www.linkedin.com/posts/nina-r...
linkedin.com
We are hiring a Tenure-track Assistant Professor and Curator in Bryology at the National Natural History Museum Denmark, in central Copenhagen. Duties are collection-based research, curation of a… ...
We are hiring a Tenure-track Assistant Professor and Curator in Bryology at the National Natural History Museum Denmark, in central Copenhagen. Duties are collection-based research, curation of a h...
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The EMBO Journal @embojournal.org · 03/02/2026
How do compartmentalization & loop extrusion organize eukaryotic genomes beyond classical model organisms? Hi-C analysis of silkworm chromosomes by Drinnenberg, Muller, Mirny et al reveals new combination of these mechanisms, and a new, secluded “S” compartment link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Unique territorial and compartmental organization of chromosomes in the holocentric silkworm - The EMBO Journal
Hallmarks of multicellular eukaryotic genome organization are chromosome territories, compartments, and loop-extrusion-mediated structures, including TADs. However, these have mainly been observed in ...
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Laura Eme @lauraeme.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Comparative Genomics of Unicellular Eukaryotes (San Feliu, Spain): Abstract submission is open, with a short deadline! comparativegenomics2026.com Join us as we explore the most diverse, surprising, and still largely uncharted branches of the eukaryotic tree.
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Claudia Martinho @cssmartinho.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
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/...
pnas.org
Germline fate determination by a single ARGONAUTE protein in Ectocarpus | PNAS
ARGONAUTE (AGO) proteins are a highly conserved family of RNA-binding proteins that play central roles in gene regulation and developmental process...
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Xavier Grau-Bové 🌾 @xgrau.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Nice feature summarising the decades-long debate about the first-branching animal lineages — sponges or ctenophores? Key quote: “I’m not going to say this is the answer because I’ve been around long enough” www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
What were the first animals? The fierce sponge–jelly battle that just won’t end
For almost two decades, scientists have debated whether sponges or comb jellies are the first animal lineage. Now some are calling for a more harmonious approach.
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