#SMBE2026 S24: Molecular mechanisms of selfish elements and strategies 🗓️ Mon Jun 29, 10:20am 🔗 smbe2026.org/programme Talks by: @levine-lab.bsky.social Yu Hua @cecilecourret.bsky.social @eleanoreritter.bsky.social Elli Cryan @alexand-kwak.bsky.social Steve Perlman @antisense.bsky.social

Please join the upcoming Jacques Monod Conference on the mechanistic and evolutionary basis of programmed DNA elimination in Roscoff, France. Deadline for abstract submission extended to May 20, 2026. cjm.sb-roscoff.fr/en/conferenc...

@sandraduharcourt.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The Jacques Monod Conference on the mechanistic and evolutionary basis of programmed DNA elimination is approaching. There are selected talk slots available. Abstract submission deadline: Tuesday, May 5, 2026.

#ResultatScientifique🔎|Activer pour mieux réprimer ? Chez la paramécie, la transcription aide à verrouiller le génome contre les éléments mobiles🧬 ✍️ @sandraduharcourt.bsky.social 📕 Genome Biology ▶️ buff.ly/RgSZhfQ 🤝 @ijmonod.bsky.social @upcite.bsky.social @cnrs-idf-villejuif.bsky.social @cnrs.fr

📣📣📣 A post-doc opportunity not to be missed in an ATIP-Avenir funded lab in the @i2bcparissaclay.bsky.social (and our neighbor 🪰🔬🧬)! Heterochromatin, spermatogenesis, meiotic drive and Drosophila, with @cecilecourret.bsky.social. Apply before the position fills!

Cécile Courret@cecilecourret.bsky.social · 6mo ago

🔬 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!

We are looking for outstanding scientists to develop ambitious research programs in molecular and cellular biology, with special interest in multidisciplinary projects and computational biology.More info: www.i2bc.paris-saclay.fr #MolecularBiology #CellBiology #ComputationalBiology #TeamLeaders#I2BC

Grateful to have worked with such an incredible team on this project. Excited to finally share this story about Top2 evolution and hybrid incompatibility in Drosophila. More to come!

Mia Levine@levine-lab.bsky.social · 5mo ago

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...

🔬 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!

Pierre Capy était un généticien, un drosophiliste, un acteur majeur dans l'essor de la génétique des éléments transposables en France. Très impliqué dans l'administration de la vie scientifique, il a aussi été directeur du laboratoire LEGS (actuel @EGCE), et un des fondateurs en 2016 de @IDEEV.

Another announcement! 📣 Our work on hybrid incompatibility in cohesin protection in 🐭oocytes is published!! Congrats Warif El Yakoubi and Eddie Pan!!🎉 We found hybrids with cohesion errors in two distinct genus. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Hybrid female sterility due to cohesin protection errors in mouse oocytes

Misregulation of chromosome cohesion during female meiosis serves as a reproductive isolating barrier in mice.

science.org

I'm thrilled to announce that I’m opening my own research team in the Department of Genome Biology at I2BC @i2bcparissaclay.bsky.social ! #ATIP-Avenir Very excited to start this new adventure! www.i2bc.paris-saclay.fr/equipe-intra...

📢 Call for Papers! #GENETICS and #G3journal invite submissions on selfish genetic elements—from meiotic drive to Wolbachia, B-chromosomes, and other inheritance systems. Empirical & theoretical work welcome! 🗓️ Deadline: October 1 🔗Learn more & submit your research: buff.ly/k8DEw2N

I’m thrilled to announce the launch of the Evolution of Chromosomes and Genomes (ECG) Lab at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. Our lab website is now live—come check it out! sites.google.com/view/ecg-lab...

ECG LAB

"The only constant in life is change." — Heraclitus Genetic conflicts — the good, the bad, and the ugly — shape our lives over time We aim to understand why even the most essential genes and chrom...

sites.google.com

"Selfish B chromosome evades genome elimination" by Cécile Courret (@cecilecourret.bsky.social) This Spotlight highlights recent work by Laura Ross (@laurarossevo.bsky.social) & colleagues in GBE (@genomebiolevol.bsky.social). FREE till Aug 5th with this link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lH50cQbJF...

A selfish gene in Drosophila has met its match: Trailblazer. “An innovation in host responses to escalating genomic conflicts” by @emilianomarti.bsky.social & Amanda Larracuente highlights work from @peiwei-chen.bsky.social et al in PNAS. FREE till May 24 at authors.elsevier.com/a/1ktQOcQbJF...

Join us at ESEB 2025 in Barcelona! I'm thrilled co-organize a symposium with Beatriz Navarro Domínguez (bioevolbea.bsky.social) on "Genetic conflict: Evolutionary and Genomic consequences" eseb2025.com/list-of-symp... Submit your abstracts by April 25, 2025 — don’t miss out! eseb2025.bsky.social

I am thrilled to share the news that I've been offered a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoc fellowship to work on genomic conflict in Drosophila #MSCA

Pericentromeric #heterochromatin clusters into chromocenters. @skrutlnize.bsky.social &co use quantitative mass spec to characterize the chromocenter proteome in multiple tissues, identifying a link between satellite DNA-binding proteins & #transposon repression🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/4akuNAi

Happy to announce that ESEB 2025 will feature a symposium on the evolution in and of diverse genetic systems! See eseb2025.com/list-of-symp... for more info and the full list of accepted symposia (so many cool things happening!) [1/2]

Join us next week Thursday at 14:00 UTC for another seminar of the Internal Conflicts and Organismal Adaptation STN! John Werren and Bengt Bengtsson will discuss the early days of studying internal conflicts and selfish genetic elements. See internalconflictsstn.wordpress.com/seminars for more info.

Seminars

Seminar 9 John Werren (University of Rochester): Cooperating on Conflict: Selfish Genetic Elements, Heritable Microbes, and Genetic Conflicts. Bengt O. Bengtsson (Lund University): Decade…

internalconflictsstn.wordpress.com

Our new paper on the rapid evolution of centromeres in Drosophila is out! 🚀 Discover how transposable elements and satellite DNAs shape centromere dynamics and drive karyotype evolution over short timescales. @amlarracuente.bsky.social 🌟 Check it out here: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Turnover of retroelements and satellite DNA drives centromere reorganization over short evolutionary timescales in Drosophila

Centromeres reside in rapidly evolving, repeat-rich genomic regions, despite their essential function in chromosome segregation. This study of centromere evolution over short evolutionary timescales i...

journals.plos.org

Our paper on the strange ATP-dependent chromatin remodeler Smarcad1 paper is out and freely accessible. Differential regulation of its many activities by phosphorylation. Congrats to Briana and @nhoitsma.bsky.social 🧪https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021925824023950?via%3Dihub

Phosphorylation regulates the chromatin remodeler SMARCAD1 in nucleosome binding, ATP hydrolysis, and histone exchange

Maintaining the dynamic structure of chromatin is critical for regulating the cellular processes that require access to the DNA template, such as DNA …

sciencedirect.com

Our paper on a centromere-enriched retroelement is out! link.springer.com/article/10.1... Congratulations to all the authors! Comments and reposts welcome and appreciated 🧬🔬

Transcription of a centromere-enriched retroelement and local retention of its RNA are significant features of the CENP-A chromatin landscape - Genome Biology

Background Centromeres depend on chromatin containing the conserved histone H3 variant CENP-A for function and inheritance, while the role of centromeric DNA repeats remains unclear. Retroelements are...

link.springer.com