Dmitry Kretov
@dmitry-kretov.bsky.social
Group Leader @Centre de Recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval #NewPI RNA-binding proteins and microRNAs in development and beyond.
Nuclear speckles are “hot”, but how do they actually sequester mRNPs? We find that stalled mRNPs are retained in nuclear speckles by a combinatorial RNA-binding protein network. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A combinatorial pre-mRNP retention factor network couples nuclear speckle architecture to splicing quality control
Cells must prevent incompletely spliced transcripts from entering the cytoplasm, yet how splicing status is recognized and converted into selective nuclear retention remains unclear. Here, we identify...
biorxiv.org
New book chapter from @jcornwallscoones.bsky.social & me On GRNs as dynamical systems. Wiring diagrams alone can't predict network behaviour. Understanding developmental patterning needs quantitative, experimentally defined rules for how CREs integrate TF inputs books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&...
Open Questions in Developmental Biology
This book explores the enduring and emerging questions in developmental biology, offering a comprehensive overview that bridges traditional concepts with the innovative inquiries shaping future resear...
books.google.co.uk
Selective decay of interferon mRNAs controls antiviral immunity and innate memory
Selective decay of interferon mRNAs controls antiviral immunity and innate memory
Braun et al. identify that the canonical host mRNA deadenylation complex and an RNA-binding specificity factor, TTP, post-transcriptionally control antiviral interferon mRNAs through targeted deadenylation. Loss of mRNA decay machinery leads to a potent block against SARS-CoV-2 infection and can prime cells for innate immune memory.
dlvr.it
Oh wow- great opportunity for a cell biologist in an awesome McGill department (with fancy new digs!)
Ben Martin@benjaminmartin.bsky.social · last mo.Come be my colleague! Montreal is a great place to live and work! Tenure Track position at @mcgill.ca in quantitative cell biology with a research program to address fundamental questions in biology. @futurepislack.bsky.social mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/McGill_Caree...
We’re hiring! The Biology department at McGill is hiring a tenure-track professor in Quantitative Cell Biology. We’re looking for an outstanding researcher and educator to join our community. Deadline: October 9 Info & application: mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/McGill_Caree... Please share!
Assistant Professor in Quantitative Cell Biology - Department of Biology
Please refer to the How to Apply for a Job (for External Candidates) job aid for instructions on how to apply. If you are an active McGill employee (ie: currently in an active contract or position at ...
mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com
Online Now: dsRNAscan maps human dsRNAome, revealing conservation, intermolecular dsRNA, and correlates of ADAR dependency Online now:
dsRNAscan maps human dsRNAome, revealing conservation, intermolecular dsRNA, and correlates of ADAR dependency
Andrews and Bass develop dsRNAscan to predict millions of double-stranded RNA structures across the human genome. ADAR editing and structure-probing data classify ∼2.4 million predictions as high-confidence, enabling prediction of intermolecular dsRNAs, conserved dsRNAs, and quantification of dsRNA burden as a correlate of cell death after ADAR knockout.
dlvr.it
Online now: Systematic differences in protein stability underlie species-specific developmental tempo #biology #science
Systematic differences in protein stability underlie species-specific developmental tempo
Using dynamic SILAC proteomics, Matsuda et al. show that protein degradation is globally slower in human than in mouse segmentation clock cells. Glycolysis inhibition in mouse partially phenocopies the human protein stability profile, linking metabolism, protein stability, and developmental tempo.
dlvr.it
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... A genetically linked motor neuron signature in ALS
An emergent disease-associated motor neuron state precedes cell death in ALS
Longitudinal multi-omics in SOD1-ALS mice identifies a disease-associated motor neuron (DM) state transition driven by transcription factor networks. Features of this state are conserved in human ALS ...
cell.com
ICYMI: New Online! Exchange dynamics and kinetic control of gene regulation complexes
Exchange dynamics and kinetic control of gene regulation complexes
Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, Published online: 30 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41580-026-00991-zRecent evidence reveals how gene expression complexes form transient assemblies that continually exchange their subunits under kinetic control. This Perspective proposes that these dynamics form the basis of RNA processing and gene regulation.
dlvr.it
www.nature.com/articles/s41... Cancer is an RNA disease: DNA is not destiny, RNA determines leukemia fate
Cancer is an RNA disease: DNA is not destiny, RNA determines leukemia fate - Leukemia
Leukemia - Cancer is an RNA disease: DNA is not destiny, RNA determines leukemia fate
nature.com
Single author work by Dr. Wieschaus with lovely microscopy 🧪🤩! from the discussion:Although powerful, the logic behind [mutant] approach is always indirect, given that the phenotype one sees is produced by the genes that remain, not the gene that was removed. journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
Maternal patterning in early Drosophila embryos: how much information can single maternal gradients supply?
Highlighted Article: Comparison of the patterning capacity of Drosophila embryos that have only one of the three maternal gradients known to control anterior posterior patterning.
journals.biologists.com
Nascent peptides emerge as regulators of mRNA stability
Nascent peptides emerge as regulators of mRNA stability
Mobile genetic elements and their hosts engage in continuous evolutionary conflict. Marino et al. recently uncovered an unusual anti-CRISPR mechanism: the phage protein AcrVA2 triggers translation-coupled mRNA degradation by recognizing nascent Cas12. The findings suggest that nascent peptides may signal an underappreciated layer of gene regulation across the kingdoms of life.
dlvr.it
New online! RBPscan measures protein–RNA interactions in living cells
RBPscan measures protein–RNA interactions in living cells
Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 08 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41576-026-00985-9In this Tools of the Trade article, Dmitry Kretov and Daniel Cifuentes describe RBPscan (RNA-binding protein specificity and contextual analysis via nucleotide editing), a method that measures the strength of in vivo interactions between RNA binding proteins and their RNA targets.
dlvr.it
📢 The Ghersi Lab is recruiting! We are looking for motivated students and postdoctoral fellows interested in stem cell biology, developmental hematopoiesis, and zebrafish genetics. Interested? Get in touch or share with your network! l1nq.com/d22fg4o
Finally out in @Cellcellpress! Proteins with long IDRs are prone to misfolding during protein synthesis. This is prevented by mRNA 3′UTRs that act as mRNA-based IDR chaperones. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
mRNA 3′ UTRs chaperone intrinsically disordered regions to control protein activity
Highly conserved mRNA 3′ UTRs act as co-translational chaperones for intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), preventing inter-domain misfolding and enabling biogenesis of fully active proteins.
cell.com
Exciting breakthrough technology from the lab, now live in @cellcellpress.bsky.social ! Instead of cutting the genome where proteins bind (e.g., Cut&Tag), D&D-seq scars the DNA with a deaminase, allowing single cell genome mapping of TFs and chromatin remodellers!
What is the role of #poison-exon in regulating splicing factors in stem cells and development? Check out new work from Nathan Leclair and Mattia Brugiolo and many others in my lab @jax.org #RNA #splicing www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
See our handy graphical abstract and article for free here: bit.ly/4vsl845
Jon Henninger@jhenninger.bsky.social · 4mo agoCheck out our new work in Cell Systems @cp-cellsystems.bsky.social! Much of the biochemistry in the cell is organized by biomolecular condensates, but what mechanisms control the distribution of a given condensate throughout the cell? And is this mesoscale organization important for function?
SAVE THE DATE for the 13th Canadian Developmental Biology Conference — March 7–10, 2027 — bringing together researchers, trainees, and innovators in developmental biology from across Canada and beyond.
For 40 years the 8-nt ‘Kozak Sequence’ was thought to mark sites of translation initiation. In a new study, we revise this model by identifying an ~80-nt sequence—the extended Translation Initiation Sequence (eTIS)— that guides ribosomes to correct start sites. 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
If you want to know what 3′UTRs with long conserved sequence stretches do, check out our BioRxiv preprint doi.org/10.64898/202.... They form functional intermolecular 3′UTR-3′UTR interactions that enable co-folding of proteins to rapidly induce transcriptional programs.
New lab preprint lead by Ziqing, Siran and Ayse! doi.org/10.64898/202... In it they show that: 1) oskar mRNA clustering is driven by the synergistic action of osk concentration, the Staufen RBP and osk RNA palindrome.
doi.org
The program for the 4th Canadian Zebrafish Research Conference is now available. 📅 May 15, 2026 📍 CHU Sainte-Justine, Montreal We are excited to highlight our three Postdoc Rising Stars and to have the privilege of welcoming three invited speakers. @izfs.bsky.social @zebrafishrock.bsky.social
A new paper from the lab shows that Nanos3 and Dead end1 can form a complex with eIF3d to activate RNA translation in primordial germ cells. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
A Nanos3-containing protein complex can activate RNA translation in primordial germ cells in vivo - EMBO Reports
Maintaining the germline fate requires tight post-transcriptional control of RNA function. Here, we investigate how primordial germ cell (PGC) identity is maintained in zebrafish and reveal that the c...
link.springer.com
Could the #ribosome be a selfish element? @mkrupovic.bsky.social & Eugene Koonin propose that the #evolution of life can viewed as a ribosomal takeover, where the ribosome evolved to consume most of the cell’s resources. 🧪 #OriginsOfLife
The selfish ribosome
In this Essay, the evolution of life is construed as a ribosomal takeover, whereby the ribosome evolved to consume most of the cell’s resources, while other cellular componentry ensured the…
plos.io
Excited to share our @natprot.nature.com paper on using RNA proximity labeling to map subcellular RNA transcriptomes. We’ve been working in this area for a while and wanted to create a resource paper to guide the uninitiated reader. rdcu.be/fblvI
APEX-seq maps transcriptome-wide subcellular RNA localization in living cells
Nature Protocols - This Protocol describes the transcriptome-wide labeling of RNAs in a particular subcellular compartment using proximity biotinylation by localized APEX2 enzyme and subsequent...
rdcu.be
🐟 Reminder! Registration is open for the 4th CZRC in Montréal (May 15, 2026). ⏰ Abstract deadline: April 17 Submit for talks, posters, travel awards & Postodoc Rising Stars! event.fourwaves.com/4czrc/pages @izfs.bsky.social @zfinmod.bsky.social @zebrafishrock.bsky.social
After 20 years, 58 generations and more than 30,000 cloning attempts, a team of researchers has hit the limit on the number of times a single mouse can be serially re-cloned go.nature.com/4sDtyET
Can a mouse be cloned indefinitely? Decades-long experiment has answers
Nature - Repeated cloning from a single mouse failed after 58 generations. Researchers say harmful DNA changes are to blame.
go.nature.com
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Human DHX29 detects nonoptimal codon usage to regulate mRNA stability
Synonymous codon usage controls global gene expression in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic species. Nonoptimal codons are known to induce mRNA decay; however, the underlying molecular mechanism remains...
science.org