The Thermo Fisher situation keeps getting worse. We've now collected 450+ problematic images presented as verification data in TF's antibody catalog. This includes: 🖌️ Dozens more images with duplications or painting 🖨️ Hundreds of blots that all share the same background (behold slideshow below)

New preprint! We identified many components that localize to the structure involved in "eating" in a marine organism. #ProtistOnSky #diplonemid www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Check out our first lab preprint: A real team effort to understand the Plasmodium GAPM proteins, which form part of a essential bridge between the parasite's cytoskeleton and motility apparatus. Below is a sneak peek of some beautiful microscopy - light and electron! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We are hiring POSTDOC now!🚨please repost! Fully-funded 5-year position 👩🏻‍🔬👨‍🔬🧬Looking forward to your application!✉️

Happy to see our work on defining a dependency map of short linear motifs out. We use base editing screens to install more than 80000 mutations into SLiMs in more than 4000 proteins to determine their contribution to cell fitness. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A proteome-wide dependency map of protein interaction motifs - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology

Ambjørn and Meeusen et al. functionally characterize all reported and a comprehensive set of predicted short linear motifs (SLiMs) using base-editing screens, identifying 450 reported and 264 predicte...

nature.com

New paper alert: Paralog interference contributes to the preservation of genetic redundancy www.cell.com/current-biol...

Paralog interference contributes to the preservation of genetic redundancy

Duplicated self-interacting proteins can interact and interfere with each other’s function. Cisneros, Mattenberger, et al. show that selection against interfering loss-of-function alleles extends the ...

cell.com

Now in Nature Comms w/ @ritatewari.bsky.social, Pushkar Sharma & @ryanase.bsky.social (thanks!). Aurora kinases fascinate me: single ancestor - parallel duplications in eukaryotes - paralogs with distinct functions. ARK1 is the CPC Aurora in the malaria parasite. rdcu.be/e5NRT #plasmodium #mitosis

Plasmodium ARK1 regulates spindle formation during atypical mitosis and forms a divergent chromosomal passenger complex

Nature Communications - This study reveals that the malaria parasite Plasmodium uses a unique Aurora kinase complex to control cell division. This divergent machinery regulates spindle formation...

rdcu.be

Eelco Tromer@eelcotromer.bsky.social · 11mo ago

New work on ARK1 (AURKB?) in Plasmodium (malaria parasite) with @ritatewari.bsky.social and Pushkar Sharma. CPC in Plasmodium is (ofcourse..) different compared to conventional models: two INCENPs, no borealin/survivin - mainly at spindle microtubules/MTOCs. Special thanks to @ryanase.bsky.social!

We're on a roll here. Check out this cool paper by @scienceleah.bsky.social et al. on not one, but two types of sperm (!) in the silk worm Bombyx mori. Happy to have contributed. #meiosis4ever

Leah Rosin@scienceleah.bsky.social · 5mo ago

New paper from the Rosin lab in collaboration with the Hawley lab 🎉 Spearheaded by postdoc Leif Benner. We use imaging and RNA-seq to better understand apyrene meiosis. Programmed meiotic errors facilitate dichotomous sperm production in the silkworm, Bombyx mori. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

As a cell biology lab, we acknowledge the decades-long impressive efforts to uncover evolutionary relationships using advanced phylogenomics methods. These approaches undergo continuous improvements that lead to adjustments of data interpretation, as is the case in every scientific field. (1/3)

Bungo Akiyoshi@bungoakiyoshi.bsky.social · 6mo ago

BTW when I talked to a cell biologist this week and explained that bacterial-origin proteins were used to determine the root of the eukaryotic tree of life, the person was surprised by that approach. So it's not just me who has issues with this approach.

Before he passed away in 2021, Tom Cavalier-Smith had drafted parts of his autobiography. It's now 'published' because Gáspár Jékely put a lot of effort in! Please enjoy and share: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Hamer + Spijker. Tijd voor verandering van de PhD stelsel op Nederlandse Universiteiten. Lees dit opiniestuk van @erikvansebille.bsky.social in het Digitaal Universiteitsblad van @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social

Perpetually in awe of the astonishing creative capacity of retrotransposons in eukaryotic cell biology — makes you wonder what remarkable, still-hidden origin stories centromeres across the tree of life carry.

Max Haase@maxhaase.bsky.social · 6mo ago

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

A 🆕 #Ichthyosporea story Led by@margaridaaraujo.bsky.social, in Co. @gautamdey.bsky.social & @hiralshah.bsky.social+🔥team across @embl.org & @sciencesunige.bsky.social We finally have a look at what #microtubules are doing during #cellularization in #Sphaeroforma ▶️ tinyurl.com/MTSARC #ProtistsOnSky

Recently, a Hypothesis was posed in @jcellsci.bsky.social in which the root of eukaryotes was placed between kinetoplastids and all other eukaryotes. From this, it was implied that LECA did not have a kinetochore. We argue this is highly unlikely. A 🧵(1/12) Read our reply here: tinyurl.com/n87myhpr

The LECA had a conventional kinetochore and the kinetoplastid kinetochore is a derived feature – a critical evaluation of Akiyoshi, 2025

Summary:Akiyoshi, 2025 presented a hypothesis with implications for the early evolution of eukaryotes and eukaryotic cell division machinery. In this Correspondence, the authors conclude that this hyp...

tinyurl.com

Direct binding of chromosome axis and cohesin complexes underlies meiotic chromosome architecture in fungi and plants https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.19.700424v1

Another #notTHECover unfortunately. But this gorgeous, Tron-like vibe, drawn by the amazing @munafomarzia.bsky.social for our recent #ExM work with @gautamdey.bsky.social & @centriolelab.bsky.social will still be printed out in the lab. Read here: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Some light reading for the holidays :). Let us know what you think.

Gautam Dey@gautamdey.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Thanks @jcellsci.bsky.social for this opportunity to contribute to your centenary collection with our take on the state of the field - 10 years after its modern reincarnation 🧪🌍 W/ @alebenoit.bsky.social @eelcotromer.bsky.social @fritzlaylin.bsky.social journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

New preprint🚨 Imagine (re)designing a protein via inverse folding. AF2 predicts the designed sequence to a structure with pLDDT 94 & you get 1.8 Å RMSD to the input. Perfect design? What if I told u that the structure has 4 solvent-exposed Trp and 3 Pro where a Gly should be? Why to be wary🧵👇

#EvoChromo ciliate kinetochores @maxraas.bsky.social @kopslab.bsky.social . Previous work w\ @jvhooff.bsky.social : tinyurl.com/y5h4ehnt showed a lack of Tetrahymena kinetochore complexity. Replacement, simplification or missed homologies? All of the above? - check out our pre-print tiny.cc/hp8w001

Max Raas@maxraas.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Our story on the kinetochore composition of the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila is out now on bioRxiv! We find surprisingly many orthologs of conventional kinetochore components, but also components that have very different evolutionary origins. A 🧵 (1/11) Check it out here: tinyurl.com/4ectm9x4

Our story on the kinetochore composition of the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila is out now on bioRxiv! We find surprisingly many orthologs of conventional kinetochore components, but also components that have very different evolutionary origins. A 🧵 (1/11) Check it out here: tinyurl.com/4ectm9x4

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

Our new preprint describes Plasmodium NEK4 as a key regulator coupling meiotic initiation and morphogenesis—a critical step for malaria transmission. This involves MTOC-driven nuclear movement strikingly analogous to "horsetail" movement in fission yeast. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New work on ARK1 (AURKB?) in Plasmodium (malaria parasite) with @ritatewari.bsky.social and Pushkar Sharma. CPC in Plasmodium is (ofcourse..) different compared to conventional models: two INCENPs, no borealin/survivin - mainly at spindle microtubules/MTOCs. Special thanks to @ryanase.bsky.social!

Ryuji Yanase@ryanase.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Pleased to share our new preprint: "Plasmodium ARK1 regulates spindle formation during atypical mitosis and forms a divergent chromosomal passenger complex". Many thanks to our collaborators. @ritatewari.bsky.social @eelcotromer.bsky.social @davidguttery.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Pleased to share our new preprint: "Plasmodium ARK1 regulates spindle formation during atypical mitosis and forms a divergent chromosomal passenger complex". Many thanks to our collaborators. @ritatewari.bsky.social @eelcotromer.bsky.social @davidguttery.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Happy to share the first story from my postdoc in @schnittger-lab.bsky.social We studied TITAN9, a Csm1-like protein in Arabidopsis. Even though I now work with soil, chromosome segregation and meiosis still have a special place in my heart. #meiosis4eva #meiosis #chromosomesegregation

So excited to share this preprint from the Rosin lab in collaboration with the Hawley lab and @eelcotromer.bsky.social on moth spermatogenesis! We investigate the meiotic errors that occur during the formation of apyrene sperm (that have no DNA) in silkworms! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Programmed meiotic errors facilitate dichotomous sperm production in the silkworm, Bombyx mori

The goal of meiosis is typically to produce haploid gametes (eggs or sperm). Failure to do so is catastrophic for fertility and offspring health. However, Lepidopteran (moths and butterflies) males pr...

biorxiv.org

Postdoc position currently available in our group studying meiosis in arabidopsis and wheat: www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/po...

We are growing! A new @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social widefield tailored for ExM- supported by @moorefound.bsky.social is settling! Another one is on its way at @gautamdey.bsky.social Lab ! These two will become the powerhorses for high-througput imaging of the ExM Atlas of #Microbial Eukaryote !

Happy to see our work published and glad to have contributed together with @maxraas.bsky.social ! Looking forward to all the projects that will come out of this work!

Laura Eme@lauraeme.bsky.social · last yr.

Excited to share our new paper in @cellreports.bsky.social that reshapes our understanding of chromosome organization's deep evolutionary roots! Our work dives into the origins of the machinery that structures our very genomes. 🔗: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... #Genomics #Evolution #CellBiology #LECA

It’s out! The evolutionary origins of yeast point centromeres uncovered! “Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres

The evolutionary origins of the genetic point centromere in the brewer's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a member of the order Saccharomycetales, are still unknown. Competing hypotheses suggest that t...

biorxiv.org