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...

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...

biorxiv.org

I'm looking for an enthusiastic student to join my team as a PhD candidate on archaeal genome evolution 🦠💻 Work in beautiful Utrecht, at @binfutrecht.bsky.social, an international group full of caring, amazing scientists, and with frequent cake breaks! www.uu.nl/en/organisat... Please share! 🙏

Samples returned from the asteroid Ryugu contain all five canonical nucleobases (A, G, C, T, U). Their presence in Ryugu and Bennu supports the hypothesis that carbonaceous asteroids contributed to the prebiotic chemical inventory of early Earth. http://dlvr.it/TRWtVp ☄️

A complete set of canonical nucleobases in the carbonaceous asteroid (162173) Ryugu - Nature Astronomy

Samples returned from the asteroid Ryugu contain all five canonical nucleobases (A, G, C, T and U). Their presence in Ryugu and Bennu supports the hypothesis that carbonaceous asteroids contributed to the prebiotic chemical inventory of early Earth.

dlvr.it

Finally out in @natmicrobiol.nature.com: Prediction of eukaryotic cellular complexity in Asgard archaea using structural modelling. Great work by @stephkoe.bsky.social @kassipan.bsky.social @jvhooff.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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)

Nature Portfolio@natureportfolio.nature.com · 5mo ago

A study in Nature shows that the single-celled form of a tiny, aquatic organism can turn into a multicellular version by three different routes. The discovery adds insight to the possible origins of multicellular life, suggesting a previously unrecognized degree of flexibility. 🧪

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/...

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!

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.

The 'devil is in the details'. You have to look beyond author claims and try to understand why the various studies have come to different conclusions and read the explanations given by the authors themselves.

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

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

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

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

PRC1 and PRC2 proximal interactome in mouse embryonic stem cells

PRC1 and PRC2 proximal interactome in mouse embryonic stem cells

Zijlmans and Stelloo et al. profiled in vivo proximal interactomes of PRC1 and PRC2 in mouse embryonic stem cells, identifying >100 proteins, including transcription factors and RNA-binding proteins. Their findings reveal shared and distinct roles of…

dlvr.it

Ana Almeida, Helder Rocha, Maximilian Raas, Geert Kops, Reto Gassmann, Helder Maiato @i3suporto.bsky.social, et al. dissect the relationship between kinetochore size & CENP-E dependence for chromosome alignment. journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/... journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

On the possibility of yet a third kinetochore system in the protist phylum Euglenozoa https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.06.606595v1

On the possibility of yet a third kinetochore system in the protist phylum Euglenozoa https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.06.606595v1

Transmission of genetic material from one generation to the next is a fundamental feature of all liv

biorxiv.org

Online: our evolutionary interrogation of eukaryotic Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes (SMC) complexes @maxraas.bsky.social @eelcotromer.bsky.social @lauraeme.bsky.social #SMCcomplexes #eukaryogenesis #LECA #condensin #cohesin #evolutionarycellbiology #chromatin 🧵(1/6) doi.org/10.1101/2024...

Shaping up genomes: Prokaryotic roots and eukaryotic diversification of SMC complexes

bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution

doi.org

My second paper of the year finally out! While the Polycomb field is dominated by models based on a tight functional coupling between PRC1 and PRC2, we found compelling evolutionary support for the predominantly independent functions of PRC1 and PRC2. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Uncoupled evolution of the Polycomb system and deep origin of non-canonical PRC1 - Communications Bi...

A systematic characterization of the Polycomb system throughout the eukaryotic tree of life reveals that evolution of PRC1 and PRC2 has been largely uncoupled.

nature.com