Our group is moving from @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social to the maritime city of Kiel! ⛵️🩵 I will lead the Department of Marine Plant Development and Physiology @uni-kiel.de 🌱🪸🌊 Look out for opportunities to join us in this exciting & growing hub for Plant, Marine & Evolutionary Biology in North Germany 🇩🇪

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 👇

Nature Ecology & Evolution@natecoevo.nature.com · 4mo ago

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...

Heya science peeps, my first first-author paper is on Biorxiv! We show how transcriptome-wide expression variability in outbred animals responds massively to an environmental stressor and is underpinned by cryptic variability- (not just mean-) controlling alleles. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

I am very grateful to be featured discussing my work on transcription associated proteins and TAPscan @rensingstefan.bsky.social Many thanks to @theplantjournal.bsky.social for the opportunity and recognition!

The Plant Journal@theplantjournal.bsky.social · 4mo ago

🗣️ 𝐈𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐲 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐥 @petrollromy.bsky.social TPJ Outstanding Resource Article Award 🏆 Romy is a PhD student at the @MPI_Bio Tübingen 🌿 Her work sheds light on the evolution of gene regulation across algae and plants ✍️ @luisdeluna.bsky.social 👉 doi.org/10.1111/tpj.70829

New CRISPR tools for brown algae: a transgene-free genome editing methodology, developed in Ectocarpus and validated in kelps such as Undaria pinnatifida, opens new possibilities for functional genomics, aquaculture, and blue biotechnology. Online ahead of print: doi.org/10.1016/j.cr...

Looking back at a highlight from 2025: Great energy at the 2025 SALTO Symposium we organized at the MPI for Marine Microbiology! Researchers from Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, and Australia joined us in Bremen to explore the evolutionary links between specialized bacteria and their algal hosts.

🏆𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞 (𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫) PETROLL et al. Enhanced sensitivity of tapscan v4 enables comprehensive analysis of streptophyte transcription factor evolution doi.org/10.1111/tpj.... Congrats @petrollromy.bsky.social !

Enhanced sensitivity of TAPscan v4 enables comprehensive analysis of streptophyte transcription factor evolution

TAPscan v4 allows genome-wide annotation of 138 TF families, with 18 (sub-)families added since v3. With this release, we make a new web interface available, but also the underlying database and code...

doi.org

Excited to introduce Auxenochlorella as a new algal reference organism for fundamental plant science and bioengineering. A paper in two parts: a genetic toolkit for site-specific genomic manipulation, paired with the most unusual genome I’ve ever worked on academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...

Targeted genetic manipulation and yeast-like evolutionary genomics in the green alga Auxenochlorella

Auxenochlorella, green algae shaped by evolutionary forces acting on vegetative diploids, are amenable to discovery research and bioengineering via efficie

academic.oup.com

So happy to see my first first-author paper published! 🎈 A short thread on how Ectocarpus and its TE secrets have kept me busy lately: rdcu.be/eITQH

Excited to share our new preprint on giant virus infection in brown algae: Latent endogenous viral elements drive active infection and inheritance in a multicellular host doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Latent endogenous viral elements drive active infection and inheritance in a multicellular host

Endogenous viral elements (EVEs) inserted in host genomes are often regarded as inert relics of past infections. Whether they can retain infective potential and contribute to active viral cycles has r...

doi.org

Super glad to contribute to this study on chromatin evolution in brown algae! Special thanks to Jeromine Vigneau, @borglab.bsky.social and Susana Coelho for making this happen. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Rewiring of chromatin regulation underlies the evolution of brown algal multicellularity

Chromatin structure plays a central role in regulating transcription, genome stability, and epigenetic inheritance in eukaryotes. Much of our understanding of chromatin architecture and histone post-t...

biorxiv.org

Genomes of brown algae with different sex determination systems show that U/V sex chromosomes evolved 450–224 million years ago and show remarkable conservation of genes within the sex-determining region, despite independent expansions of the sex locus in each lineage www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Origin and evolutionary trajectories of brown algal sex chromosomes - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Genomes of nine brown algal species with different sex determination systems show that U/V sex chromosomes evolved 450–224 Ma and show remarkable conservation of genes within the sex-determining regio...

nature.com

Transposable elements in brown algae? 🌊 Yes, they’re full of surprises ✨ Come meet Ectocarpus at #ESEB2025! 📍Room 113 - S28.03 🗓️ Thursday, 2:30pm

So excited to be at #ESEB2025 presenting poster 221 today!☀️ Check out our chromosome-level genome of Bostrychia, a red alga from the complex Ceramiales order, revealing massive genome expansion by giant Plavaka DNA transposons, the evolution of expanded gene families and UV sex chromosomes!

A wonderful summary of our recent work in @currentbiology.bsky.social . It’s an honour for it to have been written by such respected researchers in the field. Thank you @multicellgenome.bsky.social & team! 🤩

Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo@multicellgenome.bsky.social · last yr.

See our comment on @currentbiology.bsky.social about the new Bostrychia moritziana genome paper. A huge step for a under-sampled branch of life. Congrats @borglab.bsky.social & all authors! #Genomics #RedAlgae #Rhodophyta #protistsonSKy #multicellularity www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Delighted to see our work now published in @currentbiology.bsky.social. A great place for Bostrychia to stake its claim as an emerging red algal model system. Check it out here: www.cell.com/current-biol...

Michael Borg@borglab.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨Preprint Alert🚨 I'm really happy to finally share our exploits in red algae and introduce the wider community to Bostrychia, the new model system we have been developing to tackle the molecular biology of red algae. Isn't she a beauty? Thread below 🧵 1/8 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New study with @petrollromy.bsky.social @borglab.bsky.social traces the evolution of epigenetic silencing in plants. Deep conservation of PRC2-mediated H3K27me3 marks across green algae suggest ancient, conserved networks of gene repression. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molb... #evobio #molevol #plants

The Expansion and Diversification of Epigenetic Regulatory Networks Underpins Major Transitions in the Evolution of Land Plants

Abstract. Epigenetic silencing is essential for regulating gene expression and cellular diversity in eukaryotes. While DNA and H3K9 methylation silence tra

doi.org

I am very excited to see my first PhD paper out as a preprint. "The expanded Bostrychia moritziana genome unveils evolution in the most diverse and complex order of red algae". Huge thanks to @borglab.bsky.social for the great supervision and guidance through this exciting project!🎉

Michael Borg@borglab.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨Preprint Alert🚨 I'm really happy to finally share our exploits in red algae and introduce the wider community to Bostrychia, the new model system we have been developing to tackle the molecular biology of red algae. Isn't she a beauty? Thread below 🧵 1/8 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

In our latest @biorxiv-genomic.bsky.social preprint, we describe our approach to use PacBio HiFi reads to detect somatic TE transposition -- good enough to detect rare events that are present in only single cells. Led by Andrea Movilli. #plantscience www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

TAPscan v4, final verson available: dx.doi.org/10.1111/tpj.... Annotate TF families yourself or access web-UI online. Thanks to @petrollromy.bsky.social @shiltemann.bsky.social @jandevries.bsky.social @watertoland.bsky.social

Stefan A. Rensing @rensingstefan.bsky.social · 2y ago

TAPscan v4: Annotation of 138 TF/TR families across 678 species, focus on plants. Of 18 new (sub)fmilies, nine were gained in the most recent common ancestor of the Streptophyta (comprising streptophyte algae and land plants), or within streptophyte algae. 1/2 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Very happy to share my PhD paper! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Diatom phytochromes integrate the underwater light spectrum to sense depth - Nature

This study demonstrates that diatoms with phytochrome photoreceptors can detect and functionally respond to the entire visible light spectrum through these sensors, enabling them to sense depth a...

nature.com

New preprint! How does meiosis work in non-model organisms? Together with Susana Coelho at the MPI for Biology Tübingen @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social , we took a look at the proteins of the meiotic axis in the brown alga Ectocarpus www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Exploring Meiosis in Brown Algae: Meiotic Axis Proteins in the model brown alga Ectocarpus

Most extant eukaryotic systems share core meiosis-specific genes, suggesting meiosis evolved only once in the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA). These genes have been characterized as master regu...

biorxiv.org

More than one-third of all family gains were identified during the evolution of streptophyte algae, before the emergence of land plants, and are thus likely to have been significant for plant terrestrialization. 2/2 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Enhanced sensitivity of TAPscan v4 enables comprehensive analysis of streptophyte transcription factor evolution

TAPscan v4 allows genome-wide annotation of 138 TF families, with 18 (sub-)families added since v3. With this release, we make a new web interface available, but also the underlying database and code...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Stefan A. Rensing @rensingstefan.bsky.social · 2y ago

TAPscan v4: Annotation of 138 TF/TR families across 678 species, focus on plants. Of 18 new (sub)fmilies, nine were gained in the most recent common ancestor of the Streptophyta (comprising streptophyte algae and land plants), or within streptophyte algae. 1/2 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Proud to share TAPscan v4, automated annotation of 138 TF families; code, webtool and database available online. @watertoland.bsky.social @nfdi4plants.bsky.social @jandevries.bsky.social @shiltemann.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/tpj....