Glad to see this out at last! Check out Arnau's summary below for all the highlights

Arnau Sebé-Pedrós@arnausebe.bsky.social · 2d ago

Happy to share the final version of our study on the evolution of chromatin states across eukaryotes, out today in @natgenet.nature.com Led by @crisnava.bsky.social and @seanamontgomery.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41... Some highlights below

Capolavoro 🎨 alert 🚨! What is the role of gene body methylation in invertebrates? Despite extensive speculation linking it to plasticity and environmental responses, its mechanistic effects and heritability remain unclear. Our take out in @natecoevo.nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/

Gene body methylation suppresses intragenic transcription and permits epigenetic inheritance in a cnidarian - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Experiments in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis show a role of gene body methylation in transposable element suppression and that epigenetic inheritance is constrained by chromatin context and tra...

nature.com

#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

Really happy to share that our preprint is now published in @narjournal.bsky.social! 🎉

A developmental condensin I complex assists the Paramecium PiggyMac domesticated transposase during programmed DNA elimination

Abstract. Prokaryotes and eukaryotes use diverse strategies to cope with invading mobile genetic elements, including programmed DNA elimination (PDE). In t

academic.oup.com

Thomas Balan@thomasbalan.bsky.social · 10mo ago

🚨 Excited to share my first preprint on bioRxiv! 🎓 We uncover a non-canonical role of condensin I, beyond chromosome segregation 🧬 This work is the fruit of a collaboration between the @sandraduharcourt.bsky.social & @betermieri2bc.bsky.social labs! ➡️ doi.org/10.1101/2025...

now published at BMC Biology! rdcu.be/fdITD

@sandraduharcourt.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Excited to share our new preprint on BioRxiv! A collaborative effort spanning many years and several labs to uncover what the germline chromosomes of Paramecium really look like. 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/5

There are Science papers and then there are *I just dropped and shattered my mug of coffee Usual Suspects style* Science papers www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

✍️ The @sandraduharcourt.bsky.social Lab published a new article 📖 Genome Biology 📃 A H3K27me3 reader complex couples H3K27me3 accumulation to nascent transcription of transposable elements in Paramecium 🔗 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

@sandraduharcourt.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Our latest publication is now out at Genome Biology! link.springer.com/article/10.1... We uncover a unique association between a H3K27me3 reader complex and active transcription. A thread with our key findings: (1/8) #TEsky #Polycomb #transcription #smallRNAs

First first-author paper out! 🎉 We show that the classically repressive mark H3K27me3 can be linked to active transcription through a newly identified reader complex 🤯 Really grateful to everyone involved in this project during my PhD! Thread below 👇

@sandraduharcourt.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Our latest publication is now out at Genome Biology! link.springer.com/article/10.1... We uncover a unique association between a H3K27me3 reader complex and active transcription. A thread with our key findings: (1/8) #TEsky #Polycomb #transcription #smallRNAs

Germ cells have their own versions of core transcription factors and fertility depends on them. We're hiring a PhD student to figure out how! 📢 Fly genetics + proteomics + genomics. Fully funded. Aarhus University 🇩🇰 Deadline May 1 👇 Please share with anyone who might be interested!

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...

Excited to share our new preprint exploring how Paramecium achieves diverse flow functions, i.e. feeding and swimming, simultaneously. This work was spearheaded by our ExM expert, PhD student Daphne Laan @daphnelaan.bsky.social : www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Excited to announce the upcoming Jacques Monod Conference on the mechanistic and evolutionary basis of programmed DNA elimination (Sept 21–25, 2026): cjm.sb-roscoff.fr/en/conferenc... Organized by @laurarossevo.bsky.social and myself.

How does the piRNA pathway solve the self vs. non-self problem? 🧬 Since piRNAs come from single-stranded RNA, how does the cell choose the right ones? For years, "piRNA clusters" were seen as THE privileged source. But are they really special and earmarked for biogenesis? (1/19)

bioRxiv Molecular Biology@biorxiv-molbio.bsky.social · 6mo ago

A Naïve RNA Sampling Core Enables Adaptive piRNA Specificity Against Transposable Elements https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.07.704324v1

A Naïve RNA Sampling Core Enables Adaptive piRNA Specificity Against Transposable Elements https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.07.704324v1

Happy to begin the year with the publication of a Journal Club article - Programmed ‘DNA splicing’ removes transposons from genes. rdcu.be/eXBym

Programmed ‘DNA splicing’ removes transposons from genes

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology - A study that showed that programmed DNA elimination in somatic genomes of ciliates involves excision of intrusive, transposon-derived sequences from genes.

rdcu.be

Out today, our take on 6-methyladenine #6mA evolution in Eukaryotes @natgenet.nature.com. We asked a simple question, is really DNA 6mA common across the eukaryotes? The answer is "yes" if you're a unicellular eukaryote 🦠, not so if you're multicellular 🐝🌱🍄. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/9

Adenine DNA methylation associated with transcriptionally permissive chromatin is widespread across eukaryotes - Nature Genetics

Long-read sequencing in 18 unicellular eukaryotes reveals that 6mA is widespread across eukaryotes and is enriched at transcriptionally permissive regions, which are also marked by H3K4me3.

nature.com

Excited to share our new preprint on BioRxiv! A collaborative effort spanning many years and several labs to uncover what the germline chromosomes of Paramecium really look like. 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/5

The tiny germline chromosomes of Paramecium aurelia have an exceptionally high recombination rate and are capped by a new class of Helitrons

Background. Paramecia belong to the ciliate phylum of unicellular eukaryotes characterized by nuclear dimorphism. A diploid germline micronucleus (MIC) transmits genetic information across sexual gene...

biorxiv.org

Lab’s first paper is out!! We show the first structures of #Asgard #chromatin by #cryo-EM 🧬❄️ Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

How do pleiotropic TFs generate organized diversity in developing tissues? @spinalorga.bsky.social shows that PAX3 & PAX7 organize #SpinalCord by acting as both repressors & pioneer activators, regulated by #morphogens to ensure precise neural subtype specification @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4qumsla

🚨 Excited to share my first preprint on bioRxiv! 🎓 We uncover a non-canonical role of condensin I, beyond chromosome segregation 🧬 This work is the fruit of a collaboration between the @sandraduharcourt.bsky.social & @betermieri2bc.bsky.social labs! ➡️ doi.org/10.1101/2025...

A developmental condensin I complex assists the Paramecium PiggyMac domesticated transposase during programmed DNA elimination

Prokaryotes and eukaryotes use diverse strategies to cope with invading mobile genetic elements, including programmed DNA elimination (PDE). In the ciliate Paramecium , elimination of transposable ele...

doi.org

Our latest paper on a histone methyltransferase-independent function of PRC2 controlling small RNA dynamics during programmed DNA elimination in Paramecium is now published in #NAR. #RNAbiology #TEsky #smallRNAs #PRC2 #DNAelimination 1/5 academic.oup.com/nar/article-...

A histone methyltransferase-independent function of PRC2 controls small RNA dynamics during programmed DNA elimination in Paramecium

Abstract. To limit transposable element (TE) mobilization, most eukaryotes have evolved small RNAs to silence TE activity via homology-dependent mechanisms

academic.oup.com

Huge congratulations to Thomas on this well-deserved award. His PhD defense last week was outstanding too - a great moment. He’ll on the lookout for a postdoc position soon…spread the word!

Institut Jacques Monod@ijmonod.bsky.social · 11mo ago

📣 Congratulations to @thomasbalan.bsky.social (@sandraduharcourt.bsky.social Lab) who won the Best Poster Award at the Gordon Research Epigenetics conference “Variation: Mechanisms and Impact across Systems”! More informations 🔗 buff.ly/NhLWE6G @cnrs-idf-villejuif.bsky.social @upcite.bsky.social

Please re-post: Interested in chromatin and its evolution? Good news! There's still time to join us in beautiful Catalonia (9-12 Dec) to discuss eukaryotic, bacterial, archaeal, and viral chromatin and how it all hangs together meetings.embo.org/event/24-evo... Abstract deadline: 30 September

EvoChromo: Evolutionary approaches to research in chromatin

Chromatin is the complex of DNA, RNA and protein that is found making up the chromosomes in eukaryotic cells. Chromatin is essential for proper genome function and is involved in chromosome segregati…

meetings.embo.org

👀

Institut Jacques Monod@ijmonod.bsky.social · 11mo ago

📢 PhD Thesis defense 📅 Sept. 19th 📍 IJM @thomasbalan.bsky.social ( @sandraduharcourt.bsky.social Lab ) will defend his PhD thesis "Characterization of proteins involved in the dynamics of histone modifications during programmed DNA elimination in Paramecium tetraurelia" ➡️ buff.ly/V8vzSsT

📢 Institut Jacques Monod Seminar 📅 September 18th 📍 Institut Jacques Monod Invited by @sandraduharcourt.bsky.social’s lab, Peter Andersen ( @germline.bsky.social ) will give the IJM Seminar "Running to stand still – Recurrent innovation of animal germline genome regulation" ➡️ buff.ly/yaK2kTQ

New online: Binding of heterochromatin protein Rhino to a subset of piRNA clusters depends on a combination of two histone marks

Binding of heterochromatin protein Rhino to a subset of piRNA clusters depends on a combination of two histone marks

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 17 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41594-025-01584-8The authors reveal that, in fruit fly ovaries, the protein Rhino is guided to specific regions of the genome by a combination of two histone modifications, enhancing understanding of how cells protect their DNA from harmful virus-like elements.

go.nature.com

Mechanisms and timing of programmed DNA elimination in songbirds www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Mechanisms and timing of programmed DNA elimination in songbirds

It is commonly assumed that multicellular organisms contain the same genetic information in all the cells of an individual. However, there is a growing list of species in which parts of the genome are...

biorxiv.org

We’ve uncovered Asgard chromatin structures formed by a Hodarchaeal histone : closed hypernucleosome conserved in archaea and an open form resembling the H3-H4 eukaryotic octasome. Fantastic work by @harshranawat.bsky.social! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #Chromatin #Asgard #Archaea #cryoEM

I add an amazing time last week at the Epigenetics 2025 meeting from the @gensocuk.bsky.social in sunny Belfast! Great discussions and insights on my PhD project! Also very honored to have been awarded the best poster prize!

1/ Transposable elements are often called "jumping genes" because they mobilize within genomes. 🧬 But did you know they can also jump 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 cells? 🤯 Our new study reveals how retrotransposons invade the germline directly from somatic cells. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A short thread 🧵👇