Love Drosophila genetics — this journal club was a great way to share that enthusiasm and pay tribute to the pioneers of transposons regulation 🪰 How classical genetics uncovered key determinants of TE silencing #transposon @igred.fr
@igred.fr
👇👇

A H3K27me3 reader complex couples H3K27me3 accumulation to nascent transcription of transposable elements in Paramecium - Genome Biology Background The ability to deposit histone H3K27-trimethyl (me3) marks is essential for transcriptional repression by Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2). This is largely attributed to Polycomb repres...

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!

Special Issue: Functional and Adaptive Effects of Genomic Structural Variation See more information on the new Heredity special issue on functional and adaptive effects of genomic structural variation.

The special issue Functional and Adaptive Effects of Genomic Structural Variation is now out in Heredity. Many thanks to all contributors for their submissions, to the editorial team at @heredityjournal.bsky.social and to @ellenleffler.bsky.social, @mydennis.bsky.social & @gokcumenlab.bsky.social!

Machine learning for evolutionary genetics and molecular evolution Over the past decade, the rapid expansion of large-scale data and advances in computational power have allowed machine learning (ML), especially deep …

We wrote a review on using machine learning to study evolutionary genetics and molecular evolution in Trends in Genetics. It is open access—please take a look if you are interested in this topic www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social

There is accumulating evidence that sperm miRNAs function to regulate embryonic gene expression and transmit inherited phenotypes to offspring but how does this work since sperm cargo is massively diluted in the egg upon fertilization. Here we directly address this ? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Evolution: Paralog interference stabilizes gene duplicates Gene duplicates are traditionally viewed as evolutionarily unstable, as one copy can freely accumulate deleterious mutations and be lost. A new study reveals that paralog interference exposes certain ...

Nice surprise this morning! A Dispatch on our paper on paralog interference now out in Current Biology! By Krishna Swamy and Jun-Yi Leu.
www.cell.com/current-biol...

New preprint from our lab! An H3.3 knockout does two things at once: it removes H3.3 from chromatin and destabilizes DAXX. We disentangle those functions and find that DAXX-mediated H3.3 deposition can be uncoupled from ERV silencing.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

One of my very favorite papers from the lab! Shows that individual cells can learn by forming memories. Amazing work by Jess Li!

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

Magnesium depletion by Candida albicans unleashes two unusual modes of colistin resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa with different fitness costs.

@hsiehyp.bsky.social, Robert Ernst lab, @ajaidandekar.bsky.social, my lab.

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

ipmb.sinica.edu.tw/en/activitie...

In collab w @hdashnow.bsky.social, we have a new preprint out on tandem repeat (TR) mutagenesis! Using HiFi sequencing, we profiled nearly 8 million TR loci across four generations of a large CEPH/Utah family and identified 1,270 de novo expansions and contractions.
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.

Check out this collaboration between Kellie Jurado’s lab and mine. We find that paternal immune activation reprograms the epididymis and, subsequently, small RNAs in sperm, which modulate post-fertilization embryonic gene expression and immunity in offspring in a sex-specific manner.

We just launched flyRoom — modern web-based stock management for Drosophila labs. No more spreadsheets, no more messy labels, no more lost stocks. Free to start, built by researchers for researchers.

www.flyroom.net

Introgression and parental conflict shape repeated occurrences of postzygotic isolation in Mimulus Postzygotic reproductive isolation is often thought to accumulate as a byproduct of neutral divergence. Yet it frequently evolves rapidly, in line wit…

I am SO THRILLED to share our first fully-lab lab paper!!!!!! Led by @hybridzones.bsky.social & @hagarsoliman.bsky.social, w/ a major assist from @pfschwarz.bsky.social!!!!!!!!!!!!! Read more below, if you're curious (you should be- it's AWESOME!!!!!!!)

link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Last week I attended #Dros26 and had a wonderful time. I saw so many creative approaches to uncover new Drosophila biology throughout the talks and poster sessions. Top-tier science!

Thank you @genetics-gsa.bsky.social for making my attendance possible by awarding me the DeLill Nasser Award!

Congrats Duilio on discovering the 1st Toxin-Antidote system in vertebrates! 🎉He single-handedly established the embryo project in my lab!👍

Quick plug for our new resource, the Drosophila Species Stock Exchange. This is a database and mailing list that documents species currently in culture and the labs holding them. If you want to know more or sign up then please get in touch. See attached for more info and please share!

Yay, George! Congrats!

The Sfeir Lab at MSKCC is hiring a Research Assistant!
We are looking for a motivated scientist with at least 2 years of research experience and a two-year commitment. Learn more about our work here www.sfeirlab.com, and message me your CV and cover letter if interested

@carabrand.bsky.social now on here!

🥰

Cara Brand Department of Genetics at Rutgers University

Cara will continue her work on coevolution between DNA satellites and essential host proteins in her new lab in the Dept of Genetics at Rutgers! See: genetics.rutgers.edu/people/facul...

So excited to share this manuscript led by the inimitable Cara Brand, who discovered that Topoisomerase II evolution causes hybrid female lethality in Drosophila.

Congrats to Cara, @nickbr0wn.bsky.social, Anirban, and
@buszczaklab.bsky.social!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Can we simulate realistic evolutionary trajectories and “replay the tape of life”? In this work, we propose a flexible, generalizable deep learning framework for modeling how the entire protein sequence evolves over time while capturing complex interactions across sites. 1/n
doi.org/10.64898/202...

Congrats Rebecca! So well-deserved!

Time-calibrated phylogeny of the family Drosophilidae showing major species groups, surrounded by representative adult flies that highlight the remarkable morphological diversity of this model insect group. The composite image was created using Microsoft PowerPoint. Fly photographs were taken by Darren J. Obbard and are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License with permission.

The #fly community aims to achieve a comprehensive genomic study of the Drosophilidae family. @pankajd.bsky.social @bernardkim.bsky.social @petrovadmitri.bsky.social @darrenobbard.bsky.social present a comparative gene annotation for 301 #Drosophilidae species @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4c3pyrI

Registration is open for the inaugural GRC conference in the Function of Evolving Systems. Aug 9-14, 2026, Waterville Valley. Truly stellar speaker lineup. Student/postdoc fellowships are available! Please come join us! www.grc.org/function-of-... @joybergelson.bsky.social

🔬 Recruiting a Postdoc!!!!
I’m looking for a motivated postdoc to join my lab and work on characterizing the role of a heterochromatin protein involved in a sex-ratio meiotic drive system in Drosophila.
If you know someone who might be interested, please share widely!