In our mind a polymorphism is balanced in a species if it is 1) not neutral & 2) there is a force that slows down fixation and allows it to persist much longer than what is implied by how rapidly it can change frequency when common. In this way they don't need to be older than neutral alleles. 4/n

Don't be shy to take on a little two-week side project. These five months will be the most precious three years of your academic journey.

Feels like this paper on protein-templated DNA synthesis by a natural enzyme warrants some comment.
So here's a 🧵. /1
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I think it would be a bit of a stretch to put it that way. Drt3b is a kind of "machine for printing poly(AC)". It can only do that. It's hard to see how something like this could manage to write an arbitrary sequence, or even a more complex one, into DNA. /19

Face aux changements climatiques, Arabidopsis thaliana évolue vite et de façon prévisible Arabidopsis thaliana, plante modèle en biologie végétale, a été semée sur 43 sites, du désert du Néguev à la banlieue de Montpellier. Résultat de cette grande étude : dans des climats similaires, les ...

#Podcast Et pour (ré)écouter la chronique #AvecSciences du jour > Face aux changements climatiques, Arabidopsis thaliana évolue vite et de façon prévisible
Par @alexandradelbot.bsky.social via @franceculture.fr #ScienceCQFD
www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

Image issue de l'article. Une série de photos de plantes forme un cadre autour du texte suivant : PlantNet en quelques chiffres Application disponible en 54 langues 1,3 milliard d'images analysée depuis le lancement en 2013 85 000 plantes recensées dans l'application Plus de 1 400 publication scientifiques ont utilisé des données PlantNet

Avez-vous déjà utilisé @plantnet.bsky.social ?

Cette application permet d’identifier facilement des plantes. Mais c’est aussi un programme de recherche participative précieux pour les scientifiques !

Postdoctoral Researcher, Plant Population Genomics We are now looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join us in Ecology and Genetics Research unit at the Faculty of Science, University of Oulu. At the University of Oulu Ecology and Genetics Research

POSTDOCTORAL POSITION OPEN

I have a 17‑month postdoc position open in a Research Council of Finland–funded project entitled “Genomics of high‑latitude parallel adaptation”. In this project we use Eurasian Arabidopsis lyrata as model system.
Read more from: oulunyliopisto.varbi.com/what:job/job...

Tout le printemps, vous pouvez voir l'exposition "Plantes et Insectes" créée par l' @umontpellier.bsky.social, dans les médiathèques de la @strasbourg-eu.bsky.social. Une expo collaborative :  @plantoscope.bsky.social , Musée zoologique de Strasbourg, Jardin des sciences, et le Jardin botanique.

Testing Weismann’s germ plasm theory in Arabidopsis www.cell.com/current-biol... super nice lineage tracing work - do plants have a germline? @currentbiology.bsky.social

@meisebotanicgarden.bsky.social @hobzalab.bsky.social @tatianagiraud.bsky.social @sloanevolab.bsky.social

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
👇👇

Dynamics of Expression Variability Contribute to Retention of Small-Scale vs. Whole-Genome Duplicates Abstract. Genome analyses reveal that gene duplication in eukaryotes is pervasive, providing a primary source for the emergence of new genes. Nevertheless,

@haorancai.bsky.social and Des Marais investigated gene expression variability in duplicate genes, suggesting a mechanism facilitating gene expression divergence, functional gains, and duplicate retention following small-scale duplications.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag077

#genome #evolution

DBIO seminar on 'Why recombination hotspots'

Excited to welcome Dr. Julien Joseph to our next DBIO Seminar at @vubrussel.bsky.social 👉

“Why recombination hotspots?”

📅 20 April
🕑 14:00–15:00
📍 F.5.66

All welcome — hope to see you there!

#recombination #evolution #evolutionarygenetics #prdm9 #crossover

Selection for UPI in isogametic eukaryotes

The #evolution of sexes is closely tied to uniparental inheritance of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), where only females transmit mtDNA. A new #PhilTransB review explores why selection for mitochondrial quality drives the evolution of sexes: doi.org/10.1098/rstb... #genetics

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

Expert's Dilemma: the more specialized you become, the less open you are to creative solutions from other fields. But the more you explore other fields, the more you risk losing credibility in your home field.
(Night Science recap, Day 3)

Meeting details for the STN seminar, with speakers Alejandro Burga and Patrick Kennedy (both pictured).

Join us for another Internal Conflicts STN seminar next week Wednesday at 10:00 UTC! Speakers are @arburga.bsky.social and @patrick-kennedy.bsky.social. See internalconflictsstn.wordpress.com/seminars/.

Papaver S-determinants trigger mitochondrially derived ROS production and disrupt energy metabolism in incompatible pollen tubes Self-incompatibility triggers rapid disruption of mitochondrial function, resulting in mitochondrial H2O2 production, decreased respiration rate, and ATP d

Papaver S-determinants trigger mitochondrially derived ROS production and disrupt energy metabolism in incompatible pollen tubes (Ludi Wang , An-Shan Hsiao , José Carli , et al) doi.org/10.1093/plce... #PlantScience @aspbofficial @smirnoff-lab

Getting close to a robust pipeline for ARG inference for messy genomes.

1. get a vcf. Align short reads to a reference and GATK and pray, or use whole genome assemblies and github.com/baoxingsong/... followed by github.com/RILAB/argprep

Home – genomepanel_nf Nextflow pipeline for reference genome mapping, SNP calling and quality checks on large genome panels

Resequencing hundreds or thousands of individuals from the same species has become routine... but processing all those genomes efficiently? Still a headache!

Here's my solution that used to be lab-internal but that I am happy to share:

crolllab.github.io/genomepanel_...

Why some flowers have different forms of anthers & handedness: a commentary on ‘Functions of heteranthery and enantiostyly for wing pollination by pollen-collecting bees in Dilatris ixioides (Haemodoraceae)’ Using clever breeding experiments, Charles Darwin studied the intriguing sexual diversity and flower forms of indigenous flowering plants near his home in

🎉🆕📰🎉: Why some flowers have different forms of anthers & handedness: a commentary on ‘Functions of heteranthery and enantiostyly for wing pollination by pollen-collecting bees in Dilatris ixioides (Haemodoraceae)’
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

Quelle vue ! Quelle image !
Voici la Terre prise par Artemis II alors qu'ils étaient en éclipse (dans l'ombre de la Terre). C'est pourquoi pour une fois on voit les étoiles en fond, des aurores polaires et même les lumières des villes.
Le limbe saturé annonce la sortie d'éclipse.

My main gripe with the alphafold example is how it shows you need decades and decades of high quality data, well structured, open and accessible to train a model -- and yet they always gloss over it and pretend it's just AI and magic. No, we need to continuously invest in real data and FAIR data.

Diagram titled ‘Protein–Drug Prediction Task Breakdown’ showing a hierarchical tree of modeling tasks. Top branches include apo monomer and protein–protein interactions, with sub-branches such as ensembles, induced-fit models, multimers, folded–unfolded complexes, and protein–ligand complexes with mutation effects on binding. Additional branches include potency, ADMET properties (e.g., solubility and blood–brain barrier penetration), and kinetics (e.g., koff). A legend indicates model maturity levels: solid lines (established), dashed lines (promising), and dotted lines (untapped).

More protein-ligand data are needed for AlphaFold-like models (& AI/ML) to enable prospective design!

Check out our piece in "Current Opinion in Structural Biology" – Equal parts a thank-you-letter to the PDB & summarizes how datasets will enable task-focused models!

Link: doi.org/10.1016/j.sb...

People keep asking me if I use AI to make writing easier. And I keep telling them: I do not want it to be easier.

Whenever I have done any good work, it's because I either thought about it a LOT or I have inadvertently spent ten years thinking about it so it comes easy. The thinking is the point.

The Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction (CASP) experiment is calling for prediction targets: Immune Complexes, Organic Ligand-Protein Complexes, Nucleic Acids and Complexes, Conformational Ensembles, Difficult Protein Structures and Complexes. Rule of Thumb: If AlphaFold3 can generate a high-quality model, it is likely not a CASP-grade challenge. If it struggles, we want it.

Is #AI hitting a plateau in structure prediction? Help us find out at CASP17! 🧪🧬

Calling for Targets: Immune Complexes, protein - ligand complexes, RNA/DNA, conformational ensembles, membrane proteins, viral origins, and large complexes.

The Rule of Thumb: If AF3 can’t model it, we want it.

📢 MicroRNA folks :
We are looking for RNA-seq data comparing transcriptomes of mutants in which one particular miRNA locus of the genome was inactivated (by e.g. a tDNA insertion or by CRISPR) with their wt controls. Any hint ?

Happy to share a new book I edited: Plant Hormones: Methods and Protocols 🌱

It covers a wide range of techniques in hormone biology, from foundational methods to newer molecular approaches, with step-by-step protocols and practical guidance.

Hope it will be helpful