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The @vbcscitraining.bsky.social is looking a PhD Program Manager! Needless to say this is an incredible important position. So please apply if you want to help us find, recruit and train the next generation of scientists!

RT appreciated!

3 weeks ago 8 8 0 1
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Pleased to announce two new publications, in Current Biology and PNAS, from outstanding postdoc Delai (Dylan) Huang, just a week before he leaves to start his new faculty position at Zhejiang University.

3 weeks ago 42 15 3 1
Left: Embryo of Thalia democratica collected in the Bay of Villefranche-sur-Mer. Hoechst (blue); inverted transmitted light (magenta). Image credit: Marie Lebel. Right: Young oozooid of Thalia democratica collected in the Bay of Villefranche-sur-Mer. Phalloidin (green); Hoechst (blue). Image credit: Léa Bastid-Solinas.

Left: Embryo of Thalia democratica collected in the Bay of Villefranche-sur-Mer. Hoechst (blue); inverted transmitted light (magenta). Image credit: Marie Lebel. Right: Young oozooid of Thalia democratica collected in the Bay of Villefranche-sur-Mer. Phalloidin (green); Hoechst (blue). Image credit: Léa Bastid-Solinas.

The development of #salps differs from that of #ascidians in the presence of maternal cells called calymmocytes. This study of #embryogenesis in 2 salp species identifies distinct cleavage patterns & blastomere positioning, informing the study of their #evolution @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4bscc6j

1 month ago 14 5 0 1

Super proud of Tanya receiving the @gfeev.bsky.social PhD Award. Very well deserved!

1 month ago 24 4 0 0

Basically "Working out at the airport"

We ran a special issue on fun and play in animals back in 2015 www.cell.com/current-biol...

1 month ago 18 3 1 0

Division of labor between ERK and Notch signaling coordinates distinct stem cell populations during jellyfish tentacle regeneration www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...

1 month ago 4 2 0 0

A chromosome-level reference genome for the colonial marine hydrozoan Podocoryna americana www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...

1 month ago 3 2 1 0

Congratulations!

1 month ago 3 0 1 0
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Thrilled to share that our preprint has been accepted in Science Advances! Grateful to an incredible team & collaborators.

Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

👏 @annaferraioli.bsky.social @maikekittelmann.bsky.social
@msarscentre.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu @hfspo.bsky.social #ctenophores

1 month ago 69 17 2 2

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)

1 month ago 380 152 16 15
Morphological, molecular, and functional evidence for a CNS-like oral nerve ring in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis The emergence of centralized nervous systems reflects a major inflection point in evolution, enabling animals to integrate diverse inputs and coordinate complex behaviors. Neural centralization is typically associated with Bilateria, whereas their sister group, Cnidaria (jellyfish, anemones, and corals), has long been thought to rely on diffuse nerve nets mediating simple reflexes. This view, reinforced by limited anatomical and molecular data, has left unresolved whether cnidarians can form localized centers for neural processing, a question sharpened by the growing recognition of their diverse behavioral repertoires. Here we show that the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis possesses an oral nerve ring composed of ganglion-like condensations, a hallmark of centralized organization. These neurons are enriched for excitatory, inhibitory, and modulatory receptors but lack sensory or ciliary markers, yielding a molecular profile most consistent with bilaterian interneurons. Genetic disruption of a conserved inhibitory receptor subunit predominantly expressed in the oral nerve ring delayed the initiation of swallowing in a novel feeding paradigm, demonstrating a potential role in behavioral regulation. Together, these findings provide converging anatomical, molecular, and functional evidence that cnidarians can assemble localized integrative centers, suggesting that key elements of neural centralization predated the cnidarian–bilaterian split. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Stowers Institute for Medical Research

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

2 months ago 9 2 1 0

We are thrilled to share our new pre-print: “System-wide extraction of cis-regulatory rules from sequence-to-function models in human neural development”. S2F-deeplearning models can accurately encode enhancers, yet decoding these models into human-interpretable rules remains a major challenge.

3 months ago 44 21 1 1
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Exciting news to start the new year! We’re thrilled to see this work finally out in @natecoevo.nature.com, the result of a major collaboration between my lab and the labs of Veronica Hinman and Nacho Maeso, began many years ago with the dear José Luis Gómez-Skarmeta.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

3 months ago 41 16 1 3

Never thought I'd be on #spotify, but here we are. More on our findings here: doi.org/10.1073/pnas....
#Ctenophora @unibergen.bsky.social

4 months ago 13 3 0 0
Top:  The phylogenetic position of Nematostella and localization of Vasa2 +/Piwi1+ cells within the juvenile polyp body plan. (A) Simplified phylogenetic tree highlighting the phylogenetic position of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis and other animal taxa relevant for this study. All animal silhouettes are licensed under CC0,1.0 Universal Public domain and taken from https://www.phylopic.org. (B–D) Schematics showing the localization of Vasa2+/Piwi1+ cells in a juvenile polyp, depicted in longitudinal (B) or cross-section (C, D). (E) Schematic representation of the multipotent, Vasa2+/Piwi1+ stem/progenitor cell population and a simplified summary of their germinal and somatic progeny. (F) Schematics of cell cycle phases, highlighting the incorporation of EdU during S-phase (black line) and the phosphorylation of Histone H3 (pH3+) during metaphase. Bottom: Confocal image of two Vasa+/Piwi+ stem-like cells in the inner epithelial folds of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis. Immunolabelling of mOrange2-Piwi1 fusion protein (yellow) in a transgenic knock-in line combined with nuclear stain (white). Image credit: Paula Miramón-Puértolas.

Top: The phylogenetic position of Nematostella and localization of Vasa2 +/Piwi1+ cells within the juvenile polyp body plan. (A) Simplified phylogenetic tree highlighting the phylogenetic position of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis and other animal taxa relevant for this study. All animal silhouettes are licensed under CC0,1.0 Universal Public domain and taken from https://www.phylopic.org. (B–D) Schematics showing the localization of Vasa2+/Piwi1+ cells in a juvenile polyp, depicted in longitudinal (B) or cross-section (C, D). (E) Schematic representation of the multipotent, Vasa2+/Piwi1+ stem/progenitor cell population and a simplified summary of their germinal and somatic progeny. (F) Schematics of cell cycle phases, highlighting the incorporation of EdU during S-phase (black line) and the phosphorylation of Histone H3 (pH3+) during metaphase. Bottom: Confocal image of two Vasa+/Piwi+ stem-like cells in the inner epithelial folds of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis. Immunolabelling of mOrange2-Piwi1 fusion protein (yellow) in a transgenic knock-in line combined with nuclear stain (white). Image credit: Paula Miramón-Puértolas.

How do animals with lifelong growth modulate cell #proliferation? @eudaldpascual.bsky.social @ktgarschall.bsky.social @prhsteinmetz.bsky.social show that starvation induces G1/G0 #CellCycle arrest in Vasa2+/Piwi1+ #SeaAnemone cells; cycle re-entry is TOR-dependent @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/48J2o6P

4 months ago 17 11 0 0
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Ectopic head regeneration after nervous system ablation in a sea anemone Via genetic ablation of neurons, Mazloumi Gavgani et al. show that the nervous system is essential for defining axial polarity during whole-body regeneration in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis.

Our paper on the role of neurons in Nematostella head regeneration is now out at @currentbiology.bsky.social Big thank you to all collaborators, it was a pleasure!

Ectopic head regeneration after nervous system ablation in a sea anemone: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

5 months ago 92 39 1 4
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Glad to see our phoronid genome study featured on the cover of @currentbiology.bsky.social! It shows how genome structure can be used to test competing hypotheses of nested topology and how derived structural changes provide evidence for monophyly.

www.cell.com/current-biol...

5 months ago 36 10 0 1

Here we go again 😄

5 months ago 2 0 1 0
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Metamorphosis in Schizocardium californicum drives dramatic reorganization of cell types, with adult structures forming through transcriptional reprogramming of larval cells rather than their wholesale replacement.

@paul.bump.bsky.social
@lowelab.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

5 months ago 32 4 0 1
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Single-nucleus profiling highlights the all-brain echinoderm nervous system A sea urchin is a head with a brain-like organization and a vertebrate-type retinal signature.

Our study, just published in #ScienceAdvances and funded by @hfspo.bsky.social, explores the post metamorphic cell composition of the sea urchin juvenile, revealing that its body is head-like. Long considered brainless creatures, they’re all brain instead!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

5 months ago 60 27 4 3

Woop-woop! Congratulations!

5 months ago 1 0 1 0
Sea star embryo development. Blimp1 mRNA expression localizes at the oocyte's vegetal site, similar to Vasa and Wnt, important genes for germline formation.

Sea star embryo development. Blimp1 mRNA expression localizes at the oocyte's vegetal site, similar to Vasa and Wnt, important genes for germline formation.

#DBfeature #EvoDevo

mRNA splicing variants of the transcription factor Blimp1 differentially regulate germline genes in echinoderms

"Each Blimp1 isoform has distinct functions within & between species"

by Gerardo Reyes, Nathalie Oulhen, Gary Wessel
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

5 months ago 7 3 0 0

More pictures of the brilliance that is (lab manager) Aida de la Cruz with her creation.

5 months ago 166 33 5 2

A nice survey of membrane tags in a variety of EvoDevo models (also featuring Nematostella). Thanks to @michalis-averof.bsky.social for the invitation.

5 months ago 7 0 0 0
Figure 8 - Working model for regeneration in H. diminuta. Overlapping regions at the head (blue bars) play two contrasting roles: proliferation and proglottidization rate are negatively regulated whereas GR maintenance is positively regulated. βcat1 expression is posteriorly biased and βcat1 is necessary to maintain stem cells in the GR, which are required for proglottid regeneration. Expression of sfrp is anteriorly biased and sfrp is necessary to maintain GR length. Signals that may link the head/brain/anterior GR to βcat1 and sfrp expression or activity remain to be identified. Serial amputation within the GR revealed increased failure to regenerate the GR and proglottids (yellow cross) at intermediate distances forming a tipping point zone that is refractory to regeneration (black shading). Both smaller and larger fragments amputated outside of the black region regenerated equivalently (green ticks).

Figure 8 - Working model for regeneration in H. diminuta. Overlapping regions at the head (blue bars) play two contrasting roles: proliferation and proglottidization rate are negatively regulated whereas GR maintenance is positively regulated. βcat1 expression is posteriorly biased and βcat1 is necessary to maintain stem cells in the GR, which are required for proglottid regeneration. Expression of sfrp is anteriorly biased and sfrp is necessary to maintain GR length. Signals that may link the head/brain/anterior GR to βcat1 and sfrp expression or activity remain to be identified. Serial amputation within the GR revealed increased failure to regenerate the GR and proglottids (yellow cross) at intermediate distances forming a tipping point zone that is refractory to regeneration (black shading). Both smaller and larger fragments amputated outside of the black region regenerated equivalently (green ticks).

Signals from the head and germinative region differentially regulate regeneration competence of the tapeworm Hymenolepis diminuta

Read this #LifelongDevSI #OA Research Article by Elise McCollough Nanista, Tania Rozario & colleagues @ugaresearch.bsky.social:

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

6 months ago 1 1 0 0
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We are happy to share our latest work in @nature.com . We study the genomic and cellular basis of facultative symbiosis in Oculina patagonica - a Mediterranean coral remarkable for its ability to survive long periods without algal symbionts. Led by Shani Levy and @xgrau.bsky.social
rdcu.be/eLbaZ

6 months ago 134 48 5 2

Congratulations, Océane!

6 months ago 1 0 1 0
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Cool-cool-cool

6 months ago 3 0 0 0

Hi, can someone point me to good commercial polyclonal anti-FMRF amide antibody, which is not from rabbit? Ideally, tested on cnidarians. Thanks in advance!

6 months ago 1 0 0 0
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Dual Bmp-negative feedback loops modulate function of both AER and ZPA to buffer and constrain postaxial digit number | PNAS Several lines of evidence indicate that posterior (postaxial) digit number in tetrapod vertebrates is constrained to the pentadactyl state by inter...

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

6 months ago 1 0 0 0