SETD2 aids gene definition by acting on both its beginning and end - yet in a gene specific way.
Proud of this new work from the lab! @uam-ibmib.bsky.social @emboreports.org #chromatin #RNAbiology

A pair of flies smashing their heads together with front legs clasped. The have black on the abdomen, brown on the thorax, and bright red eyes, They are fighting on the top of a mushroom.

The fight continues with the challengers evenly balanced. A pair of flies smashing their heads together with front legs clasped. The have black on the abdomen, brown on the thorax, and bright red eyes, They are fighting on the top of a mushroom.

The fight continues with the fly on the right seeming to gain an upper hand and pushing the fly on the left backwards. The fly on the right is putting all his might into the battle, back legs in the air. A pair of flies smashing their heads together with front legs clasped. The have black on the abdomen, brown on the thorax, and bright red eyes, They are fighting on the top of a mushroom.

The fly on the right emerges victorious with the fly on the left exiting toward the back of the scene. A pair of flies smashing their heads together with front legs clasped. The have black on the abdomen, brown on the thorax, and bright red eyes, They are fighting on the top of a mushroom.

We noticed these fruit flies are behaving like tiny big horn sheep of fly world so we went back today to see if I could get some photos of the action. Here you have it, a play in 4 acts! Make me wonder if they evolved the elongated eyes for this purpose.
Zygothrica sp.
Intag Refugio, Ecuador

Protein-templated synthesis of dinucleotide repeat DNA by an antiphage reverse transcriptase Defense-associated reverse transcriptases (DRTs) are widespread bacterial anti-phage systems that use unconventional mechanisms of polynucleotide synthesis. We show that DRT3, which comprises two dist...

Once in a while, we get the privilege to enjoy works like this:

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Stunning new landmark study from #HHMIInvestigator David Reich & team @harvardmed.bsky.social lets us watch human evolution in real time across 10,000 years, & what ~16,000 ancient genomes reveal is striking: Natural selection didn't stop when civilization began — it sped up: bit.ly/4ep7uJI.

I am so excited to share our new findings with you! We provide the structural evidence for a direct protein-to-DNA information pathway, showing how a bacterial enzyme 'reads' its own structure to 'write' DNA. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This is Achrioptera manga, a giant phasmid or stick insect native to Madagascar.

The specific epithet, "manga" means blue in Malagasy & it's not hard to see why. Only males are blue.

The tiny back wings ("alae") are an example of brachyptery: they're useless for flight, but have other functions.

Check this!

ChromSMF preprint is out!🚀
tinyurl.com/ChromSMF

We often piece together chromatin regulation layer by layer from separate assays. But this can be limiting!

In @arnaudkr.bsky.social's lab, we developed a method to directly study multiple layers on the same DNA molecule! 🧬

What does this unlock? ⬇️

New paper out in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: we apply linguistic tools to sperm whale vowels.

The result: sperm whale vowels do not just look like human vowels. They also behave like them.

We found several parallels. Like in Latin, whales have short and long vowels.

New paper in Genes & Dev: we dissected how Sox2 — a key pluripotency TF — is regulated by a distal enhancer cluster (SCR) 100 kb away. The results challenge simple models of cohesin-mediated loop extrusion of gene regulation. genesdev.cshlp.org/content/earl... 🧵

2′-O-Methylation maintains ribosome structural and translation integrity In eukaryotic ribosomes, ∼2% of RNA nucleotides undergo 2′-O-methylation, a conserved cellular mechanism thought to be critical for maintaining and re…

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Neuronal lipid droplets play a conserved and sex-biased role in maintaining whole-body energy homeostasis - Nature Metabolism In vivo regulation of neuronal lipid droplet formation mediates whole-body energy homeostasis in a sex-specific manner in Drosophila and mice.

Beyond delighted to share our amazing collaboration with Thierry Alquier's lab @alquierthierry.bsky.social on a conserved role for neuronal lipid droplets in regulating energy homeostasis in vivo led by Celena Cherian, Romane Manceau, Danie Majeur, and Colin Miller www.nature.com/articles/s42... /1

We (@sobuelow.bsky.social & @kejohansson.bsky.social) tested AF-CALVADOS using the recently described PeptoneBench SAXS benchmark that contains SAXS data for >400 proteins with different amounts of order and disorder. The results look pretty good 😇 so we are sharing here while updating the preprint📝

Run an MD simulation of any protein in the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database using AF-CALVADOS

Thanks to @sobuelow.bsky.social AF-CALVADOS is now on Colab

colab.research.google.com/github/KULL-...

RNA-specific local translation is patterned by condensates for multinucleate cell growth - Nature Cell Biology Geisterfer, Jalihal et al. show spatially distinct effects of Whi3 condensates on target translation in Ashbya syncytia. In vitro, translation is enriched at condensate–solute interfaces but repressed...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨 Why can’t mammals regenerate limbs like frog tadpoles or salamanders?
In our new paper in @science.org , we show that species-specific oxygen sensing acts as a gatekeeper for initiating limb regeneration 🐭🐸
🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #EvoDevo

In Memoriam: Professor Greg Hannon (1964–2026) - Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute Greg was already a world-renowned scientist when appointed Director, and for the community, he was a visionary leader, a cherished mentor, and a singular force of nature whose influence shaped the research landscape.

Very upsetting to hear the sad news of Greg Hannon’s passing. I always enjoyed our far too few conversations we had over the years. He had an interesting and insightful perspective on any science being discussed. He will be missed. www.cruk.cam.ac.uk/news/in-memo...

NAR breakthrough alert 🎉 Joint work with @mfeldbruegge.bsky.social on Rrm4. We dissect its modular RRM binding code & how domain combinations shape RNA interactions. Like finding needles in a haystack, comparative iCLIP sorts functional vs accessory sites. Work by Nina & @srimeenakshi.bsky.social

new Lai lab paper! Renfu Shang's study on mechanistic complexities of miRNA cluster assistance was online @genesdev.bsky.social earlier, but now finally in print. as a bonus, its featured by news and views from Cifuentes lab! 🧬

genesdev.cshlp.org/content/40/7...
genesdev.cshlp.org/content/40/7...

Han. M., Xia, B., Kim, A-R., Filine, E., Stoneburner, E., Miao, T., Liu, Y., Zirin, J. and Perrimon, N. (2026) Phage display-mediated immuno-PCR to detect low-abundance secreted proteins in Drosophila. PNAS. 14;123(15):e2531777123. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2531777123. PMID: 41941621

The critical role of OsYTH10 in promoting early flowering of rice under long sunlight

OsYTH10, an m6A reader protein in rice, binds mRNA 3′UTR regions via its YTH domain to stabilize OsDTH7 and OsGI transcripts. Knockout mutants showed early flowering under long-day conditions, revealing OsYTH10's role in m6A-mediated regulation of flowering time.

Chromatoid body integrates piRNA, SMG6 and m⁶A pathways to control mRNAs in the male germline www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...

#ToolsoftheTrade 🚨

Here, Yifan Zhang describes the development & use of FOCAS, a platform for site-specific, transcriptome-wide mapping of functional m6A RNA modifications, uncovering epitranscriptomic and epigenomic interactions that shape cancer cell fitness.

👇 📖

How do RNA molecules distinguish self from non-self?
#Drosophila

DisTAL-Seq: A TALEN-specific adaptation of DISCOVER-Seq for off-target profiling DisTAL-Seq extends the DISCOVER-Seq platform to enable genome-wide detection of TALEN-induced double-strand breaks in human cells. By incorporating TALEN-specific dimer architecture and binding-score ...

www.cell.com/molecular-th...

Our paper is now out in Science! Super excited to share our discovery that #mitochondria #pearling is the elusive mechanism driving the regular distribution and inheritance of #mtDNA nucleoids 🧬 [1/6]

APEX-seq maps transcriptome-wide subcellular RNA localization in living cells Nature Protocols - This Protocol describes the transcriptome-wide labeling of RNAs in a particular subcellular compartment using proximity biotinylation by localized APEX2 enzyme and subsequent...

Excited to share our @natprot.nature.com paper on using RNA proximity labeling to map subcellular RNA transcriptomes. We’ve been working in this area for a while and wanted to create a resource paper to guide the uninitiated reader. rdcu.be/fblvI

We’ve been talking in our lab meetings about sexual conflict and sexual dimorphism, and have some thoughts. What if animal genomes are far more sex-specific and less cosntrained than we assume? @linley-sherin.bsky.social pulled it all together here www.zoology.ubc.ca/mank-lab/pdf... 1/n

Adenosine deaminase acting on RNA-based RNA editing is improved when single guide RNAs imitate natural targets go.nature.com/4lx84GH
rdcu.be/fa3y6

The Origin and Evolution of Sex Peptide and Sex Peptide Receptor Interactions Abstract. Post-mating responses play a vital role in successful reproduction across diverse species. In fruit flies, sex peptide binds to the sex peptide r

This project actually took a long time. One of the first questions we studied using this idea was this paper, which used structural modeling and ancestral sequence reconstruction to examine ligand-receptor (sex peptide, SPR) evolution. academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... @official-smbe.bsky.social