A new study shows how different regulatory genetic elements control when a key developmental gene is active in the body.
The findings could explain subtle differences seen in patients with congenital limb malformations, for which the underlying disease mechanisms often remain unknown.
Pictures from Fanny Martinez Real and Stefan Mundlos🙏
This year, the annual symposium of my Chaire @college-de-france.fr will be on The Evolution of Developmental Mechanisms. An impressive lineup of speakers and weirds animals, including humans. Free entrance and coffee breaks. Come, have a seat, relax and enjoy the best possible basic science🤘RT🙏
🚨 Job Alert - Please share! 🙏
Interested in 3D gene regulation in development & evolution? 🤓🧬
💥 Our lab at @cabd-upo-csic.bsky.social is expanding!
We’re recruiting:
✅ PhD students
✅ Postdocs
💻🧪 Experimental or computational backgrounds welcome
👇 Details below
🤩💪 Out now! 3D regulatory hubs in sex determination
With @mamartirenom.bsky.social & Capel labs, led by @imotagom.bsky.social & @jrotwitguez.bsky.social
1️⃣ METALoci – explore #3DGenome 🧬
2️⃣ Non-coding region controlling Fgf9 🧩
3️⃣ Meis genes = new key players 🌟
👉 rdcu.be/e5sm2
1/n Bluetorial 👇
Glad to serve on the committee for such inspiring research. Bravo @unger-lucas.bsky.social 👏
Brainwashing, 2026 edition. This paper shows how X's algorithmic feed shifts people's views rightwards. It's a sophisticated, highly effective form of reorientation. And it is utterly chilling.
If you're still on that platform, unhook yourself now.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🚨 1/ Preprint Alert!
Sex determination outcome is conserved across vertebrates (i.e. generating 2 compatible sexes) ♀️♂️
But are the cell types and gene programs behind them conserved too? 🧬
Spoiler: not really 👀
Find out in our new preprint ⬇️
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Very sad news. Gail Martin (1944-2026) was a figure in developmental biology. She pioneered the field of ES cells.
A great colleague, a friend and a lovely person.
Interested in transcriptional regulation, enhancers and 3D genome folding?
In this new study we wondered about the role of cohesin loading at enhancers for long-range transcriptional control
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
detailed 🧵👇
Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science! #11F #NoMoreMatildas 🧑💻🧑🔬🧑🏫🧑🔧🧑⚕️
I love this portrait of a scientist so much. Portrait of Dr Bouchard, by Tamara de Lempicka, 1928
Thanks Justin!
Thanks Patrick!
🧬 We’re #Hiring a #Bioinformatician/ Computational Biologist!
#Single-cell genomics, #Epigenomics & #3Dgenome biology in #Zebrafish #DevBio 🐟
📍 @cabd-upo-csic.bsky.social, CABD, Seville (Spain)
🕒 Full-time, 3-year position (start March 2026)
📅 Apply by Feb 15, 2026
👉 drive.google.com/file/d/1M8rp...
Did you ever wonder how gene expression, once activated, it's maintained for a precise period of time before being decommissioned? Happy to present the final version of our manuscript on the discovery of regulatory trajectories, just published in Nat. Comms: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
1/14
This finding raises fundamental questions about how regulatory landscape decommissioning shapes gene expression patterns and organogenesis in vivo. Is the silencing of transcription just as tightly regulated and important as its initiation in vivo? 11/n
Observing decommissioned cells in the distal limb led us to hypothesize that Hox13 induces Shox2 decommissioning. Consistently, overexpressing Hoxd13 in the Shox2 domain triggered Shox2 decommissioning and extensive HOXD13 binding at Shox2 enhancers. 10/n
In cells that have silenced Shox2 transcription, termed decommissioned cells, we observed a loss of enhancer-promoter (E-P) interactions and rapid decrease in H3K27ac at enhancers.
9/n
These findings demonstrate the relevance of early and late enhancer repertoires and open fundamental questions on how their activities are integrated to form complex gene expression pattern. 8/n
In contrast, removing late and common enhancers precludes the maintenance of Shox2 expression at late limb stage, increasing decommissioned Shox2 cells. 7/n
Removing 25% of early enhancers (7 out of 26) delays Shox2 transcription onset in limbs, yet levels normalize at later stages.
6/n
At the Shox2 locus, we've identified early, common, and late acting enhancers, also noting that their chromatin interactions with Shox2 align with their window of activity. 5/n
To our surprise, digits 4 and 5 first emerged from limb progenitors that transiently expressed Shox2, a gene controlling proximal limb bone formation, demonstrating that early limb progenitors can express proximal markers before repressing them and transitioning to a distal fate. 4/n
Using one of these genes, Shox2, as a model, we employed a recorder transgenic system, tracking cells through their active, inactive, and decommissioned (that have stopped to express Shox2) states over developmental time. 3/n
We've found that numerous limb loci have unique early and late enhancer repertoires. 2/n
Our work on #RegulatoryTrajectories is out today in Nat. Comms: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Led by @raquelrouco.bsky.social, this study establishes a new framework to study how enhancer landscapes act sequentially at developmental loci and are silenced to shape gene expression patterns. (1/n)
Our preprint "Predictive design of tissue-specific mammalian enhancers that function in vivo in the mouse embryo" is on bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... . Amazing collaboration by @shenzhichen1999.bsky.social, Vincent Loubiere (@impvienna.bsky.social,@viennabiocenter.bsky.social),... (1/2)
Another elegant study on the SWI/SNF complex from our wonderful neighbors in the Braun Lab. Congratulations to the team!
We recently reported that promoter competition can contribute to the robust insulation of gene regulatory domains (www.nature.com/articles/s41...).
We now offer a 4-years PhD contract to investigate whether the dirsuption of this regulatory mechanism can lead to congenital defects. More details 👇
Why fundamental research is fundamental to progress, seeding major breakthroughs
Editorial @nature.com this week
And 7 basic science discoveries that changed the world
nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com/articles/d41...