Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Cécile Courret

Genetics Society of America @genetics-gsa.bsky.social · Jul 16

📢 Call for Papers! #GENETICS and #G3journal invite submissions on selfish genetic elements—from meiotic drive to Wolbachia, B-chromosomes, and other inheritance systems. Empirical & theoretical work welcome!

🗓️ Deadline: October 1
🔗Learn more & submit your research: buff.ly/k8DEw2N

5 1

Reposted by Cécile Courret

ching-hochang.bsky.social @ching-hochang.bsky.social · Jul 11

I’m thrilled to announce the launch of the Evolution of Chromosomes and Genomes (ECG) Lab at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. Our lab website is now live—come check it out! sites.google.com/view/ecg-lab...

ECG LAB

"The only constant in life is change." — Heraclitus Genetic conflicts — the good, the bad, and the ugly — shape our lives over time We aim to understand why even the most essential genes and chrom...

sites.google.com

2 7 12

Cécile Courret @cecilecourret.bsky.social · Jun 26

Merci Vincent 😁 !

Reposted by Cécile Courret

Trends in Genetics @cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social · Jun 16

"Selfish B chromosome evades genome elimination"
by Cécile Courret (@cecilecourret.bsky.social)

This Spotlight highlights recent work by Laura Ross (@laurarossevo.bsky.social) & colleagues in GBE (@genomebiolevol.bsky.social).

FREE till Aug 5th with this link:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lH50cQbJF...

Figure 1. (A) During male meiosis, mealybugs undergo paternal genome elimination (PGE), where paternally inherited chromosomes become heterochromatinized and are excluded into degenerating nuclei, while maternally inherited chromosomes are retained in functional sperm.

(B) During female meiosis, the B chromosome follows standard Mendelian inheritance. In males, when maternally inherited, it behaves like other maternal chromosomes and is transmitted through functional sperm. Strikingly, when paternally inherited, the B chromosome escapes elimination by decondensing during meiosis, adopting a euchromatic state similar to that of maternal chromosomes, and co-segregates with them into the functional sperm nucleus.

9 7

Reposted by Cécile Courret

Trends in Genetics @cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social · Apr 4

A selfish gene in Drosophila has met its match: Trailblazer.

“An innovation in host responses to escalating genomic conflicts”
by @emilianomarti.bsky.social & Amanda Larracuente

highlights work from @peiwei-chen.bsky.social et al in PNAS.

FREE till May 24 at
authors.elsevier.com/a/1ktQOcQbJF...

7 9

Cécile Courret @cecilecourret.bsky.social · Apr 10

We’re excited to feature two outstanding invited speakers:
🎤 Antoine Molaro (antoinemolaro.bsky.social)
🎤 Laura Ross (laurarossevo.bsky.social)

1 2

Cécile Courret @cecilecourret.bsky.social · Apr 10

Join us at ESEB 2025 in Barcelona!

I'm thrilled co-organize a symposium with Beatriz Navarro Domínguez (bioevolbea.bsky.social) on "Genetic conflict: Evolutionary and Genomic consequences"
eseb2025.com/list-of-symp...

Submit your abstracts by April 25, 2025 — don’t miss out! eseb2025.bsky.social

2 5 4

Cécile Courret @cecilecourret.bsky.social · Feb 18

Thank you Peiwei !

Cécile Courret @cecilecourret.bsky.social · Feb 13

I am thrilled to share the news that I've been offered a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoc fellowship to work on genomic conflict in Drosophila #MSCA

2 1 45

Reposted by Cécile Courret

PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · Jan 16

Pericentromeric #heterochromatin clusters into chromocenters. @skrutlnize.bsky.social &co use quantitative mass spec to characterize the chromocenter proteome in multiple tissues, identifying a link between satellite DNA-binding proteins & #transposon repression🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/4akuNAi

Loss of D1 during embryogenesis triggers transposon expression in adult ovaries. Top: Ovaries from the indicated genotypes (D1 and aubergine mutants and heterozygotes, F1 and F2) were stained with Vasa (green) and DAPI (magenta). Bottom: RNA in situ hybridization against Copia (green) and total polyadenylated mRNA (blue) was performed in ovaries of the indicated genotypes that were also stained for DAPI (magenta). Yellow and black arrowheads indicate undifferentiated germ cells in the aubergine mutant germarium.

1 10 14

Reposted by Cécile Courret

Martijn Schenkel @martijnschenkel.bsky.social · Jan 13

Happy to announce that ESEB 2025 will feature a symposium on the evolution in and of diverse genetic systems! See eseb2025.com/list-of-symp... for more info and the full list of accepted symposia (so many cool things happening!) [1/2]

List of Symposia – ESEB 2025. Congress of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology. Barcelona. Spain

eseb2025.com

1 2 6

Reposted by Cécile Courret

Martijn Schenkel @martijnschenkel.bsky.social · Jan 9

Join us next week Thursday at 14:00 UTC for another seminar of the Internal Conflicts and Organismal Adaptation STN! John Werren and Bengt Bengtsson will discuss the early days of studying internal conflicts and selfish genetic elements. See internalconflictsstn.wordpress.com/seminars for more info.

Seminars

Seminar 9 John Werren (University of Rochester): Cooperating on Conflict: Selfish Genetic Elements, Heritable Microbes, and Genetic Conflicts. Bengt O. Bengtsson (Lund University): Decade…

internalconflictsstn.wordpress.com

3 2

Cécile Courret @cecilecourret.bsky.social · Jan 9

Congratulations 🎉

1

Cécile Courret @cecilecourret.bsky.social · Dec 9

Thank you Floria!

Cécile Courret @cecilecourret.bsky.social · Nov 26

Thank you Peter!

Cécile Courret @cecilecourret.bsky.social · Nov 26

Thank you!

1

Cécile Courret @cecilecourret.bsky.social · Nov 21

Our new paper on the rapid evolution of centromeres in Drosophila is out! 🚀 Discover how transposable elements and satellite DNAs shape centromere dynamics and drive karyotype evolution over short timescales. @amlarracuente.bsky.social 🌟 Check it out here: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Turnover of retroelements and satellite DNA drives centromere reorganization over short evolutionary timescales in Drosophila

Centromeres reside in rapidly evolving, repeat-rich genomic regions, despite their essential function in chromosome segregation. This study of centromere evolution over short evolutionary timescales i...

journals.plos.org

3 28 57

Reposted by Cécile Courret

Karolin Luger @nucleosomepolice.bsky.social · Nov 18

Our paper on the strange ATP-dependent chromatin remodeler Smarcad1 paper is out and freely accessible. Differential regulation of its many activities by phosphorylation. Congrats to Briana and @nhoitsma.bsky.social 🧪https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021925824023950?via%3Dihub

Phosphorylation regulates the chromatin remodeler SMARCAD1 in nucleosome binding, ATP hydrolysis, and histone exchange

Maintaining the dynamic structure of chromatin is critical for regulating the cellular processes that require access to the DNA template, such as DNA …

www.sciencedirect.com

4 34 140

Reposted by Cécile Courret

Barbara Mellone 🇺🇦 @centromellone.bsky.social · Nov 18

Our paper on a centromere-enriched retroelement is out! link.springer.com/article/10.1... Congratulations to all the authors! Comments and reposts welcome and appreciated 🧬🔬

Transcription of a centromere-enriched retroelement and local retention of its RNA are significant features of the CENP-A chromatin landscape - Genome Biology

Background Centromeres depend on chromatin containing the conserved histone H3 variant CENP-A for function and inheritance, while the role of centromeric DNA repeats remains unclear. Retroelements are...

link.springer.com

4 45 80