Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Thomas Balan

sandraduharcourt.bsky.social @sandraduharcourt.bsky.social · 18d

Huge congratulations to Thomas on this well-deserved award. His PhD defense last week was outstanding too - a great moment. He’ll on the lookout for a postdoc position soon…spread the word!

Institut Jacques Monod @ijmonod.bsky.social · 19d

📣 Congratulations to @thomasbalan.bsky.social (@sandraduharcourt.bsky.social Lab) who won the Best Poster Award at the Gordon Research Epigenetics conference “Variation: Mechanisms and Impact across Systems”!

More informations 🔗 buff.ly/NhLWE6G

@cnrs-idf-villejuif.bsky.social @upcite.bsky.social

2 6

Reposted by Thomas Balan

Tobias Warnecke @tobiaswarnecke.bsky.social · Sep 8

Please re-post:

Interested in chromatin and its evolution? Good news! There's still time to join us in beautiful Catalonia (9-12 Dec) to discuss eukaryotic, bacterial, archaeal, and viral chromatin and how it all hangs together meetings.embo.org/event/24-evo...

Abstract deadline: 30 September

EvoChromo: Evolutionary approaches to research in chromatin

Chromatin is the complex of DNA, RNA and protein that is found making up the chromosomes in eukaryotic cells. Chromatin is essential for proper genome function and is involved in chromosome segregati…

meetings.embo.org

62 79

Thomas Balan @thomasbalan.bsky.social · Aug 26

👀

Institut Jacques Monod @ijmonod.bsky.social · Aug 26

📢 PhD Thesis defense

📅 Sept. 19th
📍 IJM

@thomasbalan.bsky.social ( @sandraduharcourt.bsky.social Lab ) will defend his PhD thesis "Characterization of proteins involved in the dynamics of histone modifications during programmed DNA elimination in Paramecium tetraurelia"

➡️ buff.ly/V8vzSsT

1 8

Reposted by Thomas Balan

Institut Jacques Monod @ijmonod.bsky.social · Aug 25

📢 Institut Jacques Monod Seminar

📅 September 18th
📍 Institut Jacques Monod

Invited by @sandraduharcourt.bsky.social’s lab, Peter Andersen ( @germline.bsky.social ) will give the IJM Seminar "Running to stand still – Recurrent innovation of animal germline genome regulation"

➡️ buff.ly/yaK2kTQ

5 10

Reposted by Thomas Balan

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology @natsmb.nature.com · Jun 17

New online: Binding of heterochromatin protein Rhino to a subset of piRNA clusters depends on a combination of two histone marks

Binding of heterochromatin protein Rhino to a subset of piRNA clusters depends on a combination of two histone marks

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 17 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41594-025-01584-8The authors reveal that, in fruit fly ovaries, the protein Rhino is guided to specific regions of the genome by a combination of two histone modifications, enhancing understanding of how cells protect their DNA from harmful virus-like elements.

go.nature.com

2 7

Reposted by Thomas Balan

Jack Bateman @jbateman01.bsky.social · Jun 1

Mechanisms and timing of programmed DNA elimination in songbirds www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Mechanisms and timing of programmed DNA elimination in songbirds

It is commonly assumed that multicellular organisms contain the same genetic information in all the cells of an individual. However, there is a growing list of species in which parts of the genome are...

www.biorxiv.org

1 10 23

Reposted by Thomas Balan

Svetlana Dodonova @dodonova-sveta.bsky.social · May 26

We’ve uncovered Asgard chromatin structures formed by a Hodarchaeal histone : closed hypernucleosome conserved in archaea and an open form resembling the H3-H4 eukaryotic octasome. Fantastic work by @harshranawat.bsky.social!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#Chromatin #Asgard #Archaea #cryoEM

13 100 240

Thomas Balan @thomasbalan.bsky.social · Apr 30

I add an amazing time last week at the Epigenetics 2025 meeting from the @gensocuk.bsky.social in sunny Belfast! Great discussions and insights on my PhD project! Also very honored to have been awarded the best poster prize!

1 2 12

Reposted by Thomas Balan

Maya Voichek @mayavoichek.bsky.social · Mar 17

1/ Transposable elements are often called "jumping genes" because they mobilize within genomes. 🧬
But did you know they can also jump 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 cells? 🤯
Our new study reveals how retrotransposons invade the germline directly from somatic cells.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A short thread 🧵👇

Drosophila follicle showing retrotransposons (pink & yellow) expressed in somatic cells infecting the oocyte

11 260 540

Thomas Balan @thomasbalan.bsky.social · Mar 18

🚨Cool new study from the lab neighbours! They look into two PAX proteins that orchestrate neuronal diversity!

bioRxiv Developmental Biology @biorxiv-devbio.bsky.social · Mar 12

Dual PAX3/7 transcriptional activities spatially encode spinal cell fates through distinct gene networks https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.11.642668v1

1 6

Thomas Balan @thomasbalan.bsky.social · Mar 12

Congrats Raphael!! 🎉

1

Reposted by Thomas Balan

Angélique Déléris @arabette.bsky.social · Jan 22

Our paper on Alternative epigenetic states of Arabidopsis Transposable Elements is finally out in Genome Biology !

rdcu.be/d6Yly

Alternative silencing states of transposable elements in Arabidopsis associated with H3K27me3

rdcu.be

6 19 31

Reposted by Thomas Balan

sandraduharcourt.bsky.social @sandraduharcourt.bsky.social · Jan 13

Our #Paramecium artwork is featured on the cover of #NAR! doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

1 9 30

Reposted by Thomas Balan

Nogales Lab @nogaleslab.bsky.social · Jan 8

Work led by graduate student @trinitycookis.bsky.social and coauthors Alexandria Lydecker, @paulsauer.bsky.social, and @kasinath-lab.bsky.social is out today where we looked at the inhibition of PRC2 by histone PTMs associated with regions of active transcription.

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

Structural basis for the inhibition of PRC2 by active transcription histone posttranslational modifications - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology

Structures reveal that histone H3K36me3 and H3K4me3 modifications reduce Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) function through the inhibition of histone tail engagement and antagonistic binding to the...

www.nature.com

2 36 95

Reposted by Thomas Balan

Olivia Charmant @oliviacharmant.bsky.social · Dec 18

A brief overview of my latest project in the Duharcourt lab, highlighted by @cnrs.bsky.social and a sneak peek in the head of an artist (aka my sister) inspired by Paramecium.

Tri sélectif des petits ARN : un enjeu pour préserver l’intégrité du génome

Dans un article publié dans Nucleic Acids Research, des scientifiques ont identifié un nouveau rôle pour la protéine

www.insb.cnrs.fr

1 8

Reposted by Thomas Balan

Emilia Dimitrova @edimitrova.bsky.social · Dec 12

We have had multiple discussions about why people have not previously observed the very dramatic reduction in transcription upon PNUTS depletion. So I looked at our own TT-seq data and analysed it without including the spike-in. The numbers speak for themselves! Spike-in calibration is important!

1 10 27

Thomas Balan @thomasbalan.bsky.social · Nov 25

Very cool new paper from the lab, delving into sRNAs selective degradation enabling TE control! Congrats @oliviacharmant.bsky.social 🎉🎉

sandraduharcourt.bsky.social @sandraduharcourt.bsky.social · Nov 25

For my first post here, I am happy to share that our latest paper is out at #NAR. Thanks for the smooth and constructive reviewing process and the highlight #RNAbiology #TEsky #smallRNAs (1/8)
doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

The PIWI-interacting protein Gtsf1 controls the selective degradation of small RNAs in Paramecium

Abstract. Ciliates undergo developmentally programmed genome elimination, in which small RNAs direct the removal of transposable elements (TEs) during the

doi.org

1 5

Reposted by Thomas Balan

Karim-Jean Armache @kjarmache.bsky.social · Nov 13

Please see our paper in Nature on read-write mechanisms of H2AK119 ubiquitination by Polycomb repressive complex I. Congrats to the whole team, especially Victoria and huge thanks to our collaborator JP Armache! Also big thanks to Mark Foundation for Cancer Research for the support! rdcu.be/dZ5HZ

Read–write mechanisms of H2A ubiquitination by Polycomb repressive complex 1

Nature - Cryo-electron microscopy and biochemical studies elucidate the read–write mechanisms of non-canonical PRC1-containing RYBP in histone H2A lysine 119 monoubiquitination and their...

rdcu.be

7 31 120