Preprint Alert! 🦥
We produced complete genomes for 2 Xenarthra and placed them in a mammalian comparative framework. We found that Xenarthra harbour the largest number of retrocopies in mammals! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Meet Amjad Khalaf – who has spent his PhD panning for parasite DNA, allowing him to create a goldmine of information for the research community🔎

Amjad shares what first brought him to the Sanger Institute, his research and what he is dreaming about next:
sangerinstitute.blog/2025/07/29/s...

it's really an honour to be interviewed by the wonderful @carmcdhume.bsky.social -- a huge thank you! ❤️🫂

it was so so lovely to do this together! 🇭🇷❤️🇵🇸

If you’re curious about Microsporidia, polyploidy, or assembling cobionts from non-target organisms — please check out our preprint! A HUGE thank you to my wonderful coauthors, and my supervisors @mblaxter.bsky.social and @marakat.bsky.social

The tetraploid genomes that we see are consistent with autopolyploidy, not allopolyploidy. While we’re unable to place the timing of polyploidisation events in Microsporidia, we propose that tetraploidy is a shared & ancient event in the group, with diploid lineages representing “reduced” forms.

Using the Hi-C data, we find that a tetraploid microsporidian genome is organised into two diploid compartments, likely the two nuclei in a diplokaryon. We also see evidence of recombination both within and between the two compartments - providing evidence for a sexual cycle in Microsporidia.

New preprint! We generate 40 new high-quality microsporidian genomes from infected arthropod hosts that were sequenced to create reference genomes by the Darwin Tree of Life project. 8 of our genomes are chromosome-level, and we’re able to generate Hi-C data for 7! 🧬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Struggling to find the tiny microchromosomes in draft bird genome assemblies?

Our new #preprint introducing MicroFinder can help: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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@sangerinstitute.bsky.social