We are shaking our tissue culture lucky charm for you. We just got out of bad contamination, fingers crossed it won't come back 🤞

This paper is also a reminder of why I love comparative biology: sometimes, the most “minimal” systems reveal the clearest logic of how complex regulatory networks really work.

It turns out… a lot.
In Ectocarpus, this single ARGONAUTE integrates small-RNA pathways with germline fate determination, showing how deeply RNA silencing can be wired into developmental decisions.

Back in 2021, a simple question started this project for me:
Why do land plants have many ARGONAUTE genes (Arabidopsis has ~10), while brown algae have just one?
What does that single ARGONAUTE actually do?

Thank you to all the authors who made this work possible, and to Dr Susana Coelho for her role as co-corresponding author and for her contributions to the project.

We’re very happy to share this method with the community and hope it will be useful 🌿
If you try it out and your algae have opinions about it, we’re always happy to chat!

Importantly, the protocol is transferable across species, including Scytosiphon, and ecologically and economically important kelps such as Laminaria and Undaria.

As a proof of concept in Ectocarpus, we precisely edited the IMM locus and recapitulated the classic imm mutant phenotype with the early formation of upright filaments, providing a clear and reproducible developmental readout.

Building on previous great efforts, this work focuses on accessibility and scalability:
• transgene-free (Cas–RNPs)
• PEG-mediated delivery
• reproducible across loci (we recommend using multiple crRNAs!)
• no cloning or specialized equipment

A truly wonderful collaborative effort — huge thanks to all co-authors and collaborators for their ideas, experiments, and persistence 💙

Masakazu Hoshino, Morgane Raphalen, Viktoriia Bukhanets, Anagha Kerur, @kbogaert.bsky.social, Rémy Luthringer, and Susana Coelho.