Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

Chloe Girard, PhD @chloegirard.bsky.social · 9d

🚨 First pre-print from my team !!

TL;DR: presence of polymorphism (sequence differences between the homologous chromosomes) can *increase* the local rate of recombination in Arabidopsis thaliana, turning cold regions of the genome hot (purple v. grey) !

The recombination frequency (cM/Mb) along chromosome 4 of A. thaliana (female meiosis).

In full hybrids (grey), where polymorphism is distributed all along chromosomes, most crossovers occur in the regions surrounding the Centromere (Cen), and very few at chromosome ends (Tel: telomeres).

In lines where polymorphism is restricted to chromosome ends (purple), the local recombination rate increases drastically, at the expense of the non-polymorphic regions (yellow).

3 16 44

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

Pierre Baduel @pierrebaduel.bsky.social · 22d

Happy to share the results of a long-haul post-doc project, now online @science.org, aiming at understanding the rules of transgeneration epigenetic inheritance over TEs in plants and its extent and impact in nature. More below!
doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Transposable elements are vectors of recurrent transgenerational epigenetic inheritance

DNA methylation loss at transposable elements (TEs) can affect neighboring genes and be epigenetically inherited in plants, yet the determinants and significance of this additional system of inheritan...

doi.org

8 38 62

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

Júlia Portell Montserrat @julsportell.bsky.social · 23d

My first first-author paper is out!🎉
Here we propose a model where a silencing complex, PIWI*, assembles on target RNAs to recruit effectors and shut down transposon activity.
Huge thanks to the Brennecke and Plaschka labs, especially Julius and Clemens, and all co-authors!

Julius Brennecke @juliusbrennecke.bsky.social · 23d

PIWI clade Argonautes are essential for transposon silencing. Without them, animals are sterile due to massive transposon activity.

But how does piRNA-guided target interaction translate into silencing?

PhD student Júlia Portell Montserrat has an intriguing answer

www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

3 20 48

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

NGS Analysis Center at the University of Regensburg @nac-regensburg.bsky.social · Aug 29

🚀 Checkout our new #nextflow MNase-pipeline nucDetective

Features:
✅ MNase QC analysis
✅ high resolution nucleosome maps
✅ detect nucleosome dynamics
✅ multi-condition comparison
✅ nucleosme-repeat-length

Try it here: github.com/uschwartz...
1/2

1 1 4

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

Chris Oostenbrink @mms-boku.bsky.social · Aug 25

BOKU University in Vienna is recruiting a full professor for Biochemistry! Check out the description below, apply and join us in beautiful Vienna.
@bokuvienna.bsky.social
🧪🧪🧪

short.boku.ac.at/53e6g6

Biochemie / Biochemistry::BOKU

short.boku.ac.at

1 14 11

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

Alex Webb Lab @alexwebblab.bsky.social · Aug 24

Further evidence that sugar in the plates changes the plant biology you study. Best to avoid putting sugar in the agar, unless you want to study what sugar in the agar does to plants. This paper uses sugar in the agar to study what sugar does. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #plantresearch

A multisensor high-temperature signaling framework for triggering daytime thermomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis - Nature Communications

Plants encounter high temperatures concomitantly with intense sunlight during the daytime. Here, the authors reveal a concerted chloroplast and nucleus high-temperature signaling framework that gates ...

www.nature.com

2 22 64

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

carogutj.bsky.social @carogutj.bsky.social · Aug 23

Attention plant proteomics specialists: We are looking for a Head of our new Proteomics Unit at our international and dynamic Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology. @mpi-mp-potsdam.bsky.social Applications are welcome until 30. Sept 2025: jobs.mpimp-golm.mpg.de/jobposting/8...

Head of Service Unit Proteomics

jobs.mpimp-golm.mpg.de

54 36

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

Josefa González @gonzalezlabbcn.bsky.social · Aug 22

Thanks for sharing! All activities were spearheaded by Roberto Torres @lcatmon.bsky.social in collaboration with the "44 Perills" association and with the support of @sesbe-org.bsky.social @eseb2025.bsky.social and @ajuntamentbcn.bsky.social. Big shout out to #eseb2025 scientists that participated!

Henry North @henrylnorth.bsky.social · Aug 20

Surely one of the all-time best conference outreach activities: an evolution-inspired decorated street for Les Festes de Gràcia #ESEB2025

5 12

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

sharon greenblum @greensi.bsky.social · Aug 19

August’s Nature Plants cover story shows how we integrated large-scale multiDAP and snRNA data to reveal drivers of cell type identity and evolution in flowering plants. www.nature.com/nplants/volu... We packed a lot into this paper! Here’s a single-cell spin on what we found:

Nature Plants - Cistromes uncovered

Transcription factors (TFs) have specific patterns of binding to gene promoter regions, which have similarities and differences within TF families and...

www.nature.com

3 9 31

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

PlantEvolution 🌱🌾 @plantevolution.bsky.social · Aug 20

Out after peer review, collaborative study from Nordborg & Weigel labs with help from many others. Not the largest collection of new Arabidopsis thaliana genomes, but we hopefully put forward some good ideas for how to think about pangenomes and their analysis!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

1 62 140

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

Travis Lee @tralee-sci.bsky.social · Aug 19

Thrilled to have our spatial single-cell atlas of the Arabidopsis lifecycle in @NaturePlants. Turns out that its easy to make nice images when spatial expression of 1,000 genes is available! 1/n
@natanellae.bsky.social @tatsuyanobori.bsky.social @joeecker.bsky.social

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

7 41 69

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

PaulineJullienLab @pejullien.bsky.social · Aug 5

🌱 come join our lab 😀
🔬 PhD: small RNAs & plant stress (36 mo)
🧬CDD researcher: plant molecular biology (24 mo)
Apply 👇
PhD: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Docto...
CDD: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...

#PlantScience #PhD #ResearchJobs#ERC#CNRS

26 24

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

Christopher Douse @chdouse.bsky.social · Jul 1

Very proud of this work where we define how the MORC2 ATPase directs CpG methylation of active human L1 transposons in early development.

Thanks to co-authors, funders & wonderful environment @lundstem.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Brief thread below (do people still do that?) 1/X

MORC2 directs transcription-dependent CpG methylation of human LINE-1 transposons in early neurodevelopment

Methylation of CpG dinucleotides is essential for silencing genomic repeats such as LINE-1 retrotransposons (L1s) in the germline and soma. Evolutionarily-young L1s are transcribed in human pluripoten...

www.biorxiv.org

1 16 27

Pierre Bourguet @p-bourguet.bsky.social · Jun 19

I can only recommend working with Heïdi at the GReD, she is a terrific scientist and human being! Clermont-Ferrand has high quality of life, is affordable and the surrounding nature is a beauty.

Heïdi Serra @heidiserra.bsky.social · Jun 19

Interested in Plant Genetics and Evolution? 🌱🧬

An ERC-funded Postdoctoral Position is available in our lab to investigate the mechanisms of meiotic adaptation to allopolyploidy!

Please RT 🙏

1

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

André Marques @amarques.bsky.social · Jun 18

1/7
I am very excited to announce our🌹NEW PAPER OUT IN 𝑁𝐴𝑇𝑈𝑅𝐸!🌹
𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐕𝐄: Bimodal centromeres in pentaploid dogroses shed light on their unique meiosis
With the Ritz and Kovařík labs we show a potential role for centromeres on 𝘙𝘰𝘴𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘢 bizarre reproduction!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bimodal centromeres in pentaploid dogroses shed light on their unique meiosis - Nature

Insights into the dogrose genome and centromeres explain their ability to achieve stable sexual reproduction.

www.nature.com

8 38 78

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

Ming Tommy Tang @tommytang.bsky.social · Jun 13

1/ How many hours do bioinformaticians lose matching sample IDs across assays?
Too many.
And it’s avoidable.
Let’s talk about why this happens—and how to stop it.

2 2 5

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

James Lloyd 🧬 @jamespblloyd.bsky.social · Jun 11

I am super excited to announce the first (brief) pre-print purely from my group:

Start right to end right: authentic open reading frame selection matters

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

This marks a return to NMD research for me. NMD detects early stop codons but we need to find the true stop!

Boromir Meme: One does not simply select the longest ORF

2 18 57

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

Justin Blumenstiel @bdelloid.bsky.social · Apr 26

The rest of Mendel's alleles characterized! So, out of 7 traits, 3 caused by TE insertions!!! (though apparently there are two different green alleles, one cause by a TE insertion, but another a promoter deletion allele)

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

Genomic and genetic insights into Mendel’s pea genes - Nature

Characterization of the genetic architecture underlying the 7 pairs of contrasting traits studied by Mendel and the over 70 additional agronomic traits in pea (Pisum sativum) reveals their m...

www.nature.com

1 60 130

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

Gerardo del Toro @gerardodeltoro.bsky.social · Jun 2

🚨 Preprint alert!!
Thrilled to share our new story where we report the discovery of a new sporophytic maternal-effect mutant in Arabidopsis. 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Maternal control of RNA decay safeguards embryo development

As in mammals, the plant embryo is surrounded by maternal tissues that provide protection from the external environment. In angiosperms, a double fertilization process results in the formation of a di...

www.biorxiv.org

1 10 20

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

eLife @elife.bsky.social · May 29

🧪 A new method called MagIC-Cryo-EM allows scientists to use powerful #CryoEM techniques to examine proteins that have been difficult to study so far.

The (molecular) shape of you

New methods allow scientists to use a powerful technique known as cryo-EM to examine proteins that have been difficult to study so far.

buff.ly

7 21

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

Ming Tommy Tang @tommytang.bsky.social · May 30

The pitfalls of class prediction in omics 🧵
1/ You think you’ve built the perfect omics predictor.
The accuracy is high. The p-value is low.
But is it real—or just a story your data whispered back?

1 1 3

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

Ian Henderson @hendersi.bsky.social · May 30

A three year postdoctoral position is available in my group, investigating plant centromere structure, function and evolution @camplantsci.bsky.social
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/51488/

Research Assistant / Research Associate (Fixed Term) - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge

Research Assistant / Research Associate (Fixed Term) in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge.

www.jobs.cam.ac.uk

60 50

Pierre Bourguet @p-bourguet.bsky.social · May 28

Super cool work on the function of intrinsically disordered regions in regulating transcription factor DNA binding.

Ariel Kaplan @arielkaplan.bsky.social · May 27

1/
New preprint!
How do transcription factors (TFs) use intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) to find their target sites?

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#TranscriptionFactors #IDPs #SingleMolecule #Biophysics

Intrinsically disordered regions facilitate Msn2 target search to drive promoter selectivity

Transcription factors (TFs) regulate gene expression by binding specific DNA motifs, yet only a fraction of putative sites is occupied in vivo. Intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) have emerged as ...

www.biorxiv.org

1 7 12

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

Florilège @florilege-rare.bsky.social · May 23

[Daily Watch] Rice plants inherit cold tolerance through epigenetic changes. Landmark study challenges traditional evolution views. #Evolution #Epigenetics #PlantScience www.nature.com/articles/d41...

‘Landmark’ evolution study shows how rice inherits tolerance to cold without DNA changes

The study adds to evidence challenging the dominance of ‘natural selection’ as the sole adaptive force in evolution.

www.nature.com

8 17

Reposted by Pierre Bourguet

Taylor priest @taylorpriest.bsky.social · May 26

Transposable elements are a major driver of intron gain in eukaryotes, and are capable of transmission between diverse species #HGT #evolution - www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Horizontal transmission of functionally diverse transposons is a major source of new introns | PNAS

Since the discovery of spliceosomal introns in eukaryotic genomes, the proximate molecular and evolutionary processes that generate new introns hav...

www.pnas.org

8 33