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Saravanan Palani

@syncellbiolab.bsky.social

150 followers 150 following 25 posts

Asst Professor, Dept of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science Cell biology, Cytoskeleton, Cell cycle, Synthetic biology, Evolution. Lab webpage: https://syncellbiolab.weebly.com Alumnus of UniWarwick|DKFZ|MKU|VIT

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Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · Aug 8

🎉🍾Excited to share our #Asgardarchaea #odin #cytoskeleton study published in
@embojournal.org Dual FtsZ proteins in Odinarchaeon form distinct filaments shedding light on tubulin/FtsZ evolution. Brilliantly led by @jayantik.bsky.social
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

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Reposted by Saravanan Palani

Sonja-Verena Albers @archaellum.bsky.social · 21d

Happy to share that our story on the bacterial archaellum was published today in @natmicrobiol.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congrats to the authors: @sshamphavi.bsky.social @loumollat.bsky.social @mariejoest.bsky.social Najwa Taib and @sgribaldo.bsky.social

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Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · 29d

4/ Huge thanks to co-authors Sudipta, @jayantik.bsky.social, Jeevan & Amruta.
Grateful to @sshekhr.bsky.social lab for support throughout, and to the @PLOSGenetics editors & reviewers for their thoughtful feedback 🙏

sky.social

Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · 29d

3/ Strikingly, the “minor” isoform Tpm2 can fully substitute for Tpm1 to protect & organize actin cables.
This supports a concentration-dependent, formin-independent model of Tpm binding and reveals unexpected redundancy between paralogs.

Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · 29d

2/ We show that Tpm1 & Tpm2 protect equally well from cofilin-mediated actin filament severing in collab
@sshekhr.bsky.social lab and Sudipta.
Despite Tpm1 being ~5–6x more abundant, both share overlapping biochemical activities, revealing Tpm2’s latent protective role in cells.

Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · 29d

1/ New functional tropomyosin probes, we show that Tpm1&Tpm2 colocalize on actin cables and bind filaments nucleated by either formin challenging the long-held model of strict Tpm–formin pairing. Tpm levels also regulate endocytosis by balancing linear & branched actin networks.

Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · 29d

How do cells keep their #actin “highways” stable?🚦
Our paper @PLOS Genetics reveals surprising teamwork (and backup plans!) between tropomyosin isoforms in yeast. #imaging #cytoskeleton #celldivision
This work was brilliantly led by @anubhavdhar.bsky.social @bagyasree.bsky.social
t.co/RvUrzad5tL

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Nature @nature.com · Aug 27

For some three billion years, unicellular organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion years ago, a new chapter of life began

go.nature.com/3JyRV4S

How did life get multicellular? Five simple organisms could have the answer

Single-celled species that often stick together in colonies have researchers rethinking the origin of animals.

go.nature.com

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Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · Aug 10

Thank you very much, Nika.

Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · Aug 8

Thrilled to see our work published in @embojournal.org
#asgard #archaea #cytoskeleton #tubulin #FtsZ
We sincerely appreciate the constructive peer review and the reviewers’ thoughtful, supportive feedback, which greatly strengthened our work.

The EMBO Journal @embojournal.org · Aug 8

Insights into the origins of the #tubulin / #FtsZ superfamily: @syncellbiolab.bsky.social, Pananghat Gayathri et al show that two #Asgard archaeal paralogs OdinFtsZ1 and OdinFtsZ2 form distinct filamental structures, and employ different modes of membrane tethering
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

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Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · Aug 8

#collaboration with the fantastic labs of Gayathri, Vinoth, @kuruhoornambi, @iamsamayp. Funded and supported by @India_Alliance, @DBTIndia, @ANRFIndia, @serbonline, @iiscbangalore, @IISERPune, @NCBS_Bangalore & @niserbbs

Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · Aug 8

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Kate Michie @kmichie.bsky.social · Jul 23

This was fun! Folding whole proteomes… looking at tomogram, looking at genomes🤩 lots to discover!🧬🧶

An Asgard archaeon from a modern analog of ancient microbial mats

It has been proposed that eukaryotic cells evolved via symbiosis between sulfate-reducing bacteria and hydrogen-producing archaea. Here we describe a highly enriched culture of a novel Asgard archaeon...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Saravanan Palani

Marko Kaksonen @kaksonen.bsky.social · Jul 10

How does evolution shape ancient cellular processes? Our new paper uncovers the mosaic evolution of conserved and diverging endocytic traits in fungi!

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Mosaic evolution of clathrin-mediated endocytosis in fungi

Picco et al. take an evolutionary approach to study clathrin-mediated endocytosis in a fungal clade and discover that the process is evolving in a mosaic fashion. The early phase of endocytosis has sh...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Saravanan Palani

Marko Kaksonen @kaksonen.bsky.social · Jul 7

Hello microscopy and imaging experts and enthusiasts!
We are looking for a staff scientist to join us here in Geneva to work on microscopy and image analysis projects! See the link for the job announcement (in French and in English).

Please apply and/or repost!

jobs.unige.ch/www/wd_porta...

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Marko Kaksonen @kaksonen.bsky.social · Jun 24

How do cells switch on the actin assembly at endocytic sites? How can this on-switch evolve? Check out our new preprint!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Localization of WDS proteins and fimbrin in three fungal species.

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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

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Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · May 16

Thanks, Sophie!

Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · May 16

Thanks

Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · May 16

Thanks very much Felipe! ALFA made it all click-always fun to work with!

Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · May 16

Thanks, Mara! The ALFA tag/NbALFA combo is a game-changer!

Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · May 16

Thank you very much Omaya!

Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · May 16

Supported by
@India_Alliance

@ANRFIndia

@serbonline

@iiscbangalore

@DBT_inStem
Thanks to Nishaant, Sanjana, Sucheta and Angana.

Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · May 16

This method reveals actin patches, cables, rings (yeast), and cortex, filopodia, lamellipodia, stress fibers (cell lines). Notably, it captures nuclear actin filaments with high specificity highlighting IntAct-U-ExM’s power to resolve nanoscale actin architecture across species.

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Saravanan Palani @syncellbiolab.bsky.social · May 16

Preprint: IntAct-U-ExM enables robust, isoform-specific expansion microscopy of actin networks in yeast and mammalian cells. A cool study led by @anubhavdhar.bsky.social in collaboration with Sudarshan and Deepak Nair. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Thijs J. G. Ettema 🦠🔬🇳🇱🇸🇪🇪🇺 @ettema.bsky.social · May 14

On this day, 10 years ago, my lab published the @nature.com paper reporting the discovery of the Asgard archaea (Lokiarchaeota at the time), revealing the archaeal nature of eukaryotic cells, and reshaping the Tree of Life. What a ride it has been since then... www.nature.com/articles/nat...

Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes - Nature

This study identifies a clade of archaea that is the immediate sister group of eukaryotes in phylogenetic analyses, and that also has a repertoire of proteins otherwise characteristic of eukaryotes—pr...

www.nature.com

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