Thibaut Brunet
@thibautbrunet.bsky.social
5.3K followers 2.5K following 280 posts
Evolutionary cell biology / evolution of morphogenesis / animal origins / choanoflagellates @institutpasteur.bsky.social https://research.pasteur.fr/en/team/evolutionary-cell-biology-and-evolution-of-morphogenesis/
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thibautbrunet.bsky.social
Latest from ours: www.cell.com/cell-reports...

This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵
Reposted by Thibaut Brunet
alexdemendoza.bsky.social
Thrilled to share that the lab has been awarded a @wellcometrust.bsky.social Discovery Award to keep exploring the evolution of 6-methyladenine #6mA in Eukaryotes. We'll open postdoc (3️⃣) and tech (1️⃣) positions to start in 2026, please share with candidates or reach out if you’d like to join us.
Reposted by Thibaut Brunet
sallywarring.bsky.social
A new preprint from us using a single-cell genome pipeline to investigate diversity of uncultured Bodo spp. flagellates.

We isolated 7 Bodo spp. cells from a single environmental sample and show that they represent 3 Bodo sp. each with a unique species of bacterial endosymbiont. #protistsonsky
Single-cell sequencing reveals unexpected genetic diversity among Bodo spp. flagellates and their bacterial endosymbionts
Bodo is a cosmopolitan genus of free living bacterivorous single-celled flagellates in the class Kinetoplastea. Members of genus Bodo are considered the closest free-living relatives to the parasitic ...
www.biorxiv.org
Reposted by Thibaut Brunet
pasteur.fr
Pour chaque vie, la science agit.
Le Pasteurdon, c’est maintenant !
Soutenez la recherche et celles et ceux qui la font avancer ↘️ pasteurdon.fr
#Pasteurdon
Pour chaque vie, la science agit. Le Pasteurdon, c’est maintenant ! Soutenez la recherche et celles et ceux qui la font avancer. Faites un don sur pasteurdon.fr
thibautbrunet.bsky.social
Join us!
embo.org
EMBO @embo.org · 1d
Learn all things #cytoskeleton #research in an interdisciplinary environment at EMBO Workshop "Structure and Function of the Cytoskeleton" in Paris, FR, 7–10 April 2026.

Deadline: 20 December 2025

https://meetings.embo.org/event/26-cytoskeleton
#EMBOCytoskeletalFunction #EMBOevents #conference 🧪
Structure and Function of the Cytoskeleton
The cytoskeleton, a dynamic and intricate network of protein filaments, is found within the cytoplasm of all cells, from bacteria and archaea to complex eukaryotes. This essential cellular component …
meetings.embo.org
Reposted by Thibaut Brunet
embo.org
EMBO @embo.org · 1d
Learn all things #cytoskeleton #research in an interdisciplinary environment at EMBO Workshop "Structure and Function of the Cytoskeleton" in Paris, FR, 7–10 April 2026.

Deadline: 20 December 2025

https://meetings.embo.org/event/26-cytoskeleton
#EMBOCytoskeletalFunction #EMBOevents #conference 🧪
Structure and Function of the Cytoskeleton
The cytoskeleton, a dynamic and intricate network of protein filaments, is found within the cytoplasm of all cells, from bacteria and archaea to complex eukaryotes. This essential cellular component …
meetings.embo.org
thibautbrunet.bsky.social
Thanks Adrien! actually we haven't yet tested mechanosensing in this paper (but stay tuned).
Reposted by Thibaut Brunet
cellarchlab.com
EXCITING NEWS!! We're searching for a new professor colleague at the Biozentrum🇨🇭. Ideal candidates are exploring novel biological questions with structure, biophysics, or high-resolution imaging. 🧪 🧶🧬 🔬

The call closes Nov 3. Please get in touch if you would like more information. Come join us! 👩‍🔬🤓
Reposted by Thibaut Brunet
thomaslecuit.bsky.social
Pleasure to announce the program of my new series of lectures at the College de France in Nov-Dec. Continuing on the theme of Biological information. I will focus on the computational aspects, building on David Marr's tri-level of analysis in biological systems. YouTube link sent when it starts.
Reposted by Thibaut Brunet
jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy
Postdoc position in regenerative biology on "Tracking the cellular origins regeneration" in the @michalis_averof lab in Lyon, France. Fantastic lab, great institute, nice city!
https://www.averof-lab.org/pages/tracman

#postdoc
Reposted by Thibaut Brunet
katrinavelle.bsky.social
PhD or Master's position available for Fall 2026!

Interested in how actin drives cell crawling, eating, dividing, or osmoregulation? What about pathogenesis of a brain-eating amoeba? Or eukaryotic evolution? If so, apply through my website: katrinavelle.wixsite.com/science/cont...
Please share!
Reposted by Thibaut Brunet
jgahan.bsky.social
Amazing work by @thibautbrunet.bsky.social and his lab! I can’t stress enough how significant a development this is for Choanoflagellate research and it has been revolutionary for our work!
thibautbrunet.bsky.social
Latest from ours: www.cell.com/cell-reports...

This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵
thibautbrunet.bsky.social
Thanks James - the pipeline has been transformative for us too. I must say thank god for biorXiv, through which we could share it early and proceed with long revision experiments (from which came most insights on Hippo) without feeling like we were withholding a protocol from the community...
thibautbrunet.bsky.social
oops, one day I'll manage to remember this hashtag
thibautbrunet.bsky.social
Together, this suggests that Hippo/YAP might have already controlled both contractility and ECM secretion before animals evolved. Animals plugged in one additional output: proliferation. Under this hypothesis, the best-known function of YAP would have been the latest innovation.
thibautbrunet.bsky.social
Conservation might extend even further: DJ Pan's lab had shown that YAP helps multicellular colonies resist flattening by gravity in yet another relative of animals (the filopodiated amoeba Capsaspora) by making cells more contractile -a function also present in zebrafish tinyurl.com/323jmdht
thibautbrunet.bsky.social
To me (but I'm biased), this is intriguingly similar to the self-terminating, ECM-driven multicellular development of S. rosetta. This suggests either ancestral use, or independent co-option, of similar signaling and cellular modules for multicellular development in choanos and animals.
thibautbrunet.bsky.social
Is this YAP/ECM connection a choano oddity? Not necessarily: recently, links between Hippo/YAP and ECM have been emerging in animals. One of the most commonly reported YAP targets is cyr61, a thrombospondin-domain protein that's part of the ECM... www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
thibautbrunet.bsky.social
This nicely tied in with the earlier genetic and biophysical evidence that ECM quantity sets choano rosette size and shape. Targets of Warts/Yorkie included collagen, laminin-like proteins, C-type lectins - and couscous, one of the "rosette development genes" from the historical mutant screen.
thibautbrunet.bsky.social
... but there's a catch: in animals, YAP most canonically acts by controlling cell proliferation. In S. rosetta, we found no evidence that the Warts phenotype would be due to increased cell division. Instead, RNAseq revealed massive upregulation of ECM components in giant rosettes.
thibautbrunet.bsky.social
Surprisingly, disrupting warts kinases in S. rosetta caused a very animal-like phenotype: giant rosettes colonies!

This suggests the molecular pathways that control multicellular development in animals and choanos might be more conserved than we expected...