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Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚 @toheitka.bsky.social · 1d

fun seeing these haplotypes being resolved

also: shortbread, short read, or both? (and as i love shortbread: is there a shortbread recipe using corn instead of wheat?)

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Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚 @toheitka.bsky.social · 5d

This work was led by @jiangzhaoqian.bsky.social, who is dedicated to make your life in genomics and #TransposableElement curation a lot easier. We are very happy to have him now in our group and that we could help with his vision.

Try TEtrimmer: github.com/qjiangzhao/T...

GitHub - qjiangzhao/TEtrimmer: TEtrimmer: a novel tool to automate manual curation of transposable elements

TEtrimmer: a novel tool to automate manual curation of transposable elements - GitHub - qjiangzhao/TEtrimmer: TEtrimmer: a novel tool to automate manual curation of transposable elements

github.com

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Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚

German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG) @plantsciencedbg.bsky.social · 6d

New Software Simplifies Analysis of “Jumping Genes”

Ralph Panstruga, @toheitka.bsky.social, and Lisa Fürtauer from @rwth.bsky.social
in @natcomms.nature.com (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63889-y)
www.rwth-aachen.de/cms/root/wir...

New Software Simplifies Analysis of “Jumping Genes” | RWTH Aachen University | EN

www.rwth-aachen.de

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Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚

Tera Levin @teralevin.bsky.social · Aug 5

I'm excited to announce our new biorxiv preprint, wherein we investigate the evolution of the weirdest genetic locus I've ever seen! Behold the tgr genes of the social amoeba, which mediate self/non-self discrimination during facultative multicellularity 🐅 🧵 1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Hypermutable hotspot enables the rapid evolution of self/non-self recognition genes in Dictyostelium

Cells require highly polymorphic receptors to perform accurate self/non-self recognition. In the amoeba Dicytostelium discoideum, polymorphic TgrB1 & TgrC1 proteins are used to bind sister cells and e...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚

Zebrafish Rock! @zebrafishrock.bsky.social · Jun 14

Collaborative work between Durbin Lab at Cambridge & Svardal Lab at Antwerp 🐠

🔗 to manuscript: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚

Genome Biology and Evolution @genomebiolevol.bsky.social · Jun 11

Our recent article on transposable elements and aging - which made the June cover - is the focus of a new Highlight.

"Highlight: 'Jumping Genes' Caught in an Aging Merry-Go-Round"

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf094

🖌️ Miriam Merenciano

#genome #TEsky

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Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚

Moi Expósito-Alonso (MOILAB) @mexpositoalonso.bsky.social · May 30

Super excited to release a huge evolution project on the works for many years:

Evolution experiments synchronized across climates to understand rapid adaptation

Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
All data available: www.grene-net.org/data

#MOILAB
@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social
@hhmi.org

🧵👇

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Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚 @toheitka.bsky.social · May 31

Love HMMER.
Like many recent decisions, this is incredibly short-sighted. I fail to see how being recognized globally to produce excellent work is of no use to the country.
Greetings from Europe.

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Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚 @toheitka.bsky.social · May 29

🌱 We will soon open the search for a new W3 Professor in Plant Stress Resilience / Molecular Plant Physiology.

🌏Where? Germany, RWTH Aachen University @rwth.bsky.social

We plan to look widely. Please let me know, if you want to be updated on the job announcement.

#AcademicJobs

Plant Biology - RWTH AACHEN UNIVERSITY Department of Biology - English

www.biologie.rwth-aachen.de

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Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚 @toheitka.bsky.social · May 5

Congratulations, Sara!

Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚

Oca sapiens @ocasapiens.bsky.social · Apr 23

#Pisumsativum
#Missionaccomplished

Genes identified for:
- flowers reverting from white to red;
- the yellow pod;
- the edible "parchmentless" pod - great for pesto di bacelli saygood.it/2018/07/05/p...

And much more, open access 🔽 and proud press release www.jic.ac.uk/press-releas...

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Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚

Sergio Tusso @stusso.bsky.social · Apr 20

Do you like potatoes? Don't miss our most recent work on tetraploid potato genome!
@nature.com
#potato #genomics #history #evolution

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Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚 @toheitka.bsky.social · Apr 18

Very pretty and likely very interesting from a #repetitiveDNA point of view

Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚

Tanja Slotte @tanjaslotte.bsky.social · Apr 18

New preprint! We investigated the evolution of supergenes and mechanisms underlying distyly in Linum species that diverged ca 33 Mya. 1/8
bsky.app/profile/bior...

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Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚

Jordana Oliveira @thejordana.bsky.social · Apr 1

Happy to share that our paper "Analyses of Transposable Elements in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Support Evolutionary Parallels With Filamentous Plant Pathogens" is out.

academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

Analyses of Transposable Elements in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Support Evolutionary Parallels With Filamentous Plant Pathogens

Abstract. Transposable elements are repetitive DNA sequences that excise or create copies that are inserted elsewhere in the genome. Their expansion shapes

academic.oup.com

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Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚 @toheitka.bsky.social · Mar 26

www.daad.org/en/find-fund... -- otherwise: here is the landing site of the DAAD

Graduate Opportunities

Are you looking to continue your education after completing your bachelor’s degree in the US? Look no further: From study stays to longer research periods and scholarships for full degrees, ther...

www.daad.org

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Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚 @toheitka.bsky.social · Mar 26

In Germany, there are a couple of structured PhD programs, but these are not so common. MSc degree typically needed.

Usually, people get into contact with group leaders/PIs/profs, explaining their overlaps, and ask for open positions or if there is the possibility to write a proposal together.

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Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚

manavellalab.bsky.social @manavellalab.bsky.social · Mar 21

Does the smell and flavor of strawberries depend on variations in gene-associated transposons? It seems so! Check out our new preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Naturally occurring variation in gene-associated transposable elements impacts gene expression and phenotypic diversity in woodland strawberry

Transposable elements (TEs) constitute a major portion of plant genomes and play key roles in shaping genome architecture, regulating gene expression, and driving genome evolution. In this study, we g...

www.biorxiv.org

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Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚 @toheitka.bsky.social · Mar 20

Beautiful and colorful, this has everything! Definitely saving your study for teaching evolution 📌

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Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · Mar 17

Lungfish xkcd.com/3064

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Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚

Nature Ecology & Evolution @natecoevo.nature.com · Mar 11

Multi-omics analysis reveals that a 254-bp transposon induces defensive camouflage in an alpine plant and reduces herbivory by caterpillars of a specialist butterfly. Protective effects of this camouflage are reflected in the long-term dynamics of co-evolving plant and butterfly populations.

Genetic basis of camouflage in an alpine plant and its long-term co-evolution with an insect herbivore

Nature Ecology & Evolution - Multi-omics analysis reveals that a 254-bp transposon induces defensive camouflage in an alpine plant and reduces herbivory by caterpillars of a specialist...

rdcu.be

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Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚

Will Ratcliff @wcratcliff.bsky.social · Mar 5

1/46 Hey folks, we have a new paper out on the MuLTEE. Strap in and I’ll tell you the story of how this “little paper on polyploidy” turned into the most data rich paper our lab has produced, largely thanks to the leadership and work ethic of @kaitong25.bsky.social.

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

Genome duplication in a long-term multicellularity evolution experiment - Nature

In the Multicellularity Long Term Evolution Experiment, diploid yeast evolve to be tetraploid under selection for larger multicellular size, revealing how whole-genome duplication can arise due to its...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚

Aaron Vogan @fungage-lab.bsky.social · Mar 7

We did it! We caught Starship #transposons moving between #fungal species in the lab, including between species separated by ~100my. We think Starships are a mediator of HGT in fungi, akin to conjugative elements in bacteria. Check out the preprint. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Illustration depicting the ways in which fungi can exchange genetic material with each other. Starship mediated HGT is confirmed experimentally in this preprint.

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Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚

Laura Chacon Machado @laurachaconmachado.bsky.social · Feb 18

Our preprint describing a family of Tn7-like transposons that evolved to target CRISPR repeats is now published at Mobile DNA #Tn7 #transposons #mobileDNA 1/10
mobilednajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

A family of Tn7-like transposons evolved to target CRISPR repeats - Mobile DNA

Tn7 family transposons are mobile genetic elements known for precise target site selection, with some co-opting CRISPR-Cas systems for RNA-guided transposition. We identified a novel group of Tn7-like...

mobilednajournal.biomedcentral.com

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Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚

Roswitha Schmickl @rosischmickl.bsky.social · Feb 11

Polyploidy & Arabidopsis! We found tetraploid-characteristic haplotypes to be made of novel ‘mosaics’ forged from multiple allelic sources in our new paper:
journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...

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