Sean Montgomery

Picture of an Oculina patagonica colony. Some of the individual polyps in the colony have a brown-yellow colour, indicating that they harbour symbiotic algae. Others are completely white and lack algae.

Close-up picture of symbiotic Oculina polyps.

Hot off the press! Our latest work on the evolution of facultative symbiosis in stony corals, focusing on a remarkable Mediterranean species: Oculina patagonica.

🪸 🌊

#evobio #corals #coralbiology

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

Opportunity for a Master’s/Bachelor’s student:
- Join us for up to 5 months 🗓️
- Build computational/mathematical models 💻
- Learn about genotype-phenotype maps and evolution 🧬
- Work closely with PhD student Manuela Giraud - full info here:
www.crg.eu/en/content/t...

Happy to share the Biodiversity Cell Atlas white paper, out today in @nature.com. We look at the possibilities, challenges, and potential impacts of molecularly mapping cells across the tree of life.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Brown algae up to some interesting strategies regarding gene repression, losing all "traditional" pathways while expanding the DOT1 (H3K79me writer) protein family! I hope to learn more at the EMBO workshop next month in Barcelona!

Activity of most genes is controlled by multiple enhancers, but is there activation coordinated? We leveraged Nanopore to identify a specific set of elements that are simultaneously accessible on the same DNA molecules and are coordinated in their activation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A genetically tractable non-vertebrate system to study complete camera-type eye regeneration Nature Communications - Accorsi et al. show that the apple snail Pomacea canaliculata has eyes similar to humans and can fully regenerate them. They then developed genetic tools to establish these...

Evolution’s eye game is wild, but mollusks take it to another level

CRISPR in apple snails gives us a new model to dissect how nature rebuilds complex organs like the camera-type eyes we humans possess

It turns out Evolution doesn’t just innovate, it rewinds, remixes, & regenerates

rdcu.be/ezw0t

CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing in Corallochytrium limacisporum,a key species for understanding animal origins | Open Biology Microbial holozoans are the closest unicellular relatives of animals. They share a substantial gene repertoire with animals and exhibit complex life cycles. Studying these organisms is crucial for und...

Very happy to share our new paper where we develop CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing in our favorite unicellular relative of animals, Corallochytrium limacisporum! With @sebasn1.bsky.social @multicellgenome.bsky.social Elena and Claudio.

Check it out:
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Academic poaching: when other PIs steal your trainees There are many toxic behaviors in academia, but one we rarely talk about is #AcademicPoaching. Have you ever been a victim?

I just published: Academic poaching: when other PIs steal your trainees

There are many toxic behaviors in academia, but one we rarely talk about is #AcademicPoaching. Have you ever been a victim?

#AcademicChatter #AcademicSky #phdchat

medium.com/p/academic-p...

And another opportunity! Any postdocs looking forward to start your lab on a tenure track? Supportive environment, great core facilities and an outstanding PhD program.

Conservation of chromatin states and their association with transcription factors in land plants The complexity of varied modifications of chromatin composition is integrated in archetypal combinations called chromatin states that predict the local potential for transcription. The degree of conse...

New Pre-print! A long-standing question for transcription factor biology is how their chromatin context dependency works in plants. In this collaboration with Fred Berger lab, we present some new ideas not only in Arabidopsis but also in Marchantia. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We are looking for new colleagues to come join us in Galway as group leaders (Junior and Senior). The Centre for Chromosome Biology is a great place and it is a good time to join. Please reach out if you want to chat about the opportunity!
www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Pls. share widely

Calling all transposon fans & lovers of genetic innovation

MOBILE GENOME welcomes you in Heidelberg, Nov. 4–7 2025

→ Vibrant & friendly community
→ Cutting-edge talks from mechanisms to physiology
→ Plenty of surprises (TEs never stop innovating)

submit abstract by July 29

We are looking for a student to continue our work on chromatin evolution:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The project with @seanamontgomery.bsky.social will focus on chromatin state readers across eukaryotes.

More info: recruitment.crg.eu/content/jobs...

Sorry, the ad image didn't look so good in dark mode, here it is again!

Diversity and evolution of chromatin regulatory states across eukaryotes Histone post-translational modifications (hPTMs) are key regulators of chromatin states[1][1],[2][2], influencing gene expression, epigenetic memory, and transposable element repression across eukaryo...

To get a taste of what we do, check out our recent work: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... and rdcu.be/eeaLN

Pre-Doc/PhD job advertisement. Link here: https://recruitment.crg.eu/content/jobs/position/research-trainee-evolutionary-chromatin-biology

We're looking for a potential PhD student to come explore the evolution of chromatin across eukaryotes in the @arnausebe.bsky.social lab! The project is flexible and a wide range of backgrounds will be considered! Please reach out if you have any questions. Link to application: shorturl.at/LlsJw

A single-cell ATACseq atlas of our favourite sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis! By @aelek.bsky.social @martaig.bsky.social

ChAHP Silences SINE Retrotransposons by Inhibiting TFIIIB Recruitment Short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs) are abundant non-autonomous transposable elements derived from RNA polymerase III (POL III)-transcribed short non-coding RNAs. SINEs retain sequence feature...

📖 Happy to share our recent preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We discovered how SINEs are kept silent: the ChAHP protein complex acts as a molecular brake on POL III transcription retrotransposons. A 🧵:

REM transcription factors and GDE1 shape the DNA methylation landscape through the recruitment of RNA polymerase IV transcription complexes - Nature Cell Biology Wu et al. demonstrate that REM transcription factors and GDE1 guide RNA polymerase IV to specific genomic loci, establishing a DNA sequence-dependent mechanism for siRNA biogenesis and DNA methylation...

Transcription factors targeting RNA-directed DNA methylation machinery in Arabidopsis reproductive tissues.

From: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I think I saw another preprint on this by another lab too.

A host organelle integrates stolen chloroplasts for animal photosynthesis Sea slugs steal foreign chloroplasts and store them in specialized organelles that facilitate photosynthesis and eventual digestion to mediate starvation resistance.

How 🆒 is this?!? www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Updating my intro slides with this fantastic figure now! (And maybe I'll add an extra dashed line for my beloved bryophytes)

The genetic architecture of an allosteric hormone receptor Many proteins function as switches, detecting chemicals and transducing their concentrations into cellular responses. Receptor switches are key to the integration of environmental signals, yet it is n...

1 plant hormone receptor ☘️
3,500 mutants, to single-site saturation 🧬
>45,000 binding and abundance measurements 📶

Very happy to present our latest work – where deep mutational scanning meets the world of small molecules.



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



With @benlehner.bsky.social

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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

Single-molecule analysis reveals the mechanism of chromatin ubiquitylation by variant PRC1 complexes Single-molecule experiments show that active conformation formation controls chromatin ubiquitylation kinetics by variant PRC1.

Our new study of chromatin ubiquitylation by variant PRC1 on the single-molecule scale: We visualize directly how vPRC1 ubiquitylates neighboring nucleosomes during a single binding event, showing a potential mechanism how H2Aub domains are established.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Delighted that our work on positional memory is now published. We asked how axolotl cells 'know' which part of the limb to regenerate after injury.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A joy to work with super team Sarah Plattner, Yuka Sugiura, Francisco Falcon and Elly Tanaka.
🧵1/14

Delighted to see our work now published in @currentbiology.bsky.social. A great place for Bostrychia to stake its claim as an emerging red algal model system. Check it out here: www.cell.com/current-biol...

Check out this tremendous work from @ianakim.bsky.social! An enormous effort to gather micro-C data from 9 species and uncover insights into how animal genome organization evolved and diversified!

Gag proteins encoded by endogenous retroviruses are required for zebrafish development | PNAS Transposable elements (TEs) make up the bulk of eukaryotic genomes and examples abound of TE-derived sequences repurposed for organismal function. ...

💥🥳 At long last, our latest paper is out!

Gag proteins of endogenous retroviruses are required for zebrafish development

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Led heroically by Sylvia Chang & @jonowells.bsky.social

A study which has changed the way I think of #transposons! No less! 🧵 1/n

🧵 reprise: our paper on protein network evolution in the piRNA genome defence pathway has now been published at @embojournal.org 🥳

Very positive experience with fast and constructive reviewing (thank you, three secret people) and good journal communication.

bsky.app/profile/embo...

Our preprint has now found a wonderful home in @molbioevol.bsky.social. Shout out to our collaborators in the Mozgova lab too 💚