@justdx.bsky.social
PhD candidate at MPIPZ
Awesome new work from @labschneeberger.bsky.social (with a small contribution from the Weigel lab). Experimentally observed mutational patterns in centromeres underpin a model that recapitulates intra-specific centromere divergence!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Our work suggests centromere evolution follows a unique mutational path, dominated by small, local events with massive structural consequences.
๐ Read the preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#genomics #bioRxiv #centromere #Arabidopsis
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Simulations using just these small mutations recreated large-scale repeat structures, like higher-order repeats and long-range homology.
Big architecture from tiny edits.
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Key findings:
โข Point mutations occur 9ร faster in centromeres than elsewhere
โข Non-allelic gene conversions copy sequences between repeats
โข In-frame indels preserve repeat structure
โ All without large rearrangements
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Centromeres are full of repetitive satellite DNA, often megabases long, but how do they evolve?
Using Arabidopsis mutation accumulation lines, we tracked real-time mutation patterns in these regions.
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๐จ My first PhD preprint is out on bioRxiv!
We show how tiny mutationsโpoint mutations and kb-level indelsโcan shape the massive structure of Arabidopsis centromeres.
๐ Read it here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
๐งต A short thread ๐
