Silvia Ramundo

piRNAs are essential for transposon silencing in the animal germline.
But how do hosts trap transposon sequences in genomic loci that help establish a piRNA response?

Looking at a natural transposon invasion, Baptiste Rafanel and Kirsten Senti made some remarkable observations.

Cyanophage Infections in a Sponge Intracellular Cyanobacterial Symbiont Intracellular cyanobacterial symbionts of sponges are shown to be susceptible to cyanophages, challenging assumptions about their isolation from viral exposure. The study reveals novel phage–host int...

Our paper on cyanophages of marine sponge symbionts is finally out. It is the outcome of a great collaboration with Laura Steindler's lab and was led by Tzipora Perez.

New preprint: In situ Architecture of #Plasmodesmata.

Using #cryoET, #AlphaFold & proteomics, we uncover the native organization of plant intercellular nanopores.

🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

🧪🧵1/n
#teamtomo #PlantScience #Physcomitrium #Arabidopsis #cryoEM

🦠🧍‍♀️From bacterial to human immunity.

We report in @science.org the discovery of a human homolog of SIR2 antiphage proteins that participates in the TLR pathway of animal innate immunity.
Co-led wt @enzopoirier.bsky.social by D. Bonhomme and @hugovaysset.bsky.social

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🚀Great work led by @elias-adriaenssens.bsky.social in the Martens lab @maxperutzlabs.bsky.social shows a new mechanism for #mitophagy initiation, revealing unexpected flexibility in the assembly& activation of the #autophagy machinery👇
Check it out 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

First Ma lab #GMI paper is now online! It‘s a mini-review on insect-induced plant #galls —their coolness and research potential! Plant galls induced by insects: Coordinated developmental reprogramming and defence manipulation www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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

Remodelling autoactive NLRs for broad-spectrum immunity in plants - Nature Cleavage by pathogen-derived proteases of an engineered chimeric protein activates its plant immune receptor component, enabling broad-spectrum resistance to pathogens in plants.

www.nature.com/articles/s41... Remodelling autoactive NLRs for broad-spectrum immunity in plants

Congratulations to Hing Pan Ng, PhD student in Yan Ma’s lab, who received a DOC Fellowship from the Austrian Academy of Sciences! Ng will investigate the molecular mechanisms that gall-inducing insects use to remodel plant cell walls during gall development. More: https://thegmi.science/3b9d1b

I trained chatGPT to give a different answer 😉 : “Gelato might lift your spirits, and when you're in a better mood, you're less likely to overeat. So, in a roundabout way, gelato could actually support your weight goals."

ATP functions as a pathogen-associated molecular pattern to activate the E3 ubiquitin ligase RNF213 - Nature Communications RNF213 is an E3 ligase with ATPase activity. Here, the authors show that RNF213 is activated by ATP binding and senses cellular energy states, and reveal a transthiolation mechanism induced by immune ...

Great to see this out. A story that spanned continents, cities and budget codes…

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

Big thanks to all the teams involved!

@clausenlab.bsky.social @e3chembio.bsky.social

Absolutely deserved! Congratulations 🍾🎉🎊

Travel’s got me wiped, but catching up with @colindascheele.bsky.social, @pierresantucci.bsky.social & @olivierduss.bsky.social at #FEBS2025 made it totally worth it. Huge thanks to Pelin Telkoparan and Dilek Cevik for the wonderful hospitality—what a time in Istanbul!

Metabolic Origins: Steering of early developmental fate #MetabolismMondays - the Node All the world's a metabolic dance, early career scientists are leading the way! Emerging perspectives in metabolism Dr Kristina StapornwongkulX:

#MetabolismMondays
Meet @kstapornwongkul.bsky.social, #newPI at @imbavienna.bsky.social @vbcscitraining.bsky.social, alumni from @viktri08.bsky.social @embl.org - discussing metabolism of embryonic development using #gastruloids.
#theNodeCorrespondents #ecr @the-node.bsky.social #DevBio #stemcell

“Why Are We Funding This?” Long-standing myths about “silly science” have contributed to the reckless slashing of government-supported research.

A great defense of discovery-based science in a time when it is very much needed.

Great work by Benjamin Springstein @huepfkiesel.bsky.social
and the lab of Martin Loose @nartimsoole.bsky.social.
Really stunning finding of the evolutionary repurposing of a DNA segregation machinery into a cell shape cytoskeletal system in cyanobacteria. Make sure to have a look!

Full Professorship in Molecular Mechanisms of Disease - Vienna BioCenter, Austria job with Max Perutz Labs, University of Vienna | 12841053 Join theMax Perutz Labs as Full Professor to unravel disease mechanisms—from metabolism and stress to RNA regulation, epigenetics, and immunity.

Exciting and rare opportunity to join the @maxperutzlabs.bsky.social and the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social as a Full Professor!
www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Evolutionary repurposing of a DNA segregation machinery into a cytoskeletal system controlling cyanobacterial cell shape Bacteria, despite their diversity, use conserved cytoskeletal systems for their intracellular organization. In unicellular bacteria, the ParMRC DNA partitioning apparatus is well known for forming act...

One of the most exciting discoveries from our lab so far is now online as a preprint!

Read a story on how the ParMR and Min systems started to collaborate to create the CorMR cytoskeleton, which now controls cell shape in multicellular cyanobacteria:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Fantastic news- super duper congratulations 👏🏻 🎊🎉🍾

Thanks, @irmaquerques.bsky.social 💚
I'm very lucky to have great colleagues like you!

Great job opportunity at The Center for Integrative Genomics, Lausanne University, Switzerland unil.ch/cig/en/home....
For a tenure-track Assistant Professor position. More details for how to apply are here nature.com/naturecareer...

Thank you so much, Christa 💚!

Always ‘one atom away’: The long, rocky journey to an HIV prevention breakthrough Developing lenacapavir, the drug newly approved to protect against HIV for six months in one shot, took basic science, sophisticated chemistry, and perseverance

Always ‘one atom away’: The long, rocky journey to an HIV prevention breakthrough | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

New tenure track assistant professor position in molecular microbiology in our department @dmf-unil.bsky.social @unil.bsky.social! We are casting a wide net for an experimental molecular microbiologist. Apply here: wwwfbm.unil.ch/releve/appli...

Thank you, @clausenlab.bsky.social, and a big shout-out for all the ways you powered this win! We feel lucky to have you as colleagues—and I can’t wait for the very first Clausen–Ramundo lab retreat. (Pro tip for all lab members: keep the PIs out of the planning, and nothing will go wrong 😉)

Thank you, Tamara 💚

Thank you, Elva 💚 Hope all is well in Barcelona, and I look forward to seeing you again somewhere soon 🤗!

Thank you, Yasin! I’m celebrating this as a shared success with you and everyone else who helped make it possible—from all the supportive colleagues at @VBC, @ISTA, and around the world, to the mentors and mentees who keep the ideas flowing, and my wonderful life partner, who is my daily anchor.

The image shows cells organized like bricks in a wall. Cells are roughly rectangular with magenta outlines (cell walls) and are filled with green, irregular sphericalish chloroplasts.

Plant cells can be filled with chloroplasts, as shown in this image of moss gametophore phyllid ("leaf") cells. These cells have not been stained with fluorescent dyes; we only observe the autofluorescence of chloroplasts (green 🟢) and of the cell walls (magenta 🟣)
#microscopymonday #plantcell #moss