Olga Novikova

Turnover of retroelements and satellite DNA drives centromere reorganization over short evolutionary timescales in Drosophila Centromeres reside in rapidly evolving, repeat-rich genomic regions, despite their essential function in chromosome segregation. This study of centromere evolution over short evolutionary timescales i...

Our new paper on the rapid evolution of centromeres in Drosophila is out! 🚀 Discover how transposable elements and satellite DNAs shape centromere dynamics and drive karyotype evolution over short timescales. @amlarracuente.bsky.social 🌟 Check it out here: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

21.11.2024 22:02 — 👍 56    🔁 28    💬 3    📌 4

What I am pretty sure is Porpidia crustulata, although it seems Porpidia is a difficult genus. All I can say is that I can find no reason for it not to be crustulata. Potential second county record. #lichensGB

06.04.2025 18:52 — 👍 32    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Lichens in situ.

#Viewpoint: Flexible or fortified? How #lichens balance defence strategies across climatic harshness gradients

Inger K. de Jonge, et al. 👇

📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#LatestIssue

28.03.2025 16:30 — 👍 20    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 1

Life on a Fence post—A Lichen Study Nina’s fence post, showing Parmelia sulcata among other lichen, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu) My daily walks in the new neighbourhood I moved to this fall take me through an open meadow—a power…

Life on a fence post... #Lichen #NaturePhotography themeaningofwater.com/2025/01/12/l...

22.03.2025 23:55 — 👍 7    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 1

Living Bark of a Maple—A Lichen Study Various lichen crowd over the gnarly bark of a red maple tree on a wet winter day, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu) . After my fence post lichen study, I felt compelled to look for lichen everywhere els…

Lichen on a Maple! So much to see... #lichen #NaturePhotography @licheomancy.bsky.social #nature themeaningofwater.com/2025/02/02/l...

26.03.2025 16:49 — 👍 6    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Lichen on a Twig... On my walk today, I picked up some twigs blown on the ground by the wind and found them covered by Star Rosette Lichen (Physcia stellaris) with abundant apothecia and picnidia! What a beautiful thing on the ground! #Lichen #beauty #NaturePhotography

28.03.2025 20:18 — 👍 18    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 0

I enjoyed teaming with Garima, Francesco and Marnix to write this piece for @newphyt.bsky.social ...

Breaking into nature's secret medicine cabinet: lichens – a biochemical goldmine ready for discovery
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

27.02.2025 08:59 — 👍 48    🔁 15    💬 0    📌 2

A meme with 4 panels showing a lichen with a cartoonish face drawn on it. The text says: “A lichen sits in a community. Is the community made of lichen? Or is the lichen made of community? It screams, for it does not know”.

Our study on #lichen #symbiosis is out in @currentbiology.bsky.social! How can multiple microbes create a large, 3D, and structurally complex organism? To answer this question, we used #metagenomics, #metatranscriptomics, and a bit of protein structure modeling 🧵1/7
🧬 🖥️ 🧪 🦠 🧫 #SymbioSky

31.01.2025 16:34 — 👍 209    🔁 61    💬 7    📌 4

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

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...

07.03.2025 06:18 — 👍 255    🔁 137    💬 3    📌 10

Horizontal transfer and recombination fuel Ty4 retrotransposon evolution in Saccharomyces Abstract. Horizontal transposon transfer (HTT) plays an important role in the evolution of eukaryotic genomes, however the detailed evolutionary history an

New Bergman Lab paper now online at GBE: "Horizontal transfer and recombination fuel Ty4 retrotransposon evolution in Saccharomyces"

10.01.2025 14:33 — 👍 18    🔁 13    💬 1    📌 1

An inversion polymorphism under balancing selection, involving giant mobile elements, in an invasive fungal pathogen Abstract. Recombination suppression can evolve in sex or mating-type chromosomes, or in autosomal supergenes, with different haplotypes being maintained by

An inversion polymorphism under balancing selection, involving giant mobile elements, in the invasive fungal pathogen responsable for the chesnut blight disease!
doi.org/10.1093/molb...

11.02.2025 09:24 — 👍 8    🔁 5    💬 1    📌 1

Fungal phylogeny highlighting genome size changes

Summary of genome size variation among groups

@tbadet.bsky.social and I have a preprint out on transposon silencing in fungi!

Genome size evolution is fascinating and showcases the dynamic nature of transposon activation.

What we understand less are the dynamics of transposon defense systems encoded by the genomes.

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

16.01.2025 21:09 — 👍 79    🔁 47    💬 4    📌 2

Evolution of insect innate immunity through domestication of bacterial toxins | PNAS Toxin cargo genes are often horizontally transferred by phages between bacterial species and are known to play an important role in the evolution o...

The two toxins—cytolethal distending toxin B (cdtB) and apoptosis inducing protein of 56kDa (aip56)—are implicated in a defensive endosymbiosis in aphids. Our lab found HGT of these genes to insects in multiple orders, where they function in anti-parasitoid defense (2/n): tinyurl.com/m9mufn9a

20.12.2024 17:58 — 👍 5    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0

Experimental horizontal transfer of phage-derived genes to Drosophila confers innate immunity to parasitoids Metazoan parasites have played a major role in shaping innate immunity in animals. Insect hosts and parasitoid wasps are excellent models for illumina…

Excited to share the major work of my dissertation, out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social! We use Drosophila genetics to dissect the evolution of phage-derived toxins that were horizontally transferred to insects and now function as potent anti-parasitoid defenses (1/n): tinyurl.com/2k9ypyxr

20.12.2024 17:58 — 👍 145    🔁 64    💬 8    📌 5

Environmental DNA: The next chapter

🧬🔬🐟🧬🦠🧬🦋🧬

Molecular tools, incl. #eDNA, have become an indispensable part of #ecology & #biodiversity sciences.

What is needed to concretely move the field forward?

Retrospect & outlook out now @molecology
doi.org/10.1111/mec....
a🧵

17.04.2024 14:53 — 👍 15    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 1

Alexander Pushkin. Anchar. Translated by Yevgeny Bonver In desert, withered and burned, On ground that is dry and sultry, Anchar, alone in the world, Stands like an awful, silent sentry. The nature of the thirsty land, Has borne him on the day of terror, A...

In desert, withered and burned,
On ground that is dry and sultry,
Anchar, alone in the world,
Stands like an awful, silent sentry.
The nature of the thirsty land,
Has borne him on the day of terror,
And flesh of roots and boughs, dead,
Was filled with venom blood forever.
shorturl.at/cBoGW

23.05.2024 18:35 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Very cool, Gavin!

22.05.2024 14:35 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0