Shinichi Nakagawa

50 days free access link to the retrotransposon/evolution review!
authors.elsevier.com/a/1keCScQbJF...

Transposon–host arms race: a saga of genome evolution Once considered ‘junk DNA,’ transposons or transposable elements (TEs) are now recognized as key drivers of genome evolution, contributing to genetic diversity, gene regulation, and species diversific...

Our new review on retrotransposons is out! I contributed to the “antidote theory” for extremely abundant retrotransposons: their massive expansion must be accompanied by the emergence of an “antidote” system to neutralize the toxic effects of insertion events.
www.cell.com/trends/genet...

I hadn’t anticipated that a ‘novel’ gene could be identified using such a straightforward approach. Remarkable dedication and devotion.

Snow festival at Sapporo.

A snowy New Year's Day

Thanks to the main organizer, Narry Kim, we are excited to host the first on-site “ASIA RNA Network” meeting (formerly ASIA RNA Club) at Seoul National University from November 3-5, 2025. Save the date!

The expanding world of RBPs: from posttranscriptional control to riboregulation

Looking forward to enjoying the full taste of RNA!
www.embl.org/about/info/c...

Molecular and genetic characterization of sex-linked orange coat color in the domestic cat The Sex-linked orange mutation in domestic cats causes variegated patches of reddish/yellow hair and is a defining signature of random X-inactivation in female tortoiseshell and calico cats. Unlike th...

Fellow Genetics professors - rejoice! This is pedagogy heaven: the paradigmatic epiallele in calico cats … is built on a cis-regulatory deletion, not a coding mutation!
We can teach it all off 1 paper!
1. Woo
2. Hoooo!!!
H/t @lianafaye.bsky.social

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

We designed MS2 and PP7 binding coat proteins that are degraded in cells except when bound by their hairpin RNAs.

You can check out our pre-print here: tinyurl.com/27p7hyt9,
and listen to a Google AI-generated podcast on it here: notebooklm.google.com/notebook/d71...

Specific tRNAs promote mRNA decay by recruiting the CCR4-NOT complex to translating ribosomes The CCR4-NOT complex is a major regulator of eukaryotic messenger RNA (mRNA) stability. Slow decoding during translation promotes association of CCR4-NOT with ribosomes, accelerating mRNA degradation....

I’m thrilled to share a collaborative story from @Mendell_lab and Jan Erzberger labs, led by postdoc extraordinaire Xiaoqiang Zhu. We showed that in addition to their canonical decoding function, tRNAs play a key role in regulating mRNA stability during translation!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Two back-to-back papers in Nature comms from mylab explore the link between destabilization of the actin cytoskeleton and aberrant base excision repair - passing through nuclear actin and the actin-dependent nucleosome remodeler INO80C.

This will yields 2x mix for 800< reactions.

2 µL 2x mix
2 µL DNA mix
37ºC 5 min, 65ºC 5 min

the solution is now ready for transformation. 2x mix solution is stable (-20ºC) at least 3 years in my lab!

I am too lazy to prepare the buffer myself, and here is a slightly mofied version.

A) 2x mix:
NEB buffer 4: 160 µL
Glycerol: 1 mL
NEB 10xBSA (10 mg/mL): 840 µL

B) dilute Exo III (NEB M0265S) 1 in 100 with A

Mix 1600 uL of A, 2 µL of B, and 50 µL ExoT (NEB 2170A)

Quick and affordable DNA cloning by reconstitution of Seamless Ligation Cloning Extract using defined factors Molecular mechanisms underlying the widely accepted Seamless Ligation Cloning Extract method were elucidated. A novel protocol was developed for quick and affordable seamless DNA cloning. Commercial ....

Seamless ligation is useful but can be costly. This paper by Dr. Kitabatake, who screened mutant E. coli lacking SLiCE activity, enables ligation for less than $0.01 per reaction!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....