Ferdinand Marlétaz

BMC Biology is currently welcoming submissions of original research to the “Genome organization and evolution” Collection, which I am supporting as a Guest Editor.

If interested check out the link: www.biomedcentral.com/collections/...

Deadline: 26 March

#GenomeEvolution
@bmc.springernature.com

Deep conservation of cis-regulatory elements and chromatin organization in echinoderms uncover ancestral regulatory features of animal genomes Nature Ecology & Evolution - Analysis of the 3D chromatin architecture and cis-regulatory elements in a sea urchin and a sea star reveals mechanisms of 3D chromatin organization in echinoderms...

Our work on the evolution of the regulatory genome of echinoderms is now out in @natecoevo.nature.com. Led by my former PhD Marta Magri, Danila Voronov & Saoirse Foley. Great collaboration of Arnone, Hinman & Maeso labs, started long time ago with our missed José Luis Gomez-Skarmeta: rdcu.be/eXX8l

Congrats! 🙌

Congrats! 🙌

Anouk Necsulea, @maelledaunesse.bsky.social and myself are organising a symposium at SMBE this year.

Send us all of your abstracts!!

The tunicate Ciona - Nature Methods The ascidian tunicate Ciona, one of the closest relatives of the vertebrates, inhabits shallow temperate waters in the worldwide ocean. A unique combination of simple stereotyped embryogenesis, regula...

Very happy to see this piece on the Tunicate Ciona published. Grateful to @alexandrejan.bsky.social and @chiaracastelletti.bsky.social for the Illustrations, and to @natmethods.nature.com for the opportunity to showcase our ever emerging model organism www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thé Mercury effect

Cool!

Adenine DNA methylation associated with transcriptionally permissive chromatin is widespread across eukaryotes - Nature Genetics Long-read sequencing in 18 unicellular eukaryotes reveals that 6mA is widespread across eukaryotes and is enriched at transcriptionally permissive regions, which are also marked by H3K4me3.

Out today, our take on 6-methyladenine #6mA evolution in Eukaryotes @natgenet.nature.com. We asked a simple question, is really DNA 6mA common across the eukaryotes? The answer is "yes" if you're a unicellular eukaryote 🦠, not so if you're multicellular 🐝🌱🍄. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/9

Gene annotations matter for downstream analyses: different structural gene-annotation pipelines yield markedly different orthology calls. We compare four strategies across species and argue for standards & QC before inference. Work led by @silviaprietob.bsky.social. Paper: doi.org/10.1093/bioi...

Pleased to share our latest paper led by @tomlewin.bsky.social, now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social! We present the first chromosome-level genome of a phoronid and show that shared chromosomal fusions unite phoronids and bryozoans as sister groups.
www.cell.com/current-biol...

Laurent Joly, historien. « L’union des droites on l’a déjà eue, c’est le gouvernement de Vichy » Charlie Hebdo : Vous écrivez dans votre conclusion que la digue entre l’extrême droite pétainiste et la droite républicaine pourrait bientôt céder. Quels en sont les signaux ?Laurent Joly : Cette digue s’est formée au lendemain de la guerre. La droite nationaliste et l’extrême droite, compromises dans Vichy et le collaborationnisme, étaient complètement délégitimées après […]

Laurent Joly, historien. « L’union des droites on l’a déjà eue, c’est le gouvernement de Vichy »

LondonEvoDevo meeting's website

Come join the #LondonEvoDevo network half day meeting, hosted at @ucl.ac.uk on Friday November 7th, 2025. Submit your abstract by Oct 27th (or your interest in joining) here: forms.gle/TRbdrCkQTcY2.... Friendly vibes and free registration. More info here: londonevodevo.co.uk.

Congrats, even ALGs in it 😝!

Loops of DNA Equipped Ancient Life To Become Complex | Quanta Magazine New work shows that physical folding of the genome to control genes located far away may have been an early evolutionary development.

Adding loops into a genome is a complicated and costly business for a cell. New findings suggest that it may be the reason that ancient life became complex. @philipcball.bsky.social reports:
www.quantamagazine.org/loops-of-dna...

bucolique!

Congrats!

Chaetognaths have lost gene body methylation and shifted #5mC back to Transposable Elements. This reversion to the ancestral state is coupled with a simplification of DNMT3 architecture. We posit that trans-splicing might compensate.

It is an honour to have contributed to this 20y struggle ⛰️.

The perplexing body plan of arrow worms decoded A genome sequence and single-cell atlas of a marine worm species point towards bursts of gene emergence, duplication and loss as the drivers of lineage-specific body traits.

A genome sequence and single-cell atlas of a marine worm species point towards bursts of gene emergence, duplication and loss as the drivers of lineage-specific body traits

go.nature.com/4oAI2nf

Cracking the Genetic Code of Arrow Worms: How Chaetognaths Got Their Unique Body Plan

New Nature study (co-authored by Queen Mary researchers) reveals that arrow worms evolved unique organs by inventing brand-new genes — not just reusing old ones. 🧬🌊

🔗 www.qmul.ac.uk/sbbs/news/it...

@qmulse.bsky.social

The perplexing body plan of arrow worms decoded A genome sequence and single-cell atlas of a marine worm species point towards bursts of gene emergence, duplication and loss as the drivers of lineage-specific body traits.

Thanks to all those involved and particularly to Tachiro Goto who promoted this species as a chaetognath model! Please also check also the great News & Views by Lewin & Luo www.nature.com/articles/d41... /6

Finally, the enigmatic MedPost gene finds its place right where it belongs (between Meds and Posts) in an extended Hox cluster of >15 genes /5

We finally identified reversion to ancestral methylation patterns targeting mobile elements whose role in stabilising highly expressed genes was likely taken over by trans-splicing (hereby suggesting a possible role for this puzzling process) /4

We also confirmed the presence of spiralian ALG-fusions in chaetognaths despite fairly rearranged chromosomal architecture, as well as centromeres functioning without the classical CenH3 gene /3

We found that chaetognath genome is as puzzling as their body plan with extensive shuffling of gene repertoire, lots of gene novelty and loss, without evidence of WGD, which appear to be involved in the making of lineage-specific cell types /2

The genomic origin of the unique chaetognath body plan - Nature Genomic, single-cell transcriptomic and epigenetic analyses show that chaetognaths, following extensive gene loss in the gnathiferan lineage, relied on newly evolved genes and lineage-specific tandem ...

After nearly twenty years in the making, our attempt at understanding what makes the chaetognath phylum so unique has finally been published! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
with #LauraPiovani @dariagavr.bsky.social @alexdemendoza.bsky.social @chemamd.bsky.social and others /1

This surprisingly relaxing footage is from SIX MILES under the ocean – and it’s the deepest ecosystem yet discovered

Group Leader - Genome Biology Unit Are you ready to lead groundbreaking research in Genome Biology? Join us at EMBL! We are seeking a motivated scientist to lead an independent research group addressing exciting and original biological...

To all post-docs: The Genome Biology dept ‪@embl.org
has an Independent faculty position. Fantastic place to set up your lab –great package: core funding, fantastic Ph.D. students, cutting edge core facilities & great colleagues. Closing date Sept 19th
embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

Repressive cytosine methylation is a marker of viral gene transfer across divergent eukaryotes Abstract. Cytosine DNA methylation patterns vary widely across eukaryotes, with its ancestral roles being understood to have included both transposable ele

Happy to see our latest work out in @molbioevol.bsky.social. We revisit the evolution of 5-methylcytosine across neglected eukaryotic supergroups, establishing an ancestral repressive role silencing genome invaders, both transposons and viral elements👾: academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-... 🧵 1/7

Congrats!