Bornberglab

Cryptocercus genomes expand knowledge of adaptations to xylophagy and termite sociality Abstract. Subsociality and wood-eating or xylophagy are understood as key drivers in the evolution of eusociality in Blattodea (cockroaches and termites),

🚨 New paper in GBE! 🚨
This study analyzes two high-quality Cryptocercus genomes, the sister group to all termites, to investigate the transition to subsociality and wood-feeding (xylophagy) in Blattodea. 🪳

Check it out here:
doi.org/10.1093/gbe/...

Check out our new review in Nature Reviews Genetics on de novo emerged genes and proteins. How they emerge, are lost and persist - and how de novo emerged proteins relate to randomized proteins! @bornberglab.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Emergence and evolution of protein-coding de novo genes - Nature Reviews Genetics De novo gene evolution entails the birth of new genes from previously non-coding DNA. In this Review, Bornberg-Bauer and Eicholt overview how protein-coding de novo genes are identified, the mechanist...

Above the read version, find the link for the full version here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Emergence and evolution of protein-coding de novo genes Nature Reviews Genetics - De novo gene evolution entails the birth of new genes from previously non-coding DNA. In this Review, Bornberg-Bauer and Eicholt overview how protein-coding de novo genes...

New review out in Nat Rev Genet: Emergence & evolution of protein-coding de novo genes by Erich and Lars Eicholt @lacholt.bsky.social. How non-coding DNA becomes translated, persists or is lost in populations, and can yield structured/functional proteins—plus methods & open questions! rdcu.be/e09SM

🧬 What does the starting material from which genes could emerge #denovo look like?
🌱 We used #RiboSeq to investigate the landscape of translated de novo ORFs in 3 #Arabidopsis species, and how they might be linked to gene birth!

📝 Check out our preprint here:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Unravelling the evolution of wood-feeding in termites with 47 high-resolution genome assemblies - Nature Communications Termites, the largest lineage of non-hymenopteran social insects, are important decomposers of plant organic matter in the tropics. Here, the authors sequence the genomes of 45 termites and two cockro...

📢🪳 New paper alert!
Former group members Alina and Mark contributed to a new study just published in Nature Communications. The team generated 47 new high-quality genomes from termites and cockroaches, filling a major gap in available data.
Check out the paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The symposium concluded on a festive note with our annual IEB Christmas party.🎄🎉 (2/2)

The IEB turned 20!🎉 We celebrated with an anniversary symposium with talks from many alumni, including several alumni from our group: @january3.github.io , Mark Harrison,
@ahuylmans.bsky.social , Bertrand Fouks, and
@sgrath.bsky.social . It was great to reconnect with many familiar faces. (1/2)😊

Berndjan and Alina both successfully defended their PhDs this week. Berndjan worked on “Probing the evolvability of ancestral and extant sulfatases using fluorescence-activated droplet sorting (FADS)”. Alina looked at the “Genomic basis of sociality in order Blattodea”. Big congrats!🥳🎓🧫🪳

Last week, we wrapped up our Volkswagen Foundation–funded project with a wonderful final meeting in Uppsala, hosted by Ylva Ivarsson’s group. The photo shows members of our lab together with colleagues from the groups of @ivarssonlab.bsky.social , @hlouchova-lab.bsky.social and Florian Hollfelder.

Erich traveled to Berlin for the Schering Prize award ceremony, where he delivered the laudatio for Agnes Toth-Petroczy, this year’s recipient of the Schering Young Investigator Award. Warm congratulations to her!

Photo credits: Schering Stiftung/Michael Setzpfandt

Postdoctoral Research Associates are sought for the GEvol project on evolutionary genomics. Candidates should have programming and data analysis skills. More info: https://g-evol.uni-muenster.de/open-positions/ #postdoc

📢 Job alert: Post-Doc Position in the project "Functional annotation of genomic🧬 innovations in a densely populated clade🪰 with deep learning 💻" Join the GEvol community in a collaborative project between @bornberglab.bsky.social and @katharinahoff.bsky.social lab.
👉 bornberglab.org/post-doc-pos...

🧩 Thrilled to share our new paper in @genomebiolevol.bsky.social !

We present a comprehensive review of de novo gene emergence — providing a classification of current detection methods and a roadmap for addressing major challenges in the field of gene birth from non-genic sequences.

🚀We’re excited to share our new paper in Bioinformatics!

We introduce a user-friendly toolkit that implements our novel DeNoFo file-format for standardised annotation of de novo gene detection workflows — enabling reproducible methodology descriptions and easier dataset comparison across studies.

🎉We are happy to announce that our wonderful GEvol SPP will be funded by @dfg.de for another 3 years. Included are 17 great projects all over Germany with amazing people. You want to be part of this fantastic community? Soon you can find new PhD/Post-Doc positions here & on our website. Stay tuned🎉

The DeNoFo format & toolkit for annotating, assessing and comparing the tools and tresholds used in studies of de novo evolved genes is out now in Bioinformatics! Great effort led by @drdomain.bsky.social and Anna Grandchamp!

academic.oup.com/bioinformati...

Genomic Basis of Evolutionary Innovations in Insects: Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution: Vol 344, No 7 The Journal of Experimental Zoology – B (JEZ-B): Molecular and Developmental Evolution covers the structure & evolution of animal & non-animal organisms.

📢 Check out our GEvol inspired Special Issue in JEZ-B:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15525015... 🚨

We are in Bluesky and we are happy to share our two last consortium publications: the DrosEU expanded DEST dataset and a Continent-wide study of phenotypic differentiation among European #Drosophila melanogaster populations (1/7)

The next Protein Structure Evolution Seminar will be given by Stephen Fried (JHU):

Title: “Who Cares About Protein Refolding Anyway?: Why Some Microbes Do and Others Don’t”
Date: October 14th, 5 pm CET
Registration link: tinyurl.com/prose-seminar2

molecules that might help fight African Sleeping sickness by targeting the ERK8 protein, looking for molecules that were preferentially bound by the human or parasite ortholog. Sildenafil, aka viagra, showed some selectivity (among others). (2/2)

Molecular docking to homology models of human and Trypanosoma brucei ERK8 that identified ortholog-specific inhibitors Author summary The discovery and production of safe and effective therapeutics for treating people suffering from neglected tropical diseases, such as sleeping sickness caused by the pathogen Trypanos...

New Paper Alert! Our group member Matthew Merski published a paper about new potential therapeutic leads against the parasite Trypanosoma brucei, causing the African Sleeping sickness. They used molecular docking on known, approved (FDA) drugs to find (1/2)
journals.plos.org/plosntds/art...

We had a great time at the Long Night of Insects at the LWL Museum of Natural History in Münster! From watching a cockroach race to exploring and ant farm and info booths there was much to discover. Marie even joined the science slam. What a great way to wrap up our @gevol.bsky.social meeting!🐜✨🪰🪳

Many thanks to all GEvol members for a truly wonderful annual meeting. It was really great to catch up with you all again.

Erich and Marie travelled to Barcelona for #ESEB2025. Erich gave two talks: one exploring de novo and random proteins, and another discussing gene family losses in slave-maker ants. Marie presented her work on neORF emergence in Drosophila at Symposium 29, organised by @gevol.bsky.social. 🧬🪰🐜

Lots of inspiring talks & posters at our GEvol symposium at #ESEB2025 yesterday!
Thanks to everyone who presented, especially our invited speakers @ahuylmans.bsky.social & @rmwaterhouse.bsky.social. From GEvol, Marie Lebherz, Elisa Israel and Barbara Feldmeyer gave talks about their work. (1/2)

Erich travelled to Marseilles this week and visited former postdocs, now PIs, Anna Grandchamp and Nicolas Terrapon. Great to catch up with both of them! ☀️

A night full of fun, science and insects: We invite you to join our “Lange Nacht der Insekten” on Sept. 5th, 6pm until midnight, at LWL Museum of Natural History in Münster. Bring your family and friends and explore an ant farm, watch a science slam and visit the planetarium! Entrance is free.

Her project aimed to understand ancient enzymes that may have helped the origin of life by catalyzing the conversion of NMPs to NTPs. Now she is off to new adventures, doing her master thesis at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). 🚀(2/2)

We are proud of our master student Brenda who did a research module at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) in Tokyo, working on enzymatic nucleotide phosphorylation focusing on the PPK2 Class III enzyme MAN (1/2).