Antoine Hocher

The Origins of Agar First introduced into laboratories in 1881, agar remains indispensable as a culture medium.

www.asimov.press/p/agar?utm_c...

RNA splicing generates a functionally specialized Rep protein isoform in geminiviruses — enabling timely control of the viral cycle. Strikingly, similar strategies might have evolved in DNA viruses infecting different kingdoms: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Spearheaded by @delphinem-p.bsky.social!

Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres - Nature Evolutionarily related ‘proto-point’ centromeres providing resolution to the evolutionary origins of point centromeres are identified in yeast, and comparison shows they evolved in an ancestor with re...

Our paper is now out in Nature:

“Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres”

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

A short thread on how retrotransposons helped give rise to yeast point centromeres.

1/14

beautiful!

How do DNA sequence and histone chemistry tune nucleosome stability and plasticity?

Check out our latest work to find out. Now available on bioRxiv!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

@juliamaristany.bsky.social
@janhuemar.bsky.social
@rcollepardo.bsky.social

Share with your colleagues!!

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The LECA had a conventional kinetochore and the kinetoplastid kinetochore is a derived feature – a critical evaluation of Akiyoshi, 2025 Summary:Akiyoshi, 2025 presented a hypothesis with implications for the early evolution of eukaryotes and eukaryotic cell division machinery. In this Correspondence, the authors conclude that this hyp...

Recently, a Hypothesis was posed in @jcellsci.bsky.social in which the root of eukaryotes was placed between kinetoplastids and all other eukaryotes. From this, it was implied that LECA did not have a kinetochore. We argue this is highly unlikely. A 🧵(1/12)

Read our reply here: tinyurl.com/n87myhpr

New insights on the exceptional chromosomes of Chlamydia. (note that the title is a bit of a misnomer: these are not histones but somewhat similar to linker H1 -which is structuraly unrelated to nucleosomal histones-), very interesting nonetheless: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Bidirectional promoters in Escherichia coli: regulatory rules and implications for gene expression noise Abstract. In prokaryotes, bidirectional promoters are pseudo-symmetrical DNA sequences that stimulate divergent transcription. Ubiquitous, and far more lik

@ewarman.bsky.social has followed up on her discovery of bidirectional promoters in bacteria by defining their basic rules for regulation and links to gene expression noise...

academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

The paradox of immune systems conservation between prokaryotes and eukaryotes - Nature Reviews Microbiology The widespread prokaryotic immune systems, in particular restriction–modification, CRISPR–Cas and defensive toxin–antitoxin systems, are absent in eukaryotes, whereas relatively rare ones, such as Arg...

Aude Bernheim @audeber.bsky.social and Eugene Koonin discuss one of most interesting questions in the field connecting bacterial and animal immunity!

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

In our most recent work David Forrest has discovered a widespread mechanisms linking transcription initiation to DNA supercoiling...

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

Extremophile alert!

Registration is OPEN for the 2026 EMBO Archaeal workshop in Cambridge.

Spaces are limited, so register soon with an abstract if you’d like to give a talk.

If you can’t come in person, we are welcoming virtual attendees. So join us online where all talks will be screened!

Mark your calendars for the next incarnation of the Biology and Physics of the Prokaryotic Chromosome meeting to be held in Paris on July 6-9, 2027.

See the web site for further information biophychrom2027.sciencesconf.org

"Failure is very much more frequent than success in working out the preliminary details" Wise words from W. Dallinger in "On the life-history of a minute septic organisms with an account of experiments made to determine its thermal death point"

Evolution and diversity of oxidoreductases involved in redox balance and energy conservation - Nature Ecology & Evolution HORBEC are protein complexes involved in the regulation of redox balance and energy conservation. The authors develop a bioinformatic tool for HORBEC annotation in bacterial and archaeal genomes and r...

Passioned by #bioenergetics? Do not miss our new article on the evolutionary history of oxidoreductases with G. Borrel and @sgribaldo.bsky.social @archaeal.bsky.social @valdeanda.bsky.social @pasteur.fr @cnrs.fr @cnrsbiologie.bsky.social @natecoevo.nature.com (www.nature.com/articles/s41...).

Congratulations !!

Graphical abstract of pre-print

Does targeting enzymes and substrates in a condensate lead to rate enhancement? No. Here, we investigate how the condensate environment can inhibit an enzyme reaction.

Spoiler: Mass-transport limitations. We find a strong correlation between diffusion and reaction rates.

doi.org/10.64898/202...

At a time when the UK should be capitalising on its global reputation as a great place to do science, this is an enormous own goal. I am so sorry for all those who jobs are going to be impacted.

A DNA recognition-mimicry switch governs induction in arbitrium phages Temperate phages integrate multiple information sources to regulate lysis-lysogeny transitions. SPbeta-like phages use arbitrium signaling and DNA dam…

🫴 Fantastic work: DNA recognition-mimicry switch governs induction in arbitrium phages:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

@spp2330.bsky.social #subtiwiki @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social

Has the MRC research funding ‘pause’ been covered by any major news network?

It feels like it should be a major news story

💼 Postdoctoral researcher in computational and experimental biology M/F

📍Institut Jacques Monod / @sandraduharcourt.bsky.social 's Lab
📆 April 1st

Apply on the CNRS job portal before February 13th 🔗 emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...

Three major research universities opt out of new Elsevier deal Complaints over ‘price increases’ and open access models spur UK institutions to walk away from offer from publishing giant, despite nationally negotiated agreement

And so it begins... 3 UK universities (Essex, Sussex & Kent) have just gone public about walking away from their Elsevier Read & Publish deals, despite Jisc's recently announced agreement. Expect to see more of these over the coming months. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/three-m... #OpenAccess

😍

Marine life in Japan

Archaea fans (and the archaeal-curious) — please spread the word and register! Early sign-ups really help us plan, so if you know you’ll come, please register now.

Construction of complex and diverse DNA sequences using DNA three-way junctions - Nature Sidewinder enables high-fidelity DNA assembly by separating the information that guides assembly from the final assembled sequence.

Clever new method for assembling DNA oligos into larger sequences without the need for unique overlap sequences. Can't wait for those 'this sequence is too complex' rejection messages from DNA suppliers to become a thing of the past. 🧬🧪

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

Black and white photo of an actor in the centre of a woodland of tall tree trunks, accompanied by a musician in a long coat playing a violin. Credit: Jack Parris, 2025 Massee Arts Grant awardee. https://www.instagram.com/jackparrisd/

Open for applications: Massee Arts Grant: up to £5000 to support novel arts projects focused on fungi. For artists from all disciplines & all geographic locations who can help us encourage engagement and learning about mycology. Find out more & apply here: www.britmycolsoc.org.uk/massee-arts-...

In-gel refolding allows fluorescence detection of fully denatured GFPs after SDS-PAGE Green fluorescent proteins (GFPs) have been widely used as fusion tags, especially to visualize subcellular localization and dynamics of the fused par…

In my quest to avoid western blots I will consider this technique when possible (not new just cool)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Bacteria chromosomes contain Genomic Islands that provide virulence, antibiotic resistance, MGE-defence,... They transfer between cells, but the mechanism of most remains elusive.

Here we explore the conjugative capacity of these mysterious Genomic Islands.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Phold's manuscript is now available @narjournal.bsky.social thanks to @susiegriggo.bsky.social @npbhavya.bsky.social @vijinim.bsky.social @linsalrob.bsky.social @martinsteinegger.bsky.social @milot.bsky.social @eunbelivable.bsky.social & others not on bsky #phagesky academic.oup.com/nar/article/...