Riccardo Pianezza

First day at #EMBOMobileGenome

So many great talks! Toby’s on fungal genome evolution was a highlight: exciting results and inspiring questions ahead

Thank you, Darren! You’re right, it is a TE. However, I’ve noticed that many papers refer to these TEs (gypsy/gypsy, with an envelope protein) as insect endogenous retroviruses. Do you think that terminology is inaccurate? Curious to hear your opinion on that

Thanks to all of my co-authors for their invaluable help @rokofler.bsky.social @mbeaum.bsky.social @signor-molevol.bsky.social

We discovered an endogenous retrovirus that's still spreading in natural D. melanogaster populations! It was horizontally transferred from D. erecta in Central Africa, so we named it "Kuruka", which means "jump" in Swahili. Read its cool story here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Rapid emergence of non-autonomous elements may stop P-element invasions in the absence of a piRNA-based host defence Author summary Transposable elements (TEs) are short, self-replicating DNA sequences found in nearly all genomes. While they can be harmful to their hosts, many organisms have evolved defence systems,...

Germline defence from TEs largely relies on piRNAs. Yet, @divyaselvaraju.bsky.social and I monitored a P-element invasion in Drosophila that was stopped by an internally deleted copy, no host intervention required!
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
Many thanks to @rpianezza.bsky.social & @rokofler.bsky.social

The work on TE invasions in D. melanogaster continues! We found three more recent invasions, one of which occurred in ~3 years worldwide. Another great collaboration with @rpianezza.bsky.social @rokofler.bsky.social and others

Spatio-temporal tracking of three novel transposable element invasions in Drosophila melanogaster over the last 30 years Abstract. Transposable elements (TEs) are repetitive sequences capable of mobilizing within genomes, exerting a sigfinificant influence on evolution throug

super-happy, three TE invasions in Dmel during the last 30 years; the crazy thing - Transib1 spread in just 2-3years in global populations academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-... great work everyone @rpianezza.bsky.social @almoroscarpa.bsky.social @signor-molevol.bsky.social Anna Haider

Biogeography shapes the TE landscape of Drosophila melanogaster The abundance and composition of transposable elements (TEs) varies widely across species, yet the evolutionary forces shaping this diversity remain poorly understood. Using 285 recently published gen...

Our new preprint is out! We explored the biogeographic origins of TEs in the D. melanogaster genome.

Most TEs were recently acquired via horizontal transfer, mainly from Afrotropical Drosophila species. Surprisingly, all African drosophilids share some of these TEs!

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