Brice Letcher

Mechanisms and timing of programmed DNA elimination in songbirds It is commonly assumed that multicellular organisms contain the same genetic information in all the cells of an individual. However, there is a growing list of species in which parts of the genome are...

Beautiful cytology of zebra and Bengalese finch embryos showing their germline-restricted chromosomes are eliminated from somatic cells by the time of oviposition (egg-laying)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Brève de science : Détruire les PFAS Les PFAS sont ce que l’on appelle des « polluants éternels », des composés aux propriétés extraordinaires (ils résistent aux fortes chaleurs,

Peut-on détruire les PFAS ? 🧐
La dégradation de ces « polluants éternels » reste un enjeu majeur pour l’environnement et la santé et c’est tout l’objectif des recherches menées par Marie-Pierre Krafft, physico-chimiste au CNRS.

Selected frames of a live-cell imaging time-course experiment. A single cell is shown, co-expressing PEEL-1::eGFP and PMPL-1::mCherry. The nucleus is labeled (“N”). t = 0 is 16 hrs after transfection. Acute swelling can be seen (t = 2 hr 30 min), followed by a transient blob or protrusion (arrow) jetted out by the cell (t = 4 hr 15 min) and later reabsorbed (dotted arrow) (t = 4 hr 20 min). Scale bar = 10 µm.

#Celegans peel-1/zeel-1 is one of the best-characterized animal #toxin-antidote systems, but how does it work? @lewsiferase.bsky.social &co show that PEEL-1 co-opts the PMPL-1 to exert toxicity by creating a novel #IonChannel that leads to cell swelling @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3HfH8LN

France and Germany unveil Docs, a homegrown alternative to Google Docs The Trump administration has set out to drastically reshape the relationship between the US and Europe. In response, Brussels is scrambling to adapt to this new reality,...

The days of Google Docs are ending; we enter the age of Docs, made by France's Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs and Germany's Center for Digital Sovereignty of Public Administration.

We need more governments to collaborate on public software projects to achieve digital sovereignty.

Efficient near telomere-to-telomere assembly of Nanopore Simplex reads Telomere-to-telomere (T2T) assembly is the ultimate goal for de novo genome assembly. Existing algorithms capable of near T2T assembly all require Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) ultra-long reads w...

Preprint on hifiasm Nanopore-only assembly. Led by Haoyu Cheng: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Drosophila follicle showing retrotransposons (pink & yellow) expressed in somatic cells infecting the oocyte

1/ Transposable elements are often called "jumping genes" because they mobilize within genomes. 🧬
But did you know they can also jump 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 cells? 🤯
Our new study reveals how retrotransposons invade the germline directly from somatic cells.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A short thread 🧵👇

🏆 Research integrity consultant and image forensics expert @elisabethbik.bsky.social has uncovered fraudulent data in over 7,600 scientific papers and exposed the practices of ‘paper mills’ that produce counterfeit scientific articles. She is honoured with the €200K Individual Award. Congrats!

G-quadruplex–stalled eukaryotic replisome structure reveals helical inchworm DNA translocation DNA G-quadruplexes (G4s) are non–B-form DNA secondary structures that threaten genome stability by impeding DNA replication. To elucidate how G4s induce replication fork arrest, we characterized fork ...

@science.org G-quadruplex–stalled eukaryotic replisome structure reveals helical inchworm DNA translocation | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @sahilbatra.bsky.social @benallwein.bsky.social @dirkremus.bsky.social www.mskcc.org/research/ski...

Illustration depicting the ways in which fungi can exchange genetic material with each other. Starship mediated HGT is confirmed experimentally in this preprint.

We did it! We caught Starship #transposons moving between #fungal species in the lab, including between species separated by ~100my. We think Starships are a mediator of HGT in fungi, akin to conjugative elements in bacteria. Check out the preprint. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

👏💪

MAYosis is coming... register and submit abstracts here.
meiosis.cornell.edu/mayosis2025/...

The Balbiani body is formed by microtubule-controlled molecular condensation of Buc in early oogenesis Kar et al. demonstrate that Balbiani body (Bb) formation is achieved via developmental condensation in zebrafish oogenesis, driven by Buc phase separation and evolving from a dynamic liquid-like state into a solid-like stable compartment. Multistep regulation by microtubules controls condensation, ensuring proper Bb formation and oocyte polarity.

💥Finally out!
Answering a two-centuries old question about a membraneless organelle that forms in #oocytes from insects to humans: the Balbiani body (Bb).
Now in
@currentbiology.bsky.social
:
cell.com/current-biol...
>

Looking good Zam! ☺️

Meiosis: Exploring diversity to discover the fundamentals Meiosis is an essential cell division for sexual reproduction and fertility across eukaryotes. It involves a series of tightly regulated processes, including entry into meiosis, pairing of homologs, …

Registration now open for the 2025 EMBO workshop on Meiosis! June 22-26, 2025, Engelberg, Switzerland.
Deadline for abstract submissions and registration is Feb 15th, 2025. Lots of speaker slots will be selected from abstracts, so apply now! meetings.embo.org/event/25-mei...

The Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell #I2BCParisSaclay is seeking to recruit new group leaders in cell biology #UnivParisSaclay #CNRSbiologie #CEAParisSaclay
The application dealine is February 28, 2025