Uri Frank

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

תנחומי

A male-essential miRNA is key for avian sex chromosome dosage compensation - Nature Birds have evolved a unique sex chromosome dosage compensation mechanism involving the male-biased microRNA (miR-2954), which is essential for male survival by regulating the expression of dosage-sens...

Our study on a male-essential microRNA and the evolution of other dosage compensation mechanisms in birds is now out in Nature! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Lovely work!! @kaessmannlab.bsky.social @danafrank.bsky.social

't was lovely to host @julianolab.bsky.social here @uniofgalway.bsky.social. Great presentation and lots of fun later on a pint with @jgahan.bsky.social @rmacgabhann.bsky.social @hrhorkan.bsky.social and friends.

I am looking for a new postdoc to join the lab. Interested in pluripotency, germ cells, and in investigating these in a genetically tractable cnidarian? Get in touch! We offer a long-term contract, excellent research environment, and a lovely city #Galway. www.urifranklab.org

Very nice work Grisha and David

Chordin-mediated BMP shuttling patterns the secondary body axis in a cnidarian Chordin-mediated BMP shuttling is the candidate mechanism for generating bilateral symmetry in the cnidarian-bilaterian ancestor.

David’s @davidmoersdorf.bsky.social cool paper about the role of Chordin in BMP signaling in the sea anemone Nematostella is finally out www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Bougainvillia jellyfish with 4 marginal bulbs

Happy to share our genome paper now typeset. We sequenced and assembled the genome of Bougainvillia (jellyfish not the plant!) which has 28 eyes!
doi.org/10.1093/g3jo...

Aboral cell types of Clytia and coral larvae have shared features and link taurine to the regulation of settlement Larvae of jellyfish and corals have specialized sensory cells with shared features potentially linked to settlement regulation.

"Aboral cell types of Clytia and coral larvae have shared features and link taurine to the regulation of settlement" Kudos to Julia Ramon-Mateu and Anna Ferraioli @biodev-vlfr.bsky.social, and thanks to our collaborators for their coral larva expertise www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Neuronal activation in the axolotl brain promotes tail regeneration - npj Regenerative Medicine npj Regenerative Medicine - Neuronal activation in the axolotl brain promotes tail regeneration

Delighted to see this work from my lab published today, where we identify a population of ETV-1 positive glutamatergic neurons that are activated in the brain in response to a distant injury.

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

Check out our latest work on the evolution of animal genome regulation out today in @nature.com. Nicely summarized below by @ianakim.bsky.social.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This is a major output from our ERC-StG project Evocellmap @erc.europa.eu at @crg.eu

Proud to present the peer-reviewed version of our Cell Type Allometry paper, out today in Science Advances!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Are animals of different sizes made of the same cell types?

Here’s an update of the main points and revision items

(with memes!)

Thread 👇🧵

Just back from visiting @viennabiocenter.bsky.social where I met with colleagues @ulrichtechnau.bsky.social @genikhovich.bsky.social @tessmarraiblelabs.bsky.social Oleg Simakov and many others. Lovely weather and great science.

‼️ Attention non-bilaterian enthusiasts ‼️

Join us for the non-bilaterian satellite symposium at PASEDB 2025 this July!

Come hear the latest in cnidarians, sponges, ctenophores & more!

Talks will be selected from abstracts. Contact me with questions. Register at the link below:

EvoChromo: Evolutionary approaches to research in chromatin Chromatin is the complex of DNA, RNA and protein that is found making up the chromosomes in eukaryotic cells. Chromatin is essential for proper genome function and is involved in chromosome segregati…

Registrations are now open for the next @embo.org EvoChromo meeting in December.
meetings.embo.org/event/24-evo...

Join us in beautiful Costa Brava to discuss chromatin evolution!

Co-organized with @tobiaswarnecke.bsky.social @sandraduharcourt.bsky.social @levine-lab.bsky.social and Nick Irwin

Figure 2 Overview of cell state transitions in hPSCs in 2D and 3D embryo models. Embryo illustrations on the left represent the in vivo developmental stages corresponding to the three pluripotency states: naive (yellow), formative/intermediate (light green) and primed (dark green). On the right, the lineages they have the potential to give rise to in stem cell-based embryo models are illustrated. The generation of primordial germ cells (PGCs) from amnion remains to be determined. EXM, extra-embryonic mesoderm; PGCs, primordial germ cells.

In this Review, @bernasozen.bsky.social, Patrick Tam & Martin Pera summarize how recent studies of embryo models have advanced our understanding of cell state transitions of the pluripotent human epiblast and highlights some key remaining questions:
doi.org/10.1242/dev....

James' lab is is doing fantastic work in chromatin evodevo.

🧬🧪Exciting chromatin research conference hosted by @aicc-ireland.bsky.social in May! The deadline for poster/talk abstracts is April 28, see details in the post below.

β-catenin-driven endomesoderm specification is a Bilateria-specific novelty - Nature Communications Lebedeva et al. show that unlike Bilateria, the embryo of the cnidarian Nematostella specifies its endomesoderm in the β-catenin-negative domain. In contrast, subsequent β-catenin-dependent axial patt...

Tanya's @tclebedeva.bsky.social paper on endomesoderm specification in the beta-catenin-negative area of the Nematostella embryo is out! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Looking forward to welcoming @peterlewislab.bsky.social from @uwmadison.bsky.social for our March webinar on 'Dissecting the Biochemical Complexes Governing Gene Silencing' on March 28th!

Register here: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

@activemotifusa.bsky.social

Introducing openRxiv: a new independent home for preprint sharing in the life sciences - openRxiv We’re thrilled to announce the launch of openRxiv as an independent nonprofit to oversee bioRxiv and medRxiv, the world’s leading preprint servers for life and health sciences. openRxiv ensures that r...

🎉 bioRxiv & medRxiv are now managed by openRxiv, a new independent nonprofit. This transition allows for more flexibility and innovation. Our mission remains being a free service to authors ensuring rapid sharing of scientific information before peer review.
ℹ️ openrxiv.org/introducing-...

Looking forward to

🚨ISRB Webinar - Zone 2: Europe, West Asia & Africa on March 11th at 4pm Central European Time 📷 featuring Uri Frank and Stefano Tiozzo #ColonialRegeneration

Great collaboration with @jordisolana.bsky.social's lab (@drsalamander.bsky.social et al.) and the Galway folks @hrhorkan.bsky.social @rmacgabhann.bsky.social @camillectz.bsky.social @febrimarsa.bsky.social and those not on BSK yet.

The Hydractinia cell atlas is out. This remarkable animal has those cells, i-cells, that are pluripotent just like mammalian blastocyst inner cell mass. There is a difference, though––inner cell mass cells persist for only a few cell cycles before they differentiate; i-cells are adult cells.

תודה רבה יהוא

Thrilled to receive a Discovery Award from @wellcometrust.bsky.social. We are working on adult, pluripotent stem cells in #Hydractinia. This animal is among the most regenerative creatures and does not succumb to age. Thanks to my team members and colleague at chromosome.ie @uniofgalway.bsky.social

Very well done, James, and very well deserved.

Happy to formally announce I will be working on Nematostella again on the back of a recent @researchireland.bsky.social award! Also mazing to see 4/5 Frontiers for the Future awards to @uniofgalway.bsky.social announced today coming to PIs in the CCB (chromosome.ie)!