Erica Dinatale
Doctoral researcher @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social and curious human being
De-coding brown algae 🍙
- Reposted by Erica Dinatale📣 Meet the new ERC Synergy Grant awardees! Sixty-six research teams have been selected for funding, bringing together 239 scientists. Congratulations to all! ➡️ buff.ly/PSn3bi9 #EUfunded #HorizonEurope #ERCSyG
- Reposted by Erica DinataleThis Halloween, we have a spooky evolutionary story for you. The brainchild of @delaconcepcionjc.bsky.social, Nick Irwin and our fantastic collaborators is now out in @natplants.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41... Here’s why I love this work — and why I think you’ll enjoy it too. 👇
- Reposted by Erica Dinatale#TEsky A comparative analysis of transposable element diversity and evolution across 75 bee genomes doi.org/10.1186/s128...
- Reposted by Erica Dinatale1/ Ever needed to annotate TEs in a fungal genome, but didn't know where to start? We have released #MycoMobilome, a community-focused non-redundant database of transposable element consensus sequences for the fungal kingdom, constructed from >4,000 fungal genomes! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Erica DinataleVery happy to see our paper published online natcomms.nature.com. Thank you to @wellcometrust.bsky.social for funding this work during my time with @robklose.bsky.social and David Booth! Thanks also to collaborators @garcialabms.bsky.social @alexdemendoza.bsky.social and the other authors!
- Reposted by Erica DinataleExcited to introduce Auxenochlorella as a new algal reference organism for fundamental plant science and bioengineering. A paper in two parts: a genetic toolkit for site-specific genomic manipulation, paired with the most unusual genome I’ve ever worked on academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...
- Reposted by Erica Dinatale1/9 New in @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado8005 How does genetic architecture constrain evolutionary trajectories? To address this question, we inferred the genetic architecture of convergent plumage coloration and its evolutionary history in wheatears.
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View full threadReposted by Erica Dinatale3/9 The black-or-white throat polymorphism is explained by the interaction of a transposable element (an LTR retrotransposon) upstream ASIP with ASIP coding variation. Mantle and neck side coloration is encoded by additive effects of regulatory variants upstream ASIP.
- Reposted by Erica DinataleWe 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...
- Reposted by Erica DinataleThrilled to share what we learned from re-annotating the mobilome of the brown algae model [Ectocarpus] 🌊🌿🏖️ genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... A wonderful collaboration with @ericadinatale.bsky.social, @cssmartinho.bsky.social, @rorycraig.bsky.social, and Susana Coelho! 🎉
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View full threadReposted by Erica DinataleIt would be exciting to study whether there are clear "causal" links between TE regulation and body plan formation in brown algae, where 'artificial' mobilisation of young TEs can drive innovation (and overcome constraints) in the formation of multicellular phenotypes.
- So happy to see my first first-author paper published! 🎈 A short thread on how Ectocarpus and its TE secrets have kept me busy lately: rdcu.be/eITQH
- 1/5 🌊 The Ectocarpus genome harbors a high diversity of evolutionarily young TEs. DNA transposons dominate, but Gypsy elements carrying a Tudor domain caught our eye!
- 2/5 🧜 TEs form discrete, repeat-rich islands that don’t correspond to centromeres. We also found an interesting enrichment in the pseudo-autosomal region of the sex chromosome, likely fueled by local hopping of DNA transposons from the sex-determining region.
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View full threadHuge thanks to Susana Coelho, @hajkdrost.bsky.social, @cssmartinho.bsky.social and @rorycraig.bsky.social for their guidance and support throughout this massive work!
- Reposted by Erica DinataleNew research: With ancient origins & surprising flexibility, #BrownAlgae reveal a compelling story of sex chromosome evolution. This could rewrite how we view sex determination. Learn more: s.gwdg.de/YDoZ3L Congrats to @agalip.bsky.social & Josue Barrera for their work in @natecoevo.nature.com
- Genomes of brown algae with different sex determination systems show that U/V sex chromosomes evolved 450–224 million years ago and show remarkable conservation of genes within the sex-determining region, despite independent expansions of the sex locus in each lineage www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Erica DinataleGenomes of brown algae with different sex determination systems show that U/V sex chromosomes evolved 450–224 million years ago and show remarkable conservation of genes within the sex-determining region, despite independent expansions of the sex locus in each lineage www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Erica DinataleFree online ebook: R and python comparisons side by side www.anotherbookondatascience.com/chapter1.html
- Reposted by Erica DinataleDelighted to share the peer-reviewed version of our study led by @tomlewin.bsky.social now out in Genome Biology @bmc.springernature.com! We analyzed 64 chromosome-level genomes across 15 animal phyla and found that extensive genome rearrangements are the norm in bilaterians. doi.org/10.1186/s130...
- Reposted by Erica Dinatale💥🥳 At long last, our latest paper is out! Gag proteins of endogenous retroviruses are required for zebrafish development www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Led heroically by Sylvia Chang & @jonowells.bsky.social A study which has changed the way I think of #transposons! No less! 🧵 1/n
- Transposable elements in brown algae? 🌊 Yes, they’re full of surprises ✨ Come meet Ectocarpus at #ESEB2025! 📍Room 113 - S28.03 🗓️ Thursday, 2:30pm
- #ESEB2025 check out poster 221! The amazing work of @petrollromy.bsky.social and @borglab.bsky.social is also here ⤵️ www.cell.com/current-biol...
- So excited to be at #ESEB2025 presenting poster 221 today!☀️ Check out our chromosome-level genome of Bostrychia, a red alga from the complex Ceramiales order, revealing massive genome expansion by giant Plavaka DNA transposons, the evolution of expanded gene families and UV sex chromosomes!
- Reposted by Erica Dinatale
- Reposted by Erica Dinatale#eseb2025 has started. So many friends and colleagues around. This is amazing. Welcome everyone to Barcelona!
- Reposted by Erica Dinatale
- Reposted by Erica Dinatale1/ 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 🧵👇
- Reposted by Erica DinataleDFAM (database of transposable elements) 3.9 is out! A lot of cool new stuff and a special update for Drosophila melanogaster... 1/2 #Transposon #DFAM
- Today we released Dfam 3.9 with many new community submissions and the result of a thorough curation and update of the Drosophila Melanogaster library. www.dfam.org (release notes: www.dfam.org/releases/Dfa...)
- Reposted by Erica DinatalePlease spread the word🙏: [PhD Position in Computational Evolutionary Transcriptomics] If you are interested in doing a PhD in gorgeous Scotland on 'Why embryo development goes wrong sometimes?', please consider applying and join our wonderful team in Dundee! www.dundee.ac.uk/phds/opportu...
- So happy to see @petrollromy.bsky.social first-author preprint at @biorxiv-genomic.bsky.social ✨ Could you imagine the impact of Plavaka elements on the genome expansion of Bostrychia moritziana? 🌊
- 🚨Preprint Alert🚨 I'm really happy to finally share our exploits in red algae and introduce the wider community to Bostrychia, the new model system we have been developing to tackle the molecular biology of red algae. Isn't she a beauty? Thread below 🧵 1/8 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
