Robert Kofler
- Reposted by Robert KoflerThe idea is to decouple the journals from the review step. They’ll still exist, but they’ll need to add other value. They’ll highlight, curate, add new perspectives. If they do a good job they can still be prestigious (like Scientific American or Wired) (1.2) 👇
- Reposted by Robert Kofler(1/9) Join us in Bern, Switzerland (8–11 Feb 2026) for our EMBO Workshop on Molecular Mechanisms of Selfish Elements and Strategies! Organized with Tanja Schwander, Laura Ross (@laurarossevo.bsky.social) and Axel Imhof. meetings.embo.org/event/26-sel... #EMBOselfishElements #EMBOevents
- super cool - I am constantly wondering about the effects of recent TE invasions? lethal mutations seems to be one striking effect www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Robert KoflerWe are in Bluesky and we are happy to share our two last consortium publications: the DrosEU expanded DEST dataset and a Continent-wide study of phenotypic differentiation among European #Drosophila melanogaster populations (1/7)
- Reposted by Robert Kofler@kuhlwilm.bsky.social from #HEASVienna introducing @rokofler.bsky.social for the #HEASSeminar in #AncientGenomics taking place now online and in-person at the #UBB @univie.ac.at
- We are looking forward to welcoming @rokofler.bsky.social to #HEASVienna as part of the #HEASSeminar in #AncientGenomics. Please note the slightly earlier start time of 10:00 CEST. More information and registration on our website 👇🔗
- Reposted by Robert KoflerWe are looking forward to welcoming @rokofler.bsky.social to #HEASVienna as part of the #HEASSeminar in #AncientGenomics. Please note the slightly earlier start time of 10:00 CEST. More information and registration on our website 👇🔗
- I'm wondering if this is not a unique, once in a lifetime opportunity, to study the spread and silencing of an iERV in a natural population. last time we checked it was not yet in Vienna
- 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...
- Reposted by Robert KoflerAnother preprint from @pankajd.bsky.social ! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Robert KoflerSINGER, our ARG inference method, is finally published and freely available online: doi.org/10.1038/s415... It was a long journey – 16 months from initial submission to acceptance. Is it just me, or has peer review gotten more arduous lately? 4+ rounds of review isn't so unusual these days...
- Reposted by Robert KoflerIn all my obsession with RNA silencing, I realized I became blind to the significance of autoregulation of DNA transposons. Which is funny, because it was characterized in many ways by my Ph.D. advisor. From 2013: elifesciences.org/articles/00668
- Reposted by Robert Kofler
- Reposted by Robert KoflerGermline 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
- Reposted by Robert Kofler@shashankpritam.bsky.social first research paper on the effect of insertion bias on transposon fitness!! With @almoroscarpa.bsky.social and @rokofler.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...
- Reposted by Robert KoflerpiRNAs are essential for transposon silencing in the animal germline. But how do hosts trap transposon sequences in genomic loci that help establish a piRNA response? Looking at a natural transposon invasion, Baptiste Rafanel and Kirsten Senti made some remarkable observations.
- Antisense transposon insertions into host genes trigger piRNA mediated immunity biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Reposted by Robert KoflerAdaptive P-element insertions in a long non-coding RNA are associated with unique silencing properties www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Robert Kofler@rokofler.bsky.social uncovered a treasure cove in Drosophila populations here. Remarkable and highly relevant findings on horizontal transfer of all kinds of TEs, irrespective of their transposition type.
- @rokofler.bsky.social talks about the spread of TEs in drosophila over time - are humans responsible?? #smbe2025
- Reposted by Robert Kofler@rokofler.bsky.social talks about the spread of TEs in drosophila over time - are humans responsible?? #smbe2025
- Reposted by Robert Kofler@rpianezza.bsky.social @almoroscarpa.bsky.social, A. Haidar, @signor-molevol.bsky.social & @rokofler.bsky.social investigated 11 TEs in D. melanogaster that added ~1 Mbp via horizontal transfer, likely from other Drosophila spp. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf143 #evobio #drosophila #TEsky
- Reposted by Robert KoflerTalks by: @gonzalezlabbcn.bsky.social Yalong Guo Axel Meyer Emmanuelle Lerat Cheng Sun Qiheng Xu Jie Cui Ilia Kirov Chengyi Song Li Wang Jing Wang @rokofler.bsky.social Ying Liu Shengjun Tan
- 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
- Reposted by Robert KoflerThe 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
- Reposted by Robert KoflerFlybase lost all of the NIH support overnight - it is a disaster for the community. Please consider donating. I just did! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
- great work of Riccardo tracing the origin of D.melanogaster transposons
- 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...
- this is fantastic news - congrats Philipp :)
- 🪰 GSEA winner Philipp Hummer - PhD student @popgenviennaphd.bsky.social - is on today! Philipp is working at the intersection of genomics, museum collections, insect evolution, and transposable elements. More on Philipp ⬇️ and follow him: @philipphummer.bsky.social
- Reposted by Robert KoflerOur #PhD student Almorò Scarpa @almoroscarpa.bsky.social looks forward to #PopGen meeting tomorrow! He will tell us about "Two centuries of transposable element invasions in Drosophila melanogaster" Full schedule and streaming details at www.popgen-vienna.at/news/seminars/
- Super proud of amazing PhD student Sarah Saadain winning the Carl von Schreibers prize with her cockroach project; Vetmeduni Wien and @nhmwien.bsky.social www.nhm-wien.ac.at/presse/press...
- Reposted by Robert KoflerPolymorphic transposable elements contribute to variation in recombination landscapes (drosohila 🪰) www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.... #TEsky
- Reposted by Robert Kofler1/ 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 Robert KoflerThe truth is that the scientific process is horribly inefficient and wasteful. But the solution is NOT cutting funds and it’s NOT top down guidance of what should be studied. Instead, we should revolutionize how we publish and improve peer review.
- Reposted by Robert KoflerDid you know that some bacteria have linear chromosomes? Not only that, but as in certain eukaryotes (most famously 🪰) bacterial telomeres can be capped by specialized transposons!! Exciting 🤯 work by fellow transposon lovers in the Peters lab @ Cornell - congrats to all!
- Reposted by Robert KoflerViva Vienna!
- Reposted by Robert KoflerIn this new Feature Review, Yukihide Tomari and colleagues examine repression mechanisms that silence transposons and discuss the dynamic coevolution of transposons and host defenses in animals. Read for FREE till April 11th: authors.elsevier.com/a/1keCScQbJF...
- Our new paper on the P-element invasion in D.simulans mobilednajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
- Reposted by Robert KoflerFeels awkward but necessary to celebrate scientific progress in this imperiled time for US biomedical research. Proud of our latest paper out today exploring the role of transposable elements in antiviral resistance to HIV 🦠 genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... 🧵1/n
- Reposted by Robert KoflerVery promising approach to characterize the mobilome in pangenomes from ! I wonder how this compares/complements to Pantera (@piosierra.bsky.social) and GraffiTE www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #TESky #SV #Pangenomes
- Reposted by Robert Kofler@tbadet.bsky.social and I have a preprint out on transposon silencing in fungi! Genome size evolution is fascinating and showcases the dynamic nature of transposon activation. What we understand less are the dynamics of transposon defense systems encoded by the genomes. doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- Reposted by Robert KoflerNew Bergman Lab paper now online at GBE: "Horizontal transfer and recombination fuel Ty4 retrotransposon evolution in Saccharomyces"
- Reposted by Robert KoflerThis collaboration was such a pleasure. Our new paper on cascades of HT after introduction of two TEs to human commensals www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Robert KoflerIt’s often assumed that the horizontal transfer of transposons btw animals is rare (Myr scale). But recent detective work by Kofler lab & others suggest HT must be very frequent, so that a single transposon can successfully invade multiple species around the world in just a few decades! Wild!
- super proud - our new work about the invasions triggered by two troublesome TEs in Nat. Comm. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- super proud - our new work about the invasions triggered by two troublesome TEs in Nat. Comm. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Robert KoflerAnnouncing a curated collection of long-read genomes for Arabidopsis thaliana: The 1001 Genomes Plus Project. Currently 453 unique accessions/almost 600 assemblies. Interested in contributing? Please contact us! #plantscience www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Robert KoflerPhylogenetic relatedness rather than aquatic habitat fosters horizontal transfer of transposable elements in animals biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2…
- Good news: Deadline exend for Genome Biology collection on transposable elements in genome evolution: March 21. www.biomedcentral.com/collections/...
- Our novel tool for finding recent TE invasions without repeat library - great work by amazing student Riccardo (not yet on bsky) genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
- Reposted by Robert KoflerPianezza, R., Scarpa, A., Narayanan, P., Signor, S., Kofler, R. (2024). Spoink, a LTR retrotransposon, invaded #Drosophila melanogaster populations in the 1990s. PLoS Genet, 20(3):e1011201 journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...
- Reposted by Robert KoflerMy graduate student shashank and I wrote this cool review on the evolution of transposon defense. Come for pirna cluster evolution stay for wild theories!
