All you want for christmas is.... transposon mutagenesis!
Our new work at @cultivarium.bsky.social screening lots of transposon vectors in lots of bacteria, from @charliegilbert.bsky.social and team.
Transposon and promoter modular parts available on Addgene (pooled library will be there soon too)
Our new work at @cultivarium.bsky.social screening lots of transposon vectors in lots of bacteria, from @charliegilbert.bsky.social and team.
Transposon and promoter modular parts available on Addgene (pooled library will be there soon too)
December 24, 2025 at 3:03 PM
All you want for christmas is.... transposon mutagenesis!
Our new work at @cultivarium.bsky.social screening lots of transposon vectors in lots of bacteria, from @charliegilbert.bsky.social and team.
Transposon and promoter modular parts available on Addgene (pooled library will be there soon too)
Our new work at @cultivarium.bsky.social screening lots of transposon vectors in lots of bacteria, from @charliegilbert.bsky.social and team.
Transposon and promoter modular parts available on Addgene (pooled library will be there soon too)
Incredibly cool new transposon biology!
Super excited to share my postdoctoral work at @imbavienna.bsky.social @viennabiocenter.bsky.social -
We discovered that some retrotransposons, or "jumping genes" 🧬, are able to spread from cell to cell via a new viral infectivity route.
A short thread: 🧵👇 (1/7)
We discovered that some retrotransposons, or "jumping genes" 🧬, are able to spread from cell to cell via a new viral infectivity route.
A short thread: 🧵👇 (1/7)
September 24, 2026 at 5:36 PM
Incredibly cool new transposon biology!
piRNAs 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.
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 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.28.667215v1
August 3, 2025 at 3:39 PM
piRNAs 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.
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.
OUT NOW: Inducible transposon mutagenesis identifies bacterial fitness determinants during infection in mice
#microsky 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#microsky 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Inducible transposon mutagenesis identifies bacterial fitness determinants during infection in mice - Nature Microbiology
InducTn-seq, a method for inducible mutagenesis followed by transposon insertion site sequencing, enables temporal control of transposition to bypass population bottlenecks and enable the quantificati...
www.nature.com
March 27, 2025 at 4:35 PM
OUT NOW: Inducible transposon mutagenesis identifies bacterial fitness determinants during infection in mice
#microsky 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#microsky 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
PIWI clade Argonautes are essential for transposon silencing. Without them, animals are sterile due to massive transposon activity.
But how does piRNA-guided target interaction translate into silencing?
PhD student Júlia Portell Montserrat has an intriguing answer
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
But how does piRNA-guided target interaction translate into silencing?
PhD student Júlia Portell Montserrat has an intriguing answer
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
September 17, 2025 at 10:39 AM
PIWI clade Argonautes are essential for transposon silencing. Without them, animals are sterile due to massive transposon activity.
But how does piRNA-guided target interaction translate into silencing?
PhD student Júlia Portell Montserrat has an intriguing answer
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
But how does piRNA-guided target interaction translate into silencing?
PhD student Júlia Portell Montserrat has an intriguing answer
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
How do transposons jump when they’re released from host control?
I babysat two chromosomes for 2 years, making sure they are ok without most piRNAs.
Here’s what we found & excited to share my 1st postdoc paper:
“piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
I babysat two chromosomes for 2 years, making sure they are ok without most piRNAs.
Here’s what we found & excited to share my 1st postdoc paper:
“piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts
In Metazoa, transposon expression is suppressed by the piRNA pathway, and disruption of this pathway leads to rampant transposon expression. However, it remains unclear whether increased transposon ex...
www.biorxiv.org
July 17, 2026 at 2:07 PM
How do transposons jump when they’re released from host control?
I babysat two chromosomes for 2 years, making sure they are ok without most piRNAs.
Here’s what we found & excited to share my 1st postdoc paper:
“piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
I babysat two chromosomes for 2 years, making sure they are ok without most piRNAs.
Here’s what we found & excited to share my 1st postdoc paper:
“piRNA loss unleashes episodic transposition bursts”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Dual transposon sequencing profiles the genetic interaction landscape in bacteria | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Dual transposon sequencing profiles the genetic interaction landscape in bacteria
Gene redundancy complicates systematic characterization of gene function as single-gene deletions may not produce discernible phenotypes. We report dual transposon sequencing (dual Tn-seq), a platform...
www.science.org
September 25, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Dual transposon sequencing profiles the genetic interaction landscape in bacteria | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@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...
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...
January 16, 2025 at 9:09 PM
@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...
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...
🧬🌽 Happy Transposon Day! 🌽🧬
Today we celebrate the birthday of Barbara McClintock - scientist extraordinaire and discoverer of jumping genes. Still the only woman to have an unshared Nobel Prize in the biomedical sciences #TransposonDay2025
Today we celebrate the birthday of Barbara McClintock - scientist extraordinaire and discoverer of jumping genes. Still the only woman to have an unshared Nobel Prize in the biomedical sciences #TransposonDay2025
June 16, 2025 at 3:14 PM
🧬🌽 Happy Transposon Day! 🌽🧬
Today we celebrate the birthday of Barbara McClintock - scientist extraordinaire and discoverer of jumping genes. Still the only woman to have an unshared Nobel Prize in the biomedical sciences #TransposonDay2025
Today we celebrate the birthday of Barbara McClintock - scientist extraordinaire and discoverer of jumping genes. Still the only woman to have an unshared Nobel Prize in the biomedical sciences #TransposonDay2025
Antirrhinum ‘Purple Twist’ showing fabulous variegated petal colour #transposon
June 13, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Antirrhinum ‘Purple Twist’ showing fabulous variegated petal colour #transposon
Adapting the power of transposon sequencing to phages! Our final paper is out now👇 Our plasmids 🧬 are available on @addgene.bsky.social – try phage Tn-seq on your favorite phage!
Out Now! Defining the essential genome of diverse phages with phage Tn-seq #MicroSky
Defining the essential genome of diverse phages with phage Tn-seq
Nature Microbiology, Published online: 25 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02486-1Phage Tn-seq uses Tn5 transposon mutagenesis with anti-CRISPR-based selection and deep sequencing as a method to generate unbiased, genome-wide mutations across diverse phages
go.nature.com
September 27, 2026 at 11:59 PM
Adapting the power of transposon sequencing to phages! Our final paper is out now👇 Our plasmids 🧬 are available on @addgene.bsky.social – try phage Tn-seq on your favorite phage!
Cool, elegant paper. Inverted repeat transposon near EFR affects chromatin organization and gene expression to fine-tune immune responses. #MPMI #plantimmunity
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Transposon-triggered epigenetic chromatin dynamics modulate EFR-related pathogen response - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
Here, the authors show that an inverted-repeat transposon located next to the pattern recognition receptor ELONGATION FACTOR-TU RECEPTOR (EFR)-encoding gene in Arabidopsis controls chromatin organizat...
www.nature.com
January 1, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Cool, elegant paper. Inverted repeat transposon near EFR affects chromatin organization and gene expression to fine-tune immune responses. #MPMI #plantimmunity
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Now officially published in Current Biology 🥳🥳 @mfseidl.bsky.social @binfutrecht.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
December 9, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Now officially published in Current Biology 🥳🥳 @mfseidl.bsky.social @binfutrecht.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
This week @science.org Dual #transposon sequencing profiles the #genetic interaction landscape in #bacteria | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🦠🔬🧫🧬
Dual transposon sequencing profiles the genetic interaction landscape in bacteria
Gene redundancy complicates systematic characterization of gene function as single-gene deletions may not produce discernible phenotypes. We report dual transposon sequencing (dual Tn-seq), a platform...
www.science.org
September 26, 2025 at 7:01 PM
This week @science.org Dual #transposon sequencing profiles the #genetic interaction landscape in #bacteria | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🦠🔬🧫🧬
Extensive horizontal transfer of transposable elements shapes fungal mobilomes
@currentbiology.bsky.social by @jromeijn.bsky.social et al from @mfseidl.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...
@currentbiology.bsky.social by @jromeijn.bsky.social et al from @mfseidl.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Extensive horizontal transfer of transposable elements shapes fungal mobilomes
Romeijn et al. reveal that horizontal transposon transfer is widespread in fungi,
contributing up to 70% of transposon content in some taxa. The authors uncover thousands
of events across diverse line...
www.cell.com
December 6, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Extensive horizontal transfer of transposable elements shapes fungal mobilomes
@currentbiology.bsky.social by @jromeijn.bsky.social et al from @mfseidl.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...
@currentbiology.bsky.social by @jromeijn.bsky.social et al from @mfseidl.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Teratorn. 180-kb transposon. Freakin scary.
May 8, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Teratorn. 180-kb transposon. Freakin scary.
Cool result: Transposon insertion sequencing reveals novel hypermutator genes in Acinetobacter baumannii
"Exposure of a transposon insertion mutant library to extended weak antibiotic selection ... revealed genes that indirectly increased fitness due to elevated general mutation rates"
"Exposure of a transposon insertion mutant library to extended weak antibiotic selection ... revealed genes that indirectly increased fitness due to elevated general mutation rates"
Transposon insertion sequencing reveals novel hypermutator genes in Acinetobacter baumannii | mBio
All organisms have the capacity for evolution through mutation. Bacteria with high
mutation rates have a survival advantage in some stressful environments because they
generate beneficial mutations mo...
journals.asm.org
June 29, 2025 at 4:58 AM
Cool result: Transposon insertion sequencing reveals novel hypermutator genes in Acinetobacter baumannii
"Exposure of a transposon insertion mutant library to extended weak antibiotic selection ... revealed genes that indirectly increased fitness due to elevated general mutation rates"
"Exposure of a transposon insertion mutant library to extended weak antibiotic selection ... revealed genes that indirectly increased fitness due to elevated general mutation rates"
Lazy corn is a natural mutant in the lazy1 gene (great name). My favorite of course is a transposon insertion. A CACTA transposon jumps in, inactivates the gene, plant falls down. To the extent you can actually grow corn as a hanging plant. 4/4
January 22, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Lazy corn is a natural mutant in the lazy1 gene (great name). My favorite of course is a transposon insertion. A CACTA transposon jumps in, inactivates the gene, plant falls down. To the extent you can actually grow corn as a hanging plant. 4/4
Rose ‘Brush Strokes’ putting on a fine show. The freshly opened buds are dramatic, but they soon fade once open. Every flower is unique #transposon
June 13, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Rose ‘Brush Strokes’ putting on a fine show. The freshly opened buds are dramatic, but they soon fade once open. Every flower is unique #transposon
Here’s an interesting new paper on ROS1, an enzyme that removes DNA methylation and that is POSITIVELY controlled by DNA methylation.
It’s repression during heat stress 🥵🌱 is crucial to suppress transposon mobility! 🧬
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
It’s repression during heat stress 🥵🌱 is crucial to suppress transposon mobility! 🧬
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Plants repress ROS1 expression to attenuate heat-induced transposon burst - Nature Plants
Plants suppress the DNA demethylase ROS1 under heat stress to limit transposon activation, preventing genome instability. This conserved mechanism balances stress adaptation with genome protection.
www.nature.com
August 11, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Here’s an interesting new paper on ROS1, an enzyme that removes DNA methylation and that is POSITIVELY controlled by DNA methylation.
It’s repression during heat stress 🥵🌱 is crucial to suppress transposon mobility! 🧬
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
It’s repression during heat stress 🥵🌱 is crucial to suppress transposon mobility! 🧬
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Jinich et al. present an important new resource for the Mtb community!
The Mycobacterium tuberculosis Transposon Sequencing Database (MtbTnDB) is an interactive web resource summarizing 150+ published screens.
#MicroSky #Mycobacterium #tuberculosis
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The Mycobacterium tuberculosis Transposon Sequencing Database (MtbTnDB) is an interactive web resource summarizing 150+ published screens.
#MicroSky #Mycobacterium #tuberculosis
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The Mycobacterium tuberculosis Transposon Sequencing Database (MtbTnDB): A Large‐Scale Guide to Genetic Conditional Essentiality
Mtb transposon sequencing database is a unified resource for exploring conditional gene essentiality in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. By standardizing over 150 transposon sequencing screens, it enables...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
June 24, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Jinich et al. present an important new resource for the Mtb community!
The Mycobacterium tuberculosis Transposon Sequencing Database (MtbTnDB) is an interactive web resource summarizing 150+ published screens.
#MicroSky #Mycobacterium #tuberculosis
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The Mycobacterium tuberculosis Transposon Sequencing Database (MtbTnDB) is an interactive web resource summarizing 150+ published screens.
#MicroSky #Mycobacterium #tuberculosis
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Out Now! Systematic mapping of bacteriophage gene essentiality with HIDEN-SEQ #MicroSky
Systematic mapping of bacteriophage gene essentiality with HIDEN-SEQ
Nature Microbiology, Published online: 25 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02455-8HIDEN-SEQ (hidden Acr-enabled transposon-insertion sequencing) is a transposon-insertion sequencing method for phages that systematically links their genes to selectable phenotypes.
go.nature.com
September 25, 2026 at 10:11 AM
Out Now! Systematic mapping of bacteriophage gene essentiality with HIDEN-SEQ #MicroSky
One of my favorite transposon facts. Think LTR retrotransposons are a homogeneous group? The two main kinds -- Ty1 and Ty3 -- are as evolutionary diverged as GIANT SQUID and PINE TREES.
February 18, 2026 at 4:54 PM
One of my favorite transposon facts. Think LTR retrotransposons are a homogeneous group? The two main kinds -- Ty1 and Ty3 -- are as evolutionary diverged as GIANT SQUID and PINE TREES.
Geranium ‘Splish Splash’ with variegated flowers due to an unstable #transposon. I assume pale sectors are due to transposon excision from 1 of the 2 anthocyanin biosynthesis gene copies, dark sectors are where excision from both diploid copies has occurred; see the dark sectors within pale sectors.
June 13, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Geranium ‘Splish Splash’ with variegated flowers due to an unstable #transposon. I assume pale sectors are due to transposon excision from 1 of the 2 anthocyanin biosynthesis gene copies, dark sectors are where excision from both diploid copies has occurred; see the dark sectors within pale sectors.
a must read for retrovirus, ERV, piRNA and transposon aficionados. see also recent work from the group of @astridhaase.bsky.social on the importance of transposon insertions downstream of host genes for for piRNA-based immunity.
I am thrilled to share our story online at @cellpress.bsky.social . Big thanks to all authors: Zhiping, Bill, @lubanlab.bsky.social, Keith & bluesky-less!
authors.elsevier.com/c/1kjdaL7PXu...
How to tame a genome invader? It takes wild koalas 🐨🐨 to learn it.
#Retrovirus #koala #piRNA
More below 👇
authors.elsevier.com/c/1kjdaL7PXu...
How to tame a genome invader? It takes wild koalas 🐨🐨 to learn it.
#Retrovirus #koala #piRNA
More below 👇
March 14, 2025 at 10:08 PM
a must read for retrovirus, ERV, piRNA and transposon aficionados. see also recent work from the group of @astridhaase.bsky.social on the importance of transposon insertions downstream of host genes for for piRNA-based immunity.