Max Haase
@maxhaase.bsky.social
Chief Yeast Officer. Evolution, genomes, chromatin, cell cycle, centromeres, and kinetochore are scientific passions. PhD w/ Jef Boeke, PostDoc w/ Andrea Musacchio @ MPI-Dortmund. 🇺🇸 -> 🇩🇪
Pinned
Max Haase
@maxhaase.bsky.social
· Apr 25
Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres
The evolutionary origins of the genetic point centromere in the brewer's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a member of the order Saccharomycetales, are still unknown. Competing hypotheses suggest that t...
www.biorxiv.org
It’s out! The evolutionary origins of yeast point centromeres uncovered!
“Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
“Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Max Haase
Absolutely thrilled to share the latest work from my lab focused on the variation and evolution of human centromeres among global populations! We assembled 2,110 human centromeres, identifying 226 new major haplotypes and 1,870 α-satellite HOR variants. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
December 16, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Absolutely thrilled to share the latest work from my lab focused on the variation and evolution of human centromeres among global populations! We assembled 2,110 human centromeres, identifying 226 new major haplotypes and 1,870 α-satellite HOR variants. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Fellow yeast enthusiasts, does anyone have the genomic or amino-acid substitution for the cdc20-1 ts mutant - thanks!
December 11, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Fellow yeast enthusiasts, does anyone have the genomic or amino-acid substitution for the cdc20-1 ts mutant - thanks!
Very cool to see Jana’s epic on point centromere evolution published. Congratulations to all!
Although, it makes one wonder how these strange centromeres evolved in the first place?
Although, it makes one wonder how these strange centromeres evolved in the first place?
How do new centromeres evolve while staying compatible with the division machinery?
Discover it in our new Nature paper! We show centromeres transition gradually via a mix of drift, selection, and sex, reaching new states that still work with the kinetochore.
👉 doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09779-1
Discover it in our new Nature paper! We show centromeres transition gradually via a mix of drift, selection, and sex, reaching new states that still work with the kinetochore.
👉 doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09779-1
December 1, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Very cool to see Jana’s epic on point centromere evolution published. Congratulations to all!
Although, it makes one wonder how these strange centromeres evolved in the first place?
Although, it makes one wonder how these strange centromeres evolved in the first place?
Reposted by Max Haase
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
Our latest now online at EMBO Journal. Read if you are interested in how epimutations mediate antifungal resistance & how this might result in heteroresistance in human & cereal crop fungal pathogens. Big Thx & congrats to Andreas Fellas, Pin Tong & Alison Pidoux
Our latest now online at EMBO Journal. Read if you are interested in how epimutations mediate antifungal resistance & how this might result in heteroresistance in human & cereal crop fungal pathogens. Big Thx & congrats to Andreas Fellas, Pin Tong & Alison Pidoux
Heterochromatin epimutations impose mitochondrial dysfunction to confer antifungal resistance | The EMBO Journal
imageimageHeterochromatin-island epimutations can provide resistance to caffeine and antifungal
drugs in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. This study reveals that some epimutations cause re...
www.embopress.org
December 1, 2025 at 3:44 PM
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
Our latest now online at EMBO Journal. Read if you are interested in how epimutations mediate antifungal resistance & how this might result in heteroresistance in human & cereal crop fungal pathogens. Big Thx & congrats to Andreas Fellas, Pin Tong & Alison Pidoux
Our latest now online at EMBO Journal. Read if you are interested in how epimutations mediate antifungal resistance & how this might result in heteroresistance in human & cereal crop fungal pathogens. Big Thx & congrats to Andreas Fellas, Pin Tong & Alison Pidoux
1/ 🐶💤
In Tony Hyman–style LLPS land:
Scaffold = the dog bed
Clients = extra dogs + toys that hop on
Rule of the game:
The bed decides where the nap-pile forms.
Other dogs can jump on, but somehow they don’t change how the bed behaves.
In Tony Hyman–style LLPS land:
Scaffold = the dog bed
Clients = extra dogs + toys that hop on
Rule of the game:
The bed decides where the nap-pile forms.
Other dogs can jump on, but somehow they don’t change how the bed behaves.
Oh wow! I wish someone can explain it to me "like a child or a Golden Retriever" (paraphrasing Margin Call).
December 1, 2025 at 4:04 PM
1/ 🐶💤
In Tony Hyman–style LLPS land:
Scaffold = the dog bed
Clients = extra dogs + toys that hop on
Rule of the game:
The bed decides where the nap-pile forms.
Other dogs can jump on, but somehow they don’t change how the bed behaves.
In Tony Hyman–style LLPS land:
Scaffold = the dog bed
Clients = extra dogs + toys that hop on
Rule of the game:
The bed decides where the nap-pile forms.
Other dogs can jump on, but somehow they don’t change how the bed behaves.
Reposted by Max Haase
How do new centromeres evolve while staying compatible with the division machinery?
Discover it in our new Nature paper! We show centromeres transition gradually via a mix of drift, selection, and sex, reaching new states that still work with the kinetochore.
👉 doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09779-1
Discover it in our new Nature paper! We show centromeres transition gradually via a mix of drift, selection, and sex, reaching new states that still work with the kinetochore.
👉 doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09779-1
November 26, 2025 at 4:21 PM
How do new centromeres evolve while staying compatible with the division machinery?
Discover it in our new Nature paper! We show centromeres transition gradually via a mix of drift, selection, and sex, reaching new states that still work with the kinetochore.
👉 doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09779-1
Discover it in our new Nature paper! We show centromeres transition gradually via a mix of drift, selection, and sex, reaching new states that still work with the kinetochore.
👉 doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09779-1
Reposted by Max Haase
Happy to share our latest preprint.
We uncover a previously uncharacterised and evolutionarily conserved chromatin architecture in premeiotic gonadal germ cells, revealed through integrated cytological and high-resolution Hi-C approaches.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thread🧵🔽
We uncover a previously uncharacterised and evolutionarily conserved chromatin architecture in premeiotic gonadal germ cells, revealed through integrated cytological and high-resolution Hi-C approaches.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thread🧵🔽
November 18, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Happy to share our latest preprint.
We uncover a previously uncharacterised and evolutionarily conserved chromatin architecture in premeiotic gonadal germ cells, revealed through integrated cytological and high-resolution Hi-C approaches.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thread🧵🔽
We uncover a previously uncharacterised and evolutionarily conserved chromatin architecture in premeiotic gonadal germ cells, revealed through integrated cytological and high-resolution Hi-C approaches.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thread🧵🔽
Sooo.... um... it appears trump gave bill clinton a blowy? And Putin has photos 😳
Fake news or not, I'll believe this as canon for now on
journaliststudio.google.com/pinpoint/doc...
drive.google.com/file/d/1uwNM...
Fake news or not, I'll believe this as canon for now on
journaliststudio.google.com/pinpoint/doc...
drive.google.com/file/d/1uwNM...
Pinpoint
journaliststudio.google.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Sooo.... um... it appears trump gave bill clinton a blowy? And Putin has photos 😳
Fake news or not, I'll believe this as canon for now on
journaliststudio.google.com/pinpoint/doc...
drive.google.com/file/d/1uwNM...
Fake news or not, I'll believe this as canon for now on
journaliststudio.google.com/pinpoint/doc...
drive.google.com/file/d/1uwNM...
Reposted by Max Haase
NEW pub in @science.org 🥳
Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?
For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.
We provide new evidence suggesting that...
🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?
For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.
We provide new evidence suggesting that...
🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
November 13, 2025 at 8:34 PM
NEW pub in @science.org 🥳
Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?
For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.
We provide new evidence suggesting that...
🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?
For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.
We provide new evidence suggesting that...
🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Men will really come up with every stupid reason not to recognize their women colleagues’ contributions.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery
The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality.
www.nature.com
October 10, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Men will really come up with every stupid reason not to recognize their women colleagues’ contributions.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Apparently termites have spent the past few millennia secretly building the "equivalent to ∼4000 great pyramids of Giza" in Brazil.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
A vast 4,000-year-old spatial pattern of termite mounds
Martin et al. show that in Northeast Brazil an estimated 200 million, regularly spaced,
termite mounds are up to 4000 years old. Each mound is 2-4m high by 9 m in diameter;
they occupy 230,000 km2, an...
www.cell.com
October 2, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Apparently termites have spent the past few millennia secretly building the "equivalent to ∼4000 great pyramids of Giza" in Brazil.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Max Haase
New preprint from the lab: we show that the ability to switch mating type was lost at least 13 times independently in the evolution of S. cerevisiae. At least 27% of isolates are heterothallic with a strong association with polyploidy and heterozygosity
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Repeated losses of self-fertility shaped heterozygosity and polyploidy in yeast evolution
Evolutionary transitions in mating strategy have profound consequences for genetic variation and adaptation. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, mating-type switching is a central feature of the life cycle t...
www.biorxiv.org
September 16, 2025 at 6:42 PM
New preprint from the lab: we show that the ability to switch mating type was lost at least 13 times independently in the evolution of S. cerevisiae. At least 27% of isolates are heterothallic with a strong association with polyploidy and heterozygosity
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Max Haase
The BUB1 and BUBR1 paralogs scaffold the kinetochore fibrous corona | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Congratulations @vcmentowski.bsky.social for solving a remarkably challenging molecular puzzle
Congratulations @vcmentowski.bsky.social for solving a remarkably challenging molecular puzzle
The BUB1 and BUBR1 paralogs scaffold the kinetochore fibrous corona
The kinetochore fibrous corona docks on CENP-E and a second elusive receptor identified as the checkpoint protein BUB1.
www.science.org
September 15, 2025 at 4:50 AM
The BUB1 and BUBR1 paralogs scaffold the kinetochore fibrous corona | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Congratulations @vcmentowski.bsky.social for solving a remarkably challenging molecular puzzle
Congratulations @vcmentowski.bsky.social for solving a remarkably challenging molecular puzzle
One may argue unicellular life still rules the earth. Us multicellular forms are just really big and especially self-absorbed
For some three billion years, unicellular organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion years ago, a new chapter of life began
go.nature.com/3JyRV4S
go.nature.com/3JyRV4S
How did life get multicellular? Five simple organisms could have the answer
Single-celled species that often stick together in colonies have researchers rethinking the origin of animals.
go.nature.com
August 28, 2025 at 1:41 PM
One may argue unicellular life still rules the earth. Us multicellular forms are just really big and especially self-absorbed
People who upload preprints without the supplemental materials should go straight to jail
August 8, 2025 at 12:56 PM
People who upload preprints without the supplemental materials should go straight to jail
Reposted by Max Haase
New preprint from lab adding to recent interest in yeast centromeres. There are dramatic changes in structure, but location is conserved www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Centromeres in budding yeasts are conserved in chromosomal location but not in structure.
The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has ‘point’ centromeres, which are much smaller and simpler than centromeres of most other eukaryotes and have a defined DNA sequence. Other yeast taxa have ...
www.biorxiv.org
August 1, 2025 at 1:11 PM
New preprint from lab adding to recent interest in yeast centromeres. There are dramatic changes in structure, but location is conserved www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Max Haase
Reposted by Max Haase
Finally out! Check out our new work on how M18BP1, known so far to be important for the epigenetic maintenance of centromeres, supports chromosome condensation when the cell enters mitosis. We also uncover a regulatory ménage á trois between condensin II, M18BP1 and MCPH1.
Condensin II activation by M18BP1
Condensin I and II promote the drastic spatial rearrangement of the human genome upon mitotic entry. While condensin II is known to initiate this proc…
www.sciencedirect.com
July 16, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Finally out! Check out our new work on how M18BP1, known so far to be important for the epigenetic maintenance of centromeres, supports chromosome condensation when the cell enters mitosis. We also uncover a regulatory ménage á trois between condensin II, M18BP1 and MCPH1.
Reposted by Max Haase
NEW pub: The role of metabolism in shaping #enzyme structures over 400 million years. Now out in @nature.com
Super grateful to have played a small role in this project - congrats to lead/corr authors Oliver, Benjamin, and Markus!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#alphafold #evolution #genomics
Super grateful to have played a small role in this project - congrats to lead/corr authors Oliver, Benjamin, and Markus!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#alphafold #evolution #genomics
July 10, 2025 at 7:57 PM
NEW pub: The role of metabolism in shaping #enzyme structures over 400 million years. Now out in @nature.com
Super grateful to have played a small role in this project - congrats to lead/corr authors Oliver, Benjamin, and Markus!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#alphafold #evolution #genomics
Super grateful to have played a small role in this project - congrats to lead/corr authors Oliver, Benjamin, and Markus!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#alphafold #evolution #genomics
Reposted by Max Haase
We have an opening for postdoctoral training! Please apply by 15th August 2025 for full consideration. Here is the ad: hittinger.genetics.wisc.edu/People/Join/...
hittinger.genetics.wisc.edu
July 10, 2025 at 9:50 PM
We have an opening for postdoctoral training! Please apply by 15th August 2025 for full consideration. Here is the ad: hittinger.genetics.wisc.edu/People/Join/...
Reposted by Max Haase
A paper I have been working on with Oliver Lemke in the Ralser lab has just come out: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We used predicted structures to gain insight into the evolution of metabolic proteins in yeast.
A bit more in this linked-in post (www.linkedin.com/posts/benjam...).
We used predicted structures to gain insight into the evolution of metabolic proteins in yeast.
A bit more in this linked-in post (www.linkedin.com/posts/benjam...).
The role of metabolism in shaping enzyme structures over 400 million years - Nature
By combining structural biology and evolutionary genomics analyses, the evolution of enzymes over 400 million years is shown to be governed by catalytic function, metabolic network architecture, cost ...
www.nature.com
July 10, 2025 at 3:10 PM
A paper I have been working on with Oliver Lemke in the Ralser lab has just come out: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We used predicted structures to gain insight into the evolution of metabolic proteins in yeast.
A bit more in this linked-in post (www.linkedin.com/posts/benjam...).
We used predicted structures to gain insight into the evolution of metabolic proteins in yeast.
A bit more in this linked-in post (www.linkedin.com/posts/benjam...).
Reposted by Max Haase
This is a good time to remember that Moas, Emus, and the other ratites diverged so long ago, they FLEW to different continents, and then lost the ability to fly and became giants independently. You can't just sprinkle a few variants to make one into the other.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
July 9, 2025 at 10:34 PM
This is a good time to remember that Moas, Emus, and the other ratites diverged so long ago, they FLEW to different continents, and then lost the ability to fly and became giants independently. You can't just sprinkle a few variants to make one into the other.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
New favorite worst graphical abstract just dropped.
July 7, 2025 at 12:17 PM
New favorite worst graphical abstract just dropped.
Reposted by Max Haase
Finally out in Nature Chem Bio:
SNAP-tag2 for faster and brighter protein labeling
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Thank you Steffi and Veselin.
SNAP-tag2 for faster and brighter protein labeling
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Thank you Steffi and Veselin.
SNAP-tag2 for faster and brighter protein labeling - Nature Chemical Biology
SNAP-tag is a widespread tool for labeling protein for bioimaging. Now, Kühn et al. report SNAP-tag2 with increased labeling kinetics and brightness, which translates into a better performance in live...
www.nature.com
July 3, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Finally out in Nature Chem Bio:
SNAP-tag2 for faster and brighter protein labeling
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Thank you Steffi and Veselin.
SNAP-tag2 for faster and brighter protein labeling
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Thank you Steffi and Veselin.