Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
@toheitka.bsky.social
Prof at RWTH Aachen University | Looks closely at #transposons in plant genomes | Loves #plant #genomics #chromosomes #polyploidy #dataviz.
https://www.genomes-in-time.org
https://www.genomes-in-time.org
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
CRISPR-Cas–mediated heritable chromosome fusions in Arabidopsis | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Very nice work from Holger Puchta & colleagues
Very nice work from Holger Puchta & colleagues
CRISPR-Cas–mediated heritable chromosome fusions in Arabidopsis
The genome of Arabidopsis thaliana consists of 10 chromosomes. By inducing CRISPR-Cas–mediated breaks at subcentromeric and subtelomeric sequences, we fused entire chromosome arms, obtaining two eight...
www.science.org
November 20, 2025 at 8:47 PM
CRISPR-Cas–mediated heritable chromosome fusions in Arabidopsis | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Very nice work from Holger Puchta & colleagues
Very nice work from Holger Puchta & colleagues
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
NEW Publication🥳
Rapid #evolution is thought to be disadvantageous due to the accumulation of deleterious #mutations. We identify multiple lineages of rapidly evolving and stable #yeast that are many millions of years old
🔗: academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...
Rapid #evolution is thought to be disadvantageous due to the accumulation of deleterious #mutations. We identify multiple lineages of rapidly evolving and stable #yeast that are many millions of years old
🔗: academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...
November 3, 2025 at 6:29 PM
NEW Publication🥳
Rapid #evolution is thought to be disadvantageous due to the accumulation of deleterious #mutations. We identify multiple lineages of rapidly evolving and stable #yeast that are many millions of years old
🔗: academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...
Rapid #evolution is thought to be disadvantageous due to the accumulation of deleterious #mutations. We identify multiple lineages of rapidly evolving and stable #yeast that are many millions of years old
🔗: academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...
We are looking for a colleague to join us at RWTH Aachen University:
🌱 Full Professor in Stress Resilience of Plants (W3 tenured)
📌What are we looking for? Someone working with us strategically at the interface of plant biology/ physiology/ resilience
#academicjobs #facultyjobs #PlantJobs
1/4
🌱 Full Professor in Stress Resilience of Plants (W3 tenured)
📌What are we looking for? Someone working with us strategically at the interface of plant biology/ physiology/ resilience
#academicjobs #facultyjobs #PlantJobs
1/4
October 30, 2025 at 12:03 PM
We are looking for a colleague to join us at RWTH Aachen University:
🌱 Full Professor in Stress Resilience of Plants (W3 tenured)
📌What are we looking for? Someone working with us strategically at the interface of plant biology/ physiology/ resilience
#academicjobs #facultyjobs #PlantJobs
1/4
🌱 Full Professor in Stress Resilience of Plants (W3 tenured)
📌What are we looking for? Someone working with us strategically at the interface of plant biology/ physiology/ resilience
#academicjobs #facultyjobs #PlantJobs
1/4
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
@tobybarilbio.bsky.social and I are very excited to release MycoMobilome! A very extensive effort to discover, QC and annotate TEs across the fungal kingdom.
👉 Ready-to-use for your own genome with a simple tutorial!
👉 Metadata about TEs discovered in your genome!
👉 Contribute and get recognition!
👉 Ready-to-use for your own genome with a simple tutorial!
👉 Metadata about TEs discovered in your genome!
👉 Contribute and get recognition!
1/ 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...
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...
October 29, 2025 at 4:32 PM
@tobybarilbio.bsky.social and I are very excited to release MycoMobilome! A very extensive effort to discover, QC and annotate TEs across the fungal kingdom.
👉 Ready-to-use for your own genome with a simple tutorial!
👉 Metadata about TEs discovered in your genome!
👉 Contribute and get recognition!
👉 Ready-to-use for your own genome with a simple tutorial!
👉 Metadata about TEs discovered in your genome!
👉 Contribute and get recognition!
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
How does life evolve to adapt to modern cities?
Out now in Science, my PhD work with @lindymcbr.bsky.social uncovers the ancient origin of the “London Underground mosquito” – one of the most iconic examples of urban adaptation.
🧵(1/n)
@science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady4515
Out now in Science, my PhD work with @lindymcbr.bsky.social uncovers the ancient origin of the “London Underground mosquito” – one of the most iconic examples of urban adaptation.
🧵(1/n)
@science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady4515
Ancient origin of an urban underground mosquito
Understanding how life is adapting to urban environments represents an important challenge in evolutionary biology. In this work, we investigate a widely cited example of urban adaptation, Culex pipie...
www.science.org
October 25, 2025 at 4:46 AM
How does life evolve to adapt to modern cities?
Out now in Science, my PhD work with @lindymcbr.bsky.social uncovers the ancient origin of the “London Underground mosquito” – one of the most iconic examples of urban adaptation.
🧵(1/n)
@science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady4515
Out now in Science, my PhD work with @lindymcbr.bsky.social uncovers the ancient origin of the “London Underground mosquito” – one of the most iconic examples of urban adaptation.
🧵(1/n)
@science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady4515
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
Roles of No-Go RNA decay in the control of plant viruses and transposable elements
->BMC Plant Biology | More from Lil' Dr Glen EcoChat at BigEarthData.ai
->BMC Plant Biology | More from Lil' Dr Glen EcoChat at BigEarthData.ai
Roles of No-Go RNA decay in the control of plant viruses and transposable elements
Viruses rely on host cell translational machinery to produce viral proteins necessary for their propagation. Therefore, from the hosts point of view, ribosomes are at the forefront to invading viruses. Given the distant evolutionary divergence, viral sequences are not as...
bmcplantbiol.biomedcentral.com
October 17, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
New Software Simplifies Analysis of “Jumping Genes”
Ralph Panstruga, @toheitka.bsky.social, and Lisa Fürtauer from @rwth.bsky.social
in @natcomms.nature.com (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63889-y)
www.rwth-aachen.de/cms/root/wir...
Ralph Panstruga, @toheitka.bsky.social, and Lisa Fürtauer from @rwth.bsky.social
in @natcomms.nature.com (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63889-y)
www.rwth-aachen.de/cms/root/wir...
New Software Simplifies Analysis of “Jumping Genes” | RWTH Aachen University | EN
www.rwth-aachen.de
October 2, 2025 at 11:55 AM
New Software Simplifies Analysis of “Jumping Genes”
Ralph Panstruga, @toheitka.bsky.social, and Lisa Fürtauer from @rwth.bsky.social
in @natcomms.nature.com (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63889-y)
www.rwth-aachen.de/cms/root/wir...
Ralph Panstruga, @toheitka.bsky.social, and Lisa Fürtauer from @rwth.bsky.social
in @natcomms.nature.com (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63889-y)
www.rwth-aachen.de/cms/root/wir...
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
I'm excited to announce our new biorxiv preprint, wherein we investigate the evolution of the weirdest genetic locus I've ever seen! Behold the tgr genes of the social amoeba, which mediate self/non-self discrimination during facultative multicellularity 🐅 🧵 1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Hypermutable hotspot enables the rapid evolution of self/non-self recognition genes in Dictyostelium
Cells require highly polymorphic receptors to perform accurate self/non-self recognition. In the amoeba Dicytostelium discoideum, polymorphic TgrB1 & TgrC1 proteins are used to bind sister cells and e...
www.biorxiv.org
August 5, 2025 at 12:56 AM
I'm excited to announce our new biorxiv preprint, wherein we investigate the evolution of the weirdest genetic locus I've ever seen! Behold the tgr genes of the social amoeba, which mediate self/non-self discrimination during facultative multicellularity 🐅 🧵 1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
Collaborative work between Durbin Lab at Cambridge & Svardal Lab at Antwerp 🐠
🔗 to manuscript: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
🔗 to manuscript: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
June 14, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Collaborative work between Durbin Lab at Cambridge & Svardal Lab at Antwerp 🐠
🔗 to manuscript: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
🔗 to manuscript: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
Our recent article on transposable elements and aging - which made the June cover - is the focus of a new Highlight.
"Highlight: 'Jumping Genes' Caught in an Aging Merry-Go-Round"
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf094
🖌️ Miriam Merenciano
#genome #TEsky
"Highlight: 'Jumping Genes' Caught in an Aging Merry-Go-Round"
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf094
🖌️ Miriam Merenciano
#genome #TEsky
June 11, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Our recent article on transposable elements and aging - which made the June cover - is the focus of a new Highlight.
"Highlight: 'Jumping Genes' Caught in an Aging Merry-Go-Round"
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf094
🖌️ Miriam Merenciano
#genome #TEsky
"Highlight: 'Jumping Genes' Caught in an Aging Merry-Go-Round"
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf094
🖌️ Miriam Merenciano
#genome #TEsky
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
Super excited to release a huge evolution project on the works for many years:
Evolution experiments synchronized across climates to understand rapid adaptation
Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
All data available: www.grene-net.org/data
#MOILAB
@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social
@hhmi.org
🧵👇
Evolution experiments synchronized across climates to understand rapid adaptation
Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
All data available: www.grene-net.org/data
#MOILAB
@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social
@hhmi.org
🧵👇
May 30, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Super excited to release a huge evolution project on the works for many years:
Evolution experiments synchronized across climates to understand rapid adaptation
Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
All data available: www.grene-net.org/data
#MOILAB
@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social
@hhmi.org
🧵👇
Evolution experiments synchronized across climates to understand rapid adaptation
Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
All data available: www.grene-net.org/data
#MOILAB
@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social
@hhmi.org
🧵👇
🌱 We will soon open the search for a new W3 Professor in Plant Stress Resilience / Molecular Plant Physiology.
🌏Where? Germany, RWTH Aachen University @rwth.bsky.social
We plan to look widely. Please let me know, if you want to be updated on the job announcement.
#AcademicJobs
🌏Where? Germany, RWTH Aachen University @rwth.bsky.social
We plan to look widely. Please let me know, if you want to be updated on the job announcement.
#AcademicJobs
Plant Biology - RWTH AACHEN UNIVERSITY Department of Biology - English
www.biologie.rwth-aachen.de
May 29, 2025 at 5:08 PM
🌱 We will soon open the search for a new W3 Professor in Plant Stress Resilience / Molecular Plant Physiology.
🌏Where? Germany, RWTH Aachen University @rwth.bsky.social
We plan to look widely. Please let me know, if you want to be updated on the job announcement.
#AcademicJobs
🌏Where? Germany, RWTH Aachen University @rwth.bsky.social
We plan to look widely. Please let me know, if you want to be updated on the job announcement.
#AcademicJobs
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
#Pisumsativum
#Missionaccomplished
Genes identified for:
- flowers reverting from white to red;
- the yellow pod;
- the edible "parchmentless" pod - great for pesto di bacelli saygood.it/2018/07/05/p...
And much more, open access 🔽 and proud press release www.jic.ac.uk/press-releas...
#Missionaccomplished
Genes identified for:
- flowers reverting from white to red;
- the yellow pod;
- the edible "parchmentless" pod - great for pesto di bacelli saygood.it/2018/07/05/p...
And much more, open access 🔽 and proud press release www.jic.ac.uk/press-releas...
April 23, 2025 at 8:09 PM
#Pisumsativum
#Missionaccomplished
Genes identified for:
- flowers reverting from white to red;
- the yellow pod;
- the edible "parchmentless" pod - great for pesto di bacelli saygood.it/2018/07/05/p...
And much more, open access 🔽 and proud press release www.jic.ac.uk/press-releas...
#Missionaccomplished
Genes identified for:
- flowers reverting from white to red;
- the yellow pod;
- the edible "parchmentless" pod - great for pesto di bacelli saygood.it/2018/07/05/p...
And much more, open access 🔽 and proud press release www.jic.ac.uk/press-releas...
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
Do you like potatoes? Don't miss our most recent work on tetraploid potato genome!
@nature.com
#potato #genomics #history #evolution
@nature.com
#potato #genomics #history #evolution
April 20, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Do you like potatoes? Don't miss our most recent work on tetraploid potato genome!
@nature.com
#potato #genomics #history #evolution
@nature.com
#potato #genomics #history #evolution
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
New preprint! We investigated the evolution of supergenes and mechanisms underlying distyly in Linum species that diverged ca 33 Mya. 1/8
bsky.app/profile/bior...
bsky.app/profile/bior...
April 18, 2025 at 11:26 AM
New preprint! We investigated the evolution of supergenes and mechanisms underlying distyly in Linum species that diverged ca 33 Mya. 1/8
bsky.app/profile/bior...
bsky.app/profile/bior...
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
Happy to share that our paper "Analyses of Transposable Elements in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Support Evolutionary Parallels With Filamentous Plant Pathogens" is out.
academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...
academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...
Analyses of Transposable Elements in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Support Evolutionary Parallels With Filamentous Plant Pathogens
Abstract. Transposable elements are repetitive DNA sequences that excise or create copies that are inserted elsewhere in the genome. Their expansion shapes
academic.oup.com
April 1, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Happy to share that our paper "Analyses of Transposable Elements in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Support Evolutionary Parallels With Filamentous Plant Pathogens" is out.
academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...
academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
Does the smell and flavor of strawberries depend on variations in gene-associated transposons? It seems so! Check out our new preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Naturally occurring variation in gene-associated transposable elements impacts gene expression and phenotypic diversity in woodland strawberry
Transposable elements (TEs) constitute a major portion of plant genomes and play key roles in shaping genome architecture, regulating gene expression, and driving genome evolution. In this study, we g...
www.biorxiv.org
March 21, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Does the smell and flavor of strawberries depend on variations in gene-associated transposons? It seems so! Check out our new preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
Multi-omics analysis reveals that a 254-bp transposon induces defensive camouflage in an alpine plant and reduces herbivory by caterpillars of a specialist butterfly. Protective effects of this camouflage are reflected in the long-term dynamics of co-evolving plant and butterfly populations.
Genetic basis of camouflage in an alpine plant and its long-term co-evolution with an insect herbivore
Nature Ecology & Evolution - Multi-omics analysis reveals that a 254-bp transposon induces defensive camouflage in an alpine plant and reduces herbivory by caterpillars of a specialist...
rdcu.be
March 11, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Multi-omics analysis reveals that a 254-bp transposon induces defensive camouflage in an alpine plant and reduces herbivory by caterpillars of a specialist butterfly. Protective effects of this camouflage are reflected in the long-term dynamics of co-evolving plant and butterfly populations.
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
1/46 Hey folks, we have a new paper out on the MuLTEE. Strap in and I’ll tell you the story of how this “little paper on polyploidy” turned into the most data rich paper our lab has produced, largely thanks to the leadership and work ethic of @kaitong25.bsky.social.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Genome duplication in a long-term multicellularity evolution experiment - Nature
In the Multicellularity Long Term Evolution Experiment, diploid yeast evolve to be tetraploid under selection for larger multicellular size, revealing how whole-genome duplication can arise due to its...
www.nature.com
March 5, 2025 at 11:00 PM
1/46 Hey folks, we have a new paper out on the MuLTEE. Strap in and I’ll tell you the story of how this “little paper on polyploidy” turned into the most data rich paper our lab has produced, largely thanks to the leadership and work ethic of @kaitong25.bsky.social.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
We did it! We caught Starship #transposons moving between #fungal species in the lab, including between species separated by ~100my. We think Starships are a mediator of HGT in fungi, akin to conjugative elements in bacteria. Check out the preprint. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
March 7, 2025 at 7:18 AM
We did it! We caught Starship #transposons moving between #fungal species in the lab, including between species separated by ~100my. We think Starships are a mediator of HGT in fungi, akin to conjugative elements in bacteria. Check out the preprint. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
Our preprint describing a family of Tn7-like transposons that evolved to target CRISPR repeats is now published at Mobile DNA #Tn7 #transposons #mobileDNA 1/10
mobilednajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
mobilednajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
A family of Tn7-like transposons evolved to target CRISPR repeats - Mobile DNA
Tn7 family transposons are mobile genetic elements known for precise target site selection, with some co-opting CRISPR-Cas systems for RNA-guided transposition. We identified a novel group of Tn7-like...
mobilednajournal.biomedcentral.com
February 18, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Our preprint describing a family of Tn7-like transposons that evolved to target CRISPR repeats is now published at Mobile DNA #Tn7 #transposons #mobileDNA 1/10
mobilednajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
mobilednajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
Polyploidy & Arabidopsis! We found tetraploid-characteristic haplotypes to be made of novel ‘mosaics’ forged from multiple allelic sources in our new paper:
journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...
journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...
February 11, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Polyploidy & Arabidopsis! We found tetraploid-characteristic haplotypes to be made of novel ‘mosaics’ forged from multiple allelic sources in our new paper:
journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...
journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
🌱⤴️🧬⤵️ Really interesting preprint on somatic TE activity detected in methylation-deficient Arabidopsis lines! From @movillome.bsky.social et al.
A notable point is the variable extent of mobilization across individuals. Is it random or an environmental factor?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A notable point is the variable extent of mobilization across individuals. Is it random or an environmental factor?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
February 10, 2025 at 11:35 AM
🌱⤴️🧬⤵️ Really interesting preprint on somatic TE activity detected in methylation-deficient Arabidopsis lines! From @movillome.bsky.social et al.
A notable point is the variable extent of mobilization across individuals. Is it random or an environmental factor?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A notable point is the variable extent of mobilization across individuals. Is it random or an environmental factor?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Tony Heitkam🌱🔍💚
This is cool!! Exogenous chromosomes introduced into yeast cells will either be transcribed and intermingle with host chromosome or be segregated and compartmentalised - their fate is determined by similarity in GC content to host chromosome
Our latest work: how can compartmentalization emerge in a eukaryotic genome lacking canonical heterochromatin?
By investigating bacterial genomes put in yeast, we show that the presence or absence of transcription is sufficient!
#chromatin #3Dgenome #generegulation
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
👇
By investigating bacterial genomes put in yeast, we show that the presence or absence of transcription is sufficient!
#chromatin #3Dgenome #generegulation
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
👇
Sequence-dependent activity and compartmentalization of foreign DNA in a eukaryotic nucleus
In eukaryotes, DNA-associated protein complexes coevolve with genomic sequences to orchestrate chromatin folding. We investigate the relationship between DNA sequence and the spontaneous loading and a...
www.science.org
February 7, 2025 at 10:56 AM
This is cool!! Exogenous chromosomes introduced into yeast cells will either be transcribed and intermingle with host chromosome or be segregated and compartmentalised - their fate is determined by similarity in GC content to host chromosome