Peter Sarkies @PSarkies@qoto.org

Not everyone knows that eminem's 'What I am' was about getting a blue tick on Twitter

Important new paper on #DNAreplication from Pierre Murat in Julian Sale's group at the LMB in Cambridge. Interestingly there is a clear signature of mutation surrounding replication origins in mammalian cells such that they mutate more rapidly than non-origin sequences. A consequence of this is presumably that origin of replication move around rapidly over evolutionary timescales (and potentially even in cancer evolution). Interesting from an evolutionary perspective as some eukaryotes (e.g. cerevisiae) have quite localised origins- maintaining these must require quite strong selection- why are localised origins important in some eukaryotes and not others? Link to paper is here:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add3686

@jud Thank you! very kind!

Mastodon: all tusk and no Musk.

@Odedrechavi and more importantly top science insights #epigenetics #Celegans #neuroscience #deadseascrolls and many more

@Odedrechavi He's here!! Welcome Oded. Looking forward to the next generation of jokes!

If anyone wants a stimulating and urgent take on the #climatecrisis can I recommend Timothy Morton's "All Art is Ecological". A short but deep philosophical discussion of how we are drifting into disaster and need to "find ourselves" where we are and do something about it. They write with clarity and great humour without ignoring the gravity of the situation.

Exciting news... registration for the UK #Celegans meeting is open. It will take place at University of East Anglia in Norwich on January 13, ideally placed for the awesome beaches of North Norfolk if you want to freeze to death. Seriously though, it will be a fantastic meeting with great science from across the diversity of C. elegans research. It's even free to register if you are a member of the UK Genetics Society. Check out the link, and boost!

https://store.uea.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/faculty-of-science/bio

@jud Self-promo but I wrote this article a couple of years ago- covers the general issues
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1084952118301484?via%3Dihub

@jud Thanks for making contact! Part of my lab is interested in looking at how #epigenetic gene regulation itself evolves- it's very variable across species and mechanisms evolve extremely rapidly. We're trying to work out the reasons for this. This connection between #epigenetics and #evolution isn't proposing new mechanisms of evolution. However, we are also interested in testing directly whether evolution can ever be driven by epigenetic changes either before or independent of genetic ones. So far our work has largely suggested that this is not very likely, although possible in rare circumstances. But we haven't yet found these circumstances... so more to consider here. Hope this explains it!

Hi #ScienceMastodon. I'm an academic at Oxford in the #biochemistry department. I run a lab working on the connections between #evolution and #epigenetics. New to the platform- I want to use it to keep up with new and exciting research. Any tips on how to get started would be great!