HHMI News: Kate Shulgina and HHMI Investigator @ribosaur have developed Codetta, a new computational method for predicting genetic codes. In scanning over 250,000 genome sequences, they found five never-before-seen codes. bit.ly/3F2mND5

Today we release our work on characterizing novel genes from uncultivated prokaryotes! biorxiv.org/content/10.110… This thread summarizes our main findings: Comparative Genomics and Metagenomics Lab Big Data Biology Lab Bork Group at EMBL Heidelberg moved to BlueSky Microbiome Research CBGP CaixaResearch

Ambiguous genetic codes aren't just a transient intermediate! Brandon Seah et al show they're used by a globally-distributed 450 million year old class of ciliates. Now I need to know: how and why??

Why do some mutations' effects seem to depend on starting fitness? We developed a Cre/Lox CRISPR gene-drive system ==> expanding gRNA array, to pop open the hood on 'global epistasis'. Chris Bakerlee, Kate Shulgina, josé in Michael Desai lab. Read here: science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Excited to share our new preprint describing • how to achieve resistance to all viruses, • a novel technology that biocontains engineered genetic information, & • how viruses overcome genetic-code-based #virus resistance biorxiv.org/content/10.110… Tweetorial 1/n

Trp-tRNA with a shortened anticodon stem reads UGA codon in an organism with all 64 codons specifying amino acids: nature.com/articles/s4158… and nature.com/articles/d4158… Nature News & Views

new publication from my former lab, on the evolution of UGA codon reassignment in ciliates elifesciences.org/reviewed-prepr… out as a reviewed preprint on eLife my former PI, Estienne Swart took the lead on this one

A new preprint introduced: 1. A new RNA database 2. A language model architecture for RNA 3. Experimental demonstration of in silico predictions for mutations increasing ribosomal thermostability All started from a Berkeley hackathon w/ undergrad participation!

Excited to share our new work (with Kumaresh Krishnan): "Protein Sequence Domain Annotation using Language Models" (PSALM) biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Super excited to share my postdoc work investigating how mating and parental behaviors evolve using wild species of mice combined with single nucleus RNA-sequencing of the hypothalamus 🐭🧠🧬! biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

✨ New C-GEM preprint: Thioesters support efficient protein biosynthesis by the ribosome chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxi… Congrats to the dream team of @anyadkent & Jacob Robins + collaborators Isaac, Jess, Alex Solivan, @NoahXHamlish, Katie, Alanna Schepartz Miller Group @cate_lab

How does Hachiman work, and what can it teach us about immunity? Our structural and functional characterization of the Hachiman defense system is online: sciencedirect.com/science/articl… Thanks to co-lead Ben Adler, Emily Armbruster & coauthors at @doudna_lab. Institute for Geographic Information Science College of Chemistry HHMI

✨New from C-GEM: Role of ribosomal protein bS1 in orthogonal mRNA start codon selection Congrats to Kristina Boyko, her undergrad mentees Rebecca and Minji, and @cate_lab! biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

This new preprint from the Cate lab provides insights into the fate of ribosomes in stationary archaea. Using an organism adapted to 95°C, they identify a protein called Dri, which appears to act as an archaea-specific ribosome hibernation factor: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

✨ The latest from C-GEM on bioRxiv Structure of an Archaeal Ribosome with a Divergent Active Site biorxiv.org/content/10.110… Congrats to Amos, Kate Shulgina, Roan, Jamie, and collaborators on a great story! #NSFfunded #ribosome