Robert Kofler

How does the piRNA pathway solve the self vs. non-self problem? 🧬

Since piRNAs come from single-stranded RNA, how does the cell choose the right ones? For years, "piRNA clusters" were seen as THE privileged source. But are they really special and earmarked for biogenesis? (1/19)

The idea is to decouple the journals from the review step. They’ll still exist, but they’ll need to add other value. They’ll highlight, curate, add new perspectives. If they do a good job they can still be prestigious (like Scientific American or Wired) (1.2) 👇

Molecular mechanisms of selfish elements and strategies Certain genes, chromosomes, organelles, or entire sets of chromosomes can bias their transmission to the next generation, propagating themselves at the expense of the rest of the genome. Referred to …

(1/9) Join us in Bern, Switzerland (8–11 Feb 2026) for our EMBO Workshop on Molecular Mechanisms of Selfish Elements and Strategies!

Organized with Tanja Schwander, Laura Ross (@laurarossevo.bsky.social) and Axel Imhof.

meetings.embo.org/event/26-sel...

#EMBOselfishElements #EMBOevents

Transposable elements drive much of naturally occurring genetic lethality in Drosophila melanogaster Recessive lethal mutations are widespread across studied species, with estimates suggesting that each individual carries at least one. Numerous lethal alleles persist in wild populations at higher fre...

super cool - I am constantly wondering about the effects of recent TE invasions? lethal mutations seems to be one striking effect
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We are in Bluesky and we are happy to share our two last consortium publications: the DrosEU expanded DEST dataset and a Continent-wide study of phenotypic differentiation among European #Drosophila melanogaster populations (1/7)

@kuhlwilm.bsky.social from #HEASVienna introducing @rokofler.bsky.social for the #HEASSeminar in #AncientGenomics taking place now online and in-person at the #UBB @univie.ac.at

HEAS Seminar Series - Ancient Genomics - HEAS As part of the HEAS Seminar Series in Ancient Genomics, Robert Kofler from Vetmeduni Vienna will give a talk on Museomics reveals whether humans triggered widespread genome invasions across species on...

We are looking forward to welcoming @rokofler.bsky.social to #HEASVienna as part of the #HEASSeminar in #AncientGenomics.

Please note the slightly earlier start time of 10:00 CEST.

More information and registration on our website 👇🔗

I'm wondering if this is not a unique, once in a lifetime opportunity, to study the spread and silencing of an iERV in a natural population. last time we checked it was not yet in Vienna

Predictors of protein evolution in the drosophilid immune system The evolutionary dynamics of immune genes are shaped by diverse selective pressures, yet the relative roles of gene-level traits, functional specialization, and pathway context remain poorly understoo...

Another preprint from @pankajd.bsky.social !
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Robust and accurate Bayesian inference of genome-wide genealogies for hundreds of genomes - Nature Genetics SINGER is a method for creating ancestral recombination graphs to understand the genealogical history of genomes. The method has increased speed, and thus scalability, without sacrificing accuracy.

SINGER, our ARG inference method, is finally published and freely available online:

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

It was a long journey – 16 months from initial submission to acceptance. Is it just me, or has peer review gotten more arduous lately? 4+ rounds of review isn't so unusual these days...

The autoregulation of a eukaryotic DNA transposon A DNA transposon, or ‘jumping gene’, controls its amplification within a genome through a competition between the enzyme multimers that are responsible for its mobility.

In all my obsession with RNA silencing, I realized I became blind to the significance of autoregulation of DNA transposons. Which is funny, because it was characterized in many ways by my Ph.D. advisor. From 2013: elifesciences.org/articles/00668

#TEsky

Rapid emergence of non-autonomous elements may stop P-element invasions in the absence of a piRNA-based host defence Author summary Transposable elements (TEs) are short, self-replicating DNA sequences found in nearly all genomes. While they can be harmful to their hosts, many organisms have evolved defence systems,...

Germline defence from TEs largely relies on piRNAs. Yet, @divyaselvaraju.bsky.social and I monitored a P-element invasion in Drosophila that was stopped by an internally deleted copy, no host intervention required!
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
Many thanks to @rpianezza.bsky.social & @rokofler.bsky.social

The impact of insertion bias into piRNA clusters on the invasion of transposable elements - BMC Biology Background In our current understanding of transposable element (TE) invasions, TEs move freely until they accidentally insert into a piRNA cluster, where they are silenced by the production of piRNA ...

@shashankpritam.bsky.social first research paper on the effect of insertion bias on transposon fitness!! With @almoroscarpa.bsky.social and @rokofler.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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.

Adaptive P-element insertions in a long non-coding RNA are associated with unique silencing properties Transposable elements are genetic parasites whose mobilization throughout the genome is a major source of deleterious mutations. However, some TE insertions are beneficial because they improve host fi...

Adaptive P-element insertions in a long non-coding RNA are associated with unique silencing properties

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@rokofler.bsky.social uncovered a treasure cove in Drosophila populations here. Remarkable and highly relevant findings on horizontal transfer of all kinds of TEs, irrespective of their transposition type.

@rokofler.bsky.social talks about the spread of TEs in drosophila over time - are humans responsible?? #smbe2025

Spatiotemporal Tracking of Three Novel Transposable Element Invasions in Drosophila melanogaster over the Last 30 Years Abstract. Transposable elements (TEs) are repetitive sequences capable of mobilizing within genomes, exerting a significant influence on evolution througho

@rpianezza.bsky.social @almoroscarpa.bsky.social, A. Haidar, @signor-molevol.bsky.social ‪& @rokofler.bsky.social investigated 11 TEs in D. melanogaster that added ~1 Mbp via horizontal transfer, likely from other Drosophila spp.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf143

#evobio #drosophila #TEsky

Talks by:

@gonzalezlabbcn.bsky.social
Yalong Guo
Axel Meyer
Emmanuelle Lerat
Cheng Sun
Qiheng Xu
Jie Cui
Ilia Kirov
Chengyi Song
Li Wang
Jing Wang
@rokofler.bsky.social
Ying Liu
Shengjun Tan

thanks :)

Spatio-temporal tracking of three novel transposable element invasions in Drosophila melanogaster over the last 30 years Abstract. Transposable elements (TEs) are repetitive sequences capable of mobilizing within genomes, exerting a sigfinificant influence on evolution throug

super-happy, three TE invasions in Dmel during the last 30 years; the crazy thing - Transib1 spread in just 2-3years in global populations academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-... great work everyone @rpianezza.bsky.social @almoroscarpa.bsky.social @signor-molevol.bsky.social Anna Haider

The work on TE invasions in D. melanogaster continues! We found three more recent invasions, one of which occurred in ~3 years worldwide. Another great collaboration with @rpianezza.bsky.social @rokofler.bsky.social and others

Drosophila Genetic Database The Drosophila Genetic Database, FlyBase, is on the brink of collapse due to the sudden termination of the FlyBase NIH grant, which includes salaries for 5 literature curators based at the University ...

Flybase lost all of the NIH support overnight - it is a disaster for the community. Please consider donating. I just did! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...

great work of Riccardo tracing the origin of D.melanogaster transposons

this is fantastic news - congrats Philipp :)

Seminars

Our #PhD student Almorò Scarpa @almoroscarpa.bsky.social looks forward to #PopGen meeting tomorrow! He will tell us about "Two centuries of transposable element invasions in Drosophila melanogaster"
Full schedule and streaming details at www.popgen-vienna.at/news/seminars/

Super proud of amazing PhD student Sarah Saadain winning the Carl von Schreibers prize with her cockroach project; Vetmeduni Wien and @nhmwien.bsky.social www.nhm-wien.ac.at/presse/press...

Polymorphic transposable elements contribute to variation in recombination landscapes (drosohila 🪰) www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.... #TEsky

Drosophila follicle showing retrotransposons (pink & yellow) expressed in somatic cells infecting the oocyte

1/ Transposable elements are often called "jumping genes" because they mobilize within genomes. 🧬
But did you know they can also jump 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 cells? 🤯
Our new study reveals how retrotransposons invade the germline directly from somatic cells.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A short thread 🧵👇