Jonathan Fenn

If you are looking for activities to do for the #BritishScienceWeek, take a look at our “How are proteins made?” from RiboCode sLoLa project. Designed for schools in the UK and Ireland, ages 7-11 (~KS2/Second to Fifth Class/P4-7). Download the free resources and enjoy:) ribocode.org/resources/

PanForest: predicting genes in genomes using random forests AbstractMotivation. The presence or absence of some genes in a genome can influence whether other genes are likely to be present or absent. Understanding t

PanForest: predicting genes in genomes using random forests academic.oup.com/bioinformati... #jcampubs

It was a great privilege to be involved with this paper on a new T2T zebra finch genome, working on the miRNA side of things. Have a read of the preprint now!

Talk from @jfennbio.bsky.social at #ESEB2025 on this work. I didn't catch the actual predictive accuracy in the talk - from the paper, I glean that it's >90%!

The day finished off strong with loads of great talks in the Genomics of Evolutionary Innovations symposium!

I'm pleased to report that my talk went well ☺️ 🎨🖌️

#eseb2025 #eseb #esebconference
@eseb2025.bsky.social @jfenn.bsky.social @timothyfuqua.bsky.social

I have arrived in Barcelona for ESEB 2025!

I will be talking about microRNA and the evolution of the mammalian placenta on Tuesday at 14:30 in Meeting Room 113
@eseb2025.bsky.social

Jeni Sidwell @jsidwell.bsky.social in Poster Session 2 on Tuesday, at poster number P02.238:
'Milk transcriptomes provide insights into the evolution of pinniped lactation traits'

And some poster presentations too!

Christopher Taylor @mimicryin3d.bsky.social in Poster Session 1 on Monday, at poster number P01.261:
'Convergent molecular evolution of thermal tolerance in mammals '

Alan Beavan on Tuesday at 14:35 in Meeting Room 116:
'Repeated emergence of specialised ribosomes suggests a complex role for deterministic evolutionary forces across eukaryotes'

Also look out for other talks from our group:

Mary O'Connell @evol-molly.bsky.social on Monday at 10.30 in Meeting Room 131:
'Animal Phylogenomics: Navigating Data, Paralogy, and Non-Tree-like Events'

I have arrived in Barcelona for ESEB 2025!

I will be talking about microRNA and the evolution of the mammalian placenta on Tuesday at 14:30 in Meeting Room 113
@eseb2025.bsky.social

In Nature Genetics, @danielibrahim.bsky.social (MPIMG/BIH) and his team have developed a bioinformatic tool to identify evolutionary conserved regulatory regions of the genome that have transformed so much over time that their DNA sequences have changed completely.

👉 www.molgen.mpg.de/4927054

Mapping the adaptive landscape of Batesian mimicry using 3D-printed stimuli - Nature Birds have an excellent ability to learn to discriminate harmless insects from those that they mimic on the basis of subtle differences in appearance.

Why do imperfect mimics (such as many hoverflies) exist? We created 3D printed replicas of flies, wasps and our own custom intermediates and then "asked" various predators what they thought of our 3D stimuli. Read all about it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Take a look at our work on miRNAs and their involvement with placental phenotypes. It's great to see this work finally see the light of day - huge thanks to everyone involved with the manuscript.

Mammal placental phenotypes are predictable from microRNA repertoires. Despite >100 million years of mammal diversification, similar placental morphologies have independently evolved multiple times, presenting a long-standing evolutionary puzzle: what genetic mechanisms ...

How did mammal placental diversity evolve? miRNAs play a significant role - indeed their repertoire is predictive of phenotype. Congrats to all: esp 1st author @jfennbio.bsky.social & all in @niamhforde.bsky.social group. Thanks to @ukri.org and @leverhulme.ac.uk. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Superspreaders have lower gut microbial alpha-diversity and distinct gut microbial composition in a natural rodent population - Animal Microbiome The microbiome is well known to drive variation in host states (e.g. behaviour, immunity) that would be expected to modulate the spread of infectious disease—but the role of microbiotal interactions i...

It's great to see this work lead by @klarawanelik.bsky.social published - voles which are superspreaders of pathogenic bacteria have distinct gut microbiota:
doi.org/10.1186/s425...

Superspreaders have lower gut microbial alpha-diversity and distinct gut microbial composition in a natural rodent population - Animal Microbiome The microbiome is well known to drive variation in host states (e.g. behaviour, immunity) that would be expected to modulate the spread of infectious disease—but the role of microbiotal interactions i...

It's great to see this work lead by @klarawanelik.bsky.social published - voles which are superspreaders of pathogenic bacteria have distinct gut microbiota:
doi.org/10.1186/s425...

Specialized ribosomes: integrating new insights and current challenges | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Variation in the composition of different ribosomes, termed ribosome heterogeneity, is a now well established phenomenon. However, the functional implications of this heterogeneity on the regulation of protein synthesis are only now beginning to be ...

Great to see this review of specialised ribosomes from Alan in our group, and his colleagues in RiboCode, published today.

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

I will be speaking about miRNAs and placental phenotypes at PopGroup this afternoon at 14.15 in LT3 - come along if you're here!

miRNA back in the news!

When I'm not doing research, I occasionally write about video games, and in this piece that just went up @unwinnable.com I try to combine the two. Specifically, I look at the difficulties of simulating the natural world in a game. Have a read if that sounds at all interesting!

‘A place of joy’: why scientists are joining the rush to Bluesky Researchers say the social-media platform — an alternative to X — offers more control over the content they see and the people they engage with.

‘A place of joy’: why scientists are joining the rush to Bluesky

For me, it certainly feels good to be here!

@natureportfolio.bsky.social @bsky.app

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Will do, thanks!

Understanding conceptus–maternal interactions: what tools do we need to develop? Communication between the maternal endometrium and developing embryo/conceptus is critical to support successful pregnancy to term. Studying the peri-implantation period of pregnancy is critical as th...

Hopefully we'll soon be able to share some of our own work on the connections between miRNA and reproductive phenotypes in mammals.

In the mean time, take a look at the paper lead by our colleagues in Leeds on tools for investigating maternal-embryo interactions:

doi.org/10.1071/RD23181

Nobel Prize goes to microRNA researchers US scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun helped explain how genes work inside the human body.

In my ongoing quest to leave Twitter, I'm hoping use this account for sharing my research, and publicising the work of the O'Connell lab here at the University of Nottingham.

I'm looking at the evolution of microRNA - the discovery of which recently earned a Nobel Prize!

tinyurl.com/552ph6xh