Polina Tikanova
@polinatikanova.bsky.social
👩🏻🎓PhD, working in the Burga lab at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) @imbavienna.bsky.social 🇦🇹
🌴 tropical nematodes, selfish genes and evolution
🌴 tropical nematodes, selfish genes and evolution
Reposted by Polina Tikanova
Cow Tools!
We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years.
We breed them and exploit them
It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS
Here I describe our study
(paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social
with @auersperga.bsky.social
We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years.
We breed them and exploit them
It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS
Here I describe our study
(paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social
with @auersperga.bsky.social
January 19, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Cow Tools!
We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years.
We breed them and exploit them
It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS
Here I describe our study
(paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social
with @auersperga.bsky.social
We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years.
We breed them and exploit them
It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS
Here I describe our study
(paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social
with @auersperga.bsky.social
Reposted by Polina Tikanova
Last Friday over dinner, we talked with @svenklumpe.bsky.social and @jnoms.bsky.social about this very creative paper—and quickly went off track. Why? Because, as Sven put it, Vaults ( #Vaults ) remain the “siren 🧜♀️ of cell biology 🔬” intriguing and attractive, but maddeningly hard to figure out. 1/3
The barrel-shaped structures found by the thousands in most animal cells are one of biology’s biggest mysteries. But although researchers haven’t figured out the function of these “vaults,” they now report a new use for the puzzling particles.
Learn more: https://scim.ag/49pv8mB
Learn more: https://scim.ag/49pv8mB
January 20, 2026 at 5:46 AM
Last Friday over dinner, we talked with @svenklumpe.bsky.social and @jnoms.bsky.social about this very creative paper—and quickly went off track. Why? Because, as Sven put it, Vaults ( #Vaults ) remain the “siren 🧜♀️ of cell biology 🔬” intriguing and attractive, but maddeningly hard to figure out. 1/3
Reposted by Polina Tikanova
Reposted by Polina Tikanova
Beautiful story on the evolutionary response to fly telomeres battling the genome they protect the ends of!
Also, nice to see that the dream data clarity we all imagine when starting a project can actually materialize!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@sungyalin.bsky.social @levine-lab.bsky.social
Also, nice to see that the dream data clarity we all imagine when starting a project can actually materialize!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@sungyalin.bsky.social @levine-lab.bsky.social
Rapid compensatory evolution within a multiprotein complex preserves telomere integrity
Intragenomic conflict with selfish genetic elements spurs adaptive changes in subunits of essential multiprotein complexes. Whether and how these adaptive changes disrupt interactions within such comp...
www.science.org
November 27, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Beautiful story on the evolutionary response to fly telomeres battling the genome they protect the ends of!
Also, nice to see that the dream data clarity we all imagine when starting a project can actually materialize!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@sungyalin.bsky.social @levine-lab.bsky.social
Also, nice to see that the dream data clarity we all imagine when starting a project can actually materialize!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@sungyalin.bsky.social @levine-lab.bsky.social
Happy to share that my PhD project is finally published!🪱✨
Selfish genes are found across the tree of life. They can disrupt inheritance patterns and at the same time act as units for molecular innovation. Here we tried to answer one big question: how do selfish genes emerge in the first place?
Selfish genes are found across the tree of life. They can disrupt inheritance patterns and at the same time act as units for molecular innovation. Here we tried to answer one big question: how do selfish genes emerge in the first place?
Recurrent evolution of selfishness from an essential tRNA synthetase in Caenorhabditis tropicalis 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Recurrent evolution of selfishness from an essential tRNA synthetase in Caenorhabditis tropicalis - Nature Ecology & Evolution
In Caenorhabditis tropicalis, three toxin–antidote elements arose via gene duplication from the essential tRNA-synthetase subunit FARS-3. The ancestral antidote probably acquired affinity for FARS-3, ...
www.nature.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Happy to share that my PhD project is finally published!🪱✨
Selfish genes are found across the tree of life. They can disrupt inheritance patterns and at the same time act as units for molecular innovation. Here we tried to answer one big question: how do selfish genes emerge in the first place?
Selfish genes are found across the tree of life. They can disrupt inheritance patterns and at the same time act as units for molecular innovation. Here we tried to answer one big question: how do selfish genes emerge in the first place?
Reposted by Polina Tikanova
A new preprint from the lab. I won't do a tweetorial until this is peer reviewed, but I think it's a banger, led by
@JedNzy. It's about Rubisco and what chaperones are really for. He's on the market, get him while you can. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@JedNzy. It's about Rubisco and what chaperones are really for. He's on the market, get him while you can. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Origin of chaperone dependence and assembly complexity in Rubisco biogenesis
Molecular chaperones assist with the folding and assembly of protein clients. Consequently, they are essential to diverse cellular functions. In most aerobic photosynthetic organisms such as B-cyanoba...
www.biorxiv.org
September 24, 2025 at 7:53 PM
A new preprint from the lab. I won't do a tweetorial until this is peer reviewed, but I think it's a banger, led by
@JedNzy. It's about Rubisco and what chaperones are really for. He's on the market, get him while you can. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@JedNzy. It's about Rubisco and what chaperones are really for. He's on the market, get him while you can. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Polina Tikanova
1/ How do animals develop immunity against a newly encountered transposable element from scratch? Our study reveals that the mobility of TEs is their Achilles heel, allowing hosts to develop a powerful small RNA-mediated silencing response.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
August 14, 2025 at 5:09 PM
1/ How do animals develop immunity against a newly encountered transposable element from scratch? Our study reveals that the mobility of TEs is their Achilles heel, allowing hosts to develop a powerful small RNA-mediated silencing response.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Polina Tikanova
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 Polina Tikanova
Congratulations to Polina Tikanova on the completion of her PhD! Polina, a researcher in the Burga Lab, presented her work on “Molecular mechanisms of intra- and interspecific genomic conflict” at her PhD defense.
May 28, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Congratulations to Polina Tikanova on the completion of her PhD! Polina, a researcher in the Burga Lab, presented her work on “Molecular mechanisms of intra- and interspecific genomic conflict” at her PhD defense.