Sandra Duharcourt
Institut Jacques Monod, 15 rue Hélène Brion 75013 Paris
Epigenetic regulation of genome organization
Website: https://www.ijm.fr/research-topics/research-groups/duharcourt-lab-va/?lang=en
ORCID: 0000-0002-8913-8799
Twitter: @DuharcourtLab
Our work aims to understand the fundamental mechanisms governing chromosome structure and genetic stability in eukaryotes. We study a remarkable process of genome editing that occurs during development in the unicellular eukaryote Paramecium.
Keywords: epigenetics, transposable elements, non-coding RNA, chromatin, Polycomb, genome evolution, Paramecium
Top 5 publications
1.Miró-Pina C, Charmant O, Kawaguchi T, Holoch D, Michaud A, Cohen I, Humbert A, Jaszczyszyn Y, Chevreux G, Del Maestro L, Ait-Si-Ali S, Arnaiz O, Margueron R, Duharcourt S. (2022) Paramecium Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 physically interacts with the small RNA binding PIWI protein to repress transposable elements. Dev Cell. 2022 Apr 6;S1534-5807(22)00208-8. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2022.03.014. PMID: 35429435
2.Gnan S#, Matelot M#, Weiman M, Arnaiz O, Guérin F, Sperling L, Bétermier M, Thermes C, Chen CL*, Duharcourt S*. (2022) GC content but not nucleosome positioning directly contributes to intron-splicing efficiency in Paramecium. Genome Res. 2022 Mar 9;gr.276125.121. doi: 10.1101/gr.276125.121. PMID: 35264448
3. Sellis S#, Guérin F#, Arnaiz O, Pett W, Lerat E, Boggetto N, Krenek S, Berendonk T, Couloux A, Aury J-M, Labadie K, Malinsky S, Bhullar S, Meyer E, Sperling L, Duret L*, Duharcourt S*. (2021). Massive colonization of protein-coding exons by selfish genetic elements in Paramecium germline genomes. PLoS Biol 19(7): e3001309. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001309 PMID: 34324490
4. Vanssay A#, Touzeau A#, Arnaiz O, Frapporti A, Phipps J, Duharcourt S. (2020). The Parameciumhistone chaperone Spt16-1 is required for Pgm endonuclease function in programmed genome rearrangements. PLoS Genet. 2020 Jul 23;16(7):e1008949. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1008949. PMID: 32702045
5. Frapporti A#, Miró-Pina C#, Arnaiz O, Holoch D, Kawaguchi T, Humbert A, Eleftheriou E, Lombard B, Loew D, Sperling L, Guitot K, Margueron R, Duharcourt S. (2019). The Polycomb protein Ezl1 mediates H3K9 and H3K27 methylation to repress transposable elements in Paramecium. Nat Commun. 2019 Jun 20;10(1):2710. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-10648-5. PMID: 31221974
Dernières publications sur HAL :
- [hal-05523174] Breaking the species barrier: recurrent genomic introgressions from very distant lineages in a ciliateby ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Florian Benitiere) on 23 February 2026 at 10h43
The process of speciation, through which two reproductively isolated species emerge from an ancestral population, is often gradual, including a […]
- [hal-05355464] The tiny germline chromosomes of Paramecium aurelia have an exceptionally high recombination rate and are capped...by ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Olivier Arnaiz) on 8 November 2025 at 15h34
Background. Paramecia belong to the ciliate phylum of unicellular eukaryotes characterized by nuclear dimorphism. A diploid germline micronucleus […]
- [hal-05345179] A histone methyltransferase-independent function of PRC2 controls small RNA dynamics during programmed DNA...by ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Caridad Miró-Pina) on 3 November 2025 at 18h45
To limit transposable element (TE) mobilization, most eukaryotes have evolved small RNAs to silence TE activity via homology-dependent mechanisms. […]
- [hal-05345187] A developmental condensin I complex assists the Paramecium PiggyMac domesticated transposase during programmed DNA...by ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Thomas Balan) on 3 November 2025 at 18h33
Prokaryotes and eukaryotes use diverse strategies to cope with invading mobile genetic elements, including programmed DNA elimination (PDE). In the […]