Research

In the lab, we combine large-scale phylogenetic analyses and systematic evolutionary surveys with high-throughput experimental biology —Proteomics, transcriptomics—to explore DNA-binding proteins and their inhibitors. As a moist lab blending computational approaches with bench experiments, we’re curiosity-driven, not afraid of growing a weird bacteria or studying a strange proteins. Our goal is to explore the natural diversity of DNA binding proteins and their inhibitor in a systematic and evolutionary driven fashion. This approach is at the core of our second aim, which is to understand to what extend we can redesign those systems, to understand and engineer them. Below is a list of publications.

Publications

2025

Future Directions of the Prokaryotic Chromosome Field

E. A. Abbondanzieri, A. B. Badrinarayanan, D. Barillà, S. D. Bell, F. Blombach, …, S. C. Weber, P. A. Wiggins, H. J. Wing, J. Xiao, Z. Zhang

Molecular Microbiology  ·  01 Feb 2025  ·  doi:10.1111/mmi.15347

2024

Systematic genome-guided discovery of antagonistic interactions between archaea and bacteria

Romain Strock, Valerie WC Soo, Antoine Hocher, Tobias Warnecke

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory  ·  18 Sep 2024  ·  doi:10.1101/2024.09.18.613068

Nucleosomes at the Dawn of Eukaryotes

Antoine Hocher, Tobias Warnecke

Genome Biology and Evolution  ·  14 Feb 2024  ·  doi:10.1093/gbe/evae029

2023

Histones with an unconventional DNA-binding mode in vitro are major chromatin constituents in the bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus

Antoine Hocher, Shawn P. Laursen, Paul Radford, Jess Tyson, Carey Lambert, …, Pavel V. Shliaha, Mathieu Picardeau, R. Elizabeth Sockett, Karolin Luger, Tobias Warnecke

Nature Microbiology  ·  09 Oct 2023  ·  doi:10.1038/s41564-023-01492-x

Histone-organized chromatin in bacteria

Antoine Hocher, Shawn P. Laursen, Paul Radford, Jess Tyson, Carey Lambert, Kathryn M Stevens, Mathieu Picardeau, R. Elizabeth Sockett, Karolin Luger, Tobias Warnecke

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory  ·  26 Jan 2023  ·  doi:10.1101/2023.01.26.525422

2021

Deep conservation of histone variants in Thermococcales archaea

Kathryn M Stevens, Antoine Hocher, Tobias Warnecke

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory  ·  07 Sep 2021  ·  doi:10.1101/2021.09.07.455978

Growth temperature is the principal driver of chromatinization in archaea

Antoine Hocher, Guillaume Borrel, Khaled Fadhlaoui, Jean-François Brugère, Simonetta Gribaldo, Tobias Warnecke

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory  ·  08 Jul 2021  ·  doi:10.1101/2021.07.08.451601

2020

Histone variants in archaea and the evolution of combinatorial chromatin complexity

Kathryn M. Stevens, Jacob B. Swadling, Antoine Hocher, Corinna Bang, Simonetta Gribaldo, Ruth A. Schmitz, Tobias Warnecke

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  ·  07 Dec 2020  ·  doi:10.1073/pnas.2007056117

Subtelomeres as Specialized Chromatin Domains

Antoine Hocher, Angela Taddei

BioEssays  ·  17 Mar 2020  ·  doi:10.1002/bies.201900205

2019

The DNA-binding protein HTa from Thermoplasma acidophilum is an archaeal histone analog

Antoine Hocher, Maria Rojec, Jacob B Swadling, Alexander Esin, Tobias Warnecke

eLife  ·  11 Nov 2019  ·  doi:10.7554/elife.52542

2018

Expanding heterochromatin reveals discrete subtelomeric domains delimited by chromatin landscape transitions

Antoine Hocher, Myriam Ruault, Petra Kaferle, Marc Descrimes, Mickaël Garnier, Antonin Morillon, Angela Taddei

Genome Research  ·  24 Oct 2018  ·  doi:10.1101/gr.236554.118