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Reposted by Ben Jenkins

Flora Vincent @floravincent.bsky.social · 9d

Dear all, registration for the upcoming EMBO/EMBL Symposium on "the cellular mechanics of symbiosis" is now OPEN 🤩 ! Feel free to register ! www.embl.org/about/info/c...
#EESSymbiosis #ProtistsOnSky #SymbioSky
@hassansalem.bsky.social @berasymbionts.bsky.social @embl.org

The cellular mechanics of symbiosis: sensing friend from foe

www.embl.org

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Trends in Marine Host-Microbe Symbioses @tmhms.bsky.social · Aug 19

📢#TMHMS25 is just around the corner! 🦠🌊

Join us to dive into the latest discoveries in #marinehostmicrobesymbioses and explore how microbial superpowers can contribute to restoring ocean health!

Please share with fellow marine science and microbiology enthusiasts!

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Ben Jenkins @benkinsjenkins.bsky.social · Aug 18

@mingpapilio.bsky.social shaking up evolutionary theory at #eseb2025

Models linking species diversity with ecological stability may not be as straightforward as we thought! Amazing talk

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Ben Jenkins @benkinsjenkins.bsky.social · Jul 31

Congrats! Such a neat system

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Varsha Mathur @varshamathur.bsky.social · Jul 30

Check out our new preprint all about Pirsonia, a tiny killer of bloom-forming Coscinodiscus diatoms!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#protistsonsky #marinemicrobes 🌊🔬

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Meghan Ferguson @micro-megs.bsky.social · Jul 4

Spent the week in Cambridge with @benkinsjenkins.bsky.social testing this custom made microscope to live image Aiptasia larvae. Got some cool videos that we hope to share very soon! Thanks for hosting me Ben!

Custom made microscope setup to live image samples from a 96 well plate

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Ben Jenkins @benkinsjenkins.bsky.social · Jul 4

Very exciting!

Had a great time messing with microscopes and sea anemones with @micro-megs.bsky.social this week

Meghan Ferguson @micro-megs.bsky.social · Jul 4

Spent the week in Cambridge with @benkinsjenkins.bsky.social testing this custom made microscope to live image Aiptasia larvae. Got some cool videos that we hope to share very soon! Thanks for hosting me Ben!

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Reposted by Ben Jenkins

ICRS-SECC @icrsreefstudent.bsky.social · Jun 30

🪸🌊 Hidden coral cities!

Scientists just found ancient “super reefs” in the Maldives’ twilight zone, thriving reefs that may help restore shallow corals threatened by climate change.

Source: www.mapthegiants.com

#Morivationmonday

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Reposted by Ben Jenkins

Anna Karnkowska @ankarn.bsky.social · May 1

📢 Deadline extended to May 5!
Join our #ESEB2025 symposium on symbioses in microbial eukaryotes - from the origin of organelles to their roles in ecosystem functioning. Share your work and meet our great speakers @cstairs.bsky.social & @benkinsjenkins.bsky.social

#ESEB25 #Symbiosis #ProtistOnSky

Anna Karnkowska @ankarn.bsky.social · Apr 14

🚨 Just under two weeks left to submit your abstract for ESEB2025 - don’t miss the chance to be part of the Symposium on the Evolution of Symbiosis and Interactions in Microbial Eukaryotes 🦠🔬

📅 Abstract deadline: April 25, 2025
🔗 More: eseb2025.com/list-of-symposia
#ESEB25 #Symbiosis #ProtistOnSky

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Luis Javier Galindo @luisjagago.bsky.social · Apr 18

First study from the lab is out! We describe ApuRs, a new family of microbial rhodopsins unique from apusomonads. ApuRs represent the first anion-conducting rhodopsin channels that can be controlled by UV light, offering potential as new optogenetic tools. #protistsonsky
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
👇

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Ben Jenkins @benkinsjenkins.bsky.social · Apr 17

This is very cool! Do you reckon reduced cell-cycle control has any influence on bleaching tolerance when Durusdinium is present?

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Reposted by Ben Jenkins

Clint Oakley @clintoak.bsky.social · Apr 4

Corals maintain stable populations of essential photosynthetic symbionts by controlling their cell cycle, not by eating them! Our new #PNAS paper monitored and modelled #aiptasia cell cycle, autophagy, and expulsion for over a year. #symbiosis #microbiology www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Cell cycle arrest in the cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis.

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Ben Jenkins @benkinsjenkins.bsky.social · Apr 14

I am obviously biased, but this should be a great conference (as long as you don't mind hearing me go on about Paramecium and corals) ! 🦠🪸

Anna Karnkowska @ankarn.bsky.social · Apr 14

🚨 Just under two weeks left to submit your abstract for ESEB2025 - don’t miss the chance to be part of the Symposium on the Evolution of Symbiosis and Interactions in Microbial Eukaryotes 🦠🔬

📅 Abstract deadline: April 25, 2025
🔗 More: eseb2025.com/list-of-symposia
#ESEB25 #Symbiosis #ProtistOnSky

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Reposted by Ben Jenkins

Meghan Ferguson @micro-megs.bsky.social · Apr 14

I've been busy the last couple years developing Aiptasia as a genetically tractable model organism to study corals. Here you can see me injecting CRISPR-Cas9 into these fragile little Aiptasia zygotes. Hopefully soon we will have our very first mutant lines!

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Reposted by Ben Jenkins

Flora Vincent @floravincent.bsky.social · Apr 12

Absolutely phenomenal week for the #EESWildModels.
A pure celebration of biological wonders, and incredibly engaged participants.
Thanks to all the co-organizers and @events.embl.org for making this possible !
See you in 2027 ? (please fill the feedback form)

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Reposted by Ben Jenkins

Flora Vincent @floravincent.bsky.social · Apr 8

Very excited for this first of its kind EMBO/EMBL Symposium on the Wild Frontiers of Model Organisms.
So far Session 1 is a blast, from aiptasia symbiosis, oyster vibrio phage interactions, !!
#EESWildModels
@embldbunit.bsky.social
@embl.org

kausthubh.bsky.social @kausthubh.bsky.social · Apr 8

Kicked off the #EESWildModels at @embl.org 🐟🦠🍄‍🟫🪰🐟

@floravincent.bsky.social started the sessions with a little survey to sample the range of expertise/skills

Really diverse range of expertise amongst the attendees 💯

@events.embl.org

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Ben Jenkins @benkinsjenkins.bsky.social · Apr 11

I had a wild time presenting my coral work for the first time at EMBO/EMBL #EESWildModels.

Massive thanks to @embl.org @events.embl.org and the organisers for putting this together. It was a real pleasure to interact with so many weird and wonderful creatures...
...and their model organisms (!!)

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Reposted by Ben Jenkins

Amy Courtney @amycourtneyyy.bsky.social · Apr 4

Very excited and proud to finally share this story! 🐙

We discovered surprising roles for dopamine and acetylcholine in the Octopus visual system…
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Novel dopaminergic neurotransmission in the Octopus visual system

Coleoid cephalopods such as the common octopus have a complex visual system, with a camera-type eye and a large optic lobe, that evolved independently from its counterpart in vertebrates. However, the...

doi.org

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Matt Hutchings @matthutchings.bsky.social · Mar 20

Culturing of two Asgard archaea in the Hodarchaeales order - the closest relatives to eukaryotes

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

www.biorxiv.org

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Andrew Roger @andrewjroger.bsky.social · Mar 14

I'm pleased to introduce our new paper rooting the eukaryote Tree of Life (eToL) that resulted from a collaboration led by PhD student Kelsey Williamson and a large group of collaborators doi.org/10.1038/s415...htt

A robustly rooted tree of eukaryotes reveals their excavate ancestry - Nature

The root of the eukaryote Tree of Life is estimated from a new, larger dataset of mitochondrial proteins including all known eukaryotic supergroups, showing it lies between two multi-supergroup assemb...

doi.org

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Reposted by Ben Jenkins

Laura Eme @lauraeme.bsky.social · Mar 12

🚨 New paper alert! 🚨

A robustly rooted tree of eukaryotes sheds light on their deep evolutionary ancestry—suggesting that the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA) may have had an excavate-like cell architecture. 🧵🔬 (1/) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A robustly rooted tree of eukaryotes reveals their excavate ancestry - Nature

The root of the eukaryote Tree of Life is estimated from a new, larger dataset of mitochondrial proteins including all known eukaryotic supergroups, showing it lies between two multi-supergroup assemb...

www.nature.com

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Ben Jenkins @benkinsjenkins.bsky.social · Mar 13

Thanks! The work is great and I had a lot of fun writing this

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Ben Jenkins @benkinsjenkins.bsky.social · Mar 13

If you haven't already, read the fantastic original publication by Jacko-Reynolds @ambonacolta.bsky.social @fonamental.bsky.social @pjkeelinglab.bsky.social and the gang

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Phylogenomics of coral-infecting corallicolids reveal multiple independent losses of chlorophyll biosynthesis in apicomplexan parasites

The transition from free-living to parasitic lifestyles induces major shifts in evolution, and nowhere is this more acute than in apicomplexans—obliga…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Ben Jenkins @benkinsjenkins.bsky.social · Mar 13

Check out our dispatch on apicomplexans that infect corals!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

These parasite-like partners have lost photosynthesis but retained chlorophyll... are they friend or foe?

@currentbiology.bsky.social #protistsonsky #symbiosky #microsky #coralreefs

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James Orr @jamesaorr.bsky.social · Mar 12

In our new paper we discuss how modern coexistence theory can help microbial ecologists tackle fundamental & applied questions, and how microbial systems can help to push coexistence theory forward! With Andrew Letten and Dave Armitage (@darmitage.bsky.social). doi.org/10.1111/1462...

Coexistence Theory for Microbial Ecology, and Vice Versa

Classical models from theoretical ecology are seeing increasing uptake in microbial ecology, but there remains rich potential for closer cross-pollination. Here we explore opportunities for stronger ....

doi.org

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