Laura Eme
@lauraeme.bsky.social
2.2K followers 180 following 500 posts
Evolutionary biologist interested in the origin and early diversification of eukaryotes. Phylogenetics/(meta)genomics. Protists & Archaea. Reseach Director at Uni Paris-Saclay (France)/Associate Prof. Uni of Rhode Island (USA)
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Reposted by Laura Eme
fonamental.bsky.social
Divergent Plastid Genomes in the Deepest-Branching Apicomplexan Parasites #protists #protistsonsky academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...
lauraeme.bsky.social
Beautiful work!
environmicrobio.bsky.social
Preprint🚨 #microsky 🦠 “Cultivation of Methanonezhaarchaeia, the third class of methanogens within the phylum Thermoproteota”, authored by @kohtzarchaeota.bsky.social & Sylvia Nupp, expands the diversity of methanogens! 90% enriched, methylotrophic culture from a hot spring. A 🧵 tinyurl.com/yw8ku2bj
Enrichment cultivation and visualization of Ca. Methanonezhaarchaeum fastidiosum
Reposted by Laura Eme
eelcotromer.bsky.social
Happy to see our work published and glad to have contributed together with @maxraas.bsky.social ! Looking forward to all the projects that will come out of this work!
lauraeme.bsky.social
Excited to share our new paper in @cellreports.bsky.social that reshapes our understanding of chromosome organization's deep evolutionary roots! Our work dives into the origins of the machinery that structures our very genomes.

🔗: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

#Genomics #Evolution #CellBiology #LECA
lauraeme.bsky.social
We haven’t. But we have follow up projects that dig more specifically in the archaeal side of things!
lauraeme.bsky.social
A huge shoutout to @jvhooff.bsky.social who poured her soul into this paper, and our co-authors @eelcotromer.bsky.social and Max Raas!
lauraeme.bsky.social
If you’re into chromosome biology, genome organization, or evolutionary cell biology, give it a read and share your thoughts!
🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115855
#EvoCellBio #Genomics #SMC #LECA #Chromatin
Redirecting
doi.org
lauraeme.bsky.social
Going deeper, duplications of SMC genes happened before eukaryotes: they trace back to the TACK + Asgard archaeal ancestor. This hints at sophisticated chromosome management in the archaeal lineage that gave rise to eukaryotes. #eukaryogenesis #archaea
lauraeme.bsky.social
Surprise: condensin II was lost independently >30 times across eukaryote evolution—making it one of the most frequently discarded cellular machineries we know. This highlights major shifts in genome organization throughout eukaryotic history.
lauraeme.bsky.social
SMC complexes (condensin I/II, cohesin, SMC5/6) are the molecular machines that fold chromosomes. By scanning >1 000 genomes we show LECA already housed all four—pointing to a remarkably sophisticated ancestral eukaryote.
lauraeme.bsky.social
Excited to share our new paper in @cellreports.bsky.social that reshapes our understanding of chromosome organization's deep evolutionary roots! Our work dives into the origins of the machinery that structures our very genomes.

🔗: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

#Genomics #Evolution #CellBiology #LECA
lauraeme.bsky.social
Thank you, Jacob!
lauraeme.bsky.social
Because it’s done on a computer, some think it doesn’t require expertise and that anyone can do it through button pushing. Just because there are arguments doesn’t mean all arguments have equal value. And in fact, over time, many things in phylogenetics have settled even when they started hot.
lauraeme.bsky.social
Meaning what? 🫣
lauraeme.bsky.social
Why it matters
🎯 Helps to place DPANN firmly in the archaeal tree, tidying up a long-standing evolutionary puzzle
💡 Highlights cross-domain gene transfer as a key driver in archaeal innovation
🌱 Opens doors to explore how free‑living ancestors gave rise to symbiotic lifestyles
lauraeme.bsky.social
4/ We uncovered ancient horizontal gene transfer events from symbiotic bacteria—namely Patescibacteria and Omnitrophota—that likely empowered DPANN’s shift to their unique episymbiotic lifestyles
lauraeme.bsky.social
3/ Altiarchaeota emerge as the earliest‑diverging branch in DPANN, suggesting an origin from free‑living ancestors
lauraeme.bsky.social
2/ Key finding: DPANN forms a monophyletic clade within Euryarchaeota, resolving a long-standing debate on their evolutionary placement
lauraeme.bsky.social
1/ We used 126 conserved proteins across 11 known DPANN phyla, with careful taxon sampling and sophisticated phylogenomic analysis
lauraeme.bsky.social
Every night should be duck night Chez Gladines ! 😋
Reposted by Laura Eme
danieltamarit.bsky.social
New vacancy in my team!

PhD student position on microbial genome evolution, focusing on the evolutionary principles underlying bacterial genome architecture.

Please repost and share with talented MSc students in #evobio, bioinformatics or related :)

www.uu.nl/en/organisat...

#MEvoSky #MicroSky
lauraeme.bsky.social
Fair enough, my initial post was hastily worded.

And yes, when at least one reviewer defeats the point of peer-review by saying teh authors shouldn’t do more work and the debate should happen in public, that’s not helping anyone.
Reposted by Laura Eme
jeukmicro.bsky.social
Check out exciting protist research in JEM! Holly Moeller et al. explore the feeding habits of Mesodinium rubrum and provide a tool for studying its cell biology and photophysiology in their open access paper in our March/April issue!
doi.org/10.1111/jeu....
#protistsonsky
The marine ciliate Mesodinium rubrum (bottom right) is famed for its ability to steal chloroplasts and nuclei from red cryptophyte algae in the Teleaulax/Gemingera clade. But even these prey specialists can make "mistakes," ingesting blue-green Hemiselmis pacifica (upper left) and transiently retaining their plastids. Here, a M. rubrum cell points its feeding tentacles (labeled with an anti-centrin antibody, yellow) at an H. pacifica cell. The cryptophyte's flagella and ciliate's cilia (labeled with an anti-tubulin antibody, purple) and nuclei (labeled with DAPI, blue) are visible in this expansion micrograph taken with a Nikon spinning disk confocal microscope. Numerous stolen prey nuclei are visible inside of the M. rubrum cell. See Moeller et al. https://doi.org/10.1111/jeu.13066