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Nicole Coots @nicolecoots.bsky.social · 26d

found this lil guy in a sand sample recently 😍🦑
#protistsonsky

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Nicole Coots @nicolecoots.bsky.social · 26d

Very nice, Yash!

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Reposted by Nicole Coots

Yash Pardasani @thealgaeman.bsky.social · 27d

Our 2nd heterotrophic #Paulinella culture!
Really proud of this one. After days at the microscope picking cells, I finally got it growing happily :)

#protistsonsky

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Nicole Coots @nicolecoots.bsky.social · Aug 31

Made some cyanotype prints from a figure I pulled from @sandinmm.bsky.social 's 2019 paper on the morpho-molecular classification of Nassellaria. #protistsonsky

Those SEMs are so stunning, they were just begging to be turned into art!
doi.org/10.1016/j.pr...

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Nicole Coots @nicolecoots.bsky.social · Aug 27

Gave a talk about mixotrophy earlier this month to the Thetis Island Nature Conservancy. My postdoc has been so 100% focused on research that I almost forgot how much fun scientific outreach can be!!! 🤩

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Reposted by Nicole Coots

Fabien Burki @fburki.bsky.social · Aug 14

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Genomes of nitrogen-fixing eukaryotes reveal an alternate path for organellogenesis #protistsonsky

Genomes of nitrogen-fixing eukaryotes reveal an alternate path for organellogenesis | PNAS

Endosymbiotic gene transfer (EGT) and import of host-encoded proteins have been considered hallmarks of organelles necessary for stable integration...

www.pnas.org

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Reposted by Nicole Coots

Vasily Zlatogursky @zlatogursky.bsky.social · Jul 24

Promethea = PROvora + MEteora + HEmimastigophora. The new supergroup, unifying previously “orphan” lineages with gene-rich mitogenomes. Position of #telonemids is still uncertain. #protistsonsky tinyurl.com/yk9xkt49

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Nicole Coots @nicolecoots.bsky.social · Jun 17

I'll take you up on that if Im ever in the area!

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Nicole Coots @nicolecoots.bsky.social · Jun 16

Currently geeking out over this recent paper from the @mixotrophe.bsky.social lab!:
Environmental Fluctuations Promote Host Reward Strategies That Maintain Partner Diversity in Multispecies Mutualisms

By Bethany LF Stevens et al.
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Environmental Fluctuations Promote Host Reward Strategies That Maintain Partner Diversity in Multispecies Mutualisms | The American Naturalist: Vol 205, No 2

Abstract In multispecies mutualisms, hosts might be expected to reward only the highest-quality partner in order to maximize benefits and prevent the proliferation of cheaters. In a fluctuating enviro...

www.journals.uchicago.edu

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Nicole Coots @nicolecoots.bsky.social · Jun 12

Was literally just panicking about this over the weekend 💩

Julia Van Etten @couchmicroscopy.bsky.social · Jun 11

Never in a million years did I think I’d be having regular conversations with my peers (most of them are other PRFB postdocs) about what we plan to do with our lives if we can’t be scientists anymore, i.e., if all the jobs continue disappearing. It’s all very bleak as an ECR right now.

Nicole Coots @nicolecoots.bsky.social · Jun 5

I love the way they move

Elizabeth Beston @elizabethbeston.bsky.social · Jun 5

This week’s sample was teeming with amoebae! I know nothing about marine amoebae and I rarely see them, so this was unusual for me. Do you think their presence is associated with the Phaeocystis bloom happening right now? Timelapse videos of their movement. 🦑 #plankton

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Nicole Coots @nicolecoots.bsky.social · Jun 5

😂 maybe four stuck together

Nicole Coots @nicolecoots.bsky.social · Jun 5

It was identified as a nectosome elsewhere 😌

Nicole Coots @nicolecoots.bsky.social · Jun 3

Anybody know what this marine invert is? It's from an epipelagic plankton net tow in the middle of the Atlantic #invertID

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Reposted by Nicole Coots

Emma Vogel @efvogel.bsky.social · May 13

Thrilled to have won @nature.com 2025 #ScientistAtWork photo competition! 🧪🐳📷 www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Six striking images showcase scientific fieldwork

The winners of Nature’s 2025 photo competition braved crashing waves and misty mountains to capture their science.

www.nature.com

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Nicole Coots @nicolecoots.bsky.social · May 12

My friends in the Life of Retaria group decided to make a podcast! In the first episode, they interview @fabnot.bsky.social about his journey as a scientist. I loved the first episode, hope you do too! @juliemeilland.bsky.social @sandinmm.bsky.social et al.

thelifeofretaria.github.io/podcast.html

The Life of Retaria Experience

thelifeofretaria.github.io

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Nicole Coots @nicolecoots.bsky.social · May 8

That must be where the amoeba got its artistic inspiration 😀

Nicole Coots @nicolecoots.bsky.social · May 8

testate amoebae are my fave 🤩

Bruce Taylor @brucedstaylor.bsky.social · May 8

Some specimens of a shelled amoeba called Heleopera sphagni, from a northern fen. The shell is assembled from jagged siliceous plates, but where did they come from? Stolen from a prey organism, or generated by the amoeba itself? I have no idea! #protistsonsky #amoebae #peatlands

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Reposted by Nicole Coots

Fabien Burki @fburki.bsky.social · May 7

Congrats @sandinmm.bsky.social et al, very nice paper: www.cell.com/current-biol... #protistsonsky

Extant diversity, biogeography, and evolutionary history of Radiolaria

Sandin et al. reveal a vast, overlooked molecular diversity of Radiolaria, likely skeleton-less, contrasting the traditional view of their star-shaped skeleton. Such comprehensive Radiolaria diversity...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Nicole Coots

Miguel Méndez Sandín @sandinmm.bsky.social · May 5

Why do some planktonic protists develop a gelatinous matrix? We suggest that this original adaptation is a strategy to cope with ocean oligotrophy: doi.org/10.1111/1462...
Led by @n-llopis-m.bsky.social, and thanks to all co-authors, I'm very happy to finally see it out!
#protistsonsky

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Reposted by Nicole Coots

Gabrielle Hecht has no more spoons @gabriellehecht.bsky.social · May 2

Pause for a minute to appreciate the valiant Program Officers still at NSF, who are doing their utmost to preserve what they can. They’re in the stinking rotting belly of the beast, laboring on our behalf.

❤️❤️❤️❤️ to them

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Nicole Coots @nicolecoots.bsky.social · May 2

It's an incredibly depressing time to be an American scientist

Liz Neeley @lizneeley.bsky.social · May 2

Science news is particularly grim this week. For NSF funding, 2 key fronts:

1) freeze on ALL existing grants (portal is down - no $$ going out, including reimbursements) www.nature.com/articles/d41...

2) budget proposes 40% overall cut & 15% cap on indirects (lawsuits blocked same for NIH in Feb)

Reposted by Nicole Coots

Jeff Hollett @jeffontherock.bsky.social · Apr 25

Lichen collage. Northwest Territories, Canada.

Photo of a rock face covered in a half dozen or more species of lichens.

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Reposted by Nicole Coots

dr. mykle hoban @thefishbotherer.bsky.social · Apr 26

These guys got the first living footage of the Indonesian coelacanth! Amazing work.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

First record of a living coelacanth from North Maluku, Indonesia - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - First record of a living coelacanth from North Maluku, Indonesia

www.nature.com

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Nicole Coots @nicolecoots.bsky.social · Apr 28

Algal symbiont diversity and host fitness variation in the amoebozoan photosymbiosis 🦠

by Yamagishi et al.
@jeukmicro.bsky.social

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Algal Symbiont Diversity and Host Fitness Variation in Amoebozoan Photosymbiosis

Photosymbioses, the symbiotic relationships between microalgae and non-photosynthetic eukaryotes, are sporadically found in many eukaryotic lineages. Only a few taxa, such as cnidarians and ciliates ....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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