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Thibaut Brunet @thibautbrunet.bsky.social · 3d

Latest from ours: www.cell.com/cell-reports...

This is two stories in one: a case study/cautionary tale on developing genetic tools in new organisms, and the first hint at a gene regulatory network for choanoflagellate multicellular development (which turn out to involve a Hippo/YAP/ECM loop!) A 🧵

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Jelena Godrijan 🫧❾🌊🦋 @godi.bsky.social · 3d

⚠️New paper ➡️ isolating >600 freshwater microbes using dilution-to-extinction and low-nutrient, lake-mimicking media.

🤯Expands cultured diversity to ~70 % of detected genera and enables physiological studies of streamlined oligotrophs.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#protistsonsky

Bringing the uncultivated microbial majority of freshwater ecosystems into culture - Nature Communications

A large fraction of aquatic bacteria remains uncultured. Here, the authors cultivated 627 strains of abundant freshwater bacteria from 14 European lakes, thus generating a collection that includes many previously uncultured, oligotrophic bacteria that may serve as model organisms.

www.nature.com

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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 2d

New preprint!

Ever wondered why only a fraction of genomes encode CRISPR immunity? 🧬 🦠

Turns out CRISPR is rarely beneficial against virulent phages, being most beneficial against those for which resistance mutations are rare!

An epic effort by Rosanna Wright

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

Resistance mutation supply modulates the benefit of CRISPR immunity against virulent phages

Only a fraction of bacterial genomes encode CRISPR-Cas systems but the selective causes of this variation are unexplained. How naturally virulent bacteriophages (phages) select for CRISPR immunity has...

www.biorxiv.org

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Julie Boisard @protistsforthewin.bsky.social · 11d

Now completely published :)
Really proud of this paper led with Karla at @cstairs.bsky.social lab.
doi.org/10.1093/isme...

Anaerobic breviate protist survival in microcosms depends on microbiome metabolic function

Abstract. Anoxic and hypoxic environments serve as habitats for diverse microorganisms, including unicellular eukaryotes (protists) and prokaryotes. To thr

doi.org

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jandevries.bsky.social @jandevries.bsky.social · Aug 25

We are hiring the second cohort of EvoReSt PhD students. If you are interested in deep evolutionary questions, checkout:
www.uni-goettingen.de/de/687607.html
Apply here:
obp.uni-goettingen.de/de-de/OBF/In...

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Hanna Johannesson @hannajohannesson.bsky.social · Sep 7

We have several open positions in my group, funded from the ERC Grant on the Early Sequestered Germline of Fungi. We search broadly for applicants at both PhD and master-level, with a dedicated interest in fungal evolutionary biology. Please forward and RT!
Find the positions here: su.varbi.com

Lediga jobb vid Stockholms universitet

Jobb

su.varbi.com

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Vesna Grujcic @vesnagrujcic.bsky.social · Aug 30

How do microbes become permanent partners? 🌊🔬🦠 Check out our new study published in Current Biology showing how cyanobacterial genomes evolve step-by-step into endosymbionts of diatoms. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@currentbiology.bsky.social @mehrshmali.bsky.social

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Workshops @evomics.bsky.social · Sep 2

Apply now to the Workshop on Genomics 2026, which will take place 11-24 January, in the beautiful town of Český Krumlov, Czechia. Deadline: 20th of October, but applicants will be informed on a rolling basis. Spread the word among colleagues! 🙆🏽‍♀️ evomics.org/apply-worksh... #evomics2026

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Andrew Roger @andrewjroger.bsky.social · Aug 12

Our paper describing our new improved GFmix models for phylogenetic inference that capture site-and-branch heterogeneity in amino acid composition.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Modeling site-and-branch-heterogeneity with GFmix

Phylogenetic trees are often inferred from protein sequences sampled from diverse taxa across the tree of life. The compositions of these amino acid sequences may be heterogeneous across both sites an...

www.biorxiv.org

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Yash Pardasani @thealgaeman.bsky.social · Aug 18

The first paper from my PhD is out now! doi.org/10.1111/jeu....

We describe a new photosynthetic #Paulinella species from a brackish beach in British Columbia 🇨🇦

Big thanks to the co-authors Maia Palka and @alive-in-the-ocean.bsky.social, and my supervisor @fburki.bsky.social

#protistsonsky

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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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Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · Aug 6

We have a postdoc opening for a protistologist with biophysics inclinations to join our @hfspo.bsky.social project! (focus will be on characterising the morphology, ultrastructure and behaviour of excavates) #protistsonsky

Apply by Sept 17th (RTs appreciated!)
jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...

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DEEMteam_Orsay @deemteam.bsky.social · Jul 23

Check out our paper to explore how the evolutionary history of SELMA supports or challenges various hypotheses on the origin of red complex plastids.

academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

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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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Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · Jul 10

BEHOLD! One of Earth's greatest lineages of life: the lil wiggle arm guys, Meteora.

These single-celled critters, originally found in deep-sea sediments, are SO DIFFERENT from other lifeforms on Earth that they're likely in their own kingdom (as in, the Animal Kingdom, the Plant Kingdom etc). 🧪🌿

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Javier del Campo @fonamental.bsky.social · Jul 11

Divergent Plastid Genomes in the Deepest-Branching Apicomplexan Parasites #protists #protistsonsky academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

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Laura Eme @lauraeme.bsky.social · Jun 22

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

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Iker Irisarri @ikeririsarri.bsky.social · Jun 23

Join us on this interesting @ergabiodiv.bsky.social BioGenomes Analysis & Applications seminar. Today at 12h CEST!

ERGA - European Reference Genome Atlas @ergabiodiv.bsky.social · Jun 19

🔔 This Monday, June 23rd at 12:00 CEST:
🌱 Target Capture Sequencing Approaches to the Study of Plant Evolution
Join us live: www.youtube.com/live/0wfzw_N...

#TargetCapture #Genomics #PlantEvolution #Hyb-Seq #evolutionarygenomics #biodiversity #research #researchseminar @ibb-botanic.bsky.social

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DEEMteam_Orsay @deemteam.bsky.social · Jun 17

📣 We are proud of the publication of the second paper of @bbaker24.bsky.social PhD thesis. In collaboration with friends in Halifax we have studied the difficult question of the phylogeny of the DPANN archaea, composed of several phyla of highly reduced, fast-evolving epiparasites 🧵

rdcu.be/erkkU

Phylogenomic analyses indicate the archaeal superphylum DPANN originated from free-living euryarchaeal-like ancestors

Nature Microbiology - Phylogenetic reconstructions with conserved protein markers from the 11 known DPANN phyla reveal their monophyletic placement within the Euryarchaeota.

rdcu.be

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Jürgen Strassert @strassert.bsky.social · Jun 13

Happy to have contributed to this great article: #Protist genomics: key to understanding eukaryotic evolution. Congrats Alexandra Schoenle et al. #ProtistsOnSky
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

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Miguel Méndez Sandín @sandinmm.bsky.social · May 8

Despite 150+ years of Radiolaria diversity research, we have just scratched the surface. Nearly half of Radiolaria diversity might be naked hiding in plain sight! We unveiled the diversity and evolution of Radiolaria beyond "the stars of the ocean"
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · Apr 28

🚨 2.5-year PhD or Postdoc Opportunity! Join me and the Aquatic Ecosystem Analysis group @UniKoblenz. 🔬 Microbial #ecology, #bioindicators, #protists, #wastewater 🌊 | German language skills are necessary,Apply by May 16 | 🔗 kennethdumack.de | tinyurl.com/dumack2
Please share! #MicroSky #ProtistsOnSky

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ISEP @isepprotists.bsky.social · Apr 18

New #ISEPpapers! Hijacking and integration of algal #plastids and #mitochondria in a polar planktonic host: Ananya Kedige Rao et al. www.cell.com/current-biol...

#Microbes #Algae #Protists #Symbiosis #Organelles #Plankton

figure from the paper showing various views of the discussed microbial cell

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Fabien Burki @fburki.bsky.social · Apr 20

Happy to have played a small part in this. Prometheid is a proposed supergroup that contains previously deep orphan lineages.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#protistsonsky

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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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