Jürgen Strassert

Final version @nature.com of our paper describing unconventional multicellular development in a choanoflagellate inhabiting an extreme environment. A ton of new data since the first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint (which we've kept updating).

A brief 🧵 (carried over from the old place)

Tom Cavalier-Smith in Cornwall UK 23 August 2017, photo by Neal C-S

I am happy to share the unfinished but nevertheless fascinating autobiography of the late Thomas Cavalier-Smith, written in 2020, shortly before Tom passed away in 2021. I thank Ema Cavalier-Smith for sharing the text with me. I recently finished curating […]

[Original post on biologists.social]

Have a novel protist's genome or transcriptome and want to predict it's mitochondrial proteome? Look no further than CoMR, this handy bioinformatic workflow to help you: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #phylogenetics

Closely related microbes tend to live in similar communities across Earth’s environments.
We call this pattern community conservatism - extending established ecological patterns to the microbial world.
🧬🌍 #MicrobialEcology #Evolution

Read the full article here: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

I have a postdoc position in metagenomic exploration available in my group. Candidates with documented experience in phylo & metagenomics and preferably with petabase-scale data mining and GLM workflows are encouraged to apply. Come join us! 🧬🦠💻

Please repost

Apply here: www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/p...

GBE | The Chromosome-Scale Genome Assembly of the Redlip Blenny, Ophioblennius macclurei (Blenniidae) The article by Kulikov et al. presents the chromosome-scale genome of the red lip blenny (Ophioblennius macclurei). This resource could help better understand the cryptic diversity and species boundaries within the genus. Photo by: Evan D’Alessandro.

Kulikov, @ikeririsarri.bsky.social @fonamental.bsky.social et al present a 529.6 Mb chromosome-scale genome for the redlip blenny (scaffold N50 = 23.7 Mb; BUSCO = 97.06%). Annotation identified 18,927 protein-coding genes.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf242

📸 Evan D’Alessandro

#genome #evolution

Just on time for the holidays! Happy to share the published version of the discovery of leptophytes, a new deep-branching and widespread group of microalgae based on plastid MAGs (ptMAGs). Now with additional support from a mitochondrial MAG (mtMAG) of leptophytes.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A free, open-access library of high-quality organism illustrations for science communication We create vector graphics of model organisms and emerging biological research organisms to enhance our publications. We’re sharing these editable graphics under a CC0 license for other scientists to...

A free, open-access library of high-quality organism illustrations for science communication

New preprint out! Using ~75k environmental OTUs + 77 fossil calibrations, we reconstructed a Proterozoic timeline of eukaryote evolution. Our results show crown eukaryotes were already diversifying >1.6 Ga, long before the first undisputed fossils (~1.05 Ga).
🔗 DOI: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Those interested in performing maximum likelihood phylogenomic analysis on data sets made up of eukaryotic nuclear genes using site heterogeneous mixture models like C60, I suggest you use the ELM model in IQ-TREE instead of the LG model /1

Are you very busy but still want to learn what Aphelids are and why they are important to understand the evolution of Fungi?
Then check out our “Quick guide” on Aphelids published in collaboration with @deemteam.bsky.social, Sergey and Guifré. #protistsonsky
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

✨ A study in nature.com from our Faculty at @unikarlova.cuni.cz reveals Solarion arienae, a rare #protist forming a newly identified eukaryotic supersroup Disparia. A unique window into early #eukaryotic cell #evolution. 🌍🔬👏

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

We are looking for a PhD student to work on an exciting plastid endosymbiosis in microbial eukaryotes. This position involves sampling, exciting microscopy such as CARDFISH, ExM and FIBSEM, single-cell transcriptomics and more. #protistsonsky 1/2

Prediction of microplastic transport in oil-contaminated waters Microplastics (MPs) are pervasive in marine environments and pose potential risks to marine ecosystems. MPs can transport from the surface to the deep…

New study shows that oil spills increase the sinking rate of (large) #microplastics, which might partially explain why we find buoyant polymers in deep-sea sediments.
#plastic
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

NEW pub in @science.org 🥳

Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?

For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.

We provide new evidence suggesting that...

🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

PhD position available at TU Berlin, Dept. of Environmental Microbiomics: Fate of mineral-associated organic matter during transition from terrestrial to aquatic systems

stellenticket.tu-berlin.de/en/job-offer...

Phylogenomic analysis of deep-branching telonemid Abstract. The evolutionary history of eukaryotic supergroups has been investigated primarily by large-scale phylogenomics, but one major hindrance to conti

Phylogenomic analysis of deep-branching telonemid #protistsonsky
academic.oup.com/gbe/advance-...

Lab’s first paper is out!! We show the first structures of #Asgard #chromatin by #cryo-EM 🧬❄️
Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

New version of PR2 that now includes the eKOI coi database recently published.

Polyploidization in diatoms accelerates adaptation to warming - Nature Climate Change The authors obtained large-volume individuals of diatom cultures under thermal stress. These polyploids (having more than two sets of chromosomes) are shown to rapidly adapt to high temperatures, high...

Polyploidization in diatoms accelerates adaptation to warming www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs 🌊

🚨 We’re hiring! 🚨 @bruzos.bsky.social lab is seeking a highly motivated #PostDoc & a #PhD student to investigate the marine transmissible cancers. 🧬🌊

#sciencejobs #jobalert #researchjob #cancer #marinescience #symbiosis #bioinformatics #MaxPlanck

Declining ocean greenness and phytoplankton blooms in low to mid-latitudes under a warming climate Chlorophyll a is declining in low- to mid-latitude oceans, indicating reduced ocean productivity and fewer phytoplankton blooms.

Declining ocean greenness and phytoplankton blooms in low to mid-latitudes under a warming climate www.science.org/doi/full/10.... #jcampubs 🌊

Only two days left to apply for the open tenure track professorship in Computational Biology here in @uni-goettingen.de
uni-goettingen.de/en/700631.html

We have a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor position in Microbiology available!

Come and join great students and colleagues at Hofstra Biology. Please apply using the link below and/or spread the word!

hofstra.peopleadmin.com/postings/6542

Excited to share our new work on nanopore metabarcoding — showing how it can be used for protists and combined with short reads!
Led by my PhD student Małgorzata Chwalińska, with our team at @ibe-warszawa.bsky.social and @fabnot.bsky.social & Sarah Romac at @sbroscoff.bsky.social
#ProtistsOnSky

Our study on the first rhodopsin channels known to respond to UV light is now published in PNAS! And they come from our favourite protists, apusomonads! #protistonsky

www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

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 🧵

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.

⚠️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

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...

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...

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

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