Read our review about the "Diversity, ecology, cell biology and evolution of the Asgard archaea" in @natrevmicro.nature.com here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
By @kassipan.bsky.social @stephkoe.bsky.social @micropat.bsky.social & @gerbenz.bsky.social
🧵 1/10 New paper out in @natmicrobiol.nature.com from my postdoc at @mib-wur.bsky.social! 🎉
How eukaryote-like was the archaeal ancestor of eukaryotes? Sequence searches alone can't tell us — so we used protein structure prediction to look deeper. 🧬
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Just over ten years after the discovery of the first Asgard archaeal genomes, we revisit the rapid expansion of this remarkable archaeal lineage. From diverse genomes and metabolisms to eukaryotic signature proteins and the first cultured representatives.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Finally out in @natmicrobiol.nature.com: Prediction of eukaryotic cellular complexity in Asgard archaea using structural modelling. Great work by @stephkoe.bsky.social @kassipan.bsky.social @jvhooff.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
New paper from my team detailing a greatly expanded genomic database of Asgard archaea revealing of high energy metabolism those related to eukaryotes! Led by @katyappler.bsky.social lots of help from @jameslingford.bsky.social @valdeanda.bsky.social @kassipan.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Beyond thrilled to share that our study has been published!
This project encompasses years of work, including my thesis research on Asgard archaea in the @archaeal.bsky.social lab at @utmsi.bsky.social and
@texasscience.bsky.social!!!
#MicroSky #ArchaeaSky 1/12
Finally out in @nature.com: a new piece of the puzzle of how complex life evolved. Lead by @archaeal.bsky.social & @katyappler.bsky.social. Great collab with @greening.bsky.social and @kassipan.bsky.social. More pieces to follow soon! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Two more weeks to apply - come join us () in The Netherlands as a postdoctoral researcher on large-scale metagenomic exploration of new lineages!
Today we published a Correction on our 2023 @nature.com paper reporting the heimdallarchaeial ancestry of eukaryotes: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Corrected paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Importantly, the re-analyses of the corrected dataset are consistent with the original findings.
We haven't really tried co-extractions but we have used the AllPrep PowerFecal kit for both DNA and RNA on sediments and it does work fine. The Powerfecal and Powersoil are generally almost identical. Our technicians also pointed out there is some small tricks in the handbook of the kit. Goodluck!
I finally got around to writing the discussion section of our lab's basic training course on live cell #microscopy. I explain the tradeoffs involved in designing an imaging experiment and the art of thinking of the experiment as an optimization problem.
leb-epfl.github.io/basic_traini...
Come join our group in the beautiful (currently very snowy) Wageningen!
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...
Best of Luck @pieterhart.bsky.social and @danieltamarit.bsky.social, Super excited to see what you guys get up to together!
Come join us! Soon I will be advertising a postdoc vacancy in my group as part of my @erc.europa.eu AdG project 'DARK ROOTS'. Focus of the project will be on phylo- and metagenomic mining of novel prokaryotic lineages. I will soon post a link here - stay tuned, and please repost! #asgardarchaea
That should work just fine, we've been close to 1ng/uL. Just keep in mind that you might miss some low abundant taxa.
We routinely use the DNeasy Qiagen Powersoil for sediment samples. In the past, together with a QiaCube(96 samples), but this struggled a lot with lower biomass samples. So we switched to the Qiagen EZ2, which only does 24 samples per time but the yields are a lot more similar to manual extractions.
Ever since publishing our observations of the predatory behaviour of Ca. Nha. antarcticus people have asked me why it would want to kill its host. My perspective discussing the ecological factors that I believe led to this behaviour is out now in mSystems:
doi.org/10.1128/msystems.01475-25
#Archaea, #DPANN, #phylogenetic_reconciliation
New preprint online!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Opportunity!
Anybody knows of young marine ecologists (within 7 years from earned PhD) that would like to come to Gothenburg, Sweden, for a nationally funded Assistant Professorship? It is highly competitive but well funded. (1) of (3)
Soon available in my group: 1 PhD position to investigate prokaryotic histones. See our recent work that highlights the existence and diversity of prokaryotic histones (e.g. Schwab et al., TIBS, 2025; Schwab et al., Nat Comm, 2024; Hu et al., Nucl Acids Res, 2024). Please DM for informal enquiries.
🧙♀️ Something is brewing in the WitChi cauldron…
After some excellent peer review feedback, a new update of WitChi is taking shape, refining how we detect and prune compositional bias in phylogenomic alignments.
Stay tuned for the next release!
🧙♀️ Can’t model it? Prune it!
github.com/stephkoest/w...
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...
Congrats Dani! Well deserved!
I’m very happy this is finally out! Here, we showcase the combination of BONCAT and SIP metaproteomics to uncover rare and active microbes driving anaerobic acetate turnover. We are excited to see what other microbial metabolisms and ecosystems this approach can help to illuminate! 🦠
Glad to share our paper out today @NatureEcoEvo: “Serial innovations by Asgard archaea shaped the DNA replication machinery of the early eukaryotic ancestor”. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #microsky #archaeasky
Nou nee, dat mag niet.
Een school moet een veilige plek zijn voor álle leerlingen. Dat staat ook in de wet. Het afwijzen van homoseksuele relaties geeft de boodschap dat iemand niet zichzelf mag zijn.
Dat mag niet én is ronduit schadelijk.
nos.nl/nieuwsuur/co...
Live cell imaging of Ca. Nha. antarcticus and Hrr. lacusprofundi using agarose pads. Protocol now live!
www.archaea.bio/protocols/li...
There's a PhD position now available with me in Bath, on the evolution of symbiosis. www.findaphd.com/phds/project.... The supervisory team also includes @anja1.bsky.social @phil-donoghue.bsky.social and others. NB, this is open both to UK-based students *and* to international students :)
Very nice documentary about the origins of complex life with my PhD advisor Berend Snel @binfutrecht.bsky.social!
