Nicole Dubilier

#OnThisDay in 1938, American evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis was born. Margulis is most known for developing and popularising the endosymbiotic theory, which explains how eukaryotic cells evolved organelles from simpler prokaryotic organisms that resided within another and became incorporated.

VERY cool - congratulations!

Should biology put complexity first? The dictum “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler” poses a problem for biology. How simply can it be told without doing dama…

Should biology put complexity first? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... - excellent essay by @philipcball.bsky.social. I would add epistasis to polygenicity and pleiotropy as a ubiquitous and fundamental phenomenon, not some optional complication that we can try to account for afterwards

Image from a lecture by Nick Barton, one of the coauthors, from this site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTvFal-zh1M

Beyond Mendel. FINALLY.

Brilliant, thought-provoking read! This new perspective argues that our obsession with single genes and clean knock-outs is holding us back. Couldn't agree more, and I hope Reviewer #2 reads this.

academic.oup.com/genetics/art...

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...

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...

a slide with 3 pictures of schools with brightly colored murals stacked on top of one another under the words "Schools in service area". On the other side of the slide, a blank wall of a school under the label "Our partner"

Alright bsky science + art community, I need your help.

I was p confident we could get a grant to fund our upcoming biodiversity mural in Kensington. Last night, they called to say our partner school is 2 blocks outside of their service area.

But ya know what? We're gonna do it anyway.

🧵 New preprint! Our 4-lab team evolved Streptococcus pneumoniae in antibiotic-treated mice of varying immune states and discovered something surprising: bacteria rarely evolved resistance. Instead, they found a different way to survive — by rewiring RNA turnover.
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Our latest preprint: Together with the team of Jan Löwe, @danieltamarit.bsky.social and many others we discovered and characterized several Asgard tubulin genes and propose that microtubule architecture and dynamics evolved in Asgard archaea prior to eukaryogenesis
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How specific are heritable symbioses?

And what can we learn from swapping obligate symbionts across host species?

We address this in our latest, led by @inespons.bsky.social & in our collaboration w/ @microbiome.bsky.social 🦠🪲 Out today in @natcomms.nature.com!

1/n
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!

The ISME20 abstract submission deadline has been extended to 22 February. Microbial ecologists worldwide are invited to submit abstracts for oral, short talk, or poster presentations and contribute to the ISME20 programme.
isme-microbes.org/isme20-abstr...
#ISME20 #MicrobialEcology

Many thanks for the invitation and great hosting @imibirmingham.bsky.social! It was a real pleasure to meet so many interesting scientists and hear about the fascinating research at IMI. Special thanks to @pathogenomenick.bsky.social and @halllab.bsky.social for nominating me!

Nominate the next Microbiome Medal Laureate | Penn State University The One Health Microbiome Center is seeking nominations for the next Microbiome Medal scholar, an honor established in 2025 to recognize outstanding contributions to scientific discovery and service.

We’re looking for the discoverers and the ones who inspire a generation of scholars. Nominations are now open for the @psumbiome.bsky.social 2026 Microbiome Medal —the highest honor for extraordinary contributions to the global scientific community. Submit by April 10.

www.psu.edu/news/researc...

This is pure, unabashed bigotry.

If a politician said this about any other faith, they would rightfully be run out of their party.

But this kind of despicable anti-Muslim rhetoric is so normalized that a sitting Senator uses it without consequence.

A stain on our Congress.

In remembrance of Peer Bork  | EMBL EMBL and its community are deeply saddened by the death of Peer Bork, the organisation’s Interim Director General. 

We mourn the passing of Peer Bork, EMBO Member since 2000: https://www.embl.org/news/embl-announcements/in-remembrance-of-peer-bork/

Such an incredible loss. Peer was an amazing scientist with endless amounts of energy, who was incredibly generous in his service to the EMBL and the scientific community.

Toby Kiers is the Jane Goodall of underground fungi
(paraphrasing @rosemarcario.bsky.social)

Now published in Nature Biotechnology:
go.nature.com/44P7nSm
If you missed it, the TL;DR is in my April thread below

in 2013, Elio was so fascinated by the 'heterologous multicellularity' of 𝘊𝘩𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘮 that he chose a cross-section to celebrate STC's 10th anniversary 🙂
👉 smallthingsconsidered.blog/schaechter/2...
#MicroSky

all fans of 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘹 take note 👇(including @nikobiota.bsky.social, @nicoledubilier.bsky.social, @grubervodicka.bsky.social et al.)

super cute video by charlotte brannon and great 🧵from manu prakash's lab

#MicroSky

When I’m on here yap yap yapping about merch I’m selling or needing monthly donors or whatever, it’s so I can run events like this for projects like the native plant project, which will distribute 10,000 packets of native plant seeds across the city this winter/spring. The system is working 😎

Urlaubsreifheitserscheinungen. As in "Ich leide unter fortgeschrittenen Urlaubsreifheitserscheinungen". Sadly not recognized by HR.

🎉 The #SeqCode has reached a significant milestone: with the validation of the genus Skiveiella, a total of 1,000 #names have now been validly published under the SeqCode.

This achievement marks a major step forward in the adoption and impact of the SeqCode within the scientific community.

Our recent collaborative paper is now published in the latest issue of Cell Reports @cp-cellreports.bsky.social accompanied by a cover image highlighting how Bacillus gathers iron in the biofilm for promoting plant growth
www.cell.com/issue/S2211-...

"...and a new member, 𝘌𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘻𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘴"

according to nicole @nicoledubilier.bsky.social , 𝘌𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘻𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘴 is the "𝙀. 𝙘𝙤𝙡𝙞 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗻" (no rumor, she confirmed it)
#MicroSky

Preprint alert 🔔 Organosulfur compounds support carbon and energy metabolism in chemosynthetic symbiosis. Happy to see this cool collaboration with @organosulfur.bsky.social and others out 🥳

New preprint!
We explore how gutless marine worms and their bacterial symbionts use organosulfur compounds like DMSP and DMS - key molecules in marine sulfur cycling.
Our results show that these compounds support carbon and energy metabolism in the Olavius algarvensis symbiosis.

And vice versa, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria are masters of colonizing marine hosts!
This was a wonderful collaboration with Sam Vohsen, Eslam Osman, Mandy Joye, Matt Saxton, grubervodicka.bsky.social, @ibaums.bsky.social

We are really proud of this report from our 3 colloquia convened by the AAM and supported by the Moore Foundation. A few experts even said they would use it as their introductory textbook for this area. Please check it out!