Lukas VF Novak

a figure from the linked paper which shows A) a world map and B) a schematic representation of various natural and artificial habitats, both annotated with information about which sulfur disproportionating bacteria have been found in the specific regions and environments

New paper from my 2nd PostDoc is now published in The ISME Journal by @isme-microbes.bsky.social!

#Sulfur disproportionation occurs globally across anoxic habitats & has multiple mechanisms of independent evolutionary origin academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

#Bacteria #Microbes #Evolution #DeepSea

electron microscopy picture of a microbial cell with multiple flagella

How a parasite gave up sex to find more hosts—and why its victory won't last phys.org/news/2026-01...

Host range expansion of asexual parasite can be explained by loss of adaptions in Muller’s Ratchet www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Protists #Microbes #Parasites #Giardia #Evolution

microscopic photos of a moving amoeba in a hemispherical shell

Shelled #amoeba crawls like an octopus, shifting tactics on the go phys.org/news/2026-01...

Statistical and mechanical analysis of multi-pseudopodial locomotion in a testate amoeba, #Arcella sp. www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/pjab...

#Protists #Microbes #Amoebae

Our collaboration with @mbonhivers.bsky.social is now out in @plosbiology.org! 🎉Using U-ExM, we mapped the formation of the flagellar pocket collar in T. brucei. Huge thanks to everyone involved — one step closer to #PhDone!

#ExM #oneringtorulethemall #Bilbo1 #trypanosoma #protistsonsky

microscopic pictures of a microbe with a spiralling shell full of tiny brown cells of symbiotic algae

Understanding the relationship between #foraminifera & their #symbionts can help corals phys.org/news/2025-09...

Specific host - #algae relationship, yet flexible bacterial #microbiome, in diatom-bearing foraminifera: Elsa Girard et al. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#Protists #Microbes #Diatoms

Any news about the unfolding? Thanks.

schematic pictures and microscopic photos showing various aspects of movement in single-celled algae

#Arctic #algae aren't immobile or entombed. They're not just surviving either—they're gliding into record books phys.org/news/2025-09...

Ice gliding #diatoms establish record-low temperature limits for motility in a eukaryotic cell www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

#protists #microbes #extremophiles

photo of a string of algal cells and the same string under fluorescence microscopy showing glowing blobs inside each cell

Partnership between #algae & #bacteria reveals secrets of evolution phys.org/news/2025-08...

Stepwise genome #evolution from a facultative symbiont to an endosymbiont in the N2-fixing symbioses www.cell.com/current-biol... #protists by @vesnagrujcic.bsky.social, @mehrshmali.bsky.social, et al.

photo of a white microscopic snail-like shell

Tiny marine #protist shells reveal clues for how ice ages start phys.org/news/2025-08...

Progressively greater biological #CarbonStorage in the deep Atlantic during glacial inception: Monica Garity et al. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

#Protists #Microbes #Foraminifera #Climate #DeepSea #IceAge

photo of a large iceberg in a stormy polar ocean

How #diatoms thrive in—and light up—the Southern Ocean phys.org/news/2025-08... agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/... #protists #algae

"An area of the #SouthernOcean that's long confused satellites by reflecting large amounts of turquoise light appears to be full of silica-rich diatoms"

Underwater photo of a deep sea hydrothermal vent - a formation of rugged rocky spikes in dark water. Photo by Ifremer.

New genome announcement from our team:

Draft genome sequence of Desulfobacterota strain M19, a mesophilic sulfur-disproportionating bacterium from a #DeepSea hydrothermal vent on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

#Bacteria #Microbes #Genomics #HydrothermalVents #Extremophiles

fluorescence microscopy pictures of microbial cells

How an organelle evolves in #symbiosis with a cell: Intermediate stage sheds light on the assimilation process phys.org/news/2025-03...

A nucleus-encoded dynamin-like protein controls endosymbiont division in the trypanosomatid Angomonas deanei www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#Protists #Microbes

electron-microscopy picture of rod-shaped single-celled algae

A Most Useful Light Switch schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2... paper from 2023: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Diatoms grow well in iron-limited waters. They switch their energy-generating photoreceptor to a proton-translocating #rhodopsin.

#Protists #Algae via @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social

A microscopic image of various single-celled algae. Some are round and bright red, others are elongated and much darker.

Algae May Speed Melting of Antarctic Ice eos.org/articles/new... paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"The newly discovered algal communities may represent one of the largest photosynthetic habitats in #Antarctica."

#Protists #Algae #SnowAlgae #Microbes #ClimateChange

microscopic picture of chains of single-celled algae

After 7,000 years without light and oxygen in #BalticSea mud, researchers bring prehistoric #algae back to life phys.org/news/2025-03...

Resurrection of a #diatom after 7000 years from anoxic Baltic Sea sediment: Sarah Bolius et al. academic.oup.com/ismej/articl...

#Protists #Diatoms #Microbes

microscopic photos of green single-celled algae

Newly discovered algae species offers insights into plant evolution and UV protection phys.org/news/2025-02...

New Strains of the Deep Branching Streptophyte Streptofilum... Description of S. arcticum sp. nov enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#Protists #Algae #NewSpecies

Summary of genetic events discussed in the article

Giving up on #photosynthesis: How a borrowed bacterial gene allows marine #diatoms to live on a #seaweed diet phys.org/news/2025-04...

Diatom heterotrophy on brown algal polysaccharides emerged through HGT, gene duplication, & neofunctionalization journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

#algae #protists

photo of an irregularly shaped microscopic organism

Ancient marine organism's dual-layer structure reveals both past and present ocean environments phys.org/news/2025-02...

A cosmopolitan calcifying benthic #foraminifera in agglutinated disguise as a geochemical recorder of coastal environments www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

#Protists #Microbes

graphical abstracty of the study

Symbiotic #bacteria ride along with single-celled #protists in ocean's upper layer phys.org/news/2025-02...

#Symbionts of predatory protists are widespread in the oceans and related to animal pathogens www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Simple illustration of algae of various geometric shapes under ice at night. One of them is shining bright green and white.

How Does Life Happen When There’s Barely Any Light? www.quantamagazine.org/how-does-lif... @quantamagazine.bsky.social

Photosynthetic light requirement near the theoretical minimum detected in Arctic microalgae: Clara Hoppe et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Protists #Algae #Diatoms #Arctic

Snow algae on the icy roof of an ice tunnel formed by meltwater under a snow patch. The algae manifest as a reddish discoloration on the snow. It is well visible because abundant light is penetrating the thin snow layer from above. There are some patches of grass and moss on the wet surface below.

In search of red snow microscopesandmonsters.wordpress.com/2025/01/26/i... #protists

" #SnowAlgae have been known for a long time – earliest records are from the alps in the late 18th century... and first recognised as #algae 40 years later when an expedition was exploring the North-West passage "

Underwater photo from a remotely operated vehicle. It shows the robot's manipulator arm taking samples from the flat muddy seafloor in front of it. The seafloor is covered in white granular material.

New research on #protists sheds light on #DeepSea energy sources www.whoi.edu/press-room/n...

Array of metabolic pathways in a kleptoplastidic #foraminifera supports #chemoautotrophy in dark, euxinic seafloor sediments academic.oup.com/ismej/articl... by Fatma Gomaa et al., @whoi.bsky.social

left: title page of the journal "Science Advances" Left: microscopic photo of a colony of microbial cells

Tiny microbe colonies communicate to coordinate their behavior www.uib.no/en/michaelsa...

Electrical signaling and coordinated behavior in the closest relative of animals www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#Protists #ProtistsOnSky #Microbes by @jeffcolgren.bsky.social @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social

illustratiopn of planktonic microbes

#ClimateChange Threatens Key Ocean #Plankton Groups www.mpic.de/5618027/klim...

Migrating is not enough for modern planktonic #foraminifera in a changing ocean: Sonia Chaabane et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Protists #ProtistsOnSky #Microbes #Acidification #ClimateCrisis #Climate

microscopic photo of elongated microbes with long flagella

Discovery of enzyme pathway may lead to #leishmaniasis treatments phys.org/news/2024-12...

" #Leishmania have biochemical similarities to #fungi... But scientists were unable to effectively use #antifungals... those #azoles don't work unless they inhibit the new pathway"

#Protists #Parasites

schematic drawing of various seaweeds in different depths of the ocean

Comprehensive analysis reveals hidden genomic #evolution of brown algae phys.org/news/2024-12...

Evolutionary #genomics of the emergence of #BrownAlgae as key components of coastal ecosystems www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

#Protists #Algae #ProtistsOnSky #Seaweed #Biology

microscopic photo of a spherical single-celled alga

#Phytochromes: The 'eyes' that enable #microalgae to find their way in aquatic depths phys.org/news/2024-12...

#Diatom phytochromes integrate the underwater light spectrum to sense depth: Carole Duchêne et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Protists #ProtistsOnSky #Algae #Diatoms #Microbes

I just had a great conversation with @dewilanglet.bsky.social about forams and yes, I concur, rhizarians rule! So many divers symbioses, so much metabolic plasticity!

The amoeba Strigomyxa ruptor (large yellow-orange cell) engulfs its prey, a Closterium alga (elongated green cell)

This #amoeba eats prey like #owls do www.sciencenews.org/article/amoe...

The vampyrellid amoeba #Strigomyxa ruptor gen. et sp. nov. and its remarkable strategy to acquire algal cell contents onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#Protists #Algae #Amoebae #ProtistsOnSky #Microbes

black and white photo of a trumpet-shaped microorganism

Research reveals even single-cell organisms exhibit habituation, a simple form of learning phys.org/news/2024-11...

Biochemically plausible models of habituation for single-cell learning: Lina Eckert et al. www.cell.com/current-biol...

#Protists #Microbes #Ciliates #ProtistsOnSky