Out in Science Advances: Our #cryoEM structure of HFTV1, a virus infecting the halophile #archaea. *First full atomic structure (containing all structural proteins) of any tailed virus!* Congrats and thanks to all co-authors and our fantastic collaborators! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Look at this nice cover: beautiful archaella, image made by @sshamphavi.bsky.social ! Thanks also to Marta Rodeiguez for keeping the EM im shape in @ottlab.bsky.social lab! At @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social at @uni-freiburg.de @sfb1381.bsky.social @cibss.bsky.social

Some keen Observations in Our October issue! 🦠 Cancer microbiome 🌊 Marine microbes in warming oceans 🌐 broad-range phages 🧬 genetically minimised Salmonella 🔧 Viral infection mechanisms 🧪 Oxaloacetate antiviral defence and more, here: www.nature.com/nmicrobiol/v...

The future of @cibss.bsky.social @uni-freiburg.de is about teamwork, curiosity, and collaboration across disciplines. We are thrilled to be in this together @kraftlabfr.bsky.social @archaellum.bsky.social @kleinevehnlab.bsky.social !

Early-career researchers: want to run your own lab? 🌟Max Planck Research Groups offer 6+ years, up to €2.7M in funding, open-topic freedom, team support & tenure-track opportunities. Intrigued? 😃Apply by Oct 14, 2025! www.mpg.de/max-planck-r...

Molecular structure of the ESCRT III-based archaeal CdvAB cell division machinery www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.15.676241v1 #cryoem

Bacteria with archaella, who would have thought that this existed. Happy to share that it does 🎉and we just published it today in @natmicrobiol.nature.com 🎉🥳. Congrats to everyone involved! 🦠

Thrilled to be a coauthor in this story 🚀 Check out our latest publication on the archaellum - spoiler: it's an archaellum in bacteria 😱 Who would have thought? Thank you to all the authors, and especially @sshamphavi.bsky.social for really keeping this paper rotating 😉

Happy to share that our story on the bacterial archaellum was published today in @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41... Congrats to the authors: @sshamphavi.bsky.social @loumollat.bsky.social @mariejoest.bsky.social Najwa Taib and @sgribaldo.bsky.social

Would you expect that Bacteria use an archaellum for swimming? We didn't, but we found that some Chloroflexota do! Find the story here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A little thread below 1/n

Thermophiles 2025 kicked off on a high note at the University of Münster’s Schloss. Prof. Jenny Littlechild opened the congress, with excellent keynotes by Prof. Sonja-Verena Albers and Prof. William Martin. Great to reconnect with colleagues! #Thermophiles2025 #ANRFIndia

Biofilm lifestyle across different lineages of ammonia-oxidizing archaea academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc... #jcampubs

The state has funded a large amount of initiatives to make lab work more green and sustainable 🌱, including the "Nachhaltiger Bio-Campus Freiburg" proposal by our @corneliaklose.bsky.social & Henriette Rübsam. Congratulations!

New in JB: Hammerl, Mullineaux, Wilde et all explore the role of type IV pili in cyanobacteria in this minireview. @asm.org #JBacteriology

Started a PhD in the field of Archaea, ended up writing a paper about a bacterium! Enjoy new insights into the cell biology of Litorilinea aerophila, a member of the Chloroflexota 🦠

🚨 Imagine a bacterium that refuses to follow the textbook: It grows as tangled filaments, divides unevenly, reshapes its own membranes… and even builds grappling hooks. Meet Litorilinea aerophila — and here’s why it blew our minds.

Who would have thought I would ever publish an article about a bacterium? But here it is, but of course only because Litorilinea aerophilum actually has an archaellum! Here is what we learned about its cell structure and other surface appendages: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Mark your calendars: Our 2nd International Symposium on "Dynamic Organization of Cellular Protein Machineries" takes place from March 23-25 2026 in Freiburg. We have an amazing line-up of external and internal speakers and look forward to exciting presentations and discussions! @uni-freiburg.de

New preprint up now! Interested in the evolution of halophily within DPANN archaea we decided to investigate the sister phylum to the Nanohaloarchaeota, GTDB phylum EX4484-52, for which we propose the name Caliditerrarchaeota www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Check out the new paper of my former lab about novel haloviruses infecting Haloquadratum walsbyi, the "square queen archaeon" of hypersaline systems 👑🟪 academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

📣 New paper alert! Just out in Cell Reports! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40644298/ Thrilled to share that we have discovered a brand-new anti-phage defense system! Bacteria have evolved various defense strategies (CRISPR etc) to counter phage attacks. We found a new one - fascinating and dramatic ⚔️🦠❄️🔬

#cdiAMP Small molecule w/ big roles We showed that #cdiAMP plays an essential role in regulating natural competence and DNA 🧬 uptake in #cyanobacteria through controlling pilus biogenesis a great collaboration with @archaellum.bsky.social Could be interesting for community @cyanotrans.bsky.social

Chromosome enthusiasts, York is calling! Join us at The Biology & Physics of Chromosomes www.eventsforce.net/biochemsoc/f... Late breaking abstract deadline 📆 7 August @biophychrom.bsky.social @vslioy.bsky.social @damelab.bsky.social @graingerlab.bsky.social @biochemsoc.bsky.social #microsky

Our new preprint with a new #Asgard from stromatolites (and its Desulfobacterota companion). Complete circularised genomes of both, cool #cryoem images, protein modelling, etc Big group effort with a lot of people involved #archaeasky #archaea www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@kleinevehnlab.bsky.social introducing #CIBSS at the @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social #FacultyDay. If you haven’t already: Come, join! There’s a scientific programme followed by entertainment and BBQ!

The first part of our Faculty Day symposium highlighted the latest research and teaching achievements, and how two Excellence Clusters integrated into our faculty. Great talks by Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, @archaellum.bsky.social, @kleinevehnlab.bsky.social, chaired by @ottlab.bsky.social

Einenkel et al 𝘕𝘢𝘵 𝘔𝘪𝘤𝘳𝘰 🦠 Cryo-EM structures of the complete 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢 extracellular flagellum—including the FliD cap complex and hook–filament junction. Flagellin subunits assemble while the junction buffers mechanical stress → stable motility and colonization. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

One of the most exciting discoveries from our lab so far is now online as a preprint! Read a story on how the ParMR and Min systems started to collaborate to create the CorMR cytoskeleton, which now controls cell shape in multicellular cyanobacteria: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Elated to have our pre-print now published in @natcomms.nature.com #ArchaeaSky #Microbiology #MEvoSky rdcu.be/euila Our main results stay the same: S. islandicus follows a cell cycle akin to that of some eukaryotes, like the budding yeast, with cellular processes cycling similarly. old🧵cited below👇

After 5 amazing years @pilhoferlab.bsky.social I'm starting my lab @embl.org Grenoble this November embl.org/wollweber We'll image Asgard archaea and many other strange microbes ( #archaeasky, #protistsonsky..) to understand eukaryogenesis First job ad: #teamtomo scientist!🔬❄️ tinyurl.com/2rdu2ze6

Manuscript/resource alert #microsky 🦠 My lab offers the community a collection of 30 E. coli (CloneFISH) cultures, each carrying a plasmid for the heterologous expression of a (near) full-length 16S rRNA gene from one of 30 lineages of archaea, including 19 yet uncultured ones.

📣 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

What a missed opportunity... 🤔 We should have declared an official "Archaeal Week" at Nature Communications! 😆 www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41... #Archaea #ArchaeaSky 🦠

Looking forward to have you join us at @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social in Freiburg at the @uni-freiburg.de !

We've released a new episode of Archaeacast today! This one focuses on my favorite bugs- Methanogens! We discuss the discovery of methane, the Wolfe Cycle, the End-Permian Extinction, and the possibility of extra-terrestrial life. Followed by a delightful interview with @nbuan.bsky.social. #Archaea

Archaeal S-layer proteins can adopt different symmetries that can locally accommodate areas of high curvature. The S-layer is also involved in the control of turgor and osmotic pressure, ion transport, cell-cell interactions and mating.

The S-layer is the most widespread and fundamental component of archaeal cell envelopes and may represent one of the earliest and most fundamental cell wall polymers found in microorganisms

The archaeal S-layer is not only pretty, it also carries crucial cellular functions, and the list keeps growing! @sshamphavi.bsky.social @marleenvw.bsky.social @archaellum.bsky.social and I wrote a little sheath sheet (+10 pts if you got the pun) 📖 Curr Opin Cell Biol 🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

We are excited to share our preprint describing how Sulfolobus cells coordinate DNA segregation with cell division! In eukaryotes this type of regulation involves checkpoints and CDK-cyclins. But how does this work in archaea? This is the question we ask in our paper: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

What it has become a classic review published every ~5y, Polschroder (UPenn) and Schulze (RIT) summarize the Mol-Cell Bio technical advances for Haloferax volcanii , the "E. coli" of the archaeal models. Proud of our community progress given the genome was published only 15y ago! asm.social/2qE

How brilliant is this! All those asymmetric ones... mesmerising. #iteachphysics www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB7K...

We’ve uncovered Asgard chromatin structures formed by a Hodarchaeal histone : closed hypernucleosome conserved in archaea and an open form resembling the H3-H4 eukaryotic octasome. Fantastic work by @harshranawat.bsky.social! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #Chromatin #Asgard #Archaea #cryoEM

Calling all #LifeSciences #PhDs and #PostDocs worldwide, ready to join us in #Freiburg: The Freiburg Rising Stars Academy is #Now accepting applications for the 2025-2026 cohort. Apply for a #ResearchStay in a #CIBSS lab and collaborate with one of our host PIs! Please share 🔄 kurzlinks.de/87z5

The special thing about US labs and science was the huge amount of funding available for labs, top-notch infrastructure, & lab work culture. The scientists themselves came from a global pool, incl. Europe. Bringing the best scientists from US to the comparatively underfunded European academic…1/n

The Viral AlphaFold Database of monomers and homodimers reveals conserved protein folds in viruses of bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.14.653371v1

On this day, 10 years ago, my lab published the @nature.com paper reporting the discovery of the Asgard archaea (Lokiarchaeota at the time), revealing the archaeal nature of eukaryotic cells, and reshaping the Tree of Life. What a ride it has been since then... www.nature.com/articles/nat...

Phosphorylation of the α subunit inhibits proteasome assembly and regulates cell division in archaea https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.09.653063v1

Our paper on the E. coli Min system in vivo with @physicsoflifelmu.bsky.social & Judy Kim (UCSD) has been published in Nature Physics today. Tight integration of experiment and theory, and physiology and biophysics. Incredible perseverance of our young students. rdcu.be/ekIpO

#ArchaeaSky #MicroSky Useful resource to spot DNA-binding proteins 🧬

I'm excited to share that we’re looking for a PhD candidate (f/m/d) to join our MEB team at the University of Duisburg-Essen! DFG-funded project “SweetSaci” 🔗 [https://www.uni-due.de/karriere/stelle.php?kennziffer=206-25] #PhDposition #Microbiology #Biochemistry #Archaea #Biofilms #DFG #ScienceJobs