Nice to see our story on the bacterial archaellum as one of the #editorpicks of 2025!

A big thanks to all the authors, reviewers, and readers of Nature Microbiology for their love and support throughout the year. We are on a break & will be back on Jan 2nd, in what will be a very special year for us! In the meantime, enjoy a collage made by @francoismayer.bsky.social #MicroSky 🦠

1. As we recently joined BlueSky, we want to repost this story for all newcomers! We sat down with @radler92.bsky.social to get more insight into the unique videos from his recent preprint on Promethearchaeota (formerly Asgard archaea). doi.org/10.1101/2025... (Videos and info below)

Calling all archaeal enthusiasts! 🔬🔥 From molecular machines to microbial communities, Archaea never fail to surprise us! We are excited to announce the 2026 EMBO Workshop on the Molecular Biology of Archaea, 6–10 July in Cambridge, UK! Sign up here: meetings.embo.org/event/26-arc... #ArchaeaSky

Are you a long-time fan of Archaea, an extremophile-phile, or are you simply curious? Either way, we have good news. We’re delighted to announce the 2026 EMBO Workshop on Archaea, 6–10 July. Sign up: meetings.embo.org/event/26-arc... We look forward to seeing you in Cambridge, UK. Please repost!

Like last year, I compiled a little collage of all our monthly issue covers published in @natmicrobiol.nature.com Another year full of new discoveries, stunning advances and marvelous #microbiology. Thanks to all our authors for all their hard work in pushing the field of microbiology forward.

Asgard on the move ! Watch our videos! Biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.30.690169v1

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

Pleased to share our review on S-layers with @bupbuse.bsky.social, Andriko von Kügelgen, and @tbharat-lab.bsky.social, where we explore recent advances and argue that deeper insight into S-layers is key to deciphering microbial interactions and community organization. @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social

1/6 PhD /PostDoc positions available. Exploration of physiological functions of the cell fusogen Fusexin1 in Archaea. In a collaborative project between the Albers lab (Freiburg) and the Podbilewicz lab (Technion) starting in January 2026.

An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🥳 Today marks the start of the lab of former postdoc @florianwollweber.bsky.social at @embl.org Grenoble! www.embl.org/groups/wollw... Florian-- we will miss you dearly and wish you much success! With us, Florian applied multiscale imaging 🔬to Asgard archaea ...👇

Forgot to post the recently published version of this paper on the role of a minor pilin-like protein in surface sensing journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

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...

Structural phylogenetics unravels the evolutionary diversification of communication systems in gram-positive bacteria and their viruses | Nature Structural & Molecular Biology https://www.nature.com/articles/s41594-025-01649-8

Our Pyrodictium cannulae paper is out in its final form! Cannulae assemble into calcium-stabilized tubular filaments stable at 100 °C—a unique archaeal cell–cell connection. Led brilliantly by @mikesleutel.bsky.social & @vinceconticello.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-64120-8

🧐Checkout our preprint revealing the stepwise firing💥 mechanism of a Contractile Injection System @xujwet.bsky.social&@chipericson.bsky.social trapped the complex by structure-guided engineering🧪 in multiple intermediate states and imaged them by multimodal #cryoEM❄️🔬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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

Our October issue is out now! The images are negatively stained electron micrographs taken from archaella bundles isolated from the archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius. Check the issue out here: www.nature.com/nmicrobiol/v...

Beautiful archaellum filaments on the cover 😍🦠 Thanks to the Imaging Facility within MIAP at @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social that made it possible! Curious how we got there? check our latest publication: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Spinning into new evolutionary territory🌀🦠: The latest @natmicrobiol.nature.com paper from the lab of our Speaker Sonja Albers uncovers bacterial species with an ATP-driven archaellum for motility. Great work from @sshamphavi.bsky.social and our Cryo-EM facility

#NewResearch Structure of a functional archaellum in Bacteria of the Chloroflexota phylum @archaellum.bsky.social @sgribaldo.bsky.social & co #microsky 🧪🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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! 🦠

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!

Better ML for cryo-ET starts with better benchmarks. We built a phantom cryo-ET dataset (~500 tomograms) + hosted a Kaggle challenge. The result: community models beat expert tools. Read more in the @natmethods.nature.com article that just came out: 🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s415...

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 🦠

Chloroflexi rules! Thrilled to share our latest preprint on this amazing bacterial (😱) organism of Chloroflexota. Long filaments, fascinating cell surface structures😍 Kudos to everyone involved and especially @mariejoest.bsky.social!

(1/5)For over a century, the hunt for new antibiotics has focused almost exclusively on bacteria and fungi. Today, that paradigm shifts. By coupling state-of-the-art AI with the vast, largely uncharted diversity of Archaea, we open a new frontier for molecular discovery.

Check out 🧐 our new preprint 📜: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Congrats🎉 to @vasilgaisin.bsky.social and Corina Hadjicharalambous, who studied contractile injection systems directly in hot spring♨️ bacterial mats🦠 #microsky #teamtomo #Chloroflexota

Hi all, check out our new preprint where we uncover:"Regulation of YAP activity by nuclear G-actin binding", www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... #actin #YAP/TAZ #transcription #nucleus with help from Sonja-Verena Albers ‪@archaellum.bsky.social‬

Finally out of embargo!! Happy to be among the recipients of a Chaire d'excellence from @agencerecherche.bsky.social www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/fr/media/37482 to further knowledge on #archaea #methanogens of the human #microbiome. We'll be very busy for the next 5 years @pasteur.fr !!

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

📣 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

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’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

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

Preprint alert! I’m publishing my last paper from my postdoc work on archaeal cell biology, with @mullinslab.bsky.social, @archaellum.bsky.social, @samjlord.bsky.social, @marleenvw.bsky.social, @arghya93.bsky.social, and more great folks (thread below with more details)

Asgard archaea have actin - but what about microtubules? Where do they come from? 🧐 Our new paper www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... by @xujwet.bsky.social & @florianwollweber.bsky.social, in collaboration with the Schleper & Wieczorek labs, describes tiny Asgard microtubules! #TeamTomo #ArchaeaSky 1/6

New isolates from eukaryote's closest archaeal relative: ‘Hodarchaeales’!! Syntrophic microaerotolerant peptide-degrading anaerobic archaea w/ simple cell structure & protrusions. Features conserved across the phylum provide new insight into our ancestor’s biology! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Very cool stuff, the first archaellum (a.k.a. archaeal flagellum) found in bacteria. And not just the genes, but the actual structure and indirect evidence that it propels cells www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Research by @sshamphavi.bsky.social in @archaellum.bsky.social 's lab (et al., of course)

"~demonstrating the successful expression and assembly of this (Archaeallum) machinery in Bacteria and its function in swimming motility." Horizontal gene transfer of the functional archaellum machinery to Bacteria www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

wuhuu and it's out! Check out our latest Preprint on Bacteria using archaella for swimming! So much fun figuring it out and great collab with @mariejoest.bsky.social @loumollat.bsky.social Najwa Taib and @sgribaldo.bsky.social

Great work spearheaded by @sshamphavi.bsky.social, @loumollat.bsky.social and @mariejoest.bsky.social in the lab and Najwa Taib from @sgribaldo.bsky.social lab! And we thank Stefan Steimle for his help at the cryoEM Facility at the @uni-freiburg.de Funded by @sfb1381.bsky.social 1/n

The Molecular Biology of Archaea lab is now a little longer than 10 years at the @uni-freiburg.de at @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social ! I want to thank all the members of the group (PhD students, Postdocs and technicians) and all the students for making this an exciting place to do science!

time flies - ten years ago, @archaellum.bsky.social introduced the archaellum to STC #MicroSky #ArchaeaSky schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2...

The archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius has four different surface filaments. Each of them plays its special role in motility, adhesion, biofilm formation and mating. Our latest cryoEM foray into three of these unique structures is now published: www.nature.com/articles/s41...