🧙‍♀️ 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...

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

#MicroSky #mevoSky

Never thought I’d do real E. coli research, so far I used if only for cloning & protist snacks in my MSc 😅 But here I am simulating chromosomes & shuffling motifs. Watching @loreoliv.bsky.social and the lab turn those predictions into real data was pure magic.✨ Grateful to be part of this team!

Folddisco finds similar (dis)continuous 3D motifs in large protein structure databases. Its efficient index enables fast uncharacterized active site annotation, protein conformational state analysis and PPI interface comparison. 1/9🧶🧬 📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🌐 search.foldseek.com/folddisco

📢 New preprint alert! We used comparative genomics on 72,000+ bacterial genomes to uncover the genetic basis of microbial adaptation to multicellular hosts—plants and animals alike. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to share our work on WitChi! 🛠️🖥️ We tested it on the GTDB r220 archaeal supermatrix (5,869 taxa & 10,101 cols) removing 55% of sites in <2h. The phylogeny showed several interesting groupings with overall improved branch support: #phylogenetics #ArchaeaSky #MSA #opensource #MEvoSky #MicroSky

I'm happy to announce the latest release of the GlobDB, available at globdb.org. The GlobDB is a database of "species dereplicated" microbial genomes, and as of release 226 contains twice the number of species-representative genomes (306,260) than the latest GTDB release.

1. 🧵 New preprint out! WitChi: a fast, open-source Python tool to detect, quantify & prune compositional bias in MSAs. Lightweight, tree-free, scalable to 5k+ taxa... so we applied it to the GTDB archaea MSA. #ArchaeaSky #MEvoSky #MicroSky 🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025... 💻 github.com/stephkoest/w...

Exciting new research! Matthias Horn & Lukas Helmlinger from #CeMESS uncover how chlamydiae thrive in social amoebae by skipping their extracellular stage. Read their groundbreaking study in Current Biology (@currentbiology.bsky.social): 🔗 cemess.univie.ac.at/news/detail-...

Excited to share our first paper on the symbiosis between chlamydiae and social amoebae showing in detail the adaptations of endosymbionts to the social life style of their host! 🎉

a midsummer night's dream or understanding chromosome organization's deep evolutionary roots #MicroSky #Archaea #ArchaeaSky #ProtistsOnSky et al.

#NewResearch 🚨Out Now Phylogenomic analyses indicate the archaeal superphylum DPANN originated from free-living euryarchaeal-like ancestors, by @bbaker24.bsky.social @deemteam.bsky.social and team #MicroSky #Archaea 🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New postdoc position in our lab (2 y+): evolutionary genomics of integrons and MGEs with focus on vibrio-phage interactions. Great environment @pasteur.fr for science, career building. Super collaborators @celineloot.bsky.social @amazeld.bsky.social @fredoleroux.bsky.social 3 weeks to apply!

Job alert ‼️ 2x professorships available @uniofmanchester.bsky.social - ecology www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... - organismal biology (inc genomics, evolution etc.) www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMI506/s...

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 paper alert! 🚨 A robustly rooted tree of eukaryotes sheds light on their deep evolutionary ancestry—suggesting that the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA) may have had an excavate-like cell architecture. 🧵🔬 (1/) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hi BlueSkyers! I'm an evolutionary biologist, microbiologist, entomologist, lover of nature, and long-time researcher on symbiosis. I'm realizing that BlueSky is useful and generally non-toxic so here I am (having quit Facebook in Jan 2017, and Twitter in Oct 2022).

(1/2) Preprint alert! In collaboration with @yifanzhou.bsky.social and @mkrupovic.bsky.social we describe host-parasite layers in hypersaline systems of the Danakil Depression. Haloarchaea host nanohaloarchea and both are infected by viruses (12 new families found). www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Phylogenomic analyses reveal that Panguiarchaeum is a clade of genome-reduced Asgard archaea https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.13.637844v1

And now our department can also be followed pn Bluesky!! Follow us!!

Congratulations to our very own John van der Oost!!!! #BeijerinckPrize

Are you interested in studying archaea with their diverse symbionts? We look forward hearing from you: workingat.nioz.nl/o/postdoc-po...

Make sure to tune into Archaea Power Hour in just a few short hours! Sign up to receive the Zoom link here: t.co/b17JFAaZQ6. Checkout out our exciting schedule below:

what a nice highlight of some excellent (archaea) researchers :)

Fun little Q&A! Thank you for the opportunity Current Biology @currentbiology.bsky.social www.cell.com/current-biol...

We have an open position PhD position in a project aiming to develop novel methodologies for phylogenomic reconstruction of plasmid evolution. See details and how to apply in the Ad. Candidates who will review the relevant literature (see Ad) have a higher chance to write a successful application.

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

"~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...

Maybe time to share this feed again, as many people recently joined here. If you are interested in the wonderful world of archaea, give it a follow :) #Science #MEvoSky bsky.app/profile/did:...

#OceanOpportunities PostDoc position: Elucidate the role of archaeal symbionts in cellular evolution and ecology” - Deadline 23 February 2025 nf-pogo-alumni.org/27012025-10/

The contribution of natural transformation for the acquisition of novel genes has been notoriously difficult to quantify because it relies on recombination (which is affected by other processes). Here's a first estimate : doi.org/10.1101/2025... (for the very busy: 1-6% of gene gains) #MicroSky

join us!

Read more about the code: doi.org/10.1038/s415... Explore the SeqCode Registry: registry.seqco.de #SeqCode #Nomenclature #Genomes #Bacteria #Archaea

The Asgard archaeal origins of Arf family GTPases involved in eukaryotic organelle dynamics www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

#MicroSky #ArchaeaSky #Archaea

7️⃣3️⃣ Laura Eme @lauraeme.bsky.social (1984- ) 🇫🇷 #womeninSTEM Evolutionary biologist that studies the genomic diversity of micro-organisms in order to reconstruct the history of life. She helped to identify a new group of organisms, the Asgard archaea. emelaura.com

Wow!

Super happy to see this work finally out in @naturecomms.bsky.social! Great team effort revealing how single-stranded DNA binding protein RPA interacts with the DNA polymerases in the archaeal replisome 🧵(1/4) www.nature.com/articles/s41... @sauguet-lab.bsky.social @pasteur.fr

In case you missed it the GRC and GRS for Archaea 2025 are both open for applications! Join us in Switzerland for the latest iteration of this awesome conference! #archaeasky

The Asgard archaeal ESCRT-III system forms helical filaments with features of both bacterial and eukaryotic ESCRT systems, and remodels eukaryotic-like membranes Natalie Elia, Carsten Sachse @sachsegroup.bsky.social and coworkers www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Interested in the complexity of gene expression in Archaea? We have three open postdoc positions focussing on the coupling of transcription and translation using functional genomics, structural biology and molecular biology in Finn Werner's lab at UCL. Links below!

Welcome bluesky! My pitch for introducing our group: we work on microbes mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and microbial pollutant bioremediation. We foster a collaborative environment with diverse personalities and backgrounds. @ribesresearch.bsky.social #methane #archaea #micropollutants

📢 The BioPhyChrom Conference has arrived on Bluesky 🦋!!! Give it a follow, if you are interested in chromosome dynamics, evolution, organization, transcription and much more. @biophychrom.bsky.social 🧬🔬🧪🦠🧫 #microsky #archaeasky

We're looking for a predoc in molecular evolution. Basic computational skills desired. Minimum 1 year. Send me DM. Wanna know what a predoc is? Check👇 medium.com/age-of-aware...

open postdoc position in the MPI for Marine Microbiology in Bremen. career.mpi-bremen.de/jobposting/8...

Hey 🦋 people and especially archaea friends, I made a starter pack with the current team of the Ettema lab by @ettema.bsky.social on this platform :) go.bsky.app/MzZPftE

Follow @archaeabio.bsky.social: they want to connect researchers with an interest in #archaea www.archaea.bio

Not new here but will become more active at @bsky.app (I am no longer active on X) Follow me to hear more about the wonderful world of microbes (evolution, archaea, symbiosis, new microbes, ...). Expect occasional rants about academia, 🇳🇱 politics, life, etc. My research group: go.bsky.app/MzZPftE

Hey 🦋 people and especially archaea friends, I made a starter pack with the current team of the Ettema lab by @ettema.bsky.social on this platform :) go.bsky.app/MzZPftE