#archaeasky #microsky

Genomic adaptation strategies to habitat switching in Korarchaeota.

Ancestral sequence reconstruction reveals CTP-dependent loading of the bacterial centromere-binding protein ParB as an ancient evolutionary feature Now published: tinyurl.com/4ddhwbb3 Thanks to the Hochberg and Bange labs for the great collaboration!

If they do it because they can’t find reviewers, the solution is very simple: you review 3 grants for every grant you submit. If you don’t or do a bad job, you are banned from submitting for a year. If they really think AI can do a better job at judging grants than us, we should close shop.

Totally! 💯 Whenever there is a survey here in the UK, I keep suggesting that every grant holder should review 4 grant proposals per year for the body from which they receive funding. This should be a commitment at the stage of accepting the award. If you have received,you give back to the community

Cryo-EM structures of type-I and type-II Lamassu systems in apo and double-stranded DNA-bound states reveal the unique architecture and mechanisms of this prokaryotic antiphage system www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A rare and wonderful survival from Viking-era York! A delicate hood-shaped silk cap, c. AD 900. Silk was an exotic material in 10th-century Britain, imported to York from Persia via a network of Viking trade routes. Yorkshire Museum 📷 by me #Archaeology

Deep-learning dive into the antimicrobial potential of Archaea

Genetic switch between unicellularity and multicellularity in marine yeasts | Nature https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09881-4

Bacterial ubiquitin ligase engineered for small molecule and protein target identification Vincent Tagliabracci and collaborators link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Li, Huang & Li show that Asgard primases fall into two major groups, the Heimdall and Loki groups, which are phylogenetically and structurally more closely related to eukaryotic primases and to primases from non-Asgard archaea, respectively. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf330 #evobio #molbio

Meiotic pairing through barcode-like satellite DNA repeats https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.06.697918v1

Hey #microsky #microbiome nerds! My collaborator Spencer Diamond is hiring a postdoc. You get to work with a lot of awesome microbiome data, including rumen microbiome data. Spencer's a great guy to work with and has taught me a lot. aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05234

Preprint out! That was a really enjoyable collaboration! We report the structure and higher-order assembly of AbpX, a biofilm component in Archaea. And as a bonus, this protein gave me one of the most beautiful crystals I’ve ever had! 🤩💎

If you are looking to integrate your latest genetic creation into the genome of your favourite bug, you might find our latest review now out in OUP Synthetic Biology useful. 🧬⚒️ Work led by Riesa Rohmat with input from Thea Irvine and Shivang Joshi. #genome #synbio doi.org/10.1093/synb...

New preprint from my lab (with Arya Kaul, @fernpizza.bsky.social, and @brinda.eu), in which we explore new genes hitchhiking on the beneficial deletion that fused them together, and find them in the LTEE, M. Tb/bovis, and across the bacterial tree of life

🚨Last chance to apply for two PhD projects in my lab, applying structural biology and single molecule biophysics to investigate gene expression in RNA viruses: www.findaphd.com/phds/?Keywor...

I have a postdoc position in metagenomic exploration available in my group. Candidates with documented experience in phylo & metagenomics and preferably with petabase-scale data mining and GLM workflows are encouraged to apply. Come join us! 🧬🦠💻 Please repost Apply here: www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/p...

SMC and recombination enthusiasts: we updated our work describing the loop extrusion properties of budding yeast condensin and its function in biasing donor usage for mating-type switching. Lots of cool new data, check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Naturally occurring enzymes, while powerful, catalyze only a fraction of the reactions chemists care about. That’s why scientists are eager to design new-to-nature versions that could carry out entirely new forms of chemistry that biology never evolved. cen.acs.org/physical-che... #chemsky 🧪

A cool genetic system to study site-pecific replication fork collapse and repair from the brilliant @winterhalterlab.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#PhageSky #cryoET #cryoEM #teamtomo

The final edition of our “New Microbes Discovered in 2025” series is here. After exploring new viruses, bacteria, and fungi, this last #FEMSmicroBlog highlights the archaea identified in 2025: buff.ly/pJpA0Ax #NewMicrobes

A free, open-access library of high-quality organism illustrations for science communication

#microsky #phagesky #phage www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A four-year postdoc focusing on "plant growth-promoting bacteriophages" available in my group. Skills in metaviromics and metagenomics essential. Application deadline: 2.2.2026. For more info, see the link.

Finally, we’ve solved a long-standing mystery: what tintinnid shells are actually made of: A new class of biomaterial formed by remarkable structural proteins unique to tintinnids. A major milestone after 3 years of work! Read about it in our preprint: doi.org/10.64898/202... #ProtistsOnSky

Tropea (VV), la regina del turismo calabrese e la sua Cattedrale normanna (XII sec.), un posto meraviglioso.......... #Calabria #art #beauty

Il centro esatto del Mediterraneo è collocato nella città di Reggio Calabria, Rhèghion (ΡΗΓΙΩΝ), toponimo originario di radice Italica pre-ellenica che significa "Città del Re", mantenuto anche come polis della Magna Grecia. #Calabria #storia #beauty #ancient #History #city #Map

Multiplex mapping of protein–protein interaction interfaces | PNAS https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2425774122

Borghi più belli d'#Italia, inseguiamo la bellezza della #Calabria, questa è Rocca Imperiale (CS)❤️ che dall'alto della sua rupe domina la pianura costiera e le vie verso la Puglia. Cittadina fondata per volere dell'Imperatore Federico II nel 1238. #arte #beauty #heritage #art

Alone at Christmas? #joinin is always good.

Astronomical #winter starts today. It's the shortest day of the year in terms of daylight with the sun starting to set later each day until Summer Solstice. The mosaic depicts the dancing Genii (protective spirits) of the four seasons. The Genius of winter is wrapped in a heavy cloak.🧵1/2 #Solstice

I wanted to finish this before year's end & I did. 😁 I LOVED it. Such a pleasure to read, information-rich, fascinating but accessible. 🎁🎅 Air-Borne by Carl Zimmer www.scientificamerican.com/article/book... @carlzimmer.com Plant pathogens covered as well as human 💚 Even Norman Bourlag!

#microsky #synbiosky academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

"..based on a common wavefront design that can be adapted to support a variety of dynamic programming algorithms: local, global, and semi-global alignment of genomic and protein sequences with a variety of commonly used scoring schemes" from @martinsteinegger.bsky.social andco

The discovery of organisms that have been alive for many thousands of years requires a revolution in how we understand life. An Essay by @karenlloyd.bsky.social

Now online @natmicrobiol.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thrilled to share that my first-author paper is now published in Nature Communications! 🎉 Huge thanks to my PI, Dr. Drew Bridges (@bridgesbio.bsky.social), my collaborators, and all the incredible lab members for their support throughout this project www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excellent news for the end of the year! Our project on past and present bacteria with @jmuurine.bsky.social and great collaborators got funded. We will be looking for a postdoc for 2026-27 with expertise in bacterial genomics and/or molecular dating methods. If interested, DM me. Please share.

What is better than one? Two connected papers! #NewResearch S protein of Streptococcus pneumoniae activates PBP1a and coordinates with a wider GpsB-associated multi-protein complex to regulate peptidoglycan remodelling and cell division. #MicroSky 🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Now part of the University of York campus, Heslington Hall is a Grade II listed manor house dating from 1565–8, It was largely rebuilt between 1852-4. It was constructed for Sir Thomas Eynns, the Secretary and Keeper of the Seal to the Council of the North; and his wife Elizabeth.

Good morning from York and its majestic sky!

Great news! 🎊 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Can one map the genome-wide binding (1) and its protein partners (2) simultaneously from the same sample? Yes, one can. with CUT&ID ✂️🪪 Spearheaded — singlehandedly — by @annanordin.bsky.social No need of transgenesis, cloning and overexpression. Check it out, it's fast and its works.

Happy to share that our work on HLp, a bacterial histone from Leptospira perolatii, is now published in Nature Communications 🎉 In this study, we show that HLp forms stable tetramers that wrap ~60 bp of DNA, revealing a distinct histone–DNA organization in bacteria. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We've come full circle! I began my postdoctoral career by identifying the peptidyl deformylase gene. Today, we show that half of bacterial species harbor multiple PDF genes (up to 7, for always a single Met-tRNA transformylase), and while the role of these PDFs ... academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

My first feature for @sciencenews.bsky.social: The saga of the Asgard archaea: single-celled organisms found living in the seabed, which could explain the origin of all animals and plants. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cells-origin-of-life-asgard-archaea