Now completely published :) Really proud of this paper led with Karla at @cstairs.bsky.social lab. doi.org/10.1093/isme...

We are hiring the second cohort of EvoReSt PhD students. If you are interested in deep evolutionary questions, checkout: www.uni-goettingen.de/de/687607.html Apply here: obp.uni-goettingen.de/de-de/OBF/In...

We have several open positions in my group, funded from the ERC Grant on the Early Sequestered Germline of Fungi. We search broadly for applicants at both PhD and master-level, with a dedicated interest in fungal evolutionary biology. Please forward and RT! Find the positions here: su.varbi.com

How do microbes become permanent partners? 🌊🔬🦠 Check out our new study published in Current Biology showing how cyanobacterial genomes evolve step-by-step into endosymbionts of diatoms. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @currentbiology.bsky.social @mehrshmali.bsky.social

Apply now to the Workshop on Genomics 2026, which will take place 11-24 January, in the beautiful town of Český Krumlov, Czechia. Deadline: 20th of October, but applicants will be informed on a rolling basis. Spread the word among colleagues! 🙆🏽‍♀️ evomics.org/apply-worksh... #evomics2026

Our paper describing our new improved GFmix models for phylogenetic inference that capture site-and-branch heterogeneity in amino acid composition. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The first paper from my PhD is out now! doi.org/10.1111/jeu.... We describe a new photosynthetic #Paulinella species from a brackish beach in British Columbia 🇨🇦 Big thanks to the co-authors Maia Palka and @alive-in-the-ocean.bsky.social, and my supervisor @fburki.bsky.social #protistsonsky

Check out our new preprint all about Pirsonia, a tiny killer of bloom-forming Coscinodiscus diatoms! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #protistsonsky #marinemicrobes 🌊🔬

We have a postdoc opening for a protistologist with biophysics inclinations to join our @hfspo.bsky.social project! (focus will be on characterising the morphology, ultrastructure and behaviour of excavates) #protistsonsky Apply by Sept 17th (RTs appreciated!) jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...

Check out our paper to explore how the evolutionary history of SELMA supports or challenges various hypotheses on the origin of red complex plastids. academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

Promethea = PROvora + MEteora + HEmimastigophora. The new supergroup, unifying previously “orphan” lineages with gene-rich mitogenomes. Position of #telonemids is still uncertain. #protistsonsky tinyurl.com/yk9xkt49

BEHOLD! One of Earth's greatest lineages of life: the lil wiggle arm guys, Meteora. These single-celled critters, originally found in deep-sea sediments, are SO DIFFERENT from other lifeforms on Earth that they're likely in their own kingdom (as in, the Animal Kingdom, the Plant Kingdom etc). 🧪🌿

Divergent Plastid Genomes in the Deepest-Branching Apicomplexan Parasites #protists #protistsonsky academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

Excited to share our new paper in @cellreports.bsky.social that reshapes our understanding of chromosome organization's deep evolutionary roots! Our work dives into the origins of the machinery that structures our very genomes. 🔗: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... #Genomics #Evolution #CellBiology #LECA

Join us on this interesting @ergabiodiv.bsky.social BioGenomes Analysis & Applications seminar. Today at 12h CEST!

📣 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

Happy to have contributed to this great article: #Protist genomics: key to understanding eukaryotic evolution. Congrats Alexandra Schoenle et al. #ProtistsOnSky authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Despite 150+ years of Radiolaria diversity research, we have just scratched the surface. Nearly half of Radiolaria diversity might be naked hiding in plain sight! We unveiled the diversity and evolution of Radiolaria beyond "the stars of the ocean" doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

🚨 2.5-year PhD or Postdoc Opportunity! Join me and the Aquatic Ecosystem Analysis group @UniKoblenz. 🔬 Microbial #ecology, #bioindicators, #protists, #wastewater 🌊 | German language skills are necessary,Apply by May 16 | 🔗 kennethdumack.de | tinyurl.com/dumack2 Please share! #MicroSky #ProtistsOnSky

New #ISEPpapers! Hijacking and integration of algal #plastids and #mitochondria in a polar planktonic host: Ananya Kedige Rao et al. www.cell.com/current-biol... #Microbes #Algae #Protists #Symbiosis #Organelles #Plankton

Happy to have played a small part in this. Prometheid is a proposed supergroup that contains previously deep orphan lineages. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #protistsonsky

First study from the lab is out! We describe ApuRs, a new family of microbial rhodopsins unique from apusomonads. ApuRs represent the first anion-conducting rhodopsin channels that can be controlled by UV light, offering potential as new optogenetic tools. #protistsonsky doi.org/10.1101/2025... 👇

🧠🦠🚨 New preprint alert! We’ve built the first trait database for Amoebozoa, and showcase ecological insights and evolutionary patterns. If you're into protists, soil ecology, or functional biodiversity - this is for you! #ProtistsOnSky #MicroSky 🧵👇

@amoebadiscovery.bsky.social made an iteresting interview with me about #heliozoa and #centrohelids - I think these organisms are really important, understudied and gorgeous 😍 Also lots other intresting reading and beatiful pictures! #protistsonsky link: tinyurl.com/adiscovery1

Cultivation of Ancyromonas melba, and Reclassification as the Type Species of Divimonas gen. nov., a Phylogenetically Important Ancyromonad Lineage Kate M. Barkhouse, Yana Eglit, Elizabeth J. Weston, Adriana B. A. Jenkins, Alastair G. B. Simpson onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #protistsonsky

Postdoc available in Grenoble (France), funded by the ERC SymbiOCEAN, to work on the metabolic connectivity in planktonic photosymbiosis. 👉Passionate by symbiosis & marine protists? skills in bioinfo and molecular biology? Join us! Info: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U... #protistsonsky #SymbioSky

I'm pleased to introduce our new paper rooting the eukaryote Tree of Life (eToL) that resulted from a collaboration led by PhD student Kelsey Williamson and a large group of collaborators doi.org/10.1038/s415...htt

Just out - The first global ocean 3-Domain microbial survey where all organisms can be directly compared quantitatively. Unfractionated and amplified from just 2 primers (vetted with mock communities and metagenomics), so all with the same denominator. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We did it! We caught Starship #transposons moving between #fungal species in the lab, including between species separated by ~100my. We think Starships are a mediator of HGT in fungi, akin to conjugative elements in bacteria. Check out the preprint. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

OK, from now on, I'll try to avoid using "early-branching" or "early-diverging" (on "lower" and "basal" I gave up long before) 🙂 Use their names: there are no basal, lower, or early diverging fungi www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Associate prof position at Stockholm U in plant molecular physiology, including phytoplankton www.su.se/department-o...

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...

The GEOMAR seagrass team is hiring. Time to make coastal restoration long-term sustainable. A fully funded 4-yr PhD position on eelgrass seascape genomics in the Baltic Sea, further details see here www.geomar.de/en/karriere/... @geomarkiel.bsky.social DM me for inquiries

New corallicolid pub in @currentbiology.bsky.social!🪸🧬 Highlights: 🌳 Phylogenomic support for Corallicolids as sister to the Ichthyocolids ☀️Corallicolids express nuclear & plastid encoded Chl biosynthesis genes ❌Multiple, parallel losses of CBP in Apicomplexa #ProtistsOnSky #CoralReefs #MicroSky

Paper came out today that represents a long trip for many members of my lab. It took years to get these methods to work and gather the data so everyone involved should be very proud of the interesting outcome. Thanks to the whole gang for their perseverance on this one!

Submit your abstract now! #MLD8 The 8th Molecular Life of Diatoms Conference in Ghent. 👇🦠 #diatom #algae #protists #ocean www.vibconferences.be/events/molec...

Still a great speech about awareness and understanding how to think: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCbG...

congrats @dumack.bsky.social 🎉

The Arf Family GTPases are crucial eukaryotic proteins in organelle dynamics. Our paper shows their Asgard origins and the hallmark Arf mechanism of membrane-localization in these asgard proteins! Led by Cathy Jackson @ijmonod.bsky.social; with Marek Elias and @mikicalab.bsky.social. rdcu.be/d7c0q

I know everything is on fire, literally and existentially, but I'm really proud of this paper out today, led by my lab manager, Kristina Terpis, with some amazing collaborators. We expanded sampling in photosynthetic stramenopiles and show total plastid loss twice! www.cell.com/current-biol...

Excited to announce our work on kelp genomics is now out at Current Biology. Lead by Postdoc extraordinaire Jordan Bemmels, we sequence WGS for 600+ bull and giant kelp across BC and Washington. authors.elsevier.com/a/1kSP93QW8S...

Extremely thrilled to share that our @annualreviews.bsky.social went online. We discuss advancements in the field and why streptophyte algae are not only evolutionary giants but offer unique opportunities for plant science. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... @watertoland.bsky.social

#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

Thrilled to see #choanoflagellates on the cover of Science Advances🤩. Our latest work "Electrical signaling and coordinated behavior in the closest relative of animals" out now. Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 👏 @jeffcolgren.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social

Hello #ProtistsOnSky, just by chance is anyone interested to have the culture of this cute Parauronema #ciliate? Don't really know what to do with it and need to clear my collection before changing lab. Grows quite well!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #protistsonsky

NEW preprint!🥳 Orthogroups are a prerequisite for comparative genomics and Tree of Life inquiries Introducing #OrthoHMM, software that improves the inference of orthogroups (blue in fig) OrthoHMM may refine our understanding of genome evolution and the Tree of Life 🔗 tinyurl.com/4s9mwxz6 🧵 1/8

Diatom phytochromes integrate the underwater light spectrum to sense depth www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We are very happy to announce a free-to-attend #anvio workshop and ECR symposium in Oldenburg to discuss integrated microbial 'omics and learn applications of anvi'o. More information and application link (application deadline is Jan 10): anvio.org/workshops/20... Please apply and/or circulate 😇

Our paper on the evolution of a bipolar sexual compatibility system in Marasmius is out! We show that Marasmius obeys to the typical Agaricomycete way to evolve bipolarity from tetrapolarity - by loss of mating compatibility function of the P/R locus. doi.org/10.1080/0027...