New paper out: An archaeal genetic code with all TAG codons as pyrrolysine: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Very happy to share our recent work @cultivarium.bsky.social on genetic tools for Ideonella sakaiensis, a (Betaproteo-)bacterium that degrades PET plastic. We identified a plasmid vector for the strain and generated a large RB-TnSeq library, screening for genes impacting plastic degradation.

New publication: Congratulations to Dan and Daryl, and team! Excited to be a part of this project identifying a broad diversity of deep-ocean plastic-degrading enzymes (PETases/BHETases). doi.org/10.1093/isme...

Did someone say Asgard? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A wonderful collaboration between my lab and Andy Ellington and Edward Marcotte here at UT. We obtained lots of thermal stable plastic degrading enzymes from the deep sea (Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California)

We are looking for a PhD student to work on an exciting plastid endosymbiosis in microbial eukaryotes. This position involves sampling, exciting microscopy such as CARDFISH, ExM and FIBSEM, single-cell transcriptomics and more. #protistsonsky 1/2

We're thrilled to announce SeqHub, an AI-enabled platform for biological sequence analysis. SeqHub brings together sequence search, genome annotation, and data sharing in one place.

🚨New preprint out! We present a foundational genomic resource of human gut microbiome viruses. It delivers high-quality, deeply curated data spanning taxonomy, predicted hosts, structures, and functions, providing a reference for gut virome research. (1/8) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Bacteria can sense when a virus starts shredding their genome — by detecting methylated mononucleotides. Here’s the story of how we discovered the Metis defense system 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#microsky #phagesky CRISPR-cas galore www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Check out M. smithii 👀 Congrats Romain and team!!

Our work on viruses and virus satellites of haloarchaea and their DPANN symbionts is out today in Nature Microbiology! @mkrupovic.bsky.social @deemteam.bsky.social @anagtz.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Carbon monoxide metabolism in freshwater anaerobic methanotrophic archaea https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.16.676500v1

#microsky We challenge the long-standing view that peptidoglycan alone protects cells from bursting. Our study shows that the periplasm — enclosed by OM–PG connections — acts as a pressure buffer essential for osmoprotection in Gram-negative bacteria. 📄 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This surprisingly relaxing footage is from SIX MILES under the ocean – and it’s the deepest ecosystem yet discovered

Check this nice first first-author paper by Ning Hall—now out in Nature Geoscience! Our team had a blast supporting Ning on the isolation workflow, and a few of the standout Methanococcoides strains even trace back to our Danish waters. 🌊 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Scientists have finally pinpointed the cause of a marine die-off of unprecedented scale go.nature.com/4mvYGmd

#GRS and #GRC #Archaea in the Swiss Alps: great meetings and location! Many familiar and even more new faces. Going home with exciting ideas and collaboration initiatives on exploring #archaeal #viruses in #soil! Thanks to everyone 😉

Meet Palaeocampa anthrax, a newly discovered Carboniferous lobopodian, and 150 year old mystery fossil! Palaeocampa is an exceptional lobopodian - it lived in rivers and lakes, bristled with thousands of poisonous spines, and more. 🧵 Open access: nature.com/articles/s42...

🚨 FIRST PAPER ALERT 🚨 My first research paper I've been involved with is out now as a preprint 🦠🥳🦠 #archaea #microsky #PhD

And the story is published now!🍾 www.nature.com/articles/s41... Open access link: rdcu.be/exnOc Many years in the making, great collaboration with @archaellum.bsky.social & @tunglejic.bsky.social Thanks @ukri.org BBSRC & @leverhulme.ac.uk for funding, reviewers & editor!! 🙏 #microsky #archaeasky

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👇

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...

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

Feeling very humbled by receiving this award and equally excited to attend ASM in Adelaide this year! 🎉

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

A freshly installed network of sensors has pinpointed its first hydrothermal explosion at Yellowstone https://go.nature.com/4jUnxhL

This is so cool - octopus can sense microbiomes: sending a gift link www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/s...

over a year later, this one out today! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Abundant and metabolically flexible bacterial lineages underlie a vast potential for rubisco-mediated carbon fixation in the dark ocean genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... #jcampubs 🌊

🚨Out now! Cyclic-di-AMP modulates cellular turgor in response to defects in bacterial cell wall synthesis @harvardmicro.bsky.social #MicroSky 🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Ancient microbes thrive beneath a Swiss spa—unchanged by the seasons. New research with Dr. Mark Lever reveals deep underground life stays stable, even as Alpine waters shift above. utmsi.utexas.edu/deep-microbi... 📸 Lavey-les-Bains

Very happy to finally have this out! Thank you to my awesome PhD supervisors and all the co-authors!!

"In a competitive academic world, building bridges instead of walls may be our most powerful tool to accelerate discovery and rebuild public trust in science." I'm very happy with this article piece! 🥳 www.the-scientist.com/science-thri...

Puri giving a short speech yesterday at the French Academy of Sciences to acknowledge her nomination as a new member. The fancy Napoleonic-style attire is part of the official Academy's protocol. @academiesciences.bsky.social‬

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...

ICYMI: After years of hearing complaints that it's hard to get good career advice in marine biology, I assembled an expert panel to answer your questions about graduate school, where to find jobs, what skills are needed, and much, much more. 🦑🧪🌎🦈🐟

🚨 New publication: We describe a novel, cultivated #Archaea species from the human microbiome: #Methanobrevibacter intestini sp. nov. ! www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour... #Microbiome #GutMicrobiota #NewSpecies #archaeasky #microbiomesky

Did a “bottle opener” open the door to eukaryotes? Meet the Hodarchaeales-related cells- yet another bizarre morphology from Asgard archaea! These curious structures sit at the prokaryote–eukaryote boundary and might offer fresh clues to the origins of complex life. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

www.nature.com/articles/s41... Exploring the root of the eukaryotic tree with new phylogenetic models (including extending branch-heterogeneous models to bigger datasets that previously). Very interesting stuff, nice to see the preprint published!

Yes Archaea too can get fat 😁 New paper from the lab (by bsky-less Guillaume Borrel)! Check it out👇👇 #archaeasky #microsky @institutpasteur.bsky.social academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

Our department is looking for a computational biologist (tenure-track) at the levels of assistant or associate professor. Please repost. Thank you in advance! www.gwu.jobs/postings/117...

In Nature Chemical Biology today, we reveal how microbes clean our atmospheres by consuming carbon monoxide (CO) gas. A methodological tour de force from Ashleigh Kropp, Rhys Grinter, and David Gillett with broad implications for the atmosphere and bioenergetics. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Such an incredible conference, had the best time! Congratulations all! isme-microbes.org/isme19-award...

Excited to introduce the preprint for CoverM: the Swiss Army knife of coverage calculators for metagenomics! 🧬🖥️ DOI: doi.org/10.48550/arX... @benjwoodcroft.bsky.social @viralinstruction.bsky.social @apcamargo.bsky.social

#Microsky: Science meets social impact! CSIC & Solidarios para el Desarrollo bring microbiology to prisons, teaching inmates about the Microbial world, health and biotech. Inspiring curiosity and critical thinking. Read here: https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.70052

!!!!!! Tissue-Like Multicellular Development Triggered by Mechanical Compression in Archaea www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Ten species comprise half of the bacteriology literature, leaving most species unstudied www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs

It has been amazing to continue this long-term research through a PhD with @quendi.bsky.social and a postdoc with @archaeal.bsky.social . Not everyone gets to see a project through like this as an ECR- thanks to supportive PI's and the NSF-PRFB fellowship that let me design my own postdoc 💙🧪

Yup'ik woman scientist Charitie Ropati is on the Forbes 30 under 30 list! This is so fricking cool! Love this so much! #NativesInSTEM www.kyuk.org/arts-culture...