#Archaea, #DPANN, #phylogenetic_reconciliation New preprint online! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Nature suggests you use their "Manuscript Adviser" bot to get advice before submitting I uploaded the classic Watson & Crick paper about DNA structure, and the Adviser had this to say about one of the greatest paper endings of the century:

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

Yesterday it was 20 years since I defended my PhD thesis! I have struggled my way through the academic system, with times when I was about to give up due to lack of funding and support. I am proud where I am now, and what I have achieved. Thanks to everyone who supported me and believed in me!

Do you want to do a Masters in Evolutionary Biology? The call for applying to the MEME program is now open! MEME is a fantastic 2-year MSc between four European Universities on all areas of Evolutionary Biology. Apply and study in Sweden/France/the Netherlands/Germany/USA/Switzerland! www.evobio.eu

Interesting how companies and the financial world is racing to spend mindboggling amounts of money to build the infrastructure to train computers. But we are leaving the infrastructure to train and educate humans crumbling. The question is who will train who?

OK, somebody should say it: the term 'one-stop-shop' has no place in academic research. Due to their diverse and exploratory nature, there is no single solution for scientific projects - else this would be routine research. RT if you agree, or feel free to argue otherwise below.

Happy to share that our story on the bacterial archaellum was published today in @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41... Congrats to the authors: @sshamphavi.bsky.social @loumollat.bsky.social @mariejoest.bsky.social Najwa Taib and @sgribaldo.bsky.social

🧵 Our study on the elusive titration control mechanism of the replication initiator DnaA in Escherichia coli is now out on @natcomms.nature.com‬! @stephkoe.bsky.social @hohlbeinlab.bsky.social‬ @nicoc-micsynmet.bsky.social @ettema.bsky.social‬ @mib-wur.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Saddened to learn of the passing of Moselio "Elio" Schaechter—Distinguished Professor at Tufts, SDSU and UCSD—humanist and visionary leader in the fields of microbiology and scientific communication—mentor, friend, and inspiration to me and so many others Small Things Considered Big Things Achieved

📣 ELIXIR has published a position paper on the importance of #OpenData infrastructure for 🌍 European competitiveness in life sciences. Read the news 👉 https://loom.ly/22XW72k #ResearchInfrastructure #Science4EU

8. GTDB r220 case study (led by @kassipan.bsky.social ) Applied WitChi to the archaeal GTDB r220 supermatrix: • 5,869 taxa • 55% of columns pruned • Biased taxa: 95.1% → 2.3% • Runtime: <2h on 4 cores → Known clades recovered — without using very complex C60 or CAT models

Our latest work, driven by the fabulous @stephkoe.bsky.social! WitChi takes care of compositional bias in large phylogenomic datasets! WitChi is fast, efficient and free, try it out! With @kassipan.bsky.social and @danieltamarit.bsky.social

Out in @natbiotech.nature.com: Metagenome taxonomy profilers usually ignore unknown species. SingleM is an accurate profiler which doesn't, even detecting phyla with no MAGs. Profiles of 700,000 metagenomes at sandpiper.qut.edu.au. A 🧵

#Asgard,#phylogeny 1/ 🧵 Does MAGs contamination affect the placement of Njord as suggested by Zhang et al, 2025? www.nature.com/articles/s41... Our updated analysis suggests instead... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New vacancy in my team! PhD student position on microbial genome evolution, focusing on the evolutionary principles underlying bacterial genome architecture. Please repost and share with talented MSc students in #evobio, bioinformatics or related :) www.uu.nl/en/organisat... #MEvoSky #MicroSky

On this day, 10 years ago, my lab published the @nature.com paper reporting the discovery of the Asgard archaea (Lokiarchaeota at the time), revealing the archaeal nature of eukaryotic cells, and reshaping the Tree of Life. What a ride it has been since then... www.nature.com/articles/nat...

Loki’s ever the trickster, but thankfully Thor knows how to put him in his place #ArchaeaSky #Asgard #comics #comedy

Excited to share that our paper on locus visualisation tool LoVis4u is out! Entirely driven by fantastic PhD student Artyom Egorov @egorov.bsky.social academic.oup.com/nargab/artic...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A new collaborative paper with Anja Spang, Wen-Cong Huang, @chrisrinke.bsky.social @ettema.bsky.social @ssolo.bsky.social Zheng-Shuang Hua Maraike Probst and Lenard Szantho. We investigated the phylogenetic position and metabolic evolution of Panguiarchaeum.

Hello Bluesky! Follow us for updates on our Microbiology research here @w-u-r.bsky.social

In case some people have missed it, I'm re-posting a link to our paper on the Anaeramoeba-Desulfobacter symbiotic system. This is one of the papers from my lab that I'm most proud of...and a huge amount of the credit goes to @jonhultqvist.bsky.social !!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Delighted to share our new preprint on the cell biology and genome of Stentor pyriformis, a giant ciliate that maintains Chlorella endosymbionts in surface-associated microtubule baskets. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

With today's report outlining risks on mirror life www.science.org/doi/full/10.... many have asked: Could mirror life survive in the wild? Yes. While mirror life in the wild could have some significant disadvantages (like finding food it can digest), they do not appear to be insurmountable: 🧵

We have an opening for a 4 yr PhD interested in membrane remodelling and cryo-EM/ET of a minimal cell division machinery: edu.nl/bukan You will be part of the EVOLF consortium in which 30 leading biochemists/biophysicists work together to explore if and how we can build autonomous synthetic cells.

... als de zondagsscholen maar niet gekort worden...

In 2015 we discovered 'Loki', the first member of the Asgard archaea, the closest relatives of eukaryotes. Did you know that in stead of Lokiarchaea, we considered the name Eoarchaea. 'Eo' after Eos, the greek goddess of dawn, and in reference to the eocyte hypothesis for the origin of eukaryotes.

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

Our lovely journal, PLOS Biology, is shuffling impatiently on its perch, preparing to take flight into the Blue! Get ready to welcome us officially by following @plosbiology.bsky.social now!

My mentor, colleague, friend and all-round clever guy Ford Doolittle has just published a book "Darwinizing Gaia". I've read pieces of it an it's very thought-provoking...go out and get it! mitpress.mit.edu/978026254952...

My <body> is ready

I took biochem in 2001, and for nearly 20 years read amino acid sequences daily… and I never knew Dayhoff named them or even the logic behind things like Q until last Friday (h/t Mike Janech). Also, this is another big Dayhoff moment for me. She was incredible! #proteomics #bioinformatics

Atoms are binary. They are either intended to be hydrogen or helium. We can't just scrap this worldview just because of a handful of exceptions

Controversy about being 'a scientist' - 100 years ago in @natureportfolio.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Groot protest op Malieveld tegen bezuinigingen op onderwijs 25 Duizend demonstranten protesteerden maandag tegen de bezuinigingsplannen van het kabinet op het hoger onderwijs 🟥Stop the budget cuts on higher education in 🇳🇱 🟥 www.ad.nl/video/produc...

Morgen een historische demonstratie van docenten, studenten, wetenschappers: verzet tegen de regeringscoalitie die met haar wetenschap en hoger onderwijs afbreekt. #WOinActie #Malieveld youtu.be/exxGYLbQi2M

Interesting Perspective in #FEMS Microbiol Ecol by @micropat.bsky.social, Jolanda ter Horst and @ettema.bsky.social More than the sum of its parts: uncovering emerging effects of microbial interactions in complex communities academic.oup.com/femsec/advan...

Ten days remaining to apply to this exciting PhD position - join us in our quest to explore novel archaeal lineages!

Want to do a #PhD focusing on discovery, cultivation and characterization of novel prokaryotes? Come and join my group in the Laboratory of Microbiology at Wageningen University! Apply here: wur.nl/en/vacancy/p... #cultivation #microscopy #archaea #PhDposition Please share & repost

Closed genomes from new Asgard archaea lineages using PacBio metagenomes! The sampling in this one is this is quite literally a backyard in northern California. Asgard archaea are not just found in extreme environments, but pretty much all around us!

Hey all, I made a feed for Archaea related research on bsky, called #ArchaeaSky. Hope it is useful... bsky.app/profile/did:...

First post here: I will soon announce a PhD position in cultivation of novel microbial lineages (#archaea!!!). If you are interested in joining our lab at WUR campus and live in wonderful Wageningen, stay tuned here! Feel free to notify potentially interested candidates.