Why did consciousness evolve at all? A superb special issue of @royalsocietypublishing.org brings together experts across disciplines to explore the functions of consciousness and why it emerged in some species but not others. @tecumsehfitch.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...

Discovery of a photophobic response in #Apusomonads reveals insights into Opisthokont origins phys.org/news/2026-02... New #ISEPpapers! Photophobic response in Podomonas kaiyoae is mediated by coordination of cilia, actin filaments: Aika Shibata et al. www.nature.com/articles/s42... #Protists

Comparative Genomics of Unicellular Eukaryotes (San Feliu, Spain): Abstract submission is open, with a short deadline! comparativegenomics2026.com Join us as we explore the most diverse, surprising, and still largely uncharted branches of the eukaryotic tree.

The day is finally here!! On behalf of all the co-organizers the Comparative Genomics of Unicellular Eukaryotes website is open. comparativegenomics2026.com Invited speakers will be added to the website in the coming weeks. Watch this (well, that^) space!

Our research scientist Núria Ros-Rocher won the 1st prize @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social microscopy contest with this beautiful choano colony www.zeiss.fr/microscopie/... 🥳 C. flexa might not yet be a genetic model, but it is now at least a calendar model, which counts for something. I think.

Thanks @jcellsci.bsky.social for this opportunity to contribute to your centenary collection with our take on the state of the field - 10 years after its modern reincarnation 🧪🌍 W/ @alebenoit.bsky.social @eelcotromer.bsky.social @fritzlaylin.bsky.social journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Are you very busy but still want to learn what Aphelids are and why they are important to understand the evolution of Fungi? Then check out our “Quick guide” on Aphelids published in collaboration with @deemteam.bsky.social, Sergey and Guifré. #protistsonsky doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

With our old friends Sergey, Luis and Guifré, we have published a minireview in @currentbiology.bsky.social about aphelids, the sister group to fungi, including why we think they are not fungi but, nevertheless, key to understand early fungal evolution. authors.elsevier.com/a/1mH793QW8S...

Attention scientists from all over the world🙃 The Call for Letters of Intent for #HFSPResearchGrants 2027 is now open! 🧪 Get your international & interdisciplinary team. It's time to put your bold research idea into practice! 🔗https://bit.ly/48VsGCG 📅 15 Dec 2025–26 Mar 2026 #sts #LifeSciences

Save the date! The next instalment of Comparative Genomics of Unicellular Eukaryotes is a GO! Join us next year for a programme of talks, posters, ECR/networking activities. Website and registration details to follow in the coming weeks. See you October 5-10 2026 in beautiful San Feliu!!

So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth! #protistsonsky 🧵

Is it a flagellate? A tiny ball with tentacles? Contamination in my ciliate culture? NEW SUPERGROUP OF EUKARYOTES? Yes to all 4! Meet Solarion - just out in #Nature doi.org/10.1038/s415... Huge congrats to Marek Valt, Cepicka Lab & the star team! Very happy to be part of this project. #ProtistsOnSky

How do cells adapt morphology to function? In a 🔥 preprint by @zjmaggiexu.bsky.social , with @dudinlab.bsky.social and @amyweeks.bsky.social , we identify a self-organizing single-cell morphology circuit that optimizes the feeding trap structure of the suctorian P. collini. 🧵 tinyurl.com/4k8nv926

Out today, our take on 6-methyladenine #6mA evolution in Eukaryotes @natgenet.nature.com. We asked a simple question, is really DNA 6mA common across the eukaryotes? The answer is "yes" if you're a unicellular eukaryote 🦠, not so if you're multicellular 🐝🌱🍄. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/9

🚨Our collaboration with @centriolelab.bsky.social & @gautamdey.bsky.social is out today in @cp-cell.bsky.social We show that #Expansion #Microscopy is a broad-spectrum modality for Euks, enabling 3D phenotypic maps rooted to phylogeny. #ProtistsOnSky #SciComm #SciSky www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Now online! Charting the landscape of cytoskeletal diversity in microbial eukaryotes

New publication: "A novel taxonomic database for eukaryotic mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene #eKOI, with a focus on #protists diversity" with Daniel Vaulot @daniel-vaulot.bsky.social from @biovitenskap.bsky.social Published in Database by @oxfordacademic.bsky.social

We are happy to share our latest work in @nature.com . We study the genomic and cellular basis of facultative symbiosis in Oculina patagonica - a Mediterranean coral remarkable for its ability to survive long periods without algal symbionts. Led by Shani Levy and @xgrau.bsky.social rdcu.be/eLbaZ

Just 5 more days left to apply to the Workshop on Genomics 2026, in Cesky Krumov, Czechia! evomics.org/apply-worksh... (Deadline 20th of October) Do not miss your chance! 💻🤗 #Bioinformatics #Genomics #evomics2026

Online now!!! Apusomonad rhodopsins: A new family of ultraviolet to blue light–absorbing rhodopsin channels www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Our study on the first rhodopsin channels known to respond to UV light is now published in PNAS! And they come from our favourite protists, apusomonads! #protistonsky www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

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

New preprint 🌊🫶 "A diverse community constitutes global coccolithophore calcium carbonate stocks" Three large coccolithophores together hold about half of the global CaCO₃ stock! G. huxleyi <10% ➡️ climate models need to include this broader diversity! 📄 doi.org/10.1101/2025... #protistsonsky

What you're looking at is a brand new protist species! 🤯🔬 Isn't it beautiful? This image is just a glimpse of what's to come. We can't wait to share our full findings soon, in partnership with Guifré @beaplab.bsky.social @luisjagago.bsky.social. Stay tuned! #NewSpecies #protistsonSky #diversity

New #ISEPpapers! The fluid dynamics and functional diversity of the flagella of free-living flagellates orbit.dtu.dk/en/publicati... #Protists #Microbes #FluidDynamics #Biophysics

For some three billion years, unicellular organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion years ago, a new chapter of life began go.nature.com/3JyRV4S

New cool cercozoan heterotrophic flagellates with amazing UExM images just out! Indeed Discocelia has to be at least top 5 cutest protists! #protistsonsky

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...

In our ongoing saga of description of new protists, we are happy to introduce Multisulcus malaysiensis, a deep-branching heterolobosean that forms highly unusual multiflagellated cells with multiple ventral grooves. Great work by @kristina-prokina.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

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

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...

😻 HUGE NEWS! One of the "Magnificent 8" – key missing lineages for understanding animal origins – is ALIVE in our lab! Watch the video! Massive thanks to @luisjagago.bsky.social (isolation wizard!) & @beaplab.bsky.social @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social @prbb.org @csic.es @erc.europa.eu #protistsonSky

Why do some planktonic protists develop a gelatinous matrix? We suggest that this original adaptation is a strategy to cope with ocean oligotrophy: doi.org/10.1111/1462... Led by @n-llopis-m.bsky.social, and thanks to all co-authors, I'm very happy to finally see it out! #protistsonsky

This is so cool!!

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... 👇

Re-posts appreciated! We have an open PhD position w/ Prof Harold Auradou on #microswimmers/#protists in complex media! Students get to spend at least 12 months in Paris, and will receive their PhD from both Exeter and Paris-Saclay! Apply by 31st Mar. More details: adum.fr/as/ed/voirpr...

Check out our dispatch on apicomplexans that infect corals! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... These parasite-like partners have lost photosynthesis but retained chlorophyll... are they friend or foe? @currentbiology.bsky.social #protistsonsky #symbiosky #microsky #coralreefs

Excited to announce the 10th "Choanoflagellates & Friends Workshop" over May 20-22 in our own Institut Pasteur in Paris: 2025choanocon.wordpress.com Registrations open til March 15, abstract til March 5. Pre-conference event for students/postdocs on 19/05. Plenty of slots for selected talks/posters!

Characterization of Allobodo yubaba sp. nov. and Novijibodo darinka gen. et sp. nov., cultivable free-living species of the phylogenetically enigmatic kinetoplastid taxon Allobodonidae Julia A. Packer et al. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #protistsonsky

Discover the wonders of 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘴 🤩 This parasitic protist undergoes rapid #CellDivision : from a single sporangium to hundreds of motile zoospores. A stunning glimpse into the speed and precision of microbial life! 🌊🔬 Stay tuned for more 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘴 insights! #CellBiology #ProtistsOnSky

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

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...

🍾Our small #UExM adventure is only starting! #ProtistsOnSky We are happy to announce that the Moore Foundation will be funding our efforts in creating an Expansion Microscopy atlas of #Microbial #Eukaryotes with @gautamdey.bsky.social @UNIGE @embl.org LINK: www.unige.ch/sciences/chi... 1/4

There is some weird stuff in the water- from Eugen Daday 1903: "Mkroskopische Süßwassertiere aus Kleinasien" (Microscopic freshwater animals from Asia Minor)

From the other place - I don’t think ISOP is on Bsky yet protistologists.org/upcoming-pro... #ProtistsOnSky in 2025

We sequenced a bunch of understudied flagellates including apusomonads, ancyromonads and one Meteora strain. Here is our version of the eukaryotic tree including them👇 #ProtistsOnSky

Honored and excited to receive an #ERCCoG grant. Big thanks to my colleagues, former mentors and, most importantly, my amazing lab members. Together, we will be exploring cell type evolution across timescales, from population variation (with @xgrau.bsky.social) to regulatory sequences across phyla.

The tiny heterotrophic cryptophyte palpitomonas with its small cell body, relatively large nucleus (shown with a green nuclear stain) and its strangely extra long pair of flagella. #protistaday #protistsonsky

Radiolaria are known for their elaborate and gorgeous skeletons, found all over our oceans. But what if I tell you that half of their diversity might be naked!? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...