Somehow this paper has been largely ignored, but the basic idea has been presented by others as novel, or the idea gets misattributed to someone else. If you're interested in #diatom sex and its evolutionary importance, read and cite this paper. www.jstor.org/stable/2460887

"men continued to publish the same number of papers after becoming fathers, women experienced a significant drop in research output (mothers had 31% fewer publications than did fathers 8 years after the birth of their first child)"

Chromatin plays a central role in gene regulation, but chromatin systems are only known for a few model species. This study analyses chromatin regulatory landscapes in brown algal lineages to elucidate their structural organization and evolution 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Spatial Proteomics Workshop for Protists (see more in thread below) Registration Early Bird Monday 22nd June 2026. Regular Monday 10th August 2026. There will be a conference dinner on day 1. To register visit protistology.org.uk/autumn-meeti...

In our new pre-print, we established massive single-cell RNA-sequencing for diatoms to investigate key cell fate transitions. Notably, we discovered that the diploid-to-haploid transition is regulated by Myb TFs, a process that is actively ongoing across the Global Ocean! 🌊

Very excited to present our new project #BYGENEX, an @ERC_Research Advanced Grant! During the next five years we will be studying the genetic mechanisms that govern the phagocytosis of bacteria by protists @icmcsic.bsky.social

Excited to share our lab's new paper in Current Biology featuring MS student Sydney Schultz's work. We show that a polar alga carries large amount of giant viral DNA in its genome, and many of the viral genes respond to stress - with implications for host adaptation. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Hi all. I am very excited that after 6 years I finally got my phylogenetic comparative methods book and online exercises online. Feel free to use and share. The book is here: nhcooper123.github.io/pcm-primer/. Note that it is not finished, we had to abandon it before the sunk costs fallacy broke us

Aerobic sister lineage of breviates has gene-rich mitochondrial genomes #microbiology #eukaryotes #mitochondria #protists #MicroSky #ProtistsOnSky @cellpress.bsky.social www.cell.com/current-biol...

So you are using IQ-TREE to estimate a tree for "deep time" phylogenetics using amino acid alignments. There is a lot of confusion about how to test model fit. Here are some suggestions.

Our SPECIAL ISSUE on MOLECULAR EVOLUTION & ECOLOGY is out! Editorial: @yehumoran.bsky.social, @berndpulverer.bsky.social et al Reviews on Asgard archaea, epimutations, giant-virus/host dynamics, smartphone analogy for animal origins… …& many related primary articles link.springer.com/journal/4431...

Happy to open a new BlueSky account to discuss the #diversity and #evolution of #protists. 🧬🔬 Stay tuned!

Our phylogenetic classification of >400 diatom genera is now published in Journal of Phycology. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

🧵 1/10 New paper out in @natmicrobiol.nature.com from my postdoc at @mib-wur.bsky.social! 🎉 How eukaryote-like was the archaeal ancestor of eukaryotes? Sequence searches alone can't tell us — so we used protein structure prediction to look deeper. 🧬 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Read our review about the "Diversity, ecology, cell biology and evolution of the Asgard archaea" in @natrevmicro.nature.com here: www.nature.com/articles/s41... By @kassipan.bsky.social @stephkoe.bsky.social @micropat.bsky.social & @gerbenz.bsky.social

We are very excited to share a new resource from our team: spatial subcellular proteome maps in plants! We developed an MS-based method that registers localizations of about 8000 proteins in Arabidopsis roots in a single experiment. (1/9) www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

We’ve extended the deadline!

Final version @nature.com of our paper describing unconventional multicellular development in a choanoflagellate inhabiting an extreme environment. A ton of new data since the first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint (which we've kept updating). A brief 🧵 (carried over from the old place)

Huge news 🌍🧬 The Protist 10,000 Genomes Project is joining the Earth BioGenome Project. Protists may represent the majority of eukaryotic diversity — yet only a tiny fraction have reference genomes. Time to change that. 🚀✨ Learn more 👉 ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/p10k/ #EBP #Protists #Genomics #TreeOfLife

Spectacular study revealing multiple ways by which Choanoeca flexa forms monolayers! Congratulations to @thibautbrunet.bsky.social Núria Ros-Rocher @pasteur.fr and all partners involved 👏👏👏

This looks so cool! 😍

Protist lovers: Please apply for a week of rhapsody! Learn by doing: MicroSEA (Microbial Sea Eukaryotes) course is a one-week, field-based summer school to train early-career researchers in the diversity, ecology, and single-cell biology of marine protists. opbc.sciencesconf.org #protistsonsky

Great to see this paper in all its glory online: link.springer.com/article/10.1... A huge effort from Gordon and the team at @pjkeelinglab.bsky.social! Phylogenomic tree of Cercozoa based on single-cell transcriptomes from 100 uncultured cells @ubcbotany.bsky.social @science.ubc.ca

Have a novel protist's genome or transcriptome and want to predict it's mitochondrial proteome? Look no further than CoMR, this handy bioinformatic workflow to help you: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #phylogenetics

Explore how genetics, evolution and ecology intertwine at EMBO Workshop "Evolving together: From genomics to biological interactions" in #Taipei, TW, 24–27 Apr 2026. Abstract submission/Registration by 20 Jan/28 Feb https://meetings.embo.org/event/26-bio-interactions#Taipei#EMBOEvoGenBio #EMBOevents 🧪

Fascinating single-cell red algae: models for evolution and adaptation #TansleyReview by Berger et al. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #plantscience

This is a dinoflagellate called Noctiluca scintillans, also known as ‘sea sparkle’. When it appears in large numbers (a bloom) they can bioluminescence when disturbed, making the sea flash blue! This is something I’ve unfortunately never seen, but it’s on my wish list! 1/2 #marineplankton 🦑

Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life @cellcellpress.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

We are happy to share our newest preprint on a novel strain of Ca. Lokiarchaeum ossiferum, that contains an active provirus, capable of excision and independent replication! We propose a novel virus family: Fylgjaviridae. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Registration is now open! The 4th edition of the Mendel Early Career Symposium will take place on 21-22 May at the GMI, part of the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social. This two-day event brings together researchers across career stages to discuss the latest research in all areas of plant science.

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!

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

Reading in journal club Shelton et al. Fungal ecology in the age of 'omics @newphyt.bsky.social nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Do microbes get more food by swimming or staying still? Turns out both work, and cilia help them pull in nutrients no matter the strategy. buff.ly/vK3GmK5

Excited to share this detailed biophysical study of #PhaseSeparation in the Pyrenoid, an algal microcompartment that fixes a third of the Earth's #CO2 🌏. We combine methods across scales, in vitro 🧪 and in vivo 🦠 Thanks for the very fun collaboration! 🤗 #PlantScience 🌾 #TeamTomo 🔬 #LivingPhysics 🧬🧶

Using #FungiFriday to plug our special issue from last summer, packed with interesting mycology reviews, primers and other pieces...🍄👇 www.cell.com/current-biol...

Calling all OrthoFinder users! We’ve just released GLADE, a tool to infer gene gains, losses, duplications, and ancestral genomes across a phylogeny. GLADE runs directly on OrthoFinder results. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... github.com/lauriebelch/... (1/10)

Excited to share a new piece of work in @embojournal.org Parasitoid wasps hijack a bacterial gene that governs venoms against host. Coauthors include @rokaslab.bsky.social and others. Read more from: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

It's not always that sunny, but Uppsala Uni–especially the Evo Biol Centre (EBC)–is a great place to set up your lab. Apply to join us!

Check out our new review in Nature Reviews Genetics on de novo emerged genes and proteins. How they emerge, are lost and persist - and how de novo emerged proteins relate to randomized proteins! @bornberglab.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The last word on Ctenophores versus Sponges (not). www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Here we go again! Join us in Vienna, May 21–22, for two days of plant science—talks, discussions, and celebration of what makes plants both beautiful and essential 💚Full program + registration here: www.oeaw.ac.at/gmi/news-eve... Come be part of it — each of you counts!

Genetic modification in dinoflagellate algae: Some successes, many failures www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #protists

First paper of my PhD published 🎉 doi.org/10.1186/s129... It's about immunity in acoel worms and its link to photosymbiosis. There's evolution and immune gene expression, but also mortality, dysbiosis, and host responses upon pathogen exposure. With @hejnol.bsky.social and @rimskaya.bsky.social!

Emerging fungal pathogens have detrimental impacts on crops, animals, and humans. This study demonstrates that the fungal transition from saprotroph to opportunistic human pathogen is likely facilitated by adaptive translation. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Eukan: a fully automated nuclear genome annotation pipeline for less studied and divergent eukaryotes academic.oup.com/nargab/artic... #protists

This is a very special paper for me. I had the idea of combining transcription factor binding with chromatin in 2016/8. It took some time, but thanks to Fred and Vikas, we can finally share the story in @plos.org Genetics looking at chromatin states in Arabidopsis and Marchantia. #PlantScience

Genome editing in brown algae! 🧬🪸🌿 Now out in Cell Reports Methods! Excited to share this highly efficient, transgene-free CRISPR–Cas genome editing protocol for brown algae, requiring no cloning and no specialized equipment. doi.org/10.1016/j.cr... #CRISPR #BrownAlgae @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social

🔬🔦Our Imaging spotlight from @hiralshah.bsky.social & team highlights their U-ExM atlas of planktonic eukaryotes, including details on how you can explore this wonderful resource. Plus, check out Hiral’s top tips on getting started with expansion microscopy. focalplane.biologists.com/2026/01/20/i...

Dominant contribution of Asgard archaea to eukaryogenesis. tldr; Best guess, ~ 50% of conserved eukaryotic protein families are from from Asgard archaea! #science #biology #evolution #nature #bioinformatics www.nature.com/articles/s41...