🧬 Diatoms are an extraordinarily diverse group of photosynthetic organisms, with tens of thousands of described species. Yet technical challenges still limit large-scale diatom genome production. EBP projects and biodiversity genomics R&D teams are working to solve them. 🌊🔬 #Diatoms #Biodiversity

🔬 We have an open PhD position at SLU Uppsala! We're looking for a curious & driven PhD student to join the #ECOPHARM project funded by @kawresearch.bsky.social and investigate plasmid-dependent phages in aquatic ecosystems. Pls share with anyone who might be interested! www.slu.se/en/about-slu...

Diversity of Plasmid-Dependent Phages in Aquatic Ecosystems | slu.se

SLU - Science and Education for Sustainable Life

slu.se

Phage–host interactions are a key driver of microbial ecology, but observing them in nature is hard! With metaHi-C, we detect freshwater phage–host pairs and link their infection dynamics to evolution. Together with @nadal-molero.bsky.social & Ana Martin-Cuadrado www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Excited to see our new work published! We have established the evolutionary and ecological context of our favorite model Caulobacter and made some unexpected findings. Who would have thought that close relatives lack dimorphism? And have potential for phototrophy? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Widespread potential for phototrophy and convergent reduction of lifecycle complexity in the dimorphic order Caulobacterales - Nature Communications

This study maps out the diversity and evolution of the bacterial order Caulobacterales, including the model organism C. crescentus, which reveals widespread phototrophy and illuminates the evolution o...

nature.com

It is an honour to receive this amazing support by the @kawresearch.bsky.social to decipher interactions between plasmid-dependent phages, plasmids and their shared bacterial host! Excited to work on this topic and explore the secrets of their coevolution! #ECOPHARM

Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation@kawresearch.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Another 27 promising researchers will now receive five-year basic research grants from Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. This funding provides researchers in the beginning of their careers with the opportunity to contribute groundbreaking new knowledge #research #science tinyurl.com/yu4svfjh

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

Cool! 😊

Ramunas Stepanauskas@rstepanauskas.bsky.social · 9mo ago

It has been gratifying to collaborate with Atrandi Biosciences in the development of a novel approach to analyze the genomes of individual extracellular genetic elements, which revealed the abundance of viruses with non-canonical DNA in the ocean: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Viruses and virus satellites of haloarchaea and their nanosized DPANN symbionts reveal intricate nested interactions Out now in Nature Microbiology, by Yifan Zhou, Mart Krupovic & colleagues. @mkrupovic.bsky.social @yifanzhou.bsky.social @deemteam.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Viruses and virus satellites of haloarchaea and their nanosized DPANN symbionts reveal intricate nested interactions - Nature Microbiology

An exploration of the viromes of haloarchaea and their ultra-small DPANN symbionts reveals plasmid-derived satellites of viruses from both archaeal groups, highlighting the complexity of nested symbio...

nature.com

How to upgrade stolen organelles into permanent plastids: A comparative transcriptomic perspective www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1... #protists #protistsonsky

Pretty excited to share our new preprint! Non-photosynthetic Plastid Replacement by a Primary Plastid in the Making www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

OIST is seeking up to four tenure-track or tenured faculty in Ecology, Environmental Science, Earth Science, and Oceanography. Application deadline: Oct 15. Please share. Thx! www.oist.jp/careers/facu...

#Arctic #algae aren't immobile or entombed. They're not just surviving either—they're gliding into record books phys.org/news/2025-09... Ice gliding #diatoms establish record-low temperature limits for motility in a eukaryotic cell www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #protists #microbes #extremophiles

Phage "satellites" that produce capsids but have no genes to produce tails have puzzled scientists for a long time. These are abundant as prophages in bacteria, but it was unclear how they can infect without tails Now, Penadés & co show that they hijack tails from other phages. Incredible!

José R Penadés@jrpenades.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Thrilled to share our two latest papers with the @tcostalab.bsky.social lab! In the first, we uncover a new mechanism of satellite transfer: cf-PICIs hijack tails from diverse phages to spread across species. @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Please help me identify these. They are of freshwater origin and have chlorophyll.

New short paper from our lab @currentbiology.bsky.social, in which we discover of a new mode of cell motility for choanoflagellates: flagellar gliding. www.cell.com/current-biol... - A 🧵

Flagellar gliding in choanoflagellates

Freire-Delgado and Brunet discover a new mode of cell motility in choanoflagellates, the closest relatives of animals. Under mild confinement, choanoflagellate move over surfaces without cell deformat...

cell.com

Congrats to all grantees but a special 👏 to @messorensen.bsky.social. It’s always so nice to see past lab members go on to great successes. Also this is not the first time that my department (dept of Organismal Biology) is the only department at #UppsalaUniversity receiving an ERC grant

European Research Council (ERC)@erc.europa.eu · 11mo ago

In 2025, successful ERC Starting Grant applicants have 51 different nationalities and will carry out their projects in 25 countries. This round of grants is estimated to create some 3,000 jobs within the teams of the new grantees. More facts and figures 👉 buff.ly/ixs2NRf

Check out our new paper on adopting a trait-based framework for protist diversity! We make the case for a unified protist trait database, how to build it, and how it could transform research on protist ecology and evolution. #protistsonsky

Pierre Ramond@pierreramond.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Hello there 🦋 Happy to share our piece "Towards a trait-based framework for protist ecology and evolution" in @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social Let's build a unified trait 📏 database to unlock transformative insights into protist 🔬 ecology 🌍 and evolution ⏳ ▶️ doi.org/10.1016/j.ti... #protistsonsky

Phosphorus constrains global photosynthesis more than nitrogen does www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

Phosphorus constrains global photosynthesis more than nitrogen does - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Nitrogen and phosphorus limitations are both key to spatial patterns and temporal trends in primary production. This global analysis indicates that phosphorus limitation on terrestrial primary product...

nature.com

Behind the Paper by Michaela M Salcher Why cultivation still matters in microbiology communities.springernature.com/posts/why-cu...

Why cultivation still matters in microbiology

The majority of aquatic microbes are still uncultivated. Here, we cultivated 627 strains of abundant freshwater bacteria from 14 lakes, thus generating a collection that includes many previously uncul...

communities.springernature.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

Interested in eukaryotic algal evolution, metagenomics, new plastid diversity, and more? Check out my poster (P175) today at #eseb2025 ! #protistsonsky

On hidden protist diversity (unfortunately the data is not available yet) #protistsonsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Global Metagenomics Reveals Hidden Protist Diversity

Protists, defined as unicellular eukaryotes distinct from animals, plants, and fungi, are a polyphyletic group that predominates the eukaryotic tree of life, exhibiting significant phylogenetic divers...

biorxiv.org