🧵 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...

Prediction of eukaryotic cellular complexity in Asgard archaea using structural modelling - Nature Microbiology

A structural catalogue of the Asgard archaeal pangenome reveals hundreds of eukaryotic-like proteins that suggest a higher degree of cellular complexity in the archaeal ancestor of eukaryotes.

nature.com

Proteomic stress response by a novel methanogen enriched from the Great Salt Lake | bioRxiv https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.29.702513v1?rss=1

Proteomic stress response by a novel methanogen enriched from the Great Salt Lake

Methanogenic archaea affect the climate through their production of the greenhouse gas, methane. However, it is unclear how a changing climate and other anthropogenic influences impact methanogen physiology and consequent methane flux. The Great Salt Lake (GSL) is an environment that has been heavily impacted by human activity; more than doubling its salt concentration since the last methanogen was cultured from it in 1985. In this study, we enriched a novel methanogen, for which we propose the name Candidatus Methanohalophilus hillemani, from the GSL at a time when its salinity reached a historical high. Interestingly, Ca. M. hillemani does not increase expression of energy-conservation or osmo-tolerance proteins when challenged with salinity or oxygen. In contrast, Ca. M. hillemani prioritizes trace metal uptake and immune functions in response to the presence of the sulfate-reducing bacterium Desulfovermiculus . 16S rRNA gene amplicon data from GSL shore soils with extremely high and variable methane flux indicated the presence of Ca. M. hillemani. Our results show that Ca. M. hillemani is active when challenged with environmental stressors and contributes to the methane flux emanating from the GSL.

biorxiv.org

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... The many shapes of magnetosomes! 🤩 Particularly fond of the 'wishbone' shape in the bottom right!

1. As we recently joined BlueSky, we want to repost this story for all newcomers! We sat down with @radler92.bsky.social to get more insight into the unique videos from his recent preprint on Promethearchaeota (formerly Asgard archaea). doi.org/10.1101/2025... (Videos and info below)

Dynamic protrusions mediate unique crawling motility in Asgard Archaea (Promethearchaeota)

Crawling motility is a hallmark of eukaryotic cells and requires a dynamic actin cytoskeleton, regulated adhesion, and spatially organized signalling pathways1–3. Asgard archaea (phylum Promethearchae...

doi.org

“Cultivation of Methanonezhaarchaeia, the third class of methanogens within the phylum Thermoproteota” by @kohtzarchaeota.bsky.social, Sylvia Nupp, and myself is out in Science Advances. 90% enriched culture of a methyl-dismutating thermoproteotal methanogen. #Microsky 🧪 tinyurl.com/bdcc3uzs

Cultivation of Methanonezhaarchaeia, the third class of methanogens within the phylum Thermoproteota

The cultivation of a group of methanogens illuminates their metabolic diversity and the evolution of archaea.

science.org

MSU news article covering our Science Advances paper on Methanonezhaarchaeia, an upcoming paper on the ecology of MCR-encoding Thermoproteota, a (2024) DOE award, and new NSF GRFP and ERFP awards to two of my students, Nicole Matos Vega and Joelie Van Beek #microsky 🦠 www.montana.edu/news/25015/s...

Studies by Montana State scientists reveal importance of experimentation on greenhouse gas-producing organisms

MSU and national lab researchers work together to determine the amount of methane generated by newly discovered microbes.

montana.edu

Roland Hatzenpichler@environmicrobio.bsky.social · 8mo ago

“Cultivation of Methanonezhaarchaeia, the third class of methanogens within the phylum Thermoproteota” by @kohtzarchaeota.bsky.social, Sylvia Nupp, and myself is out in Science Advances. 90% enriched culture of a methyl-dismutating thermoproteotal methanogen. #Microsky 🧪 tinyurl.com/bdcc3uzs

Thanks nature news for featuring our recent preprint on 𝘐𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘦𝘣𝘢 led by @hbrappap.bsky.social (check out preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...) #protistsonsky

Nature@nature.com · 9mo ago

This single-celled amoeba can thrive at temperatures that kill all other known eukaryotic life go.nature.com/4452LXP

Fortunate my DECRA fellowship 'Uncovering divergent hydrogen-dependent methane metabolism in novel Archaea' was successful! Immensely grateful to @greening.bsky.social for the continued support and all present/past collaborators, mentors, and colleagues that made this possible!! tinyurl.com/45cc9ner

MNHS researchers successful in receiving 2026 ARC DECRA and LIEF grants

Monash Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences researchers have been successful in receiving Australian Research Council (ARC) grants under the Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) 2026 scheme ...

monash.edu

Clone-FISH paper out: Manuscript/resource alert #microsky 🦠 We present a collection of 30 E. coli (CloneFISH) cultures, each carrying a plasmid for the heterologous expression of a (near) full-length 16S rRNA gene from one of 30 lineages of archaea, including 17 yet uncultured ones.

Congrats to @quantaofgeorge.bsky.social for being awarded best postdoc talk NeLLi symposium for his phenomenal work on the first successful cultivation of Thiovulum. Mind blowing collective behaviors by the fastest organism per body length on the planet!

Joint Genome Institute@jgi.doe.gov · 12mo ago

Abstracts are due Oct. 19 for the 2025 New Lineages of Life Symposium — 80 slots available! See speakers below. More info: jgi.doe.gov/work-with-us... Full Agenda: jgi.doe.gov/work-with-us... @axelvisel.bsky.social 🖥️🧬

Excited to share our latest work using AI-designed proteins to block heme-piracy by E. coli. Published in @natcomms.nature.com. A team effort between my lab and the ‪‪@knottrna.bsky.social‬ ‬lab, with experimental work led by the talented @danielrfox.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Inhibiting heme piracy by pathogenic Escherichia coli using de novo-designed proteins - Nature Communications

Many pathogens encode transporters that extract heme directly from host proteins. In this study, the authors demonstrate the utility of de novo-designed proteins in understanding the mechanism behind ...

nature.com

Electron flow in hydrogenotrophic methanogens under nickel limitation www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

Electron flow in hydrogenotrophic methanogens under nickel limitation - Nature

Two distantly related methanogens shift the methanogenic pathway under nickel limitation, suggesting that methanogens adapt to changing bioavailability of nickel by rerouting electron flow between two...

nature.com

Our new consensus statement on reducing and reporting contamination in microbiome studies is the cover image of this month's Nature Microbiology: www.nature.com/articles/s41... In the cover photo, you can see our postdoc Sophie Holland in fully PPE sampling the atmosphere of terrestrial Antarctica.

New #methanogen culture just dropped! Check out the 'Methanonezhaarchaeia'! Happy to see this one out. A new methylotrophic methanogen cultivated from a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park. Gives insights into the metabolic diversity and evolution of this group. #microsky 🦠🔥 tinyurl.com/yw8ku2bj

Hydrogenase-driven ATP synthesis from air www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs

In an unprecedented move, the US National Institutes of Health has begun mass terminations of research grants that fund active scientific projects because they no longer meet “agency priorities”. https://go.nature.com/4bpG2It

Exclusive: NIH to terminate hundreds of active research grants

Studies that touch on LGBT+ health, gender identity and DEI in the biomedical workforce could be terminated, according to documents obtained by Nature.

go.nature.com

Just got an email from the Fulbright Association. As of right now, funding has been cut off to 12,500 US citizens currently abroad and and more than 7,400 foreigner scholars and students in the United States

Isolated in just 3 years! (previously, 12 years). We obtained two strains from 'Hodarchaeales', proposed to be closest to our archaeal ancestor. Our analysis suggests the ancestor was an anaerobic, syntrophic, peptidotrophic, archaeon with a simple intracellular structure and possible aerotolerance.

Eukaryotes' closest relatives are internally simple syntrophic archaea

Eukaryotes are theorized to have originated from an archaeal phylum Promethearchaeota (formerly 'Asgard' archaea)1,2. The first cultured representatives revealed valuable insight3,4 but are distantly ...

biorxiv.org

Here's the promised natural product preprint: Flavoaffinins, elusive cellulose-binding natural products from an anaerobic bacterium. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Would you expect that Bacteria use an archaellum for swimming? We didn't, but we found that some Chloroflexota do! Find the story here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A little thread below 1/n

Horizontal gene transfer of the functional archaellum machinery to Bacteria

Motility in Archaea is driven by a nanomachinery called the archaellum. So far, archaella have been exclusively described for the archaeal domain; however, a recent study reported the presence of arch...

biorxiv.org

Conformational dynamics of a multienzyme complex in anaerobic carbon fixation www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Conformational dynamics of a multienzyme complex in anaerobic carbon fixation

In the ancient microbial Wood-Ljungdahl pathway, carbon dioxide (CO2) is fixed in a multistep process that ends with acetyl–coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) synthesis at the bifunctional carbon monoxide dehydr...

science.org

@quantaofgeorge.bsky.social was on @markowenmartin.bsky.social's Matters Microbial podcast to talk about his PhD work on multicellular magnetotactic bacteria in my lab. Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJom... Podcast of your choice: www.microbe.tv/mm/mm-076/

To update people on the NSF PRFB situation: despite the court challenge and rescinding the original memo, the NSF has continued to comply with the executive order. They have not communicated with us at all and our paychecks are still canceled indefinitely. I know people who cannot pay their rent.

Methanol transfer supports metabolic syntrophy between bacteria and archaea www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Methanol transfer supports metabolic syntrophy between bacteria and archaea - Nature

Zhaonella formicivorans produces methanol, for a novel syntrophic interaction, without requiring methylated compounds as an input.

nature.com

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...

Quinone extraction drives atmospheric carbon monoxide oxidation in bacteria - Nature Chemical Biology

Here, Kropp et al. use cryo-electron microscopy and structural modeling to show that the enzyme [MoCu]-CO dehydrogenase interacts with its partner, the membrane-bound quinone-binding protein CoxG, to ...

nature.com

American science and medicine has been thrown into chaos and uncertainty over the past week. Here are some stories to get up to speed. 1/12

I am very honored that our paper was selected by PLOS Biology as one of the editors top pics for 2024!

PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org · 2y ago

As we reach the end of 2024, this Editorial celebrates an amazing year of science for #PLOSBiology and the life sciences more broadly: plos.io/3BqPSwc 🧪 And from the Staff Editors at PLOS Biology, we thank everyone who continues to support the journal - and happy holidays!🎄

New paper out on which I am a co author on studies of metagenomes from Tramway Ridge in Antarctica phylogenomics.me/2024/12/19/n...

New paper out from studies of metagenomes from Tramway Ridge in Antarctica

I am a co-author on a new paper that just came out. Nutritional niches of potentially endemic, facultatively anaerobic heterotrophs from an isolated Antarctic terrestrial hydrothermal refugium eluc…

phylogenomics.me

I apologise for HydDB being down. Aarhus University decided to stop hosting it at quite short notice. However, we plan to relaunch first thing next year and are in the midst of creating a much-needed HydDB 2.0. HydDB 1.0 is good for hydrogenase information, but our HMMs best for classification. 1/2

Kelly Wrighton & colleagues out in Nature today "A functional #microbiome catalogue crowdsourced from North American rivers" www.nature.com/articles/s41... commentary: agsci.source.colostate.edu/researchers-... @csusoilcropsci.bsky.social on #environment #microsky 🧬 🦠🧪

CSU researchers catalog the microbiome of U.S. rivers

CSU scientists have detailed the presence and function of microorganisms in rivers covering 90% of the watersheds in the continental U.S.

agsci.source.colostate.edu