Julie Boisard
@protistsforthewin.bsky.social
Protists are the best ICM, Molevol, Stairs Lab Uppsala University, Sweden Genome Architecture in Early-Diverging Eukaryotes 🦠🧬 julieboisard.github.io 💻
⏰ The countdown is on! Only 7 days remain to register for CGUE2026. Five days of cutting-edge science, inspiring discussions and networking with the international community studying the evolution and diversity of unicellular eukaryotes. #ComparativeGenomics #Protistology #Protists #Microbiology
Check out the draft program for the Comparative Genomics of Unicellular Eukaryotes meeting! Want to attend? Are you a speaker? Registration is open until May 4, please do this sooner rather than later to help us in the organization of the meeting comparativegenomics2026.com/program/
Program – CGUE 2026
comparativegenomics2026.com
We stumbled upon an unusual gene called 'rqua' in the genome of some freshwater sponges. In microbes, this gene confers the ability to make a ubiquinone analog - rhodoquinone - which can help the respiratory chain run without oxygen.
Courtney Stairs@cstairs.bsky.social · 4mo agoWe tested the efficacy of semi-permeable capsules to capture protists from cultures and environmental samples using the Onyx from @atrandi.bsky.social. Tremendous effort from everyone in the lab and led by Marco Fantini and Nik Brask - check out the videos here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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
I am happy to share the unfinished but nevertheless fascinating autobiography of the late Thomas Cavalier-Smith, written in 2020, shortly before Tom passed away in 2021. I thank Ema Cavalier-Smith for sharing the text with me. I recently finished curating […] [Original post on biologists.social]
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
biorxiv.org
Check out our latest pre-print of our favourite pets - the breviates. This work was led by Zhezhen Yi in collaboration with @andrewjroger.bsky.social and many others! By studying diverse breviates we were able to see how different metabolic pathways can evolved in response to low-oxygen.
biorxiv.org
New preprint out! Using ~75k environmental OTUs + 77 fossil calibrations, we reconstructed a Proterozoic timeline of eukaryote evolution. Our results show crown eukaryotes were already diversifying >1.6 Ga, long before the first undisputed fossils (~1.05 Ga). 🔗 DOI: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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!!
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
Now completely published :) Really proud of this paper led with Karla at @cstairs.bsky.social lab. doi.org/10.1093/isme...
Anaerobic breviate protist survival in microcosms depends on microbiome metabolic function
Abstract. Anoxic and hypoxic environments serve as habitats for diverse microorganisms, including unicellular eukaryotes (protists) and prokaryotes. To thr
doi.org
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
How did life get multicellular? Five simple organisms could have the answer
Single-celled species that often stick together in colonies have researchers rethinking the origin of animals.
go.nature.com
New lab pre-print up! "Twelve species of human parasites make up half the literature on microbial eukaryotes" doi.org/10.1101/2025... We (led by UG Joanna Lepper and with @hbrappap.bsky.social) quantified all mentions of protist species in the scientific literature 🧵 #protistsonsky #microsky
Twelve species of human parasites make up half of the literature on microbial eukaryotes
Although microbial eukaryotes comprise the majority of eukaryotic phylogenetic diversity and inhabit nearly all ecosystems globally, most research focuses on only a few species of human parasites. Her...
doi.org
Check out our recent publication on breviate protists and their microbial communities. In this study, led by PhD student Karla and postdoc Julie, we found that breviate growth under anoxia might be dependent on the metabolic capabilities of the prokaryotes they live with. doi.org/10.1093/isme...
pendingpublications
Pending Publication
doi.org
Got lucky to spot some adorable puffins hanging out in the Faroe Islands 🐧🐧📸🪶
The first issue of Amoeba Discovery is here! This marks the beginning of a new magazine for exploration, creativity, and collaboration across #protistsonsky. Endless thanks to @zlatogursky.bsky.social for the stunning cover illustration! Read the full (free) issue: stefanluketa.com/amoeba-disco...
Attention ancient environmental DNA folks. In our recent preprint, we provide coordinates of microbial-like regions (contaminated or evolutionary conserved or convergent) for 4,294 eukaryotic reference genomes.
Registration is now open for the Protistology Nordics meeting 12–13 May in Jyväskylä #protistsonsky www.jyu.fi/en/events/pr...
Protistology in the Nordics 2025
Come share your exciting new research in all areas of Protistology.
jyu.fi
Application deadline is today! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions! 🧪 #protistsonsky @uniofbath.bsky.social
Corey Holt@coreyholt.bsky.social · 2y agoInterested in protist parasites? Want to learn some fun bioinformatics? Think this apicomplexan looks cool? Great! Come and do some protist genomics at @uniofbath.bsky.social! We're advertising a fully-funded PhD studentship open to UK & International applicants! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Looking at bioinformaticians’ profiles these days, you'd think everyone has decades of experience in cutting-edge single-cell and AI-driven bioinformatics. But something’s missing… 👇
Winter break reading 🍄 Protists are still the best, but fungi are a close second!
4th meeting of Protistology Nordics will be at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland from 12– 13 May 2025 www.jyu.fi/en/events/pr... #protist #protistsonsky @uniofjyvaskyla.bsky.social
Protistology in the Nordics 2025
Come share your exciting new research in all areas of Protistology.
jyu.fi
It was only a matter of time. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Transposable element exonization generates a reservoir of evolving and functional protein isoforms
Transposable element exonization by unannotated splicing events produces stable protein isoforms with acquired functions that are subject to evolutionary selection.
cell.com
