Who needs chromatin anyway...? NOT THIS GUY! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/n

Chromatin is dispensable for bacterial life

Inside cells, DNA is intimately associated with proteins, forming chromatin. The protein constituents of chromatin vary across the tree of life: histones are the principal building blocks of chromatin...

biorxiv.org

Freaking finally! A massive compilation of data that sat on various desks for almost a decade is finally out. On the positive side, gave me time to learn expansion microscopy and make Fig 1 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Emergent metabolic parasitism driven by organelle sequestration

Chloroplast-stealing ciliates evolve, increasing reliance on their prey for all aspects of metabolism, including photosynthesis.

science.org

Graphing and statistically analyzing data is challenging without coding expertise. This Community Page by @avishenoy.bsky.social introduces grafify online, a free, browser app for generating publication-quality graphs and performing statistical tests and comparisons. 🧪 #AcademicSky plos.io/3RpUg6E

We knew Toxoplasma Type I needs fats to survive in culture. Now we show this in Toxoplasma Type II, responsible for most human infections in Europe and North America. Blocking fatty acid elongation reduced growth and persistence in lab culture and in animals. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Reviewer #2 is ready to read your paper.

Cryptosporidium sequentially remodels its single rhoptry into the host interface https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.21.739819v1

Regulation of gene expression in the #parasite #Leishmania is largely post-transcriptional, but how is it controlled? This study shows that modification of tRNAs by #quenosine influences codon-biased translation and contributes to Leishmania virulence @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4bwvAjs

Out Now! Prioritizing prenatal screening to prevent Chagas disease #MicroSky

We have a new preprint out! This time, we discovered that correct mitochondrial positioning in Toxoplasma is important for the metabolism of key cofactors and for sensing conditions that drive parasite egress. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Sorry I was late to the meeting. The dog had to spin around 80 times to make sure he was pooping at the right angle.

In their Review, Prasanna Katti, Antentor Hinton, Jr and colleagues discuss how imaging techniques have advanced our understanding of mitochondrial biology. journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Hot off the biorxiv press! 🔥 Samuel Lara-Reyna finds GBP5 enhances macrophage glycolysis via glucose uptake, GTPase activity dependent and as being cis-Golgi localised. Bonus finding, GBP5 is important for full M1 macrophage functionality. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

📆 Join the 2026 Biology of Host–Parasite Interactions GRC (June 7–12, Newport, RI) 🌟 Cutting-edge science, open slots for talks & posters 🧑‍🔬 GRS for grad students & postdocs the weekend before 📩 Apply by May 18, 2026 (early submission encouraged) 👉 Details & application: www.grc.org/biology-of-h...

As the review process goes, take a sneak peak of our exciting manuscript. I'll make a proper thread when it's fully out!

bioRxivpreprint@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Intestinal Barrier Loss Enables Microbiota-Mediated Purinergic Suppression During Malaria https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.22.701153v1

Are you sure you’re working???

Interested in how infections cause seizures? Then, read on! We discovered that Toxoplasma selectively eliminates inhibitory synapses in brain. You will study how these synapses are removed. Please send brief review of research interests and goals, CV, and names of 3 refs to: iblader@vt.edu.

Isadonna Tengganu and Ke Hu develop transfection and ExM protocols for Chromera velia, enabling direct comparisons with its parasitic apicomplexan relative, Toxoplasma gondi. journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Oxidative phosphorylation complexes contain subunits encoded by both the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. How do cells coordinate the synthesis and assembly of these complexes at the inner membrane? We teamed up with Martin Ott (@mitolab.bsky.social) to address this in two recent papers.

Save the date‼️ 💡 More information coming soon about registration and the scientific program. #TOXO18 #Toxoplasma #Immunoparasitology #Buzios2026 #ScienceByTheSea

Happy to share the Biodiversity Cell Atlas white paper, out today in @nature.com. We look at the possibilities, challenges, and potential impacts of molecularly mapping cells across the tree of life. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Geographic distribution of human toxoplasmosis

Favorite time of the year!

#Mitochondrial proteins are synthesized with presequences that target them to the #mitochondrion, but why are some more efficient than others? This study identifies presequences which recruit Hsp90 co-chaperones & TOMM34 to confer prioritized import efficiency @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4m6spBN

Aye-ayes are clearly unusual, but @glom.bsky.social @3rdreviewer.bsky.social &co show that they also have an unusual pattern of #MutationBias; older females transmit more mutations than males. This is a first for mammals, raising questions about other #lemurs 🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/40SR4kj

It is impossible to work from home.

Excited to be able to share our new paper 'Iron Mediated Post-Transcriptional Regulation in Toxoplasma gondii'! Thanks to all involved including the awesome @clarehardinglab.bsky.social and @danaaghabi.bsky.social! journals.plos.org/plospathogen.... Read on for quick-read digest of our new work...

Iron-mediated post-transcriptional regulation in Toxoplasma gondii

Author summary Although iron is essential for most cells, excess can be toxic, so uptake and storage must be carefully controlled. The ability to respond to iron is particularly important for parasite...

journals.plos.org

I haven’t posted anything yet, but my first post shows my new city and my best paw. He’s not a Colts fan anymore.