Rogier Braakman
@rogierbraakman.bsky.social
Studying metabolic evolution, microbial macroevolution, biospheric self-organization, and the feedbacks between Earth and life. Dad, Husband, Scientist. https://rogierbraakman.com/
📣 Check out this new C-CoMP publication led by one of our Bridge-to-PhD fellow alums! Congrats to all authors! 🧪
Rogier Braakman@rogierbraakman.bsky.social · 2mo agoNew paper led by Hannah Goldberg on the diversity of hydrogen peroxide detoxification in marine microbes! Wonderful @microbialplanet.bsky.social collaboration with Sonya Dyhrman, Michelle DeMers and Gwen Hennon! enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
New paper led by Hannah Goldberg on the diversity of hydrogen peroxide detoxification in marine microbes! Wonderful @microbialplanet.bsky.social collaboration with Sonya Dyhrman, Michelle DeMers and Gwen Hennon! enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Forces Shaping Diversity of Hydrogen Peroxide Detoxification Potential in Ocean Microbial Ecosystems
Marine microbes which lack catalases, like Prochlorococcus, depend on ‘helpers’, like catalase-positive Alteromonas, for hydrogen peroxide detoxification. Our results indicate diverse and distinct di...
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
This project wouldn't been possible without Peter Doubleday and @nzamboni.bsky.social at @imsb-eth.bsky.social. Peter conducted >10,000 mass spec analyses 🤯. So grateful for this opportunity to team up with the best of the best in metabolomics 😍 Read more: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #microsky
Snorre Sulheim@sulheim.bsky.social · 8mo agoDo you think transporters in E. coli contribute to metabolite release? No? Explore the effect of 66 different transporter knockout mutations on the exometabolome dynamics of ~300 metabolites yourself: keio.unil.ch Teaser: Increased proline in ΔputP #microsky #MEvoSky
The final version of our paper is out! Congrats to @zhuyt0515.bsky.social bsky.social, Hanna Anderson and the rest of the team at @microbialplanet.bsky.social Characterization of phytoplankton-excreted metabolites mediating carbon flux through the surface ocean www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Characterization of phytoplankton-excreted metabolites mediating carbon flux through the surface ocean | PNAS
The marine labile dissolved organic carbon (DOC) pool is a dynamic reservoir of thousands of molecules that cycles approximately one-quarter of Ear...
pnas.org
Rogier Braakman@rogierbraakman.bsky.social · 9mo agoSuper excited to be part of this beautiful effort led by @zhuyt0515.bsky.social and Hanna Anderson! A true team effort to characterize diversity in phytoplankton-excreted metabolites and identify key chemical currencies within the ocean ecosystem and carbon cycle www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
New preprint to close out the year! Led by Alana Papula and together with Daniel Fisher, we used single-cell genomes to infer the evolution of Prochlorococcus—one of the most abundant and genetically diverse bacteria on Earth. Check it out here: doi.org/10.64898/202...
Extensive recombination, selection, and asexual blooms shape the diversity of the dominant clade of Prochlorococcus
The tiny and enormously abundant marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus marinus contains many levels of population structure, with sequenced isolates spanning four orders of magnitude of diversity. It ...
doi.org
Excited to share the first results from my postdoc at @dmf-unil.bsky.social with @saramitri.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Microbes release lower-value metabolites at higher rates
Microbes release a wide range of metabolites into their environment, yet the reasons for this release and the factors that influence release rates are not well understood. Here, using a combination of...
biorxiv.org
Come be my colleague at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. We're hiring an assistant professor in Ocean Biogeochemical Modeling. 🌊
Career Opportunities at the University of Hawai'i | University of Hawai'i
schooljobs.com
Huge paper for the Arctic Ocean published today in @science.org - a new 30,000 year history of Arctic Ocean sea-ice cover reconstructed from the accumulation of cosmic dust-derived helium-3! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... (1/n)
Cosmic dust reveals dynamic shifts in central Arctic sea-ice coverage over the past 30,000 years
Arctic sea-ice loss affects biological productivity, sustenance in coastal communities, and geopolitics. Forecasting these impacts requires mechanistic understanding of how Arctic sea ice responds to ...
science.org
📣New preprint alert! Check out this new preprint by Zhu et al. that quantifies and compares labile exometabolites from six axenic strains of marine phytoplankton 🌊 to identify key chemical currencies within the marine chemical-microbial network! 🧪🦠
Rogier Braakman@rogierbraakman.bsky.social · 9mo agoSuper excited to be part of this beautiful effort led by @zhuyt0515.bsky.social and Hanna Anderson! A true team effort to characterize diversity in phytoplankton-excreted metabolites and identify key chemical currencies within the ocean ecosystem and carbon cycle www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Super excited to be part of this beautiful effort led by @zhuyt0515.bsky.social and Hanna Anderson! A true team effort to characterize diversity in phytoplankton-excreted metabolites and identify key chemical currencies within the ocean ecosystem and carbon cycle www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Characterization of Phytoplankton-Excreted Metabolites Mediating Carbon Flux through the Surface Ocean
The marine labile dissolved organic carbon (DOC) pool is a dynamic reservoir of thousands of molecules that cycles approximately one-quarter of Earth primary production within days to weeks. After exc...
biorxiv.org
📣#MTTM Mariana Torres (martorres.bsky.social) is a C-CoMP B2P Fellow working with @rogierbraakman.bsky.social @mit.edu. Using computational methods, they are investigating environmental drivers of carbon cycle metabolism dynamics in the North Atlantic Ocean 🌊.
New paper out! In it i review the context and implications of the "chitin raft hypothesis" for how cyanobacteria colonized the open ocean. Included is a new perspective on why there were two major stages of atmospheric oxygenation over Earth history. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
The chitin raft hypothesis for the colonization of the open ocean by cyanobacteria | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
It is often assumed planktonic cyanobacteria existed in Precambrian oceans, but that their productivity was constrained. However, available evidence suggests picocyanobacteria only colonized the open ...
royalsocietypublishing.org
Assessing cellular metabolic dynamics with NAD(P)H fluorescence polarization imaging https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.28.667273v1
Our latest, and the second paper led by Jordan Coelho this year. Want to remove bacteria from POM for single-cell microbiology/culturing/'omics applications? We've got some data: Detergent-based separation of microbes from marine particles www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs 🌊
Detergent-based separation of microbes from marine particles
Marine particles, typically composed of organic detritus and cellular debris, harbor microbial communities that are distinct from the planktonic, or free-living, communities in the pelagic ocean. Howe...
biorxiv.org
Job alert! We have a postdoc position available in the Stelkens Lab at Stockholm University. Join us and apply experimental evolution and comparative genomics in the model system yeast to test for parallel climate adaptation. Apply through this link: su.varbi.com/en/what:job/... Deadline 15 August.
This looks very cool - congrats!
Cameron Thrash@jcamthrash.bsky.social · last yr.Our latest, lead by @ahoiching.bsky.social, uncovering physiological vulnerabilities and helping to explain growth rate limitation in SAR11. Cell cycle dysregulation of globally important SAR11 bacteria resulting from environmental perturbation www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs
A new paper in Nature Ecol & Evol by @rosafernandez.bsky.social et al. shows a #punctuated burst of genome evolution in #annelids as they transitioned from marine to land and freshwater habitats.
‼️I'm looking for a postdoc‼️ Come join effort in using metagenomes to quantify microbial catabolic potential and carbon substrate availability at the ecosystem level. We seek to understand evolutionary forces shaping the carbon cycle. Part of ccomp-stc.org careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...
Postdoctoral Associate
MIT - Postdoctoral Associate - Cambridge MA 02139
careers.peopleclick.com
New preprint is out where we report a new obligate (?) methylotrophic bacteria with diel cycle of methanol dehydrogenase transcription in surface seawater, with implications for marine lanthanide and carbon cycling. Where the methanol comes from is a mystery! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Excited to give a virtual seminar in the NASA LIFE RCN series next Tuesday June 10th, at 8am PST/11am EST. I'll be talking about the Chitin Raft Hypothesis and the rise of planktonic marine cyanobacteria. 🧪🦠⚒️🌐 #Paleobio #MEvoSky #MicroSky www.lifercn.org/events/2025-...
2025 LIFE RCN Seminar Series Episode 1: Dr. Rogier Braakman — LIFE Research Coordination Network
On June 10th, 2025, at 8AM PDT/11AM EDT, the LIFE RCN will be excited to introduce Dr. Rogier Braakman, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an adjunct scientist at Th...
lifercn.org
Great opportunity to awesome science!
A. Murat Eren (Meren)@merenbey.bsky.social · last yr.We have a new 3-year postdoc position in our group at the @hifmb.de to study plasmids and plasmids systems of the marine environment to survey their utility in microbial responses to environmental change. Please see the official job ad here, and spread the word: jobs.awi.de/Vacancies/20...
Excited to give a virtual seminar in the NASA LIFE RCN series next Tuesday June 10th, at 8am PST/11am EST. I'll be talking about the Chitin Raft Hypothesis and the rise of planktonic marine cyanobacteria. 🧪🦠⚒️🌐 #Paleobio #MEvoSky #MicroSky www.lifercn.org/events/2025-...
2025 LIFE RCN Seminar Series Episode 1: Dr. Rogier Braakman — LIFE Research Coordination Network
On June 10th, 2025, at 8AM PDT/11AM EDT, the LIFE RCN will be excited to introduce Dr. Rogier Braakman, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an adjunct scientist at Th...
lifercn.org
Revamped pre-print with updated title: The chitin raft hypothesis for the colonization of the open ocean by cyanobacteria. In this paper i discuss the broader context and implications of the hypothesis. 🧪🦠⚒️🌍🌐 #Paleobio #MEvoSky #MicroSky eartharxiv.org/repository/v...
The chitin raft hypothesis for the colonization of the open ocean by cyanobacteria
eartharxiv.org
Our latest, led by @jameswclark.bsky.social of @milnerevolution.bsky.social shows that the notorious mismatch between molecular and palaeontological estimates for the timing of origin of angiosperms is a consequence of equivocal interpretation of their fossil record @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social
Uncertainty in the timing of diversification of flowering plants rests with equivocal interpretation of their fossil record | Royal Society Open Science
The timing of the origin of crown-angiosperms exemplifies the impact of competing approaches to establishing evolutionary timescales. Fossils of unequivocal crown-angiosperms are not known from before...
royalsocietypublishing.org
Fascinating! I have always wondered about how to think about the impact of gradual vs punctuated evolutionary dynamics on (my interest is particularly microbial) phylogenetic clock models. This paper seems to offer a general framework for doing so
Sergi Valverde@svalver.bsky.social · last yr.Douglas et al. shows that up to 99% of evolutionary change occur at branching points across genes, morphology, and language. A major step for punctuated evolution, aligning with our goal of a unified framework. @nilese.bsky.social @andrejpaleo.bsky.social #EvoBio #CultEvo doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
Want to learn more about #kelp distributions and environmental parameters? Check out our paper led by Aaron Eger and Georgina Wood) and app - An Environmental Niche Exploration Tool for Kelp Forest Management onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... & www.kelpee.info
An Environmental Niche Exploration Tool for Kelp Forest Management
The kelp niche explorer is a tool which allows users to understand the optimal environmental conditions for kelp forest conservation at the regional level. The tool is adaptable and provides an easy ...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
This paper led by @tommaso-jucker.bsky.social was fun to participate in: The global spectrum of tree crown architecture, www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Now online!
The global spectrum of tree crown architecture - Nature Communications
Trees come in all shapes and size, but what drives this incredible variation in tree form remains poorly understood. Using a global dataset, the authors show that a combination of climate, competition...
nature.com
Now published in PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
pnas.org
Molly Przeworski@mollyprz.bsky.social · 2y ago“The distribution of highly deleterious variants across human ancestry groups”. Preprint with Anastasia Stolyarova and @gcbias.bsky.social: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Breakthrough paper from Emily Zakem & co on understanding heterotrophic marine microbes. Introduces concept of “slopiotrophs”, ie “slow copiotrophs” (we generally think of copiotrophs as fast growing) which degrade more recalcitrant forms of organic carbon at depth www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Functional biogeography of marine microbial heterotrophs
Heterotrophic bacteria and archaea (“heteroprokaryotes”) drive global carbon cycling, but how to quantitatively organize their functional complexity remains unclear. We generated a global-scale unders...
science.org