Jobs: My fantastic membrane biologist colleague Satyajit Mayor (warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/med/...) has a really exciting single molecule #biophysics PDRA position currently advertised based at @warwickmed.bsky.social warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...

New paper! 🚀 A high-affinity anti- #mNeonGreen #nanobody turns #mNG into a #multifunctional Tag. @nanotag.bsky.social decided to openly share the #nanobody for research use. Not common, but we strongly believe well-defined reagents are key for reproducible science. We hope you find it useful! 💚

Nice work "IntAct-U-ExM enables super-resolution imaging of isoform-specific actin networks across species": dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour... 👉endogenously tagged beta and gamma actin inside the nuclear compartment- how cool is that?!

wow! this indeed fantastic.

Saravanan Palani@syncellbiolab.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Our new paper in @plosbiology.org introduces IntAct-U-ExM enabling isoform-specific imaging of actin at nanoscale across yeast, mammalian cells & primary neurons. Fabulous work spearheaded by @anubhavdhar.bsky.social along with an amazing team! #actin #U-ExM journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Our new paper in @plosbiology.org introduces IntAct-U-ExM enabling isoform-specific imaging of actin at nanoscale across yeast, mammalian cells & primary neurons. Fabulous work spearheaded by @anubhavdhar.bsky.social along with an amazing team! #actin #U-ExM journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

One of biggest mysteries in biology: how did complex eukaryotic cells evolve from simple microbes? ~1.8 billion years ago, an archaeal cell likely merged with a bacterium to form the first eukaryotic cell, but can we ever find direct evidence of this transformative event? 🦠 🚶‍♂️

Our latest preprint: Together with the team of Jan Löwe, @danieltamarit.bsky.social and many others we discovered and characterized several Asgard tubulin genes and propose that microtubule architecture and dynamics evolved in Asgard archaea prior to eukaryogenesis www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How short can a degron be? A compact, genetically encoded, 9-aa tunable degron that drives MDM2-dependent degradation enabling precise control of protein levels from yeast to human cells. Thanks to @eswarappalab.bsky.social for the opportunity to explore this in yeast. #Degron #Yeast #CellBiology 🧬

Eswarappa Lab IISc@eswarappalab.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Interested in tunable protein degradation? Check out our new preprint describing a compact, portable degron derived from MTCH2: doi.org/10.64898/202... Led by Lekha EM Saubhik Som Ramon Boro Sandeep Eswarappa Great collaboration w/ Anubhav Dhar Eepsitha @syncellbiolab.bsky.social #iiscbangalore

SAVE THE DATE! The next instalment of the long-running Bacterial and Archaeal Cell Division Conference will take place at www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels..., Italy from the 20th to 23rd of April 2027. Organisers: me, @s-lab.bsky.social, @awehenkel.bsky.social. More info soon. #MicroSky

Twelve scientists from Chile, India, Nigeria, Singapore and Taiwan have been selected as new EMBO Global Investigators – Congratulations to the new cohort! 🧪 Read the press release: https://www.embo.org/press-releases/twelve-scientists-become-embo-global-investigators/ #funding #training

Honored and super excited to join the EMBO Global Investigator Programme! Heartfelt thanks to @embo.org for this recognition. This achievement belongs to my fantastic team at Indian Institute of Science, and to all mentors, colleagues & collaborators whose support truly made it possible. ✨

EMBO@embo.org · 8mo ago

Twelve scientists from Chile, India, Nigeria, Singapore and Taiwan have been selected as new EMBO Global Investigators – Congratulations to the new cohort! 🧪 Read the press release: https://www.embo.org/press-releases/twelve-scientists-become-embo-global-investigators/ #funding #training

We’re on the cover of @embojournal.org Odin, from Norse mythology, emerges from the Odinarchaeota yellowstonii genome, holding FtsZ1 and FtsZ2 the ancestral twins of tubulin highlighting their evolutionary divergence in Asgard archaea. 👉 shorturl.at/n7iZE #archaea #evolution #tubulin #cytoskeleton

Distinct filament morphology and membrane tethering features of the dual FtsZ paralogs in Odinarchaeota | The EMBO Journal

imageimageThe tubulin/FtsZ superfamily of cytoskeletal proteins may have originated in Asgard archaea. This study reveals different filament morphologies membrane tethering mechanisms for the dual Fts...

shorturl.at

The EMBO Journal@embojournal.org · 9mo ago

Issue 21 highlights: Paxilin’s nuclear switch in the brain RING E3s reading & extending ADPr-ubiquitin Review: Decoding immunometabolism Nuclear actin limits chromatin leakage upon migratory squeeze Cover by @syncellbiolab.bsky.social: unlike Odin-archael FtsZ twins www.embopress.org/toc/14602075...

🚨Our collaboration with @centriolelab.bsky.social & @gautamdey.bsky.social is out today in @cp-cell.bsky.social We show that #Expansion #Microscopy is a broad-spectrum modality for Euks, enabling 3D phenotypic maps rooted to phylogeny. #ProtistsOnSky #SciComm #SciSky www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Glad to share our paper out today @NatureEcoEvo: “Serial innovations by Asgard archaea shaped the DNA replication machinery of the early eukaryotic ancestor”. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #microsky #archaeasky

Serial innovations by Asgard archaea shaped the DNA replication machinery of the early eukaryotic ancestor - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Phylogenetic and biochemical analyses show a diversity of components of the DNA replication machinery in different Asgard archaea that contributed to the eukaryotic DNA replication machinery.

nature.com

Happy to share that our story on the bacterial archaellum was published today in @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41... Congrats to the authors: @sshamphavi.bsky.social @loumollat.bsky.social @mariejoest.bsky.social Najwa Taib and @sgribaldo.bsky.social

Structure of a functional archaellum in Bacteria of the Chloroflexota phylum - Nature Microbiology

Bona fide gene clusters for archaella are widespread across a bacterial phylum and encode functional motility machinery.

nature.com

Sonja-Verena Albers@archaellum.bsky.social · 2y ago

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

How do cells keep their #actin “highways” stable?🚦 Our paper @PLOS Genetics reveals surprising teamwork (and backup plans!) between tropomyosin isoforms in yeast. #imaging #cytoskeleton #celldivision This work was brilliantly led by @anubhavdhar.bsky.social @bagyasree.bsky.social t.co/RvUrzad5tL

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

Thrilled to see our work published in @embojournal.org #asgard #archaea #cytoskeleton #tubulin #FtsZ We sincerely appreciate the constructive peer review and the reviewers’ thoughtful, supportive feedback, which greatly strengthened our work.

The EMBO Journal@embojournal.org · 12mo ago

Insights into the origins of the #tubulin / #FtsZ superfamily: @syncellbiolab.bsky.social, Pananghat Gayathri et al show that two #Asgard archaeal paralogs OdinFtsZ1 and OdinFtsZ2 form distinct filamental structures, and employ different modes of membrane tethering www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

🎉🍾Excited to share our #Asgardarchaea #odin #cytoskeleton study published in @embojournal.org Dual FtsZ proteins in Odinarchaeon form distinct filaments shedding light on tubulin/FtsZ evolution. Brilliantly led by @jayantik.bsky.social www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Saravanan Palani@syncellbiolab.bsky.social · 2y ago

First Post! Thrilled to share our lab's first evolutionary cytoskeleton study! We uncover two distinct FtsZ paralogs in Odinarchaeota OdinFtsZ1 forms curved filaments, while OdinFtsZ2 assembles into spiral rings. A glimpse into tubulin evolution! threads👇 #Eukaryogenesis #AsgardArchaea #cytoskeleton

This was fun! Folding whole proteomes… looking at tomogram, looking at genomes🤩 lots to discover!🧬🧶

An Asgard archaeon from a modern analog of ancient microbial mats

It has been proposed that eukaryotic cells evolved via symbiosis between sulfate-reducing bacteria and hydrogen-producing archaea. Here we describe a highly enriched culture of a novel Asgard archaeon...

biorxiv.org

How does evolution shape ancient cellular processes? Our new paper uncovers the mosaic evolution of conserved and diverging endocytic traits in fungi! www.cell.com/current-biol...

Mosaic evolution of clathrin-mediated endocytosis in fungi

Picco et al. take an evolutionary approach to study clathrin-mediated endocytosis in a fungal clade and discover that the process is evolving in a mosaic fashion. The early phase of endocytosis has sh...

cell.com

Hello microscopy and imaging experts and enthusiasts! We are looking for a staff scientist to join us here in Geneva to work on microscopy and image analysis projects! See the link for the job announcement (in French and in English). Please apply and/or repost! jobs.unige.ch/www/wd_porta...

How do cells switch on the actin assembly at endocytic sites? How can this on-switch evolve? Check out our new preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We’ve uncovered Asgard chromatin structures formed by a Hodarchaeal histone : closed hypernucleosome conserved in archaea and an open form resembling the H3-H4 eukaryotic octasome. Fantastic work by @harshranawat.bsky.social! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #Chromatin #Asgard #Archaea #cryoEM

Preprint: IntAct-U-ExM enables robust, isoform-specific expansion microscopy of actin networks in yeast and mammalian cells. A cool study led by @anubhavdhar.bsky.social in collaboration with Sudarshan and Deepak Nair. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

On this day, 10 years ago, my lab published the @nature.com paper reporting the discovery of the Asgard archaea (Lokiarchaeota at the time), revealing the archaeal nature of eukaryotic cells, and reshaping the Tree of Life. What a ride it has been since then... www.nature.com/articles/nat...

Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes - Nature

This study identifies a clade of archaea that is the immediate sister group of eukaryotes in phylogenetic analyses, and that also has a repertoire of proteins otherwise characteristic of eukaryotes—pr...

nature.com

Excited to announce the Molecular Biology of Archaea (MBoA) 2026! Join us in Cambridge, UK, from 6–10 July 2026 for the only international meeting dedicated to Archaea.

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

t.co/ufAjwxU2hF

Saravanan Palani@syncellbiolab.bsky.social · 2y ago

First Post! Thrilled to share our lab's first evolutionary cytoskeleton study! We uncover two distinct FtsZ paralogs in Odinarchaeota OdinFtsZ1 forms curved filaments, while OdinFtsZ2 assembles into spiral rings. A glimpse into tubulin evolution! threads👇 #Eukaryogenesis #AsgardArchaea #cytoskeleton

First Post! Thrilled to share our lab's first evolutionary cytoskeleton study! We uncover two distinct FtsZ paralogs in Odinarchaeota OdinFtsZ1 forms curved filaments, while OdinFtsZ2 assembles into spiral rings. A glimpse into tubulin evolution! threads👇 #Eukaryogenesis #AsgardArchaea #cytoskeleton