Grab a coffee and enjoy reading up on CO metabolism in methanotrophs!
Freshwater ANME (own work):
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Marine ANME (@Orphan lab):
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Big thanks to our collaborators at QUT!
@sjmcilroy.bsky.social (Heyu/Andy/Gene!) @cuwelte.bsky.social
Die trügerische Sehnsucht nach dem "Kern" der Wissenschaft
Die Kritik an zu viel Normativität und gesellschaftlichem Engagement in der Wissenschaft ist doppelt falsch. Ein Essay.
Im Wiarda-Blog: www.jmwiarda.de/blog/2026/04...
A phylogenetic tree showing the proteins responsible for making steroids and hopanoids as sister groups
Evolutionarily, the biosynthetic pathways of steroids and hopanoids derive from a common ancestor near the dawn of life on Earth. Why hopanoids and, even more so, steroids are found only in a subset of bacteria and are not more widespread remains one of the biggest unanswered question in this field.
Hopanoids are considered typical for bacteria while steroids are considered typical for eukaryotes (animals, plants, etc). Surprisingly, some bacteria produce steroids but the prevalence of this capacity and its biochemical and evolutionary significance remains largely unconstrained.
This figure shows two types of bacterial cell envelopes, for gram positive bacteria consisting of an inner membrane with embedded hopanoids and a thick peptidoglycan layer, and for gram negative bacteria consisting out of outer and inner membrane separated by a thin peptidoglycan layer and containing hopanoids in both membranes.
Hopanoids and steroids form part of cellular membranes, confering order and stability in addition to multiple other roles. However, our mechanistic understanding of the cellular roles of hopanoids is still in its infancy and limited to a select few of the many types of hopanoids.
The chemical structure of hopanoids showing variation in sidechain structure and functional groups
Their rock record is used to reconstruct past changes in environmental conditions such as ocean oxygenation and methane cycling. Hopanoids are incredibly structurally diverse but how and why do bacteria produce such a high diversity?
First discovered in rocks decades ago, hopanoids have since been identified in many bacteria. Because they are stable over millions of years and are found in large quantities in sedimentary rocks, hopanoids have been called the "most abundant natural products on Earth".
Just published: our comprehensive review of bacterial hopanoid & steroid biosynthesis, function, evolution, and diagenesis. We cover decades of research across multiple disciplines and highlight many remaining open questions. More context provided below👇
link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/...
This post should join the Science and Women in STEM Bluesky feeds! 👇🏻
🧪 👩🔬
Reminder, three more days to apply for our *two* fully funded PhD positions on tropical African biogeochemistry! @eth-eaps.bsky.social @usyseth.bsky.social @draketw.bsky.social @johansix.bsky.social
This is a #TeamArchaea GDGT paper that I could not wait to see published in a journal after peer-review!
Addison Rice et al. (2026) PALO @agu.org:
doi.org/10.1029/2025...
With @appysluijs.bsky.social among the co-authors.
#GDGTs #isoGDGTs
🧪 ⚒️ 🌊 👩🔬
With implications for #PaleoSky
Very excited to announce *TWO* fully-funded PhD positions starting this summer focusing on greenhouse gases in the peatlands of the Congo Basin! Both positions are joint between my group in @eth-eaps.bsky.social and that of @johansix.bsky.social @usyseth.bsky.social. Come join us!
#Science communication is dead and fossilized - this #AIslop gets thousands of shares and likes on #socialmedia, meanwhile real channels struggle...
Passioned by #bioenergetics? Do not miss our new article on the evolutionary history of oxidoreductases with G. Borrel and @sgribaldo.bsky.social @archaeal.bsky.social @valdeanda.bsky.social @pasteur.fr @cnrs.fr @cnrsbiologie.bsky.social @natecoevo.nature.com (www.nature.com/articles/s41...).
Join us this summer at @au.dk!
@vivikathrine.bsky.social and I will be running our summer course, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Climate Change, including bioscience, economy, consumer behavior, agroecology, public health and more!
☀️Apply by March 17th to join us from July 27th - August 9th☀️
🌏 Happy 🔭 New 🧪 Year 🦠 2026 ✨
If you feel like an easy read about subsurface microbiomes and astrobiology:
Here is an opinion I wrote with @emvidal.bsky.social @geobiomaggie.bsky.social @drbradbrad.bsky.social and Melody Lindsay
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Phylogeny and ecology of MCR-encoding archaea
New paper out in Current Opinion in Microbiology: MCR-encoding (potentially methanogenic) Thermoproteota are widespread and transcriptionally active in diverse anoxic ecosystems! @dr-zj.bsky.social, Matthew Kellom & @emileyeloe-fadrosh.bsky.social. Funded by DOE BER program. tinyurl.com/2fsyxswj 🦠🧪
Date availability: The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Dear @nature.com , this was published in 2024. Why do you still allow this? Data should be deposited upon publication. #openscience
A new year brings new opportunities: we are looking to fill a permanent professorship position with a Microbiologist preferably with expertise on archaeal biology, RNA biology or imaging techniques to unravel cell biology in prokaryotes! Please share and/or apply :)! www.nature.com/naturecareer...
Screenshot of OpenAlex web page showing Tektonika record
Great pleasure to inform you that TEKTONIKA #DOAJ is in the #open-access database OpenAlex ! ⚒️
OpenAlex is a free, open alternative to WOS or SCOPUS which are under paywall. It even records more sources, in particular in humanities.
openalex.org/works?filter...
The deadline for graduate student applications for paleoCAMP 2026 (Paleoclimate Training in Climate Archives, Models, and Proxies) summer school is this Friday, January 9th! paleoCAMP is completely free for all students selected to attend paleoclimate.camp/apply
Looking for a cutting-edge and fun conference in 2026?
How about:
GRC Geobiology in Ventura, CA - January 11-16, 2026
www.grc.org/geobiology-c...
AbSciCon in Madison, WI - May 17-22, 2026
www.agu.org/abscicon
🤩The Ruff Lab will be there with sessions and presentations on Dark Oxygen Production 🥳
**Undergraduate Summer Internship Opportunity!
I'm excited to launch the Accessible Ichthyoliths Internship Program starting summer 2026!
Seeking undergraduates interested in contributing to accessible paleo research and communication.
More info here: www2.whoi.edu/site/paleofi...
Please share!
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)
My article on aeonophiles (ultra-long lived organisms) came out in Aeon Magazine today!
Fresh from our group, a new role for oxygen production in ammonia-oxidizing archaea:
Oxygen production as an electron overflow pathway in ammonia-oxidizing archaea
Congrats to Thomas Pribasnig for this great work!
Check it out here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
'Introducing a lottery before peer review in the research funding application process can boost women’s chance of success by almost a quarter, a new study has found, with its authors saying that the approach can also reduce costs and make applying for funding less labour-intensive.' 1/2
To all team #GDGTs members: Gerard Otiniano et al., including @islatope.bsky.social, have a new paper that describes a new open-source tool to deconvolve and integrate chromatographic GDGT peaks!
doi.org/10.1029/2025...
@agu.org
#AGUPubs
🧪
With implications for ⚒️ and #PaleoSky
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