1/25 New paper out in PNAS! We show that the fitness costs of reproductive specialization, where somatic cells give up reproduction, scale inversely with organism size. Larger organisms can afford far more soma, removing a key barrier to multicellular complexity.
We have just published a short note on archaeal phylogeny: complex mixture models support a deep placement of Methanonatronarchaeia within Euryarchaea and indicate that three recently described groups (Halorutilales, Afararchaeaceae, and Ordosarchaeia) are actually the same.
shorturl.at/5GMpU
So you are using IQ-TREE to estimate a tree for "deep time" phylogenetics using amino acid alignments. There is a lot of confusion about how to test model fit. Here are some suggestions.
Today we published a Correction on our 2023 @nature.com paper reporting the heimdallarchaeial ancestry of eukaryotes: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Corrected paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Importantly, the re-analyses of the corrected dataset are consistent with the original findings.
Comparative Genomics of Unicellular Eukaryotes (San Feliu, Spain):
Abstract submission is open, with a short deadline! comparativegenomics2026.com
Join us as we explore the most diverse, surprising, and still largely uncharted branches of the eukaryotic tree.
Microbial eukaryotes keep challenging assumptions about eukaryotic cell and genome biology.
Our upcoming workshop explores the frontier of protist genomics and how it shapes cell biology, ecology and evolution.
Please save the date! Talks, posters and ECR events
Websites and details coming soon
Divergent Plastid Genomes in the Deepest-Branching Apicomplexan Parasites #protists #protistsonsky academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...
Beautiful work!
Happy to see our work published and glad to have contributed together with @maxraas.bsky.social ! Looking forward to all the projects that will come out of this work!
We haven’t. But we have follow up projects that dig more specifically in the archaeal side of things!
A huge shoutout to @jvhooff.bsky.social who poured her soul into this paper, and our co-authors @eelcotromer.bsky.social and Max Raas!
If you’re into chromosome biology, genome organization, or evolutionary cell biology, give it a read and share your thoughts!
🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115855
#EvoCellBio #Genomics #SMC #LECA #Chromatin
Going deeper, duplications of SMC genes happened before eukaryotes: they trace back to the TACK + Asgard archaeal ancestor. This hints at sophisticated chromosome management in the archaeal lineage that gave rise to eukaryotes. #eukaryogenesis #archaea
Surprise: condensin II was lost independently >30 times across eukaryote evolution—making it one of the most frequently discarded cellular machineries we know. This highlights major shifts in genome organization throughout eukaryotic history.
SMC complexes (condensin I/II, cohesin, SMC5/6) are the molecular machines that fold chromosomes. By scanning >1 000 genomes we show LECA already housed all four—pointing to a remarkably sophisticated ancestral eukaryote.
Excited to share our new paper in @cellreports.bsky.social that reshapes our understanding of chromosome organization's deep evolutionary roots! Our work dives into the origins of the machinery that structures our very genomes.
🔗: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
#Genomics #Evolution #CellBiology #LECA
Thank you, Jacob!
Because it’s done on a computer, some think it doesn’t require expertise and that anyone can do it through button pushing. Just because there are arguments doesn’t mean all arguments have equal value. And in fact, over time, many things in phylogenetics have settled even when they started hot.
Meaning what? 🫣
With @deemteam.bsky.social @andrewjroger.bsky.social and more!!
Why it matters
🎯 Helps to place DPANN firmly in the archaeal tree, tidying up a long-standing evolutionary puzzle
💡 Highlights cross-domain gene transfer as a key driver in archaeal innovation
🌱 Opens doors to explore how free‑living ancestors gave rise to symbiotic lifestyles
4/ We uncovered ancient horizontal gene transfer events from symbiotic bacteria—namely Patescibacteria and Omnitrophota—that likely empowered DPANN’s shift to their unique episymbiotic lifestyles
3/ Altiarchaeota emerge as the earliest‑diverging branch in DPANN, suggesting an origin from free‑living ancestors
2/ Key finding: DPANN forms a monophyletic clade within Euryarchaeota, resolving a long-standing debate on their evolutionary placement
1/ We used 126 conserved proteins across 11 known DPANN phyla, with careful taxon sampling and sophisticated phylogenomic analysis
🎉 Now out “Phylogenomic analyses indicate the archaeal superphylum DPANN originated from free‑living euryarchaeal‑like ancestors” www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Every night should be duck night Chez Gladines ! 😋
New vacancy in my team!
PhD student position on microbial genome evolution, focusing on the evolutionary principles underlying bacterial genome architecture.
Please repost and share with talented MSc students in #evobio, bioinformatics or related :)
www.uu.nl/en/organisat...
#MEvoSky #MicroSky
Fair enough, my initial post was hastily worded.
And yes, when at least one reviewer defeats the point of peer-review by saying teh authors shouldn’t do more work and the debate should happen in public, that’s not helping anyone.
