Our #UExM efforts with @gautamdey.bsky.social & @moorefound.bsky.social featured in @nature.com this month.
Beyond the #science, every image is a thing of beauty.
I think a world-tour exhibition has to happen at one point.
#Expansion #Microscopy
GOOD NEWS! Our BRILLIANT Red-ALERT CDT (@redalertcdt.bsky.social) has funding for one more home studentship at the University of Bath so we're re-advertising this project!
New deadline: May 18th
Come explore protist and invertebrate diversity with us!
These images show live embryos of animals (jellyfish, crustacean, worm, sea urchin, sea squirt, beetle) and one of animals closest single-celled relatives. They were captured taking advantage of fluorescent proteins localised on the outer membrane of cells, allowing us to observe cell outlines. 1/9
DAY 319
SPECIES 319 - Actinophrys sol
STAGE: Protists
MEDIUM: Arches Paper. Chromatek watercolor, Sakura pen
It moves very slowly and has a large central nucleus
#sciart #watercolor #painting #art #paint #protist #eukaryotic #protistsonsky
Hot off the press!
We are sharing oligoN-design, an open-source tool to find specific probes and primers from large molecular datasets, without relying on specific databases, alignments or phylogenetic trees.
@mariescopy.bsky.social @rmassanam.bsky.social @beaplab.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1111/1755...
Starry nights. With @burnsajohn.bsky.social @schmidtocean.bsky.social
Transmission electron micrograph of Myrionecta rubra (= Mesodinium rubrum) taken in 2008 by an undergraduate.
Ultrastructure expansion microscopy image of Mesodinium rubrum (f.k.a. Myrionecta rubra) taken by a Ph.D. student in 2026.
I took the TEM image of Mesodinium (then: Myrionecta!) on the left in 2008, as an undergraduate. Today, one of our grad students took the image on the right using UExM. I love the parallels in the composition--and how science has progressed! So much more information with much less time! #unicornjob🦄
DAY 316
SPECIES 316 - Lacrymaria olor
STAGE: Protists
MEDIUM: Arches Paper. Chromatek watercolor, Sakura & Pentel pen
Lacrymaria olor's name translates roughly to "Swan's tear",it references both the teardrop body shape and the swan like neck
#sciart #art #paint #protist #eukaryotic #protistsonsky
Tune in this week to the DinoSphere seminar to hear Rocío Mozo Muñoz (IBE-UPF-CSIC) talk about her work in phylogenomics of Symbiodiniaceae!
📆 16 April - 9AM CEST
🔗 tinyurl.com/5fje3s55
@ehehenberger.bsky.social @manondemulder.bsky.social @chandnibhickta.bsky.social Norico Yamada, Edmée Royen
DAY 314
SPECIES 314 - Prymnesium parvum
STAGE: Protists
MEDIUM: Arches Paper. Chromatek, QoR, & HWC watercolor, Sakura pen
NOTES: Tried doing too much, and got humbled by the paint 💢🖌️
#sciart #watercolor #painting #art #paint #protist #eukaryotic
DAY 313
SPECIES 313 - Sticholonche zanclea
STAGE: Protists
MEDIUM: Arches Paper. Chromatek & QoR watercolor, Sakura pen
Sticholonche zanclea is a unique marine protist found in open oceans
#sciart #watercolor #painting #art #paint #protist #eukaryotic #protistsonsky
DAY 308
SPECIES 308 - Tripos muelleri
STAGE: Protists
MEDIUM: Arches Paper. Chromatek watercolor, Sakura pen
T. muelleri is a marine planktonic dinoflagellate renowned for its distinct, pitchfork shaped silhouette.
#sciart #watercolor #painting #art #paint #protist #eukaryotic #protistsonsky
DAY 307
SPECIES 307 - Tripos furca
STAGE: Protists
MEDIUM: Arches Paper. Chromatek & QoR watercolor, Sakura & Charsoco pen
T. furca is a species of armored marine dinoflagellate
#sciart #watercolor #painting #art #paint #protist #eukaryotic #protistsonsky
DAY 306
SPECIES 306 - Tripos fusus
STAGE: Protists
MEDIUM: Arches Paper. Chromatek & QoR watercolor, Sakura pen
T. fusus is a marine, planktonic, armored dinoflagellate with an elongated spindle shaped body
#sciart #watercolor #painting #art #paint #protist #eukaryotic #protistsonsky
We all know #fungi are the dominant microbial #eukaryotes in #forest #soils… or are they really?
In our new paper, we revisited 51 forest metatranscriptomes from 4 European and North American forest regions - and found that protistan predators outshine fungi in activity!
DAY 304
SPECIES 304 - Noctiluca scintillans
STAGE: Protists
MEDIUM: Arches Paper. Chromatek & QoR watercolor, Sakura pen
N. scintillans, commonly known as Sea sparkle, is known for creating brilliant blue bioluminescence in coastal waters
#sciart #art #paint #protist #eukaryotic #protistsonsky
Spatial Proteomics Workshop for Protists
(see more in thread below)
Registration
Early Bird Monday 22nd June 2026.
Regular Monday 10th August 2026.
There will be a conference dinner on day 1. To register visit protistology.org.uk/autumn-meeti...
#Ichthyosporea are not just the 5–6 species we and others have helped establish as models. Our recent synthesis suggests that ~95% of their species-level diversity remains uncultivated. In other words, we still know only a fraction of the map! #protistsonSky @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social @prbb.org
Meet Hexatilemonas jangsaensis a new uncultured apusomonad clade by Jeong et al. doi 10.1111/1462-2920.70282. #protistsonsky. Mark the trunk 🐘 (sleeve around base of flagellum) and laterally consumed bacterium in 🟥 .
Aerobic sister lineage of breviates has gene-rich mitochondrial genomes
#microbiology #eukaryotes #mitochondria #protists #MicroSky #ProtistsOnSky
@cellpress.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Credit: Mylan Ansel
Expansion microscopy of a loricate choanoflagellate, generated by Mylan Ansel in our lab 🤩
(yes, the lorica expands. No, we don't understand how either)
Honoured to join this list of high-flying scientists as Fellow of the European Academy of Microbiology. I will promote eukaryotes as microbial wonders #protistsonsky A BIG thanks to the reviewers who put fwd my name and many colleagues throughout the years fems-microbiology.org/european-aca...
Many cellular innovations later used by animals were assembled long before animals evolved.We show that aerobic plasmalogen biosynthesis likely entered eukaryotes early from Myxobacteria, highlighting how bacterial genes shaped the cellular landscape from which animals emerged. 🧬✨ #protistsOnSky
Final version @nature.com of our paper describing unconventional multicellular development in a choanoflagellate inhabiting an extreme environment. A ton of new data since the first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint (which we've kept updating).
A brief 🧵 (carried over from the old place)
MicroSEA (Microbial Sea Eukaryotes) course is a one-week, field-based summer school to train early-career researchers in the diversity, ecology, and single-cell biology of marine protists. MicroSEA course integrates lectures, field sampling, and lab-based practicals in advanced techniques, such as flow cytometry, microscopy, culturing, and molecular analysis. The main objectives of MicroSEA course are: Fostering a deep understanding of marine protist diversity, ecology and biology; Providing hands-on training in advanced single-cell methods that are not commonly available in university programs; Building participants' confidence in designing and conducting research projects from field to data analysis; Promoting international collaborations and peer networking among students and speakers/trainers. The course will take place at the Station Biologique de Roscoff - SBR (France) - 7th to 12th of June, 2026 (arrival on the 6th, departure on the 13th). 20 participants will be selected, including 10 from EuroMarine member institutes. https://opbc.sciencesconf.org/
Protist lovers: Please apply for a week of rhapsody! Learn by doing:
MicroSEA (Microbial Sea Eukaryotes) course is a one-week, field-based summer school to train early-career researchers in the diversity, ecology, and single-cell biology of marine protists. opbc.sciencesconf.org
#protistsonsky
Great to see this paper in all its glory online: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
A huge effort from Gordon and the team at @pjkeelinglab.bsky.social!
Phylogenomic tree of Cercozoa based on single-cell transcriptomes from 100 uncultured cells
@ubcbotany.bsky.social @science.ubc.ca
