Interested in miRNAs, early animal evolution, and RNA biology? We’re recruiting a BBSRC-funded Postdoctoral Research Associate @bristolbiosci.bsky.social #Postdoc #microRNA #RNAbiology
Apply by 14 May 2026. 👉 www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find-in...

Extreme mitochondrial genome complexity in the calcaronean sponge Sycon ciliatum (Fabricius, 1780): fragmentation, gene duplication and mRNA editing Abstract. Mitochondrial genomes (mt-genomes) of calcaronean sponges are among the most unusual in Metazoa. They are fragmented into multiple linear chromos

Where do you find an animal mitochondrial genome that is several Mbp in size and contains thousands of linear chromosomes? In a tiny #sponge Sycon ciliatum: doi.org/10.1098/rstb...
#Porifera #Mitochondria

Update: I am definitely hiring 2 PhD students; preference to those who can start spring 2027, but reach out if you’re looking to start in Fall 27.

Want to start earlier? Reach out and we can talk about technician positions starting as early as this summer.

For years I've been looking for the right guest to do a pod on this. The car-sales model that is dictated by law in the US -- you must go to a dealership & suffer for hours in order to buy one -- is one of the most nakedly anti-social special interest giveaways in history. Needs to be killed dead.

I'm hiring! I have 2 open positions:

🔬 Postdoc
🧪 Research associate

We study how animal multicellularity evolved by exploring the molecular logic of cell adhesion using cell biology, 'omics, and tool-building in non-model organisms.

Come join us!

Details and application links 👇

Please repost

#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

My daughter, quite reasonably, used the word “yesternight” when she was young :-)

Hi folks, there is a high likelihood I will be recruiting 1-2 PhD students to start in Spring 2027. Trying to get the word out early; please share broadly with your networks and encourage your students to reach out early. Info can be found on my webpage.

fuesslab.wp.txstate.edu/opportunities/

Image of the cover of the 1st volume of ISME Host Microbe a new official journal of the International Society for Microbial Ecology. Cover images shows a plant stomata with bacteria around and entering.

Excited to announce our new journal from @isme-microbes.bsky.social ISME Host Microbe is live and now accepting submissions. Look forward to receiving your papers! #Microsky 🧫 🦠

Our study on shape diversity in cnidarians is now published. The final version includes extensive new data that substantially extend the original bioRxiv preprint. Congrats to everyone who contributed to this work! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
@embl.org

Image of text in all caps that says CTENOPHORES ROCK! There are wiggly lines and stars in different colors.

Work with #ctenophores or similar emerging models of evolutionary biology? Whether you research or take care of them, we want to follow you! Reach out if this describes you 😀 Please repost! 🙏

Earth’s first major extinction was worse than we thought Fossil finds suggest nearly 80% of life on Earth died some 550 million years ago

Extraordinary new fossils from Newfoundland reveal an ancient mass extinction worse than the asteroid-driven calamity that killed the dinosaurs.

#Paleontology #KotlinCrisis #FossilFriday

🧪🧪

New for @science.org

Choanoflagellate transfection just got much cheaper: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Congratulations @frutag33.bsky.social & team. #choanoflagellates #transfection

Wow. Foraminifera!

ROV pilots paused and carefully zoomed in to collect footage of these single-celled microorganisms, or protists, at 843 m during the #OBVI #LivingBioreactors expedition w/ @schmidtsciences.bsky.social offshore of Argentina. Read the full caption: youtube.com/shorts/Yv_ud...

An unconventional Rubisco small subunit underpins the CO2-concentrating organelle in land plants In many algae, photosynthesis is boosted by biophysical CO2-concentrating mechanisms, which pack the CO2-fixing enzyme Rubisco into liquid-like organelles called pyrenoids. Engineering C3 crops with a...

Our work on #hornwort #pyrenoids is finally out in @science.org! 🎉 We uncovered how hornworts pack their Rubisco into pyrenoids and successfully recreated them in Arabidopsis. A key step toward engineering more efficient photosynthesis in crops @btiscience.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thrilled to share that our preprint has been accepted in Science Advances! Grateful to an incredible team & collaborators.

Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

👏 @annaferraioli.bsky.social @maikekittelmann.bsky.social
@msarscentre.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu @hfspo.bsky.social #ctenophores

A 2000 year old barrel sponges in the Banda Sea spawn with the full moon, a rare natural spectacle of life. Found throughout the  
tropical coral reef environments in the Atlantic Ocean, these sponges grow slowly but can live for centuries or thousands of years in

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)

Two funded PhD positions investigating the evolution of sarcomeres @ibdm.bsky.social in @biancah0406.bsky.social and our lab, together with @cnidevo.bsky.social - Interested to explore how similar or different Jellyfish sarcomeres are to Drosophila or human ones?
www.ibdm.univ-amu.fr/ibdm_job/2-a...

Evolution of monoamine reception and its role in cellular contractility.

How do #sponges coordinate their bodies despite lacking neurons and true muscles?

We show that sponges use monoamines to control water flow in their canals — reminiscent of how adrenaline regulates blood vessels.

My PhD story, now on BioRxiv:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#Evolution

Neural connectome of the ctenophore statocyst Volume EM and connectome reconstruction of the apical organ of a ctenophore combined with high-speed imaging reveals a neuronal coordination of balancer cilia in the gravisensory organ.

In @eLife: Neural connectome of the ctenophore statocyst https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.108420
Version of record of our ctenophore nerve-net connectome paper.

Registration is OPEN for the 2026 Santa Cruz Meeting on Developmental Biology!!! Please spread the word!

@mads100tist.bsky.social @socdevbio.bsky.social @bsdb.bsky.social @xenbase.bsky.social @isdb.bsky.social @devbiol.bsky.social @the-node.bsky.social

scdb2026.sites.ucsc.edu

Congratulations to @arnausebe.bsky.social, Premi Ciutat de Barcelona 2025 in the category of Life Sciences and Medicine. The award ceremony will take place today at the historic Saló de Cent and was presided over by the Mayor of Barcelona. Full story: www.crg.eu/en/news/arna...

Excited to announce a new preprint from my PhD student @pawley.bsky.social :

"The discovery of an external bacterial niche reconciles sequencing-based microbiomes in a freshwater sponge."

He’s also hilarious. I wish he was mic’d up every game

What were the first animals? The fierce sponge–jelly battle that just won’t end For almost two decades, scientists have debated whether sponges or comb jellies are the first animal lineage. Now some are calling for a more harmonious approach.

The last word on Ctenophores versus Sponges (not).
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

❤️‍🔥

Mystery of the Head Activator A biological puzzle that made one researcher and ruined another might never be solved.

press.asimov.com/articles/hea...

Seeing this video of two Great Horned owls (Bubo virginianus) from Colton Lockridge you might think:
"Get a room, you two."

But, uh... these are juvenile siblings. 🤨

The behavior shown here is called 'billing' or 'bill fencing' & it's a playful social interaction, *no matter what it looks like*.

1/3 Jellyfish and anemones also sleep, despite not having a brain

Not only do they sleep, but their behavior is affected if they lack sleep; they become clumsier and need to catch up on lost sleep. Interestingly, they sleep 8 hours a day, just like us.

(paper) www.nature.com/articles/s41...