In today's lunchtime meeting at @voltcenter.bsky.social @kajsaroslund.bsky.social gave a super update on all the projects she has been working on: from caves in the south of Portugal, to remote Greenland!

Nesterenkonia maliinae sp. nov. and Arthrobacter arnarulunnguaqae sp. nov., two halotolerant, psychrotolerant and alkaliphilic actinobacteria isolated from Peary Land, Northern Greenland Strains CF4.4T and KK5.5T, previously isolated from samples of biocrust and permafrost, respectively, collected from Northern Greenland, were characterized using a polyphasic approach. Both strains we...

Another one of my PhD papers finally came out last week!! 😁

Here, we studied the taxonomy and physiology of two bacterial isolates from Northern Greenland... And we conclude that they belong to two novel species, previously unknown to science 😎

Check it out here 👉 doi.org/10.1099/ijse...

Structural and evolutionary insights into the isoprene monooxygenases Abstract. Isoprene, a highly reactive biogenic volatile organic compound (VOC) emitted by terrestrial vegetation, influences atmospheric chemistry but its

“This data won’t be published.” 😱 That’s what my PhD supervisor told me in 2018. He was right — at the time.

As an independent researcher, I revisited it on my own terms. Now, it’s a peer-reviewed publication.

Would you classify it as perseverance 😇 or stubbornness 😈?

doi.org/10.1093/fems...

Volatilomic complexity of three Northern Greenland bacterial isolates across a salt gradient Abstract. The High Arctic deserts of remote northern Greenland are expected to become warmer and wetter due to climate change. Precipitation changes will i

🎄Early Christmas news! Chapter IV of my PhD thesis has been accepted for publication in @femsmicro.org Microbiology Ecology 🤘

We show how three Greenlandic bacteria shift their VOC profiles along a salt gradient.
Read it here👉 doi.org/10.1093/fems...

Stay tuned for another paper coming out soon! 🤞

Very interesting article 🤓 It is rare that we can access natural laboratories like this. Kudos to the Icelandic government for protecting this ephemeral island!

Side note: One often thinks they're not recovering low-abundance taxa because they're low-abundance. But with Illumina, it's also likely because they're low-GC and Illumina has strong GC bias. You can fix this with wetlab intervention like this, or using ONT instead, which doesn't have a GC-bias.🧵

It apPEARs more exPEARiments are needed. The PEARameters are imPEARcise, and it is imPEARative to PEARform PEAR-wise comPEARisons.

A sad but necessary article 😕

Science is coming to a park near you! 🌳

As part of BIOCUE , we’re sampling parks to explore how nature-based urban rewilding affects soil health, compared to traditional grass lawns. Today, we took samples from Grøndalsparken in Copenhagen 🇩🇰 to do some preliminary tests. 🌱 Stay tuned for more! 🌱

Isn't it nice when you're evaluating a difficult sampling site and you find out that someone already made a path that you can use? 😁

Custom-made medium approach for effective enrichment and isolation of chemolithotrophic iron-oxidizing bacteria “Custom-made” medium approach to effectively enrich and isolate the difficult-to-culture chemolithotrophic iron-oxidizing bacteria from the natural environ

Very interesting paper by Uchijima et al. with an innovative way to isolate chemolithotrophic iron-oxidizing bacteria! Read the full paper here -> doi.org/10.1093/fems...

Interesting! Should we consider then a gradient of Copiotrophy -> Oligotrophy -> Aeonophily?

Figuring out what we need to buy for our experiments this summer to measure carbon use efficiency and much more. Lots of exciting stuff coming soon!

A brown, sealed box on a stool, ready to be picked up for shipping.

After a lot of paperwork, my bacteria are finally ready to see the world! Destination: DSMZ, Germany.

This week I attended the 1st International Symposium on Volatile Interactions in Ecosystems organised by @voltcenter.bsky.social It was full of interesting talks, posters and people. And I'm happy I was to contribute with a talk of my own!

Increased Growth Temperatures Alter Arctic Plant Responses to Heat Wave and Drought

📄 buff.ly/2NU4KiE
@martacontreras.bsky.social @riikkarinnan.bsky.social @lundjing.bsky.social @voltcenter.bsky.social @villumfonden.bsky.social @dg.dk

🍃 Successful BIOCUE kick-off meeting at @wslresearch.bsky.social! We spent two lovely days together and designed our strategy to uncover the influence of #nature based solutions on #carbon use efficiency. This will be of extreme importance in our fight against #climatechange! Stay tuned for more 📻

No había oído hablar de este proyecto, hay algún lugar donde pueda leer más información sobre REBECA?

Have you tried DSMZ?

#FEMSmicroBlog: Sniffing the most extreme forms of life - FEMS Even in extreme environments, extremophiles need to communicate with each other, for which some use volatile organic compounds.

Cool #science alert!

“In this paper, we have compiled our current understanding of MVOCs in extreme environments. I hope that this review can serve as a starting point for anyone interested in this topic.” - @masalgar.bsky.social

#FEMSmicroBlog @dg.dk
fems-microbiology.org/femsmicroblo...

A graphic with an icon of the sun, a wiggly line denoting natural cycles, and a volcano, with a title reading "WHY is climate changing?" created by me. Not fancy, as my graphic design skills lean to function over art!

Scientists who study climate don't automatically attribute all changes to human activity. Rather, we carefully investigate every possible natural factor that could explain the planet's warming.

Could these be the real culprits?

The evidence is in--and the answer is NO.

This thread explains! 🧵

Microorganisms produce a variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with diverse functions. @masalgar.bsky.social et al. review microbial VOCSs (#MVOCs) from #extremophiles and their potential applications.
buff.ly/D2dRawC
#FEMSMicrobiolRev

Increased Growth Temperatures Alter Arctic Plant Responses to Heat Wave and Drought As the Arctic warms and heatwaves become more frequent, vegetation changes may alter the ecosystem. We investigated how warmer temperatures modulate Arctic shrub responses to heat wave and drought. A...

Check out our newest #research! We quantify the interactions between increased #temperature & #heatwave & #drought in #Arctic #plants, with focus on #VOCs, #photosynthesis & #phenology.

doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

@voltcenter.bsky.social @dg.dk @villumfonden.bsky.social @globalchangebio.bsky.social

Just in! 📸 The first images from yesterday’s #HeraMission flyby of Mars and its moon Deimos. 👇 www.esa.int/Space_Safety...

Physical and chemical conditions of the majority of Earth's volume and universe are too extreme for life to exist. @charlescockell questions the limits of microbial life, the use of inhabited spaces for hypothesis testing, and its ethics. #FEMSMicrobiolRev
buff.ly/4wH4noG

Very interesting!

molview.org works quite well

Revealing how fungi build planet-altering ‘road’ networks Imaging study reveals how fungal networks are constructed.

Fungi made Earth’s land liveable by building networks that released nutrients locked in primordial rock and supplied those nutrients to plant roots

https://go.nature.com/41lvtBg

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 ...

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.

We should avoid this kind of confusing reporting. The situation is dire as it is already, we mustn't confuse policy makers and the public.