Some photos from @guy_heath_ rock pooling at Hannafore, Looe! The elusive Rainbow sea slug (Babakina anadoni), found by @oops_robin 🌈

🔬 𝐓𝐎𝐃𝐀𝐘: 𝐢𝐕𝐨𝐌 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 – 𝐒𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝟓: ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
𝐆𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣🗓 25 Mar 2026⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
⏰ 17:00 CET | 12:00 EDT | 09:00 PDT⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣𝐉𝐨𝐢𝐧: eu02web.zoom-x.de/j/6813954424...
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👉 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 for links & updates:⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
🔗 isvm.org/ivom
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#iVoM#Virology

Redox distribution of Asgard archaea and co-occurring taxa in microbial mats from an early Proterozoic ecosystem analog Eukaryotes originated from the symbiosis of an Asgard archaeon, the alphaproteobacterial ancestor of mitochondria, and possibly additional bacterial contributions. This transition occurred in redox-transition environments such as microbial mats or shallow sediments ~2 billion years ago, when atmospheric oxygen was far lower than today. We investigated Asgard-enriched microbial mats from the low-oxygen, sulfidic Catherine volcano lake (Afar region, Ethiopia), mimicking early Proterozoic conditions. 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding, metagenomics, and metagenome-assembled genome analyses across redox-stratified layers of in situ and mesocosm-maintained mats revealed that Asgardarchaeota thrived in the sulfate-reduction zone, mainly co-occurring with Desulfurobacterota-Myxococcota, among others. Lokiarchaeia and Thorarchaeia preferred anoxic layers. Within Heimdallarchaeia, Heimdallarchaeales were enriched in upper layers, correlating with oxygen-tolerant hydrogenase and sulfate-reduction genes, and Hodarchaeales, in anoxic layers, correlating with methanogenesis. Although reactive-oxygen-species defense mechanisms were widespread, Asgardarchaeota lacked aerobic respiration. These results support the idea that Asgard archaea engaged primarily in syntrophic interactions with sulfate-reducers under early-Earth-like conditions. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. European Research Council, https://ror.org/0472cxd90, 101141745, 787904 Agence Nationale de la Recherche, ANR-23-CE02-0016-01, ANR-22-CE02-0012 Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, https://ror.org/006wxqw41, GBMF9739

Redox distribution of Asgard archaea and co-occurring taxa in microbial mats from an early Proterozoic ecosystem analog | bioRxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...

Horizontal gene transfer is often depicted as a process distributing pre-existing functions to novel genetic backgrounds. Yet HGT can also increase the rate of functional innovation after transfer. Here's a brief review on the topic: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v... #evosky #microsky

Evolutionary constraints on RNA polymerase gene positioning in the genome of fast-growing bacteria Abstract. How gene order along chromosomes affects cellular homeostasis and genome evolution remains poorly understood. Bacterial chromosomes are organized

Just published! at @narjournal.bsky.social . A new example of how gene order in bacterial genomes impacts cell physiology. Inthis episode we messed up with RNA polymerase genes! academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Plasmids promote antimicrobial resistance through insertion sequence-mediated gene inactivation - Nature Microbiology Inactivation of chromosomal genes through plasmid-encoded IS elements is an extended mechanism of antimicrobial resistance evolution in bacteria.

Final version of our last paper is out!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Framework for microbiome-inspired functional synthetic communities

One of the biggest challenges in microbial biotechnology? Unlocking the potential of non-model microbes and synthetic communities! Glad to share our review @sonjablasche.bsky.social @simonemozzachiodi.bsky.social @kiranrpatil.bsky.social @cambridgebiosci.bsky.social🧵(1/7) doi.org/10.1016/j.co...

Diagram representing the impacts of viruses on aqueous sediment geochemistry. Organic matter (OM) sinks to the sediments, which is cycled in the microbial community, as well as increasing abundance, diversity, activity, and degradation of OM. From this “microbial loop” recalcitrant dissolved organic matter (RDOM) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) are stored in sediments. Carbon is also released into the atmosphere from the sediment, and viral infection transfers genes between hosts or releases exogenous DNA to be used by bacteria, potentially aiding in metabolic activity. Created in BioRender. Williams, J. (2026) https://BioRender.com/b4wqimp.

#MicrobiologyMonday: Marine sediments store vast amounts of carbon. By infecting and lysing microbes, viruses shape biogeochemical cycling from coastal zones to the deep sea and influence long-term carbon storage. Get the story in #AppEnvMicro: asm.social/2Qv

🚨Preprint! Happy to share the research from my PhD “Genome delivery of a contractile tailed phage and its superinfection exclusion mechanism”. We use cryoEM to study the genome ejection of the phage T4, revealing how the tape measure protein regulates the process.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

➡️ preprint from the lab! Bacteria have loads of antiviral defences in their mobile genetic elements (MGEs). So when MGEs move between bacteria, the defences move with them, generating a fast turnover of defences in bacteria. But what about the antiviral defence turnover in the MGEs themselves? 🤔

🧵👇

Chiral gliding: Right-handed navigation of filamentous cyanobacteria | PNAS Cyanobacteria are the earliest known organisms that produced oxygen through photosynthesis, leading to the oxygen atmosphere that allowed the evolu...

Chiral gliding: Right-handed navigation of filamentous cyanobacteria | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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)

Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life Giant DNA viruses encode a cap-binding complex homologous to eIF4F, the defining translation-initiation complex of eukaryotes. The viral cap-binding complex is required for viral protein synthesis and...

Paper and image credit: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

SNIPE is a widespread bacterial defence system that exploits the spatial organization of phage genome injection to specifically target viral DNA, distinguishing self from non-self in prokaryotic immune systems @nature.com @mitpress.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Yet another awesome single-phage paper from Ido Golding's lab #phagesky

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A new preprint from the @archaeon-alex.bsky.social and Joey Davis (MIT) labs! We solved the structure of the ribosome from the archaeon Haloferax volcanii and discovered a new highly conserved ribosome hibernation factor that we named AHA (AMPKγ–HPF from Archaea) 🧵⬇️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

On the nature of the earliest known lifeforms
#evolution #microbiology
@elife.bsky.social
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life In contrast to living organisms, viruses were long thought to lack protein synthesis machinery and instead depend on host factors to translate viral t…

Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life - ScienceDirect www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009...

Eukaryogenesis in light of an expanded catalogue of Asgard genomes. a, Simplified, scaled timeline spanning from before the Last Asgard archaea Common Ancestor (LAsCA) to today. Thin bands mark predicted time ranges of relevant events (for example, GOE), thicker bands represent processes (for example, eukaryogenesis), and brackets indicate the period shown in b. The timeline further highlights milestones, including potential early eukaryotic fossils60 and the modern-day co-occurrence of Heimdallarchaeia and Alphaproteobacteria observed in this study (interaction likely originated earlier).

Fig. 1 | Expanded genomic diversity of Asgard archaea. a, Maximum-likelihood phylogeny based on 47 non-ribosomal markers (NM47)using the WAG + C10 + R4 model with 100 nonparametric bootstrap pseudoreplicates, including 869 Asgardarchaeota MAGs and 309 outgroup genomes. The blue branches (lower right) indicate the new Asgardarchaeota classes, Ranarchaeia, and the recently proposed Asgardarchaeia4. The concentric rings denote (in to out): the predicted genome size, metabolic guilds based on Pfam clustering, sampling locations, and black stars on the outside mark MAGs added by this study. Asgard, Asgardarchaeia; Atabey, Atabeyarchaeia; Baldr, Baldrarchaeia; Frey/Jord, Frey/Jordarchaeia; Gerd, Gerdarchaeales; Heimdall, Heimdallarchaeaceae; Hel, Helarchaeales; Hermod, Hermodarchaeia; Hod, Hodarchaeales; Kari, Kariarchaeaceae; Loki, Lokiarchaeales; Njord, Njordarchaeales; Odin, Odinarchaeia; Ran, Ranarchaeia; Sif, Sifarchaeia; Thor, Thorarchaeia; Wukong, Wukongarchaeia. b, SR4-recoded phylogeny of the same genome set inferred with the model GTR + C60 + G and 100 nonparametric bootstrap pseudoreplicates (Methods). This updated catalogue constitutes a large increase in the medium- to high-quality publicly available genomes (completeness >50% and contamination and redundancy <10%) with 65.3% from the Guaymas Basin and 34.7% from the Bohai Sea. The encircled numbers represent MAGS added by this study. The scale bars in bothsubpanels represent the average number of substitutions per site.Map created in BioRender; Appler, K. https://biorender.com/147ieoc(2025).

Our work is published today: ‘Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor’. This was a huge effort lead by @katyappler.bsky.social. Extremely grateful to have been a part of this amazing project! 😊🦠🧬

Links: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We just released #anvio v9, "eunice" 🎉

This version represents over 2,000 changes in the codebase since v8, increasing the total number of programs in the anvi'o ecosystem to 176.

Read the release notes:

github.com/merenlab/anv...

Visit our up-to-date web page:

anvio.org

Archaea may not be well known, nor well studied, but these microorganisms can live in the most extreme environments, but also right on our skin. They’re everywhere.

EMBL researchers are now exploring their unique ecosystem adaptability and link to evolution.

www.embl.org/news/science...

A quorum-sensing molecule from Pseudomonas aeruginosa induces defensive multicellularity in a coinfecting pathogen | PNAS Microorganisms commonly exist in polymicrobial communities, where they can respond to interspecies secreted molecules by altering behaviors and phy...

A quorum-sensing molecule from Pseudomonas aeruginosa induces defensive multicellularity in a coinfecting pathogen

-in PNAS from @anukharelab.bsky.social

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

🔬🚨New preprint alert! 🚨🔬

We developed quantitative expansion microscopy (qExM) - a method to accurately count proteins in situ by combining expansion microscopy's improved labeling with statistical estimators borrowed from ecology

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

#SuperResolution #CellBiology

Widespread and intron-rich mirusviruses are predicted to reproduce in nuclei of unicellular eukaryotes - Nature Microbiology Environmental metagenomic explorations show that Mirusviricota lineages lack essential replication and transcription genes and contain spliceosomal introns, suggesting nuclear reproduction.

Check out our latest paper on mirusviruses, one of the most remarkable new groups of protist viruses - extremely diverse, carry lots of spliceosomal introns (including new homing introns) and are at the evolutionary crossroads between tailed phages and herpesviruses! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Rare microbial relict sheds light on an ancient eukaryotic supergroup - Nature The discovery of an unusual protist named Solarion arienae, which has a mitochondrial genome with some intriguing features, provides insight into the early radiation of eukaryotic groups.

#NatMicroPicks

A new protist with remnants of ancient mitochondrial DNA 🧬🦠

The eukaryotic tree of life grows with the addition Solarion arienae - a unique and peculiar protist species

#MicroSky

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How do cells adapt morphology to function? In a 🔥 preprint by @zjmaggiexu.bsky.social , with @dudinlab.bsky.social and @amyweeks.bsky.social , we identify a self-organizing single-cell morphology circuit that optimizes the feeding trap structure of the suctorian P. collini. 🧵 tinyurl.com/4k8nv926

our next online seminar, this time with Anna Sophia Feix, on parasite-derived EVs in infection and immunity 😎 Please register here: donau-uni.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

So a big day for #microeukaryote #imaging. To finish "en beaute" a small video to share the behind the scenes of this first work. Such an exciting time to be a #marine #microbiologist !!

Congratulations @lqueiss.bsky.social 👏🎉😀

Lauren won the Best Poster Award at the Women in Electron Microscopy (#WeM) – Exchange and Networking event @fz-juelich.de

Pic: FZJülich/Kurt Steinhausen
www.mpi-bremen.de/en/Lauren-Qu...

#WomeninSTEM #marinescience #MachMINT @maxplanck.de #FemaleScience

Some years ago, we discovered a modern microbialite reef under conditions resembling primitive Earth 🌋

Now we show how seasonal extremes drive microbial shifts and mineralisation, offering a window into processes that shaped Earth’s first biostructures 🪨

www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02764-6