Cultivating the Ancestors… in Motion What electron microscope images hint at, but can only be seen in videos: how 'Asgard' archaea move.

Cultivating the Ancestors… in Motion

What electron microscope images hint at, but can only be seen in videos: how 'Asgard' archaea move.

Slow and steady!

After 15 years of continuous cultivation, we finally isolated the first psychrotolerant ammonia-oxidizing archaeon (AOA) from an arctic environment, Ca. Nitrosocosmicus articus!

Our new article in Frontiers in Microbiology: doi.org/10.3389/fmic...

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Archaea How a discovery in the 1970s changed the theory of the origin of complex life on earth.

Archaea hit prime time: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

ISTA postdoc Elia Mascolo

Article in TIME, featuring ISTA postdoc @eliamascolo.bsky.social​. After 4 years in the US, he moved to Austria with the APART-USA fellowship, a program that supports outstanding researchers in relocating their work to Austria.

🔗 time.com/7379376/scientist-migrat...

The speed with which these timelapses should be played is an ongoing discussion in the lab, there are too many things happening at the same time :) I am happy to share a slowed down version, I have reached out!

I am super happy and honored to see some of my movies making it into the NYT. I hope everybody enjoys watching them go as much as I do!

Scientists have seen Asgard archaea crawling for the first time. When it comes to the origin of eukaryotes, this is like seeing a feathered dinosaur in the wild. (Video courtesy of Philipp Ralder)

This is literally the GIF I used to present those movies the first time I saw them!

Hell yeah look at that little guy go

Beyond thrilled to share that our study has been published!
This project encompasses years of work, including my thesis research on Asgard archaea in the @archaeal.bsky.social lab at @utmsi.bsky.social and
@texasscience.bsky.social!!!
#MicroSky #ArchaeaSky 1/12

We are happy to share our newest preprint on a novel strain of Ca. Lokiarchaeum ossiferum, that contains an active provirus, capable of excision and independent replication! We propose a novel virus family: Fylgjaviridae.

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

Active virus-host system in a Lokiarchaeon culture Asgard archaea are considered the closest prokaryotic relatives of eukaryotes and having a crucial role in eukaryogenesis. Only few organisms have been cultivated from this group and their viruses were previously described only through metagenomic reconstructions. Here, we report the first successful cultivation of an Asgard archaeal virus infecting a novel strain of Ca. Lokiarchaeum ossiferum B36. The 16 kbp integrated provirus is capable to excise and replicate independently leading to the formation of virus particles. Network analysis of shared protein clusters with other archaeal viruses places it in a new family, Fylgjaviridae . The host encodes a distinctive repertoire of antiviral defense systems, including Septu, Wadjet, and type II CBASS system, all different from the defense systems of the related strain Ca. L. ossiferum B35. Our cultures provide the first opportunity to study interactions of a virus-host system in Asgards and hold significant potential for developing genetic tools. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. FWF Austrian Science Fund, 10.55776/EFP25, Z437 European Research Council, Advanced Grant #695192: TACKLE Max Planck Society, https://ror.org/01hhn8329

Active virus-host system in a Lokiarchaeon culture | bioRxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02...

Our latest preprint: Together with the team of Jan Löwe, @danieltamarit.bsky.social and many others we discovered and characterized several Asgard tubulin genes and propose that microtubule architecture and dynamics evolved in Asgard archaea prior to eukaryogenesis
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

DAY 243
SPECIES 243 - Ca. Lokiarchaeum ossiferum
STAGE: Archaea
MEDIUM: Arches Paper. Chromatek watercolor. Sakura pen

NOTES: Yesterday was 10% shading and 90% painting, Todays was 90% shading with a 10min paint job. Looked better before painting, but I'll spend some more time on later archaea.

Researcher Florian Wollweber standing next to a cryo-focused ion beam microscope in a laboratory, with technical infrastructure visible in the background.

The origin of eukaryotic cells continues to be one of the greatest mysteries in biology.

EMBL Grenoble is excited to welcome Florian Wollweber, who will use cutting-edge imaging techniques to study Asgard archaea — microbes closely related to our earliest ancestors. 🦠🔬

www.embl.org/news/people-...

#LivingArchitectures
We put cells and cytoskeleton filaments on the architecture of the musée d'Orsay.
www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/agenda/ev...
Scientists of the #CytoMorphoLab adapted their protocols to illustrate the questions that keep them awake at night.
-> Two shows on the 24th and 25th of January.

Genomic clues to the origin of eukaryotic cells How did eukaryotic cells with complex architecture evolve from simpler prokaryotic cells? DNA analyses offer possible answers.

How did eukaryotic cells with complex architecture evolve from simpler prokaryotic cells? DNA analyses offer possible answers

go.nature.com/4sEMwLH

Dynamic protrusions mediate unique crawling motility in Asgard Archaea (Promethearchaeota) Crawling motility is a hallmark of eukaryotic cells and requires a dynamic actin cytoskeleton, regulated adhesion, and spatially organized signalling pathways1–3. Asgard archaea (phylum Promethearchae...

1. As we recently joined BlueSky, we want to repost this story for all newcomers!

We sat down with @radler92.bsky.social to get more insight into the unique videos from his recent preprint on Promethearchaeota (formerly Asgard archaea).

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

(Videos and info below)

Are you a long-time fan of Archaea, an extremophile-phile, or are you simply curious?

Either way, we have good news.
We’re delighted to announce the 2026 EMBO Workshop on Archaea, 6–10 July.

Sign up: meetings.embo.org/event/26-arc...

We look forward to seeing you in Cambridge, UK.

Please repost!

Fresh from our group, a new role for oxygen production in ammonia-oxidizing archaea:

Oxygen production as an electron overflow pathway in ammonia-oxidizing archaea

Congrats to Thomas Pribasnig for this great work!

Check it out here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Collaboration for Understanding | Searching for the Asgards YouTube video by Schmidt Ocean

And ‘Searching for the Asgards’ the movie: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgmE...

Dynamic protrusions mediate unique crawling motility in Asgard Archaea (Promethearchaeota) Crawling motility is a hallmark of eukaryotic cells and requires a dynamic actin cytoskeleton, regulated adhesion, and spatially organized signalling pathways1–3. Asgard archaea (phylum Promethearchae...

Asgard on the move ! Watch our videos!
Biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.30.690169v1