Our ExM Atlas of eukaryotes is moving along with more and more images coming in - some featured in nature last month!
Culture we’re provided by @ccapoban.bsky.social & Julius Lukeš during visits last year
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
📝 How does fluid flow reshape cyanobacterial blooms?
Experiemnts + Theory + Field work, led by Yuri Sinzato to show when colonies break or stick, and why that matters for bloom dynamics.
eLife: elifesciences.org/articles/103...
Digest: elifesciences.org/digests/1035...
#Cyanobacteria #Ecology
Evolutionary landscape of endomembrane systems. On top are two possible endomembrane systems, represented as directed graphs (pER: proto-endoplasmic reticulum; PM: plasma membrane; IC: intracellular compartment). In the layer below, endomembrane graphs are represented as nodes (white dots) connected by evolutionarily viable transitions (red lines). Collectively these dots and lines define an evolutionary landscape. The landscape breaks up into less functional (left) and more functional (right) endomembrane systems, introducing a selective bias.
How did eukaryotic cells get their Golgi, endosomes, lysosomes and other endomembrane compartments? We show that endomembrane evolution depends on long periods of neutral molecular exploration, punctuated by sudden leaps.
New preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
a simplified evolutionary tree of eukaryotes with pictures of various microbes
New #ISEPpapers #preprint by @deemteam.bsky.social: Re-evaluating the eukaryotic Tree of Life with independent phylogenomic data www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#Protists #Microbes #Evolution #Eukaryotes #TreeOfLife #Phylogeny #Phylogenomics #Bioinformatics #Algae
🚨Job Alert!🚨 Please share widely! We are hiring *two* postdocs (one ASAP, one Oct '26) using models and data to identify pathways involving the gut-brain axis that link the infant microbiome with neurodevelopment and Autism Spectrum Disorder. 1st review date: April 24!
recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF03089
Our paper is out m in BioEssays! We explore how a process-based view of biology, focusing on dynamic interactions rather than individual molecules, can reshape how we think about cell polarity, opening up new questions and ways of doing cell biology.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Some computers are easy to spot — smartphones, laptops, the machines we build. But many natural systems — cells, brains, even turbulent fluids — carry out computations too.
A new paper by SFI’s David Wolpert and Jan Korbel explores these computations encoded in natural dynamic systems.
Our new article on #protist global distributions combining the #Mixoplankton and #metaPR2 databases with newly revised functional annotations.
rdcu.be/fanlx
1/25 New paper out in PNAS! We show that the fitness costs of reproductive specialization, where somatic cells give up reproduction, scale inversely with organism size. Larger organisms can afford far more soma, removing a key barrier to multicellular complexity.
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 🟥 .
just a lil cytoplasmic streaming for your Monday 😌 #protistsonsky
The diverse molecular mechanisms of cellular motility. (A) The rotary T9SS and conveyor belt of Flavobacterium johnsoniae. (B) The focal adhesin complex of Myxococcus xanthus. (C) The leg-like attachment machinery of Mycoplasma mobile. Additional mechanistic models of motility for Mycoplasma genitalium (21) and Mycoplasma pneumoniae (22–26) are described in the text, with additional details available in the cited literature. (D) Multiple Type IV pili strategically arranged at both sides of the septal wall ensure smooth, coordinated gliding in filamentous cyanobacteria. The molecular organization depicted is based on well-characterized Type IV pilus systems of cyanobacteria. (E) The actin and myosin-based glidosome of the apicomplexan Toxoplasma gondii. (F) The proposed raphe and actinomyosin system of the diatom Craspedostauros australis. (OM, outer membrane; IM, inner membrane; PG, peptidoglycan; IMC, inner membrane complex; pPM, parasite plasma membrane; hPM, host plasma membrane).
#MicrobiologyMonday: Gliding motility allows cells to move smoothly along surfaces without flagella. Although this strategy has evolved independently across many microbial lineages, common mechanical principles emerge. Learn more in #JBacteriology: asm.social/2SJ
MBE Call for Papers on the Major Transitions of Life
MBE is excited to launch our newest Call for Papers on the Major Transitions of Life, covering all aspects of phylogenomic research.
🔗 academic.oup.com/mbe/pages/call-for-papers-on-the-major-transitions-of-life
Guest Editors:
Davide Pisani
Anja Spang
#evobio #molbio #phylogenetics
New paper! Self-generated gradients in macrophage chemotaxis. Just published, by the esteemed Abhi Kiran and many collaborators.
A short skytorial follows.
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
🥳 Excited to share our #diatom work out in @pnas.org. In a great collaboration with @nic-poulsen.bsky.social and @ulrichschwarz.bsky.social we show that diatoms modulate the curvature of their paths by dynamic switching of their cell–substrate contact sites.
doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2506122123
Undaria pinnatifida gametophyte
Our work on chromatin evolution in brown algae is now published in @natecoevo.nature.com! We show that developmentally complex brown algae evolved without epigenetic silencing pathways long thought universal, underscoring why non-model lineages are important to study. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
New preprint! We identified many components that localize to the structure involved in "eating" in a marine organism.
#ProtistOnSky #diplonemid
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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
Now out in AEM @asm.org! 🎉🧪
*High school student-isolated mutants 👉🏻 novel genetic causes of biofilm-associated adaptations
*We learn how diversity arises quickly and is maintained
*EvolvingSTEM enables scalable research in classrooms & promotes scientific literacy
journals.asm.org/eprint/FBU9M...
An overview of bacterial multicellular formations: biofilms, filaments, free-floating aggregates, motile collectives and fruiting bodies. For each form, we mention an analogous eukaryotic multicellular form (respectively animal epitelia, filaments in fungi, Volvox, Dictyostelium/social animals, Dictyostelium and other slime moulds)
How common is multicellularity in bacteria? And archaea?
And how does it evolve?
We wrote a short review "On the architecture and evolution of prokaryotic multicellularity".
Preprint link: bit.ly/4ta06Gq
Sharing and comments are much appreciated.
1/4
In our new pre-print, we established massive single-cell RNA-sequencing for diatoms to investigate key cell fate transitions. Notably, we discovered that the diploid-to-haploid transition is regulated by Myb TFs, a process that is actively ongoing across the Global Ocean! 🌊
#Cilia are beautiful!
That's it, that's the tweet.
Oh, and Happy #FluorescenceFriday 🔬
For the anadromous fish aficionados out there, shad cam is now live this season: dwr.virginia.gov/shad-cam/
🚀 Are you planning to secure funding to start your own research group? (e.g. ERC, Emmy Noether, etc).
👨🔬Physics of Life can host you, and offers numerous benefits!
We are launching a new Program to host and support third-party funded junior groups.
Check out the details here: tud.link/xayd8s
A history of symbiosis impacts the host evolutionary trajectory in experimentally evolved amoebas www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...
A large male northern elephant seal lies on a sandy beach, looking at the camera. Other elephant seals are in the background.
A close-up photograph of a Hawaiian monk seal pup, identified as weaner RL08, lying on a sandy beach at the edge of the water. The seal is on its back with its eyes closed, resting its head on a broken coconut husk. The seal is dark gray and wet, with a round body and flippers spread out on the sand. The water and another dark rock are visible in the background.
The image shows a large, gray seal lying on a small patch of ice floating in the turquoise-colored ocean. The seal has a round body and is facing forward, with its whiskers visible. The animal is resting on the ice, which is surrounded by the water.
A close-up photograph of a leopard seal resting on a rocky and partially snow-covered beach. The seal is light gray with dark spots and appears to be sleeping, with its eyes closed and its body curled up. In the background, several King penguins are standing or walking on the beach, and one smaller brown bird is also visible. The ocean water is visible in the distance behind the birds.
Move over Fat Bear Week, it’s time for a chunky seal contest! 🦭
Who deserves the Chunkiest Seal crown? 👑 Vote for your favorite super-sized seal and let us know.
#SealAndSeaLionWeek
Agreed that it's a tough problem. I emphasize the need to develop skills in evaluating code and to learn good coding practices/fundamentals (including debugging) and to also actually learn the languages they use. In practice, this often involves me getting them to explain the code they come up with
As someone advising students who have limited coding experience and who have been using LLMs and AI tools to assist with computational projects, and having limited experience using LLMs/AI in computational projects myself, this is a useful cautionary tale
Echoing some of the other replies, evolutionary novelty for me means a qualitative difference in a characteristic relative to an ancestral state, which is relevant to a scientific question. So it's instrumental, contextual, and relational. I suspect more rigorous definitions will break.
Now published in MBoC
Actin and microtubules don’t just coexist—they communicate through structural, dynamic, mechanical, and signaling interactions. In vitro reconstitution shows how these interactions generate emergent cytoskeletal behaviors.
https://www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/mbc.E25-08-0396
