Asgard archaea: have we found our microbial ancestors?
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Asgard archaea: have we found our microbial ancestors?
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
dude, finally! Congrats!
06.03.2026 06:28 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 010 years of massive Asgard undertaking, masterly summarized!
06.03.2026 06:28 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Just over ten years after the discovery of the first Asgard archaeal genomes, we revisit the rapid expansion of this remarkable archaeal lineage. From diverse genomes and metabolisms to eukaryotic signature proteins and the first cultured representatives.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Finally out in @natmicrobiol.nature.com: Prediction of eukaryotic cellular complexity in Asgard archaea using structural modelling. Great work by @stephkoe.bsky.social @kassipan.bsky.social @jvhooff.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Prediction of eukaryotic cellular complexity in Asgard archaea using structural modelling
06.03.2026 06:24 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Congrats to all!
19.02.2026 03:38 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor
19.02.2026 03:37 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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...
cool work!
22.01.2026 15:03 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Our latest. Led by the very talented @ahoiching.bsky.social
Cell cycle dysregulation of globally important SAR11 bacteria resulting from environmental perturbation www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs 🌊
Dominant contribution of Asgard archaea to eukaryogenesis.
tldr; Best guess, ~ 50% of conserved eukaryotic protein families are from from Asgard archaea!
#science #biology #evolution #nature #bioinformatics
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
New Issue Alert — mLife Vol. 4, Issue 6 is out!
The issue features 10 open-access papers spanning host–pathogen interactions, bacterial cell division, RNA editing, phage therapy, CRISPR optogenetics, and more.
Table of contents here 👉
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Highlights below ⬇️
Join the IC-DLI x mLife Webinar on Deep Life Studies!
🗓 Dec 30 | 🕐 13:00 UTC | 🧪 3 exciting talks on:
• Deep-sea cold seep microbiomes
• Novel methanogens beyond Euryarchaeota
• Habitable rock–water systems
📍Zoom ID: 853 4219 3531 | PW: 904477
Come to follow the official BlueSky of the journal #mLife!
18.12.2025 08:56 — 👍 1 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Insightful Review in #mLife!
Emerging single-cell sequencing and imaging technologies now allow for the profiling of microbial heterogeneity with unprecedented resolution—capturing phenotypic and spatial diversity within microbial communities.
🔗 doi.org/10.1002/mlf2...
amazing!
03.12.2025 07:32 — 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
microscopic pictures and 3D reconstructions of a microbial cell
Discovery of rare #protist reveals previously unknown branch of eukaryotic tree of life phys.org/news/2025-11...
Rare microbial relict sheds light on an ancient eukaryotic supergroup www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#Protists #Microbes #Evolution #Eukaryotes #TreeOfLife
An archaeal genetic code with all TAG codons as pyrrolysine www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1... #jcampubs
21.11.2025 16:20 — 👍 27 🔁 16 💬 2 📌 1
An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments
Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Congrats Brett & co!
11.11.2025 01:22 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Asgards everyday! Another boost to the metabolism at the prokaryote-eukaryote interface.
11.11.2025 01:22 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Thanks Daan!
11.11.2025 01:18 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
I'm happy to announce the latest release of the GlobDB, available at globdb.org.
The GlobDB is a database of "species dereplicated" microbial genomes, and as of release 226 contains twice the number of species-representative genomes (306,260) than the latest GTDB release.
Isolation of retron-bearing hosts from environmental samples. Top: Schematic of the isolation of bacteria from soil and water samples and identification of possible retron-bearing hosts using PAGE analysis (from left). Retron RT-DNA bands from PAGE analyses. Overview of sampling, screening of colonies, and identification of retron hosts. Hosts displaying an RT-DNA band were subjected to whole-genome sequencing. RT-DNA was subjected to unbiased adapter addition and sequencing. Bottom: Top left panel: Schematic of canonical retron operon with components annotated, effector in pink, noncoding RNA (ncRNA) in orange, and reverse transcriptase in purple. Other seven panels: Seven putative retron operons, identifying the retron type, host species, and predicted two-dimensional structure of the ncRNA. For retrons where RT-DNA sequencing is available, sequencing coverage is plotted onto ncRNA in an orange heatmap (heatmap legend indicated number of sequencing reads mapped). Gene abbreviations: NDT (nucleoside deoxyribosyltransferase-like); PRTase (phosphoribosyltransferase); WH (winged helix-turn-helix DNA binding); HTH (helix-turn-helix domain containing); HipA (HipA-like); DUF (DUF3037 domain-containing protein).
Bacteria rely on retrons for #phage defense, but most known systems come from clinical or lab strains. @seth-shipman.bsky.social &co identify diverse #retrons from environmental #bacteria, uncovering their defense mechanisms & using them as #GenomeEditing tools @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4oDqRAF
24.10.2025 12:58 — 👍 8 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0How are we replicating our #DNA? Find origin in the #Asgard #Archaea!
24.10.2025 12:43 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
chromosome replicationists – #Archaea branch, Asgard dept. – take note 👇
#ArchaeaSky
thx @acritschristoph.bsky.social for boosting this 🙏
glad to be noticed by the mighty STC. big fan!
22.10.2025 07:39 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0yeah for sure! been a long time.
21.10.2025 16:10 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0