Dr. Claudia Pogoreutz

🌟 Do you want to read it, but feel the end of the year rush? Maren Ziegler and I have got you covered with this short preview:
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
#SymbioSky #MicroSky

🪸 Wei et al recently published a beautiful hologenome study of a deep-sea black coral, revealing the intricate metabolic interactions that underpin the intertwined lives of these animals and their microbial symbionts.

Here the study published in Cell Host & Microbe 👇🏻
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

🦠 Studying the biology and symbiotic relationships of holobionts living in extreme environments, such as the deep sea, is challenging. However, uncovering the strategies of these organisms to overcome harsh environmental constraints offers crucial insights into ecology and evolution of marine life.

New preprint!
We explore how gutless marine worms and their bacterial symbionts use organosulfur compounds like DMSP and DMS - key molecules in marine sulfur cycling.
Our results show that these compounds support carbon and energy metabolism in the Olavius algarvensis symbiosis.

New preprint: 🚀🧬 Starship in the genome of the lichen fungus Xanthoria. Discovery of giant transposons Starships challenged what we thought we knew about fungal genomes. But what about Starships in #lichen fungi? Let us present Tangerine! 🖥️ 🧪 🦠 🧫 #SymbioSky doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Fascinating hologenome study of a deep-sea black coral and their microbial symbionts 🪸

Our November issue examines Global Steps Forward as we mark 5 years of COVID-19. The issue includes discussion pieces from authors across the globe, examining insights gained on SARS-CoV-2, lessons learned, and next steps forward.
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

A couple of days left to submit your abstract for the upcoming EMBO/EMBL Symposium on the Molecular Basis of Symbiosis ! Great line up of speakers :)
#ProtistsOnSky #SymbioSky

Here, we show that deep below, corals and feather stars don’t just share space – they share microbes. Endozoicomonadaceae + Nitrosopumilaceae inhabit both hosts in a “promiscuous” symbiosis that may fuel nitrogen cycling in the deep sea.
doi.org/10.1186/s401... 🌊🪸🧪 #Bioinformatics 🧬💻 #SymbioSky

Happy weekend, symbiosis friends #SymbioSky #MicroSky

I'm fairly sure that most supervisors would be happy to spend more time with their mentees. However, the more you climb the proverbial academic ladder, the more people, teaching, and everything else seem to start pulling at you for your time. It's a system problem, not always a supervisor problem.

In memory of the Christmas Island shrew It never weighed more than a spoonful of sugar. Five or six grams of life, soft-furred and sharp-nosed, darting among the roots and leaf litter of a tiny island in the Indian Ocean. At night, its voic...

This got to me. Haunting and beautifully written. news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-m...

Bleaching: more than just a coral problem.

This is Chapter 4 of volume 21 of the 'Coral Reefs of the World' Series – The Future of Coral Reefs: Evidence from Research, edited by Serge PLANES.

🧬 Finally, we provide future directions on protection strategies and discuss the use of multi-omics tools for an integrated understanding of bleaching on coral reefs.

👇 You can find the chapter here:
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

🔧 We provide a detailed overview of current tools to detect bleaching events at different spatial and temporal scales, the physiological and molecular mechanisms of bleaching, and the major hypotheses of bleaching.

🔬 Bleaching has been extensively studied in corals, but there are other coral reef animals that bleach under stress, which haven’t received much attention.

👩‍🔬 Interested? In this herculean effort led by Caroline Dubé, we provide an overview of bleaching in a diversity of reef animals.

Bleaching of Reef Organisms: Current Knowledge, Challenges, and Future Directions into the Anthropocene Coral reefs worldwide are threatened by climate change and other anthropogenic stressors. A global factor contributing to coral reef decline is the increasing frequency, duration, and intensity of bleaching events leading to extensive mortality of keystone species,...

🌟 New book chapter alert!

🪸 Coral reefs are threatened by climate change, especially by mass ‘bleaching’ events. Bleaching is caused by the loss of photosymbionts under stress, resulting in a white – ‘bleached’ - phenotype.

link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

#SymbioSky #MicroSky

My first dive into Raman microscopy! 🔬 Our latest heat stress experiments on Aiptasia raised more questions than answers — until a few days of Raman spectroscopy with Dr. Peter Mojzeš at @charlesuni.cuni.cz helped connect the dots. Grateful for the collaboration and excited about what’s ahead!

I just returned from my holiday in Finland. While we were looking for bears, wolves and co, one of my personal favorites were these green-alga bearing freshwater sponges. Photosymbiosis is everywhere if you look close enough. Maybe it‘s time for some freshwater work at @hifmb.de?

🧬 Postdoc — cellular dynamics of photosymbiosis⁣
Deadline: Oct 29⁣
Apply 👉 jobs.awi.de/Vacancies/20...
#Postdoc #CellBiology #SymbiosisResearch

🔬 PhD — metabolic interactions in photosymbiosis⁣
Deadline: Nov 5⁣
Apply 👉 jobs.awi.de/Vacancies/20...
#PhDposition #Metabolomics #MarineBiology

PhD — cellular signaling in photosymbiosis
Deadline: Nov 5
Apply 👉 recruitingapp-5442.de.umantis.com/Vacancies/20...
#PhDposition #CellSignaling #Symbiosis

🪸🧪 We’re hiring! Join our ERC-funded group at the @hifmb.de in Oldenburg, Germany to explore the cellular origins of photosymbiosis:⁣
⁣
𝟏 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐝𝐨𝐜 + 𝟐 𝐏𝐡𝐃𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.⁣
Deadlines: Oct 29 & Nov 5. Links below. ⁣

Questions: nils.raedecker@hifmb.de⁣
#Photosymbiosis #HIFMB #ERC #AcademicJobs

#SymbioSky #MicroSky #Symbiosis

Sessions and themes

The session descriptions can be found here:
www.icrs2026.nz/sessions-and...
Submit your abstracts here: www.icrs2026.nz/call-for-abs...

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

Your session hosts Tina Keller-Costa, Shady Amin, Maren Ziegler, and I

🪸 Call for abstracts!

We invite you to submit your abstracts to our session ‘Understanding the roles of Endozoicomonadaceae in coral reef holobionts: Mutualists, parasites, and everything in between?’ at the next International Coral Reef Symposium
from July 19–24, 2026 in Auckland.

I will be hiring a PhD student and a postdoc for my ANR-funded project CECIL soon, starting in January 2026. If you have experience in (marine) microbiology and microbial OMICS, and are keen to understand how sea anemone microbiomes work, please reach out! 🧫 🧬

(p.s. we got tapas!)

👇

Fungi and Fungi-Like Entities Coral microbiology research has long focused on the composition and functional roles of prokaryotic organisms, but microeukaryotic communities, including the enigmatic fungi remain a poorly understood "black box" within coral and other holobionts. Here,...

How microbial therapies are reshaping coral reef restoration? 'Fungi and Fungi-Like Entities' chapter of 'Coral Reef Microbiome' explores the science behind microbial-based interventions to combat coral bleaching and ecosystem degradation. bit.ly/472kO39 @cpogoreutz.bsky.social

🌊 The mid-latitude marine heatwaves now pushing 4–5°C above normal in many regions. This isn’t seasonal warming; it’s a climate alarm bell. Ecosystems are under stress.