Shamphavi Sivabalasarma

This work started as a bachelor project and @1nussi1.bsky.social and @felixgrunberger.bsky.social showed that CsmR is a very interesting regulator important for controlling motiliy and cellshape in Haloferax volcanii.

The preprint is out now: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Multiple protein structure alignment at scale with FoldMason Protein structure is conserved beyond sequence, making multiple structural alignment (MSTA) essential for analyzing distantly related proteins. Computational prediction methods have vastly extended ou...

FoldMason is out now in @science.org. It generates accurate multiple structure alignments for thousands of protein structures in seconds. Great work by Cameron L. M. Gilchrist and @milot.bsky.social.
📄 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
🌐 search.foldseek.com/foldmason
💾 github.com/steineggerla...

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...

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-...

US science after a year of Trump: what has been lost and what remains A series of graphics reveals how the Trump administration has sought historic cuts to science and the research workforce.

Trump has been in office for one year. We at @nature.com did a deep dive looking at the administration's disruption of science in numbers.

Take a look—the numbers are staggering. By me, @dangaristo.bsky.social, Jeff Tollefson, @kimay.bsky.social, & help from @noamross.net @scott-delaney.bsky.social

Thank you!!

Thank you Ariane!

Thank you!!

Congrats! It has been a pleasure to have you in the lab and I am lokking forward seeing what you will achieve in the future!

Finally done! Huge thanks to @sfb1381.bsky.social @archaellum.bsky.social at the @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social and @uni-freiburg.de and all my collaborators over the last years. It was a lot of fun 🎉🎉🎊 and now soon off to new challenges!

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

Nice to see our story on the bacterial archaellum as one of the #editorpicks of 2025!

A big thanks to all the authors, reviewers, and readers of Nature Microbiology for their love and support throughout the year.

We are on a break & will be back on Jan 2nd, in what will be a very special year for us!

In the meantime, enjoy a collage made by @francoismayer.bsky.social

#MicroSky 🦠

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)

Calling all archaeal enthusiasts! 🔬🔥 From molecular machines to microbial communities, Archaea never fail to surprise us!
We are excited to announce the 2026 EMBO Workshop on the Molecular Biology of Archaea, 6–10 July in Cambridge, UK!
Sign up here: meetings.embo.org/event/26-arc...
#ArchaeaSky

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!

Like last year, I compiled a little collage of all our monthly issue covers published in @natmicrobiol.nature.com Another year full of new discoveries, stunning advances and marvelous #microbiology. Thanks to all our authors for all their hard work in pushing the field of microbiology forward.

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

Nutrient availability affects optimal growth strategy in predatory DPANN | mSystems The bacterial and archaeal domains each possess a major clade that appears to be predominantly host-associated (1–3). These two lineages, Patescibacteriota and DPANN archaea (named for the Diapherotri...

Ever since publishing our observations of the predatory behaviour of Ca. Nha. antarcticus people have asked me why it would want to kill its host. My perspective discussing the ecological factors that I believe led to this behaviour is out now in mSystems:
doi.org/10.1128/msystems.01475-25

Pleased to share our review on S-layers with @bupbuse.bsky.social, Andriko von Kügelgen, and @tbharat-lab.bsky.social, where we explore recent advances and argue that deeper insight into S-layers is key to deciphering microbial interactions and community organization. @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social

1/6
PhD /PostDoc positions available. Exploration of physiological functions of the cell fusogen Fusexin1 in Archaea.
In a collaborative project between the Albers lab (Freiburg) and the Podbilewicz lab (Technion) starting in January 2026.

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...

🥳 Today marks the start of the lab of former postdoc @florianwollweber.bsky.social at @embl.org Grenoble!
www.embl.org/groups/wollw...
Florian-- we will miss you dearly and wish you much success!

With us, Florian applied multiscale imaging 🔬to Asgard archaea ...👇

Forgot to post the recently published version of this paper on the role of a minor pilin-like protein in surface sensing journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Lab’s first paper is out!! We show the first structures of #Asgard #chromatin by #cryo-EM 🧬❄️
Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Structural phylogenetics unravels the evolutionary diversification of communication systems in gram-positive bacteria and their viruses - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology Using a new method called FoldTree, the authors compare proteins on the basis of their shape to construct more accurate family trees over long evolutionary timescales and capture distant relationships where sequence information becomes less reliable.

Structural phylogenetics unravels the evolutionary diversification of communication systems in gram-positive bacteria and their viruses | Nature Structural & Molecular Biology https://www.nature.com/articles/s41594-025-01649-8

Our Pyrodictium cannulae paper is out in its final form! Cannulae assemble into calcium-stabilized tubular filaments stable at 100 °C—a unique archaeal cell–cell connection. Led brilliantly by @mikesleutel.bsky.social & @vinceconticello.bsky.social.

www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-64120-8

🧐Checkout our preprint revealing the stepwise firing💥 mechanism of a Contractile Injection System @xujwet.bsky.social&@chipericson.bsky.social trapped the complex by structure-guided engineering🧪 in multiple intermediate states and imaged them by multimodal #cryoEM❄️🔬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Cryo-EM resolves the structure of the archaeal dsDNA virus HFTV1 from head to tail This structure of an archaeal tailed virus (arTV) provides detailed insights into arTV assembly and infection mechanisms.

Out in Science Advances: Our #cryoEM structure of HFTV1, a virus infecting the halophile #archaea. *First full atomic structure (containing all structural proteins) of any tailed virus!* Congrats and thanks to all co-authors and our fantastic collaborators! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Look at this nice cover: beautiful archaella, image made by @sshamphavi.bsky.social !

Thanks also to Marta Rodeiguez for keeping the EM im shape in @ottlab.bsky.social lab!

At @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social at @uni-freiburg.de @sfb1381.bsky.social @cibss.bsky.social