Alessandro Garritano

🧫 JAMS Sydney is back! 🧫
We’re kicking off 2026 with an Archaea Special 🔬
📅 24 February
⏰ 6–8 pm
📍 Shakespeare Hotel, 200 Devonshire St, Surry Hills
New year, new venue, and a deep dive into one of the most fascinating domains of life.
🎤 Speaker details coming soon — stay tuned!
#JAMSSydney

Our review “Symbiotic Ammonia Oxidation in the Marine Environment” is now published in Annual Review of Marine Science and is fully open access.
We synthesise ammonia-oxidising microbes in marine symbioses, their implications, and key gaps in host-associated nitrogen cycling
doi.org/10.1146/annu...

Every opportunity politicians provide for you to tell them about how chronic underfunding of research in Australia is affecting your particular fields, people, working conditions etc. is extremely important.

Fill out the form here: lnkd.in/g8A_PAZG

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.

Sydney Plant Ecophysiology Group (SPEG) Sydney Plant Ecophysiology (SPEG)

I’m excited to announce Sydney Plant Ecophys Group is hosting two talks 9 Dec from 4PM (Australian Eastern summer time)
Andrew Merchant: plant source-sink dynamics using low field NMR
&
Davide Siclari: thermal metrics in a warming climate

sydneyplantecophysiologygroup.wordpress.com/talks/

NEW pub in @science.org 🥳

Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life?

For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided.

We provide new evidence suggesting that...

🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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

Drift, dispersal limitation and homogeneous selection as a key processes shaping prokaryotic community assembly in marine sediments academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a... #jcampubs

Autocycler: long-read consensus assembly for bacterial genomes AbstractMotivation. Long-read sequencing enables complete bacterial genome assemblies, but individual assemblers are imperfect and often produce sequence-l

Happy to share that the paper describing Autocycler is now 100% up:
doi.org/10.1093/bioi...
(1/3)

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New review out in Annual Review of Marine Science! 🌊🧫
We explore how ammonia-oxidising microbes form symbioses with marine hosts - fueling the nitrogen cycle, fixing carbon, and possibly feeding their hosts.
#Metagenomics 🧪
#Bioinformatics 🧬💻 #SymbioSky
🔗 doi.org/10.1146/annu...

Great work on Asgardarchaea by @snobsi.bsky.social, @juliameltzer.bsky.social, @xabivc.bsky.social and collaborators

This looks like a great resource for drawing metabolic schemes and the proteins involved. Lost countless hours looking for the subcellular location of specific enzymes and very keen to give this a try

A conserved bacterial genetic basis for commensal-host specificity Animals selectively acquire specific symbiotic gut bacteria from their environments that aid host fitness. To colonize, a symbiont must locate its niche and sustain growth within the gut. Adhesins are...

Keeping your symbiosis genes on a plasmid is a smart move if you have multiple potential hosts. Here a gut bacterial symbiont, but same is true for N-fixing Rhizobia.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

O vírus descoberto nas profundezas da costa do RJ que ganhou nome da mitologia indígena - BBC News Brasil Pesquisa revelou a existência de um intricado sistema de simbiose que garante a sobrevivência em ambientes inóspitos e pode render no futuro novas soluções para lidar com as mudanças climáticas.

Today, our latest paper made headlines in Brazil! We named a new viral order and family after two gods from Brazilian mythology. A small step towards valuing Brazilian science culture.
www.bbc.com/portuguese/a...

Complete story: academic.oup.com/ismej/articl...

O vírus descoberto nas profundezas da costa do RJ que ganhou nome da mitologia indígena - BBC News Brasil Pesquisa revelou a existência de um intricado sistema de simbiose que garante a sobrevivência em ambientes inóspitos e pode render no futuro novas soluções para lidar com as mudanças climáticas.

Hoje, nosso último artigo ganhou destaque no Brasil! 🇧🇷 Nomeamos uma nova ordem e família viral em homenagem a dois deuses da mitologia brasileira. Um pequeno passo para valorizar a ciência e cultura nacionais.
www.bbc.com/portuguese/a...

História completa: academic.oup.com/ismej/articl...

Great initiative, Joana. Can you please add me to the starter pack? And thanks @benoitpaix.bsky.social for the tag!

‘A place of joy’: why scientists are joining the rush to Bluesky Researchers say the social-media platform — an alternative to X — offers more control over the content they see and the people they engage with.

‘A place of joy’: why scientists are joining the rush to Bluesky

For me, it certainly feels good to be here!

@natureportfolio.bsky.social @bsky.app

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Simple Porifera holobiont reveals complex interactions between the host, an archaeon, a bacterium, and a phage Abstract. The basal metazoan phylum Porifera (sponges) is increasingly used as a model to investigate ecological and evolutionary features of microbe–anima

Deep-sea menage à trois? A sponge, an archaeon, and a bacterium rely on carbon & vitamin B12 exchange — until a virus crashes the party! Discover how ammonia-oxidation and viral lysis drive this unique #symbiosis! doi.org/10.1093/isme... #Metagenomics 🧪
#Bioinformatics 🧬💻 #SymbioSky

Hey Alejandro, can I please be added to both? Thanks!

Hey Steven, can you please add me as well! Thanks!

Nice collaboration with a great team. Congrats to @lilly_hill and Camila Messias for the countless works of work. This is a great isolation method for anyone studying in hospite Symbiodiniaceae out there. 🧪 #Bioinformatics 🧬💻

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A nice paper on microbial dark matter revealing that in situ devices increase coral's microbes culturability up to 570% is out on iScience 🧪. This device, initially used in soils, has proved to be useful in marine sponges and, now, in corals as well.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#SymbioSky

Also, @danirabaiotti.bsky.social, it would be great to be added to the What's Science list, if still possible 🧪 :)

Finally started migrating from X to bsky and hoping to connect with more people interested in #Bioinformatics 🧬💻. Thanks @amanzanom.bsky.social for all the tips so far and if someone out there have any good tips, please let me know!