Maite Freire

Hey #TeamTomo …would you like to try some 🍦ICECREAM!? Our @unibas.ch colleagues over at the @ivandokmanic.bsky.social lab have developed a stunningly effective tool to de-noise and de-wedge your tomograms. The contrast and details will give you brain freeze! 🍨❄️🤯

Please try, we need feedback 🧪🧶🧬🔬

I'm so excited to share this with all of you!
This is the very first paper where I am the first author 🥹
Let me share some insights about our work 👇🧵(1/5):

How do persistent viral infections impact the host?

What happens when a fly becomes persistently infected by a virus?

So happy to see this in print! Led by the brilliant (almost Dr.) @castellosanjuan.bsky.social, with the amazing guidance of @rubengonzalez.bsky.social & @jarednigg.bsky.social.
We used to think persistent infections were harmless… but our latest work shows otherwise. Read it to learn more!

Videos | Piplettes Magazine

www.piplettes-pasteur.com/videos?wix-v...
Thanks Aline&Max for making me look more profesional than ever✨

Congrats 🫶🏻 @camimille.bsky.social

🦠 Mycobacteria aren't just tough, they're interior designers! 🦠 Check out our latest #preprint 🚨, led by our PhD student @camimille.bsky.social , where we show that #Mycobacterium tuberculosis builds secret cytoplasmic membranes to adapt its metabolism and sneak past immunity 🤫

Thread coming soon!

After years of hard work and months of growing MTB @camimille.bsky.social submitted her story ! Check this out if you wanna discover new intrabacterial structures and their function ! 🦠🔬✨

Lift Out just feel otherworldly🌚

When your flagellum has had enough of your shit

Thanks to @maitefreired.bsky.social for doing all the work, to @bastinlab.bsky.social @beaplab.bsky.social & Nicole King for comments on the manuscript, and to @currentbiology.bsky.social for a smooth and constructive peer-review experience 🙌

... and might be especially key in confined microenvironments such as the soil, where protists are often trapped in thin liquid layers in pores between grains. (Choanos are commonly found in soil, but their ecology and motility in this environment are pretty much unknown; pic: tinyurl.com/9vh488bk)

Gliding is conserved in at least 2 choano species we looked at (C. flexa and S. rosetta). We don't know in which natural context it is deployed, but we think it is likely to be involved in interactions with surfaces such as biofilms...

Most striking, in some instances of spontaneous flagellar detachment, the flagellum can glide on its own - mercilessly leaving the cell body behind, stabbing it on the way if need be (don't do this at home).

Do choanos defy the laws of physics? Not quite. Multiple pieces of evidence suggest the motor force for gliding resides in the flagellum (like in Chlamydomonas): (1) flagellar ablation prevents gliding (2) inhibition of the molecular motors of intraflagellar transport abolish it too.

In this new study, @maitefreired.bsky.social has shown that moderate confinement activates *yet another* mode of motility: choanos straighten their flagellum, and start moving over the substrate at pretty high speed (~1 µm/sec) without any visible cell deformation. They glide!

What about choanos? They are best-known as flagellar swimmers. In 2021, we showed they are additionally capable of amoeboid motility, crawling via cell protrusions under strong geometric confinement. (elifesciences.org/articles/61037)

Gliding in diverse protists involves different parts of the cell - eg, flagella & IFT motors in the alga Chlamydomonas (pic: tinyurl.com/ye2jsbs5) - suggesting multiple evolutionary origins. Interestingly, gliding has also only been described so far in lineages very distant from animals and fungi.

Do diatoms disprove physics? Not really. They also exert a force on the substrate, but this time, the action occurs at the molecular scale: movement is powered by adhesive transmembrane proteins stuck to the substrate and coupled to intracellular molecular motors. (fig: tinyurl.com/ytd55aw5)

Even more mysterious than ducks, some protists can move over a surface without visible cell deformation: no beating flagellum, no crawling protrusions - as if propelled by some superpower. This motility is called "gliding". See an exemple in a diatoms below (www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4zL...).

(In reality, as most of us realized at some point when we were kids, ducks pedal hard below the surface.)

Like most biological problems, this one is best introduced by contemplating ducks. Ducks on a lake can seem to glide effortlessly without exerting any visible force, defying the laws of physics.

So nice to see this out🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

✊🏼Galiza sae á rúa para acabar coa política forestal da Xunta

A plataforma Lumes Nunca Máis convoca o xoves 21 de agosto concentracións en 26 concellos para sinalar as responsabilidades do Goberno de Alfonso Rueda nos incendios que asolan Ourense.

Estes son os 5 espazos naturais galegos máis afectados pola vaga de incendios Os lumes que arrasan a comunidade, sobre todo en Ourense, ameazan a diversidade e as paisaxes do Invernadeiro, Pena Trevinca e O Courel

🔥🌳Galicia perde verde: os incendios chegan a zonas protexidas, especialmente en Ourense.

📍Espazos naturais como O Invernadoiro, Pena Trevinca e O Courel están en perigo, ameazando a súa biodiversidade e paisaxes únicas

Os incendios de Galicia saltan ás portadas da prensa internacional A magnitude histórica dos lumes galegos, con máis de 76.500 hectáreas arrasadas, está a xerarcobertura en xornais europeos e internacionais

🔥Galicia vive a vaga de lumes máis devastadora da década: máis de 76.500 hectáreas arrasadas, o 2,56% do territorio

A prensa internacional xa está a falar do peor incendio en España das últimas dúas décadas 🌍

Mercii🩷🩷🩷

Paper accepted!!

To the 10% who might feel a little less invisible after reading this, you’re not alone.
And if it helps, feel free to reach out. Talk. Share.

Or just know that someone out there gets it. (3/3)

The End! Thanks all for joining us🙌🏻🙌🏻 Hope everyone enjoy this amazing week💚💚
#ChoanoCon2025

And best poster for Núria & Max Coyle!!!