John Burns

microscopic image of a single-celled organism with two long flagella

Rediscovery of the Protist Glissandra: Elucidating the Common Features of the Uncharacterized CRuMs Lineage www.tsukuba.ac.jp/en/research-...

#ISEPpapers by Euki Yazaki et al.: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

#Protists #Microbes #Evolution

That is uncanny! I wonder if the pokemon designers dig through protist ID books.

Gene regulatory networks and essential transcription factors for de novo-originated genes Nature Ecology & Evolution - A combination of computational methods applied to single-cell RNA sequencing data and genetic experiments shows that a small number of transcription factors are...

Our latest paper is out: rdcu.be/ev6Ym — one of my favorite projects. It began about 8 years ago when Nobel laureate Torsten Wiesel asked me: what transcription factors regulate new genes? I had no idea then. Now we have some answers.

It is heartening to see the success of brilliant young scientists who see, study, and share the beauty and wonder of the microbial world. Congratulations @couchmicroscopy.bsky.social! I look forward to learning new biology from the path you forge.

Chain-shaped shell of a benthic foraminiferan from marine sediments.

Peeking at some local marine sediments today I came across this striking benthic foraminiferan shell. #protists

It is looking at me 😳

We are looking for a student to continue our work on chromatin evolution:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The project with @seanamontgomery.bsky.social will focus on chromatin state readers across eukaryotes.

More info: recruitment.crg.eu/content/jobs...

Multiple origins, one function: evolutionary pathways of HSP70 proteins in viruses Heat shock proteins 70 (HSP70) are highly conserved molecular chaperones found across all domains of life, where they play essential roles in cellular stress responses. While HSP70 homologs have been ...

Heat Shock Protein 70 (AKA HSP70) in Mimiviridae and Phycodnaviridae likely originated from horizontal transfer from their protist hosts. By @sfelena.bsky.social & @amaachi.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

#giantVirus #VirEvol

Animal origins: looping back in time How did the chromatin folding mechanisms controlling gene regulation emerge during animal evolution? Kim et al. surveyed chromatin folding at high-resolution in unicellular relatives of animals as wel...

An insightful @cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social perspective on our recent article about the early evolution of genome regulation in animals.

www.cell.com/trends/genet...

Thank you Omar and @ferdix.bsky.social!

Haha, precisely!

Plankton sample through a microscope filled with diatom chains that look like little sticks.

Am I hunting radiolarians or playing the world's tiniest game of pick up sticks???

No, AlphaFold has not completely solved protein folding Biology is hard. Yes, even for AI.

AlphaFold is great, but contrary to public opinion it has not completely solved the protein folding problem. Much work remains to be done.
clauswilke.substack.com/p/no-alphafo...

A large group of Phaeodaria surrounding a crustacean, recorded with the Underwater Vision Profiler 6

We usually use in situ imaging to obtain #plankton or particle abundance data, but sometimes we get a glimpse of how they interact with each other, like this huge group of Phaeodaria (Rhizaria) surrounding this crustacean (are they eating it?), 🌊

Somewhere in Atlantic - and sea is like glass for last few days. We are out here measuring carbon flux & how ocean removes all of that carbon. Microbes don’t work for us; so unless we understand the processes - we don’t know where tipping points are. Thankful to @NSF for supporting basic science.

Nature should be the model for microbial sciences | Journal of Bacteriology Historically, our understanding of microbes has been based on laboratory cultures. Much of what we know at a mechanistic level is based on “model organisms” which are species that readily grow in labo...

Today's reading: Nature should be the model for microbial sciences journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... by @brettbakker.bsky.social @emilyraehyde.bsky.social and @pedroleao.bsky.social

Looks ideal for a talk I am working on on model organisms ...

BEHOLD! One of Earth's greatest lineages of life: the lil wiggle arm guys, Meteora.

These single-celled critters, originally found in deep-sea sediments, are SO DIFFERENT from other lifeforms on Earth that they're likely in their own kingdom (as in, the Animal Kingdom, the Plant Kingdom etc). 🧪🌿

Divergent Plastid Genomes in the Deepest-Branching Apicomplexan Parasites #protists #protistsonsky academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

Hey cyanobacteria, watcha doin?

Oh, I dunno, just screwin' around

🤣🤣🤣

Theory of host-microbe symbioses: Challenges and opportunities Growing insight into microbial symbioses highlights the need to model these systems mathematically. We discuss three areas requiring theoretical advan…

Trainees and faculty that I had the privilege to be a part of did something quite special. The context here is that experimental and theoretical biologists were in a room together on Coconut Island, Hawaii for 3 weeks to hammer out a vision #holobiont theory. 🧵
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Independent Fellowship in Plant-Associated Microbial Interactions | John Innes Centre An exciting opportunity for an Independent Fellowship in Plant-Associated Microbial Interactions has arisen at the John Innes Centre. To read the full job description for this role…

New Independent Fellowship position in Microbiology to launch your lab in our department @johninnescentre.bsky.social (UK). We are conducting a broad search in the area of plant-associated microbial interactions. Message me if you have any questions.

Apply here: www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/in...

🏆 Javier del Campo, principal investigator at @delcampolab.bsky.social‬ (#IBE_Barcelona), has been awarded the Hutner Award at the 16th International Congress of Protistology (ICOP/ISOP 2025) — a recognition of his impactful work in the field of protistology.🦠🧬🪸

👉https://shorturl.at/5Lz6L

Greetings! Is anyone interested in working on coccolithophore microbiome and writing a MSCA-PF shorturl.at/p49t3? Reach out for a chat 💬 and more info! Croatia is part of ERA and also has national funds for MSCA-PFs --> triple chance of getting it! 🫣 #protistsonsky

Symbiodinium necroappetens outbreak and persistence in Southwestern Atlantic corals following a bleaching event #protists #protistsonsky #symbiosis #corals link.springer.com/article/10.1...

from www.instagram.com/yeweijun98

Slime molds eat the microbes on decaying plants but not the microbes on decaying animals. Badhamia (Physarum) polycephala is an unusually adventurous eater who also enjoys mushrooms, oats, and probably a number of other things!

I wonder what's up with the peanut

Tagging some friends from the meeting: @dumack.bsky.social @huesnaoeztoprak.bsky.social @johandecelle.bsky.social @micromotility.bsky.social @delcampolab.bsky.social @tristamoeba.bsky.social

(Not exhaustive... I dont know how to find everyone on here!)

Thanks all for making it a great meeting 🥰

BBQ with Eunsoo Kim's lab

North Korean style cold noodle soup

Black chicken and ginseng soup

Dumplings and seafood pancake

Oh, and last note: all kinds of great food! I think I can only post 4 photos, but these are good ones!

Me talking about radiolarian bloom cycles in Maine!

Finally: if you know me you know my semi-obsessive desire to study the molecular/evolutionary cell biology of radiolarians. I've been pursuing that since 2012 and in 2025 gave my first talk on radiolarian data that I gathered myself in Maine. Thank you #ICOP2025!

After a long day of science... get together for more science!

Old friends and new! Johan, Ian, Pranali, and me.

One of the first nights we converged on this small traditional restaurant, sat on the floor and ate communally.

Kenneth Dumack and Husna! Finally met in person!

I learned a ton, spent time with old friends, met many fantastic new friends and colleagues and engaged in creativity, wonder, exploration, innovation, discovery and more! Wonderful meeting, wonderful community!

Hwan Su Yoon: president of the organizing committee for the meeting since befoe 2017, I think! And Eunsoo Kim, my former postdoc advisor and local organizer.

Entrance for the central historical palace in Seoul with mountains in the backgound.

This year's #ICOP2025 in Seoul was a big success! Many of us remember when the Seoul meeting was excitedly announced in Prague 2017, set for 2021. Wonderful to see it come through finally. The protistologists are my favorite community by far and it is amazing to see the field advance #protistsonsky

🥳🥳🥳