John Burns

Annotating genomes at increased scale and resolution - Nature Reviews Genetics In this Review, Ji et al. overview how rapidly advancing experimental and computational methods are enabling improved and automated annotation of gene structure and function, providing researchers wit...

The growing number of sequenced #genomes provides a positive feedback loop, in which database searches become more effective and shared sequence patterns emerge more clearly www.nature.com/articles/s41... #biodiversity #genomics

Release SeqKit v2.13.0 (10-year-old birthday version) · shenwei356/seqkit Changelog SeqKit is 10 years old! SeqKit v2.13.0 - 2026-02-28 seqkit: add support for reading and writing LZ4 compression format. new command: seqkit sample2: improved seqkit sample by @stahiga....

Can't wait to release a 10-year-old birthday version for SeqKit!

- 10 years
- 2 papers, 3500 citations
- 20 contributors
- 40 subcommands
- 880 commits
- 500 issues
- 685.5K Bioconda total downloads

Thank you all, dear contributors and users!
I'll keep maintaining it.

github.com/shenwei356/s...

Since people are liking the Bocchi colors, I have a whole collection of color palettes on my GitHub: github.com/cxli233/Colo...

You will find the hex code, the preview, and the inspiration for each color palette. I hope some of them will be used.

#DataVis

Final version @nature.com of our paper describing unconventional multicellular development in a choanoflagellate inhabiting an extreme environment. A ton of new data since the first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint (which we've kept updating).

A brief 🧵 (carried over from the old place)

Society for the Study of Evolution Site description

📢 Now accepting proposals for the Graduate Research Excellence Grants! These provide evolutionary biology research funds for early and advanced Master’s and PhD students. Applicants must be members of SSE. Deadline: May 18, 2026
www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci...

I'll try to summon one of the organizers for this one: @johandecelle.bsky.social

Otherwise I'll try to find out!

Booping this over to #marinelife If your interests include some of the little things in the seas (microbial eukaryotes), and you are an early career researcher (defined as student or postdoc for this course), apply to join--or share with someone interested! 🦑. opbc.sciencesconf.org

Doesn't look like it this go around. Maybe in future iterations. In the US, myself and some friends have proposed radiolaria-centered single-cell workshops... Hopefully one day we get them funded. There's a bioblitz workshop coming in Nov in Okinawa-more broadly focused, but also should be fun.

I'll put your name in!

That would be so cool. I think its all booked ☹️.

MicroSEA (Microbial Sea Eukaryotes) course is a one-week, field-based summer school to train early-career researchers in the diversity, ecology, and single-cell biology of marine protists. MicroSEA course integrates lectures, field sampling, and lab-based practicals in advanced techniques, such as flow cytometry, microscopy, culturing, and molecular analysis. The main objectives of MicroSEA course are: Fostering a deep understanding of marine protist diversity, ecology and biology; Providing hands-on training in advanced single-cell methods that are not commonly available in university programs; Building participants' confidence in designing and conducting research projects from field to data analysis; Promoting international collaborations and peer networking among students and speakers/trainers. The course will take place at the Station Biologique de Roscoff - SBR (France) - 7th to 12th of June, 2026 (arrival on the 6th, departure on the 13th). 20 participants will be selected, including 10 from EuroMarine member institutes. https://opbc.sciencesconf.org/

Protist lovers: Please apply for a week of rhapsody! Learn by doing:

MicroSEA (Microbial Sea Eukaryotes) course is a one-week, field-based summer school to train early-career researchers in the diversity, ecology, and single-cell biology of marine protists. opbc.sciencesconf.org

#protistsonsky

#protistsonsky

Phylogenomic tree of Cercozoa based on single-cell transcriptomes from 100 uncultured cells - BMC Biology Background Cercozoa are single-celled eukaryotes (protists) and are part of the supergroup Rhizaria. Cercozoans have vastly different morphologies and are defined by their phylogenetic affinity. While...

Great to see this paper in all its glory online: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A huge effort from Gordon and the team at @pjkeelinglab.bsky.social!

Phylogenomic tree of Cercozoa based on single-cell transcriptomes from 100 uncultured cells

@ubcbotany.bsky.social @science.ubc.ca

Just published: chemotactic sperm cells become phototactic 💡- by loading photo-activatable second messengers. This allows to "reverse-engineer" chemotactic signaling dynamics and expose cells to signals they would never see in the wild. Honoured to be part of this collaboration with the Kaupp lab.

cartoon source: https://www.zazzle.com/aha_funny_stem_cartoon_humor_math_science_joke_postcard-239495710982871737?srsltid=AfmBOorqX6mZmL_NjfoPJskDlyg3SO97s9-W3qMD1SZL4HpGO07c9h9T

ribosomologists (archaea branch) take note 👇

A conserved archaeal ribosome-associated factor (AHA) linking bacterial hibernation and eukaryotic energy sensing
Diorge P. Souza, Mira B. May, Jackson Carrion, Vikram Alva, Alex Bisson, Joseph H. Davis
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

#MicroSky #Archaea

A white woman who is not a doctor & doesn’t believe in science is currently undergoing Senate confirmation hearings to be the US Surgeon General.

Black people, don’t EVER let these people tell you that you are a “diversity hire” or don’t deserve the roles you have so richly prepared for & earned.

Past Ocean Depths Noteworthy — Archaeal lipids can serve as proxies of past ocean depths.

Past Ocean Depths

Noteworthy — Archaeal lipids can serve as proxies of past ocean depths.

We are attending #OSM in Glasgow! This is the @biosstation.bsky.social team at the conference, from physics to biology!

I can't be the only one who is made /uncomfortable/ by the way that razor clams burrow into sand, right?

The final moments of this video by Kate Crump on the Oregon coastline are sort of the crowning glory of horror. 😬

But how does this even work?
Let's talk about bivalve mobility (if we must).

I vote image on Right with one prey!

Some creatures we’ve isolated from soil recently. If you recognise any of these let me know! #protistsonsky

@embl.org at its best: collaborative, open, transformative, and just the right amount of crazy. Dreaming of mechanistic cell biology *in the natural environment*? Dream no more, rent the AML.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jepb...

#WeFreezeOnTheBeach #ProtistsOnSky 🦠🌍🧪

Scientists at the Marine Biological Association have used a pioneering technological approach in individual diatom cells to uncover how these microscopic ocean organisms rapidly adjust their carbon uptake strategies to cope with changing conditions in the ocean.

The boys’ club: How Epstein’s influence shaped the exclusion of women in STEM In one email, an AI researcher suggested it’s “hard to be brilliant if you are worrying if you look fat or why another woman hates you.”

Reading this, I can't help but think about a male former colleague who defended Larry Summers to me in... 2024. All while telling me that my work on open science, public engagement, and equity was "cute."
19thnews.org/2026/02/epst...

🤩to see this behemoth of a story out !
Pushed by @nikobiota.bsky.social & the Amazing @embl.org AML Team (Tina, Michael, Paulina) and in Co. with the Best #science #family you can dream of!

This truck was #home, for weeks in a row & in my heart for a lifetime.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

From our new paper out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social: www.cell.com/current-biol... w/ @neurofishh.bsky.social @gkafetzis.bsky.social @denilsson.bsky.social

Looking across animals, the vertebrate eye is an obvious outlier. Why is it so different that other highly visual animals?

Have you ever wondered 🤔... Does phenotypic variance respond to environmental perturbation? Does it have a genetic basis? Are mean and variance regulating loci exposed to different selection pressures? These and more questions are explored in our new preprint 🔥

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

😁 I appreciate you posting highlights all the time. I never manage to watch the dives, so the posts of cool marine animals make my day. All of the teams are doing super cool work.

It sounds so simple... but it turns out it's pretty hard to push against nothing. #openoceanproblems