Nicole Coots

found this lil guy in a sand sample recently 😍🦑
#protistsonsky

Very nice, Yash!

Our 2nd heterotrophic #Paulinella culture!
Really proud of this one. After days at the microscope picking cells, I finally got it growing happily :)

#protistsonsky

Made some cyanotype prints from a figure I pulled from @sandinmm.bsky.social 's 2019 paper on the morpho-molecular classification of Nassellaria. #protistsonsky

Those SEMs are so stunning, they were just begging to be turned into art!
doi.org/10.1016/j.pr...

Gave a talk about mixotrophy earlier this month to the Thetis Island Nature Conservancy. My postdoc has been so 100% focused on research that I almost forgot how much fun scientific outreach can be!!! 🤩

Genomes of nitrogen-fixing eukaryotes reveal an alternate path for organellogenesis | PNAS Endosymbiotic gene transfer (EGT) and import of host-encoded proteins have been considered hallmarks of organelles necessary for stable integration...

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Genomes of nitrogen-fixing eukaryotes reveal an alternate path for organellogenesis #protistsonsky

Promethea = PROvora + MEteora + HEmimastigophora. The new supergroup, unifying previously “orphan” lineages with gene-rich mitogenomes. Position of #telonemids is still uncertain. #protistsonsky tinyurl.com/yk9xkt49

I'll take you up on that if Im ever in the area!

Environmental Fluctuations Promote Host Reward Strategies That Maintain Partner Diversity in Multispecies Mutualisms | The American Naturalist: Vol 205, No 2 Abstract In multispecies mutualisms, hosts might be expected to reward only the highest-quality partner in order to maximize benefits and prevent the proliferation of cheaters. In a fluctuating enviro...

Currently geeking out over this recent paper from the @mixotrophe.bsky.social lab!:
Environmental Fluctuations Promote Host Reward Strategies That Maintain Partner Diversity in Multispecies Mutualisms

By Bethany LF Stevens et al.
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Was literally just panicking about this over the weekend 💩

I love the way they move

😂 maybe four stuck together

It was identified as a nectosome elsewhere 😌

Anybody know what this marine invert is? It's from an epipelagic plankton net tow in the middle of the Atlantic #invertID

Six striking images showcase scientific fieldwork The winners of Nature’s 2025 photo competition braved crashing waves and misty mountains to capture their science.

Thrilled to have won @nature.com 2025 #ScientistAtWork photo competition! 🧪🐳📷 www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

My friends in the Life of Retaria group decided to make a podcast! In the first episode, they interview @fabnot.bsky.social about his journey as a scientist. I loved the first episode, hope you do too! @juliemeilland.bsky.social @sandinmm.bsky.social et al.

thelifeofretaria.github.io/podcast.html

That must be where the amoeba got its artistic inspiration 😀

testate amoebae are my fave 🤩

Extant diversity, biogeography, and evolutionary history of Radiolaria Sandin et al. reveal a vast, overlooked molecular diversity of Radiolaria, likely skeleton-less, contrasting the traditional view of their star-shaped skeleton. Such comprehensive Radiolaria diversity...

Congrats @sandinmm.bsky.social et al, very nice paper: www.cell.com/current-biol... #protistsonsky

Why do some planktonic protists develop a gelatinous matrix? We suggest that this original adaptation is a strategy to cope with ocean oligotrophy: doi.org/10.1111/1462...
Led by @n-llopis-m.bsky.social, and thanks to all co-authors, I'm very happy to finally see it out!
#protistsonsky

Pause for a minute to appreciate the valiant Program Officers still at NSF, who are doing their utmost to preserve what they can. They’re in the stinking rotting belly of the beast, laboring on our behalf.

❤️❤️❤️❤️ to them

It's an incredibly depressing time to be an American scientist

Photo of a rock face covered in a half dozen or more species of lichens.

Lichen collage. Northwest Territories, Canada.

First record of a living coelacanth from North Maluku, Indonesia - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - First record of a living coelacanth from North Maluku, Indonesia

These guys got the first living footage of the Indonesian coelacanth! Amazing work.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Algal Symbiont Diversity and Host Fitness Variation in Amoebozoan Photosymbiosis Photosymbioses, the symbiotic relationships between microalgae and non-photosynthetic eukaryotes, are sporadically found in many eukaryotic lineages. Only a few taxa, such as cnidarians and ciliates ....

Algal symbiont diversity and host fitness variation in the amoebozoan photosymbiosis 🦠

by Yamagishi et al.
@jeukmicro.bsky.social

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Fireworms are a reservoir and potential vector for coral-infecting apicomplexans Abstract. Corals (Cnidaria; Anthozoa) play critical roles as habitat-forming species with a wide range, from warm shallow-water tropical coral reefs to col

🚨🧵 Out now in ISMEJ (@ismepublications.bsky.social)!
We find abundant corallicolid sequences within bearded fireworms (𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘢) across reefs and years in Curaçao 🇨🇼!

🪱🪸 This is the first report of corallicolids inside a non-anthozoan host!

#ProtistsOnSky #MicroSky #SymbioSky #Corals

Nitrogen isotopes are a promising tool to reconstruct symbiosis in planktic foraminifera!
Check out our latest paper:
bg.copernicus.org/articles/22/...

Expansion microscopy micrograph of the choanoflagellate Choanoeca flexa, vaguely evocative of a cactus. Red = tubulin, green = actin, blue = DNA

Same with yellow = lipids (BODIPY)

A dream come true: the first expansion microscopy images of C. flexa 🤩 Generated by Mylan & Uzuki who learned from the best (@hiralshah.bsky.social @gautamdey.bsky.social @dudinlab.bsky.social). We will learn so much from these!

WOW 😍

Was able to take the image, thanks to you and the samples you sent me! 😄