forterre

Look at this nice cover: beautiful archaella, image made by @sshamphavi.bsky.social !

Thanks also to Marta Rodeiguez for keeping the EM im shape in @ottlab.bsky.social lab!

At @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social at @uni-freiburg.de @sfb1381.bsky.social @cibss.bsky.social

A jumbo cyanophage encodes the most complete ribosomal protein set in the known virosphere Viruses encode ribosomal proteins (RPs), but their genomes usually harbor a single RP-coding gene. Here, we reannotate the genome of the jumbo cyanophage PhiMa05 and show that it encodes six RPs, an RP acetyltransferase, and a ribosome biogenesis protein. Evolutionary analyses suggest that these viral RP-coding genes may have been horizontally transferred to certain members of the Vampirovibrionia , a non-photosynthetic basal lineage of Cyanobacteriota , via integration of the viral genome. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Secretaría de Ciencia, Humanidades, Tecnología e Innovación, Becas de Posgrado para Maestrías y Doctorados en Ciencias y Humanidades en el Extranjero Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, 2022-03350, 2022-00329 Phycological Society of America, Norma J. Lang Early Career Researcher Fellowship

A jumbo cyanophage encodes the most complete ribosomal protein set in the known virosphere | bioRxiv https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.23.678156v1

New paper out!
We discovered a tiny archaeon with the smallest known archaeal genome — only 238 kbp!
Candidatus Sukunaarchaeum mirabile has almost no recognizable metabolic pathways and may rely heavily on a host to survive.
It also represents a novel, deep-branching lineage in the archaeal tree.

Structural evolution of nitrogenase over 3 billion years
#nitrogenase #evolution #microbiology
@elife.bsky.social
elifesciences.org/articles/105...

Naiavirus: an enveloped giant virus with a pleomorphic, flexible tail - Nature Communications Rodrigues and Queiroz et al. report the discovery of Naiavirus, the largest enveloped virus, isolated from a Brazil biome. With an oval capsid and flexible tail, its giant genome holds many novel genes, underscoring the value of viral isolation studies.

Naiavirus: an enveloped giant virus with a pleomorphic, flexible tail | Nature Communications https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63463-6

And the story is published now!🍾
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Open access link: rdcu.be/exnOc

Many years in the making, great collaboration with @archaellum.bsky.social & @tunglejic.bsky.social

Thanks @ukri.org BBSRC & @leverhulme.ac.uk for funding, reviewers & editor!! 🙏
#microsky #archaeasky

Extensive lateral gene transfer between proto‐eukaryotes and Heimdallarchaeia suggests their close association during eukaryogenesis It has been proposed by Ettema and colleagues, in the two-domain framework for the tree of life, that Eukarya emerged from Heimdallarchaeia, as sister group to Hodarchaeales. Looking at the individua....

Are Asgard archaea the ancestors of eukaryotes? Likely not. Very insightful paper by @pforterrr.bsky.social

The phylogeny in figure S1 shows clearly that the rare rubulins in Asgard and Bacteria have been obtained from proto-eukaryotes. In my last mlife paper, I document extensive LGT between Asgard and proto-euka, even for univerdal proteins.

I made these observations by looking at individual trees in the paper of Eme and colleagues. PMID: 37316666. Looking at indidual trees is the most important step in phylogenetic analyses using concatenation

I also detected many LGT between Njordarchaeales (hyperthermophiles) and Korarchaeota or Crenarchaeota, explaing why the position of Njordarchaeales was contreversial. This indicates that Njordarchaeales clearly belong to Asgard

Extensive lateral gene transfer between proto‐eukaryotes and Heimdallarchaeia suggests their close association during eukaryogenesis It has been proposed by Ettema and colleagues, in the two-domain framework for the tree of life, that Eukarya emerged from Heimdallarchaeia, as sister group to Hodarchaeales. Looking at the individua...

Several protein markers used in concatenation for determining the topology of life are affected by LGT between Asgards and proto-eukaryotes, explaining why poeple found 3D trees instead of the correct 3D tree onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Cooperation between two modes for DNA replication initiation in the archaeon Thermococcus barophilus | mBio Replication of DNA is highly important in all organisms. It initiates at a specific locus called ori, which serves as the binding site for scaffold proteins—either Cdc6 or DnaA—depending on the domain...

Cooperation between two modes for DNA replication initiation in the archaeon Thermococcus barophilus | mBio journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

A call for caution in the biological interpretation of viral auxiliary metabolic genes - Nature Microbiology This Perspective discusses virus-encoded auxiliary metabolic genes and provides a framework for the biological interpretation of these genes.

#Perspective

A discussion on virus-encoded auxiliary metabolic genes and a framework for the biological interpretation of these genes.

#MicroSky 🦠

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

Sunday reading on a warm day in Marburg. Although not as "warm" as it is for some #microbes 😃. The discovery of #Archaea, their #viruses, and their adaptation to life in boiling water. Amazing work from pforterrr.bsky.social, highly recommended 🤓
#microbiology
@uchicagopress.bsky.social

I made these observations by looking at individual trees in the paper of Eme and colleagues. PMID: 37316666. Looking at indidual trees is the most important step in phylogenetic analyses using concatenation

I also detected many LGT between Njordarchaeales (hyperthermophiles) and Korarchaeota or Crenarchaeota, explaing why the position of Njordarchaeales was contreversial. This indicates that Njordarchaeales clearly belong to Asgard

I found that several proteins markers affected by LGT between proto-eukaryotes and Hodarchaeales are missing in the dataset of Zhang et al, PMID: 40335687, explaining why these authors don't recover the sisterhood of Hodar and Euka.

Extensive lateral gene transfer between proto‐eukaryotes and Heimdallarchaeia suggests their close association during eukaryogenesis It has been proposed by Ettema and colleagues, in the two-domain framework for the tree of life, that Eukarya emerged from Heimdallarchaeia, as sister group to Hodarchaeales. Looking at the individua...

Several protein markers used in concatenation for determining the topology of life are affected by LGT between Asgards and proto-eukaryotes, explaining why poeple found 3D trees instead of the correct 3D tree onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Extensive lateral gene transfer between proto-eukaryotes and Heimdallarchaeia suggests their close association during eukaryogenesis
#Evolution #Eukaryotes #eukaryogenesis
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Two-billion-year transitional oxygenation of the Earth’s surface - Nature A 2.5-billion-year record of oxygen isotopes in sedimentary sulfate reveals the transitional oxygenation of the Earth’s surface and provides constraints on the dynamic, lengthy co-oxygenation of Earth...

Two-billion-year transitional oxygenation of the Earth’s surface
#oxygen #geochemistry
@nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Extensive lateral gene transfer between proto‐eukaryotes and Heimdallarchaeia suggests their close association during eukaryogenesis It has been proposed by Ettema and colleagues, in the two-domain framework for the tree of life, that Eukarya emerged from Heimdallarchaeia, as sister group to Hodarchaeales. Looking at the individua...

Extensive lateral gene transfer between proto‐eukaryotes and Heimdallarchaeia suggests their close association during eukaryogenesis - Forterre - 2025 - mLife - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Extensive lateral gene transfer between proto‐eukaryotes and Heimdallarchaeia suggests their close association during eukaryogenesis It has been proposed by Ettema and colleagues, in the two-domain framework for the tree of life, that Eukarya emerged from Heimdallarchaeia, as sister group to Hodarchaeales. Looking at the individua...

Extensive lateral gene transfer between proto‐eukaryotes and Heimdallarchaeia suggests their close association during eukaryogenesis - Forterre - 2025 - mLife - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Les femmes druzes mobilisées pour leur sécurité

SYRIE - Les femmes druzes de Soueïda suivent les traces des femmes kurdes des YPJ du Rojava / N-E de la Syrie, en se portant aux points de contrôle aux côtés des hommes afin d'assurer la sûreté et la sécurité de leur ville.

Deep learning reveals antibiotics in the archaeal proteome - Nature Microbiology Use of artificial intelligence to mine proteomes of archaea led to the discovery of archaeasins, antimicrobials that kill drug-resistant bacteria in laboratory and animal models, offering a promising ...

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

J’ai vendu l’humanité il y a bien longtemps et bien ignorant de beaucoup des crimes commis en notre nom, mais voir des jeunes auxquel j’ai ressemblé manipulés par les extremistes religieux génocidaires du Hamas, comme nous avons été manipulés à l’époque par les mollahs, c’est toujous un crêve-coeur.

The expanding Asgard archaea and their elusive relationships with Eukary . onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Our previous review in which we show that the inversàl prot Kae1 has been transferred from proto Euka to two out of 15 Ashard lineages. Much more examples soon in mLiife. Stay tune

The expanding Asgard archaea and their elusive relationships with Eukary . onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Our previous review in which we show that the inversàl prot Kae1 has been transferred from proto Euka to two out of 15 Ashard lineages. Much more examples soon in mLiife. Stay tune

Phylogenomic analyses indicate the archaeal superphylum DPANN originated from free-living euryarchaeal-like ancestors - Nature Microbiology Phylogenetic reconstructions with conserved protein markers from the 11 known DPANN phyla reveal their monophyletic placement within the Euryarchaeota.

#NewResearch

🚨Out Now

Phylogenomic analyses indicate the archaeal superphylum DPANN originated from free-living euryarchaeal-like ancestors, by @bbaker24.bsky.social @deemteam.bsky.social and team

#MicroSky #Archaea 🦠

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

Exploring protein N-glycosylation in ammonia-oxidizing Nitrososphaerota archaea through glycoproteomic analysis | mBio Autotrophic ammonia-oxidizing archaea of the phylum Nitrososphaerota, formerly known as Thaumarchaeota, are notoriously difficult to culture yet play important roles in the global nitrogen and carbon cycles. Inhabiting environments with extremely low ...

Exploring protein N-glycosylation in ammonia-oxidizing Nitrososphaerota archaea through glycoproteomic analysis | mBio journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

A unique symbiosome in an anaerobic single-celled eukaryote - Nature Communications Symbiont-housing structures are well-studied in multicellular eukaryotes but rarely in unicellular protists. This study shows that low-oxygen-adapted Anaeramoebae have symbiosomes positioning sul...

In case some people have missed it, I'm re-posting a link to our paper on the Anaeramoeba-Desulfobacter symbiotic system. This is one of the papers from my lab that I'm most proud of...and a huge amount of the credit goes to @jonhultqvist.bsky.social !!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...