Varsha Mathur

Single-cell sequencing reveals unexpected genetic diversity among Bodo spp. flagellates and their bacterial endosymbionts Bodo is a cosmopolitan genus of free living bacterivorous single-celled flagellates in the class Kinetoplastea. Members of genus Bodo are considered the closest free-living relatives to the parasitic ...

A new preprint from us using a single-cell genome pipeline to investigate diversity of uncultured Bodo spp. flagellates.

We isolated 7 Bodo spp. cells from a single environmental sample and show that they represent 3 Bodo sp. each with a unique species of bacterial endosymbiont. #protistsonsky

OIST is seeking up to four tenure-track or tenured faculty in Ecology, Environmental Science, Earth Science, and Oceanography. Application deadline: Oct 15. Please share. Thx!
www.oist.jp/careers/facu...

How to upgrade stolen organelles into permanent plastids: A comparative transcriptomic perspective | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1... #protistsonsky

TEtrimmer: a tool to automate the manual curation of transposable elements - Nature Communications Transposons are repetitive DNA sequences that are hard to identify and map accurately. TEtrimmer automates key manual steps, enabling faster and more reliable annotation of transposable elements in any genome.

Some highlights:
- fully sequenced and annotated genomes of two species, including transposon space using #TEtrimmer for the first time in newly sequenced genomes www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- cultured Arachnopeziza in vitro
- confirmed selective fungicides
- expressed hygromycin resistance +RFP

Bringing the uncultivated microbial majority of freshwater ecosystems into culture - Nature Communications A large fraction of aquatic bacteria remains uncultured. Here, the authors cultivated 627 strains of abundant freshwater bacteria from 14 European lakes, thus generating a collection that includes many previously uncultured, oligotrophic bacteria that may serve as model organisms.

⚠️New paper ➡️ isolating >600 freshwater microbes using dilution-to-extinction and low-nutrient, lake-mimicking media.

🤯Expands cultured diversity to ~70 % of detected genera and enables physiological studies of streamlined oligotrophs.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#protistsonsky

Thrilled to share what we learned from re-annotating the mobilome of the brown algae model [Ectocarpus] 🌊🌿🏖️

genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

A wonderful collaboration with @ericadinatale.bsky.social, @cssmartinho.bsky.social, @rorycraig.bsky.social, and Susana Coelho! 🎉

Out after peer review, collaborative study from Nordborg & Weigel labs with help from many others. Not the largest collection of new Arabidopsis thaliana genomes, but we hopefully put forward some good ideas for how to think about pangenomes and their analysis!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

...and 10 new phylogenetically diverse hornwort genomes here:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@fernway.bsky.social @jandevries.bsky.social @watertoland.bsky.social

Become my colleague @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social !
2 Associate Professorships in the areas of
- prokaryotic/eukaryotic microbiology
- metabolism

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

From MBoC: Wallace F. Marshall (UCSF) and team profile the giant ciliate Stentor pyriformis—symbiotic algae in microtubule baskets, symbiont-dependent phototaxis, and a standard genetic code. Paper: www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/... #CellBiology

YouTube video by MicrobeTV TWiM 341: Sea star wasting disease

Wow! I was fortunate to be #TWiMAdjacent again on This Week in Microbiology. So wonderful to talk about fun and interesting microbiology papers with fellow microbial enthusiasts! @univpugetsound.bsky.social @ASMicrobiology @microbetv.bsky.social

youtu.be/CzvAgd0W0tk?...

Time for a thread!🧵 How different is the molecular organization of thylakoids in “higher” plants🌱? To find out, we teamed up with @profmattjohnson.bsky.social to dive into spinach chloroplasts with #CryoET ❄️🔬. Curious? ..Read on!

#TeamTomo #PlantScience 🧪 🧶🧬 🌾
elifesciences.org/articles/105...
1/🧵

woweee 🤩

Origin of chaperone dependence and assembly complexity in Rubisco biogenesis Molecular chaperones assist with the folding and assembly of protein clients. Consequently, they are essential to diverse cellular functions. In most aerobic photosynthetic organisms such as B-cyanoba...

A new preprint from the lab. I won't do a tweetorial until this is peer reviewed, but I think it's a banger, led by
@JedNzy. It's about Rubisco and what chaperones are really for. He's on the market, get him while you can. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The dawn of bryophyte genomics is here - Nature Genetics Bryophytes are a widespread group of land plants that occupy nearly all biomes, yet their genetics and evolutionary history have long remained underexplored. Now, a study that generates extensive geno...

"de novo gene formation and horizontal gene transfer as key forces that shape bryophyte diversity and adaptation." www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bryophytes hold a larger gene family space than vascular plants - Nature Genetics A super-pangenome analysis incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes reveals that bryophytes exhibit a larger number of unique and lineage-specific gene families than vascular plants.

A milestone for plant genomics just out @natgenet.nature.com

130 bryophyte genomes!

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

ecoevojobs.net 2025-26

UPDATE: The 2025-2026 list of faculty and postdoc positions in ecology and evolutionary biology is out! Be sure to check out this active and helpful community run resources! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

WOW amazing news!! Congrats Rachel 🤩

Photo showing the inside atrium of the new Life and Mind Building

Oxford Biology is growing 📢

We’re appointing 3 Associate Professors in:
🌱 Plant Sciences
🦉 Animal Behaviour
🔬 Molecular Cell Biology

3 fields. 3 opportunities. One new home for Oxford Biology.

Learn more 👉 bit.ly/41S2Tc7
Apply now 👉 bit.ly/488CNW3

I broke some shells of Galeripora artocrea, to look at their algal hostages...and accidentally created Pac-Man amoebae. #amoebae #peatlands #ProtistsOnSky

We have a postdoc opening for a protistologist with biophysics inclinations to join our @hfspo.bsky.social project! (focus will be on characterising the morphology, ultrastructure and behaviour of excavates) #protistsonsky

Apply by Sept 17th (RTs appreciated!)
jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...

We are hiring: Full Professor of Soil Ecosystems and Global Change Soil ecosystems form the foundation of planetary health and play a critical role in climate feedback mechanisms. However, they are also vulnerable to the impacts of global change.

One week to go! Apply by Sept 17 for the Full Professor position in Soil Ecosystems and Global Change at #CeMESS at the University of Vienna.

More info: 🔗 ter.univie.ac.at/news-talks/n...

@univie.ac.at #SoilEcosystems #WeAreHiring

We're hiring (again)!

We are looking for an associate professor in cell and molecular biology, with a particular focus on immunology (defined broadly)

If you have a great record and exciting plans, consider joining our thriving and welcoming department

www.path.ox.ac.uk/vacancy/asso...

Molecular exaptation by the integrin αI domain An ancient protein domain insertion seamlessly preserved conformational signaling while providing a novel surface for adaptation.

So excited to see the first part of my thesis work with @harmitmalik.bsky.social and @melodygcampbell.bsky.social in print! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... We have a bit of evolution and a whole lotta structure to figure out how new protein domains work

What you're looking at is a brand new protist species! 🤯🔬
Isn't it beautiful?
This image is just a glimpse of what's to come. We can't wait to share our full findings soon, in partnership with Guifré @beaplab.bsky.social @luisjagago.bsky.social. Stay tuned! #NewSpecies #protistsonSky #diversity

Asgard archaea were first found in mud at the bottom of the North Sea. Today, cellular biologists Martin Pilhofer and Christa Schleper are exploring one of their more elusive structural elements: a totally tubular system that looks a lot like our own.
www.quantamagazine.org/tiny-tubes-r...

Flagellar gliding in choanoflagellates Freire-Delgado and Brunet discover a new mode of cell motility in choanoflagellates, the closest relatives of animals. Under mild confinement, choanoflagellate move over surfaces without cell deformat...

New short paper from our lab @currentbiology.bsky.social, in which we discover of a new mode of cell motility for choanoflagellates: flagellar gliding. www.cell.com/current-biol... - A 🧵

Did you know tiny algae can "skate" within Arctic sea ice? ⛸️ Our new study in @pnas.org reveals the secret life of ice diatoms: they are actively gliding to navigate the ice! This adds a new dimension to the sea ice ecosystem, revealing an active, dynamic ecological niche. @prakashlab.bsky.social

Mapping the transcriptional landscape of algal resistance to viral infection reveals a core expression program Algal blooms and their demise by viruses drive global-scale ecological processes in the ocean. These blooms form the foundation of marine food webs, regulate microbial communities, and shape biogeoc...

📣 We are excited to share our latest paper, led by @taliashaler.bsky.social! We explore the transcriptional basis of #microalgae resistance to #viral_infection and identified a core group of resistance-related genes. >>
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#New_Phytologist #Marine_Biology #Viruses

Wowww!!! Amazing news @messorensen.bsky.social 🤩 Huge congrats & so excited for your lab at @cemess.bsky.social! #protistsonsky

www.univie.ac.at/en/news/deta...