Just over ten years after the discovery of the first Asgard archaeal genomes, we revisit the rapid expansion of this remarkable archaeal lineage. From diverse genomes and metabolisms to eukaryotic signature proteins and the first cultured representatives.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Excited to collaborate with @hassansalem.bsky.social and @tatsuyanobori.bsky.social on this new Postdoc opportunity!
If you're interested in the developmental biology of symbiosis, apply and join us @johninnescentre.bsky.social and @thesainsburylab.bsky.social πͺ²π¦ π¬
𧡠1/10 New paper out in @natmicrobiol.nature.com from my postdoc at @mib-wur.bsky.social! π
How eukaryote-like was the archaeal ancestor of eukaryotes? Sequence searches alone can't tell us β so we used protein structure prediction to look deeper. π§¬
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Finally out in @natmicrobiol.nature.com: Prediction of eukaryotic cellular complexity in Asgard archaea using structural modelling. Great work by @stephkoe.bsky.social @kassipan.bsky.social @jvhooff.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Join @berasymbionts.bsky.social , @tatsuyanobori.bsky.social and us for a postdoc on the remarkable developmental biology of symbiosis!
Applications are due March 25th πͺ²π¦
@johninnescentre.bsky.social @thesainsburylab.bsky.social
In case you missed it: our review titled "Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities" is out! π¨
Let me hit you with some highlights on why spatial structure matters. (and why you should care!)
Sharing is appreciated π π§΅π
doi.org/10.1093/fems...
Our faculty has a particularly interesting PhD position open on antimicrobial resistance, effects of antibiotics treatment on the microbiome and resistome, restoration of the equine microbiome using FMT.
www.uu.nl/en/organisat...
Please contact Mathijs Theelen, email address in the link below.
Thank you @carlzimmer.com for sharing the excitement for our favorite organisms and introducing them to the broader audience!
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/s...
Finally out in @nature.com: a new piece of the puzzle of how complex life evolved. Lead by @archaeal.bsky.social & @katyappler.bsky.social. Great collab with @greening.bsky.social and @kassipan.bsky.social. More pieces to follow soon! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
18.02.2026 17:59 β π 82 π 30 π¬ 4 π 0
Beyond thrilled to share that our study has been published!
This project encompasses years of work, including my thesis research on Asgard archaea in the @archaeal.bsky.social lab at @utmsi.bsky.social and
@texasscience.bsky.social!!!
#MicroSky #ArchaeaSky 1/12
New paper from my team detailing a greatly expanded genomic database of Asgard archaea revealing of high energy metabolism those related to eukaryotes! Led by @katyappler.bsky.social lots of help from @jameslingford.bsky.social @valdeanda.bsky.social @kassipan.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s415...
18.02.2026 16:00 β π 147 π 60 π¬ 10 π 3
Please check out our review on the impact of spatial structure in microbial ecosystems! In it, we discuss how spatial patterns impact microbial ecology and evolution, eventually impacting everything we see around us!
See @marcelbaecker.bsky.social's amazing summary below :)
π¦ ππΏπ°π²π΄ πΌπ°πππ΄ππ ! π¦
Recently, a Hypothesis was posed in @jcellsci.bsky.social in which the root of eukaryotes was placed between kinetoplastids and all other eukaryotes. From this, it was implied that LECA did not have a kinetochore. We argue this is highly unlikely. A π§΅(1/12)
Read our reply here: tinyurl.com/n87myhpr
Our latest preprint: Together with the team of Jan LΓΆwe, @danieltamarit.bsky.social and many others we discovered and characterized several Asgard tubulin genes and propose that microtubule architecture and dynamics evolved in Asgard archaea prior to eukaryogenesis
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Today we published a Correction on our 2023 @nature.com paper reporting the heimdallarchaeial ancestry of eukaryotes: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Corrected paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Importantly, the re-analyses of the corrected dataset are consistent with the original findings.
The visualization of two bacterial genomes, of 50 and 52kb, representing independent instances of extreme genomic reduction in ancient heritable endosymbionts of planthoppers.
Our new paper in @natcomms.nature.com is now online-early!
We describe independent evolution of bacterial genomes of only ~50β52 kb β the smallest known outside cellular organelles β revealing striking convergence toward minimal gene sets.
π doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Two more weeks to apply - come join us () in The Netherlands as a postdoctoral researcher on large-scale metagenomic exploration of new lineages!
12.02.2026 07:46 β π 17 π 27 π¬ 1 π 0Moltes grΓ cies, Juli, per les paraules i la inspiraciΓ³!
23.01.2026 08:08 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
βA process which led from the amoeba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress - though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known"
- Bertrand Russell, 1976.
Time-lapse video of Vampyrella lateritia eating Spirogyra algae from Science Source/Oliver Skibbe. π¦
My lab is hiring a postdoc (ERC funded)! If you're interested, get in touch!
18.12.2025 08:36 β π 59 π 66 π¬ 3 π 2
Organelles do NOT have a single uniform pH.
And if you think they must, because βprotons diffuse fast,β this paper is for you.
A thread on why that assumption is wrong; and what we found instead. 𧡠1/n
Are you a long-time fan of Archaea, an extremophile-phile, or are you simply curious?
Either way, we have good news.
Weβre delighted to announce the 2026 EMBO Workshop on Archaea, 6β10 July.
Sign up: meetings.embo.org/event/26-arc...
We look forward to seeing you in Cambridge, UK.
Please repost!
With our old friends Sergey, Luis and GuifrΓ©, we have published a minireview in @currentbiology.bsky.social about aphelids, the sister group to fungi, including why we think they are not fungi but, nevertheless, key to understand early fungal evolution.
authors.elsevier.com/a/1mH793QW8S...
Vaults. They are cell biology's greatest puzzle! This preprint from Martin Beck's lab shows them docked on ER membranes with a ribosome inside. What on earth is going on there??
#CellBiology #WTFology
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Save the date! The next instalment of Comparative Genomics of Unicellular Eukaryotes is a GO! Join us next year for a programme of talks, posters, ECR/networking activities.
Website and registration details to follow in the coming weeks.
See you October 5-10 2026 in beautiful San Feliu!!
Microbial eukaryotes keep challenging assumptions about eukaryotic cell and genome biology.
Our upcoming workshop explores the frontier of protist genomics and how it shapes cell biology, ecology and evolution.
Please save the date! Talks, posters and ECR events
Websites and details coming soon
Interested in applying for a postdoc on wildlife #microbiomes in my lab at Uppsala University, Sweden?
The local Birgitta Sintring Foundation gives out generous 2-year postdoc scholarships to early-career researchers who apply with a PI at the department. Deadline Feb 9.
www.uu.se/en/departmen...
The scikit-bio paper in online in Nature Methods! Many thanks to our collaborators, community contributors and reviewers! We couldnβt have done it without you. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #Bioinformatics #OpenSource
11.12.2025 17:57 β π 97 π 51 π¬ 3 π 0
Welcome to Bluesky, @pieterhart.bsky.social!
Pieter just joined my group as a PhD student studying bacterial genome evolutionβexciting years ahead!
Here he is enjoying a chat about his MSc work (w/ @kassipan.bsky.social & @ettema.bsky.social) at Science4Life @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social π§¬π¦ β¨
Those interested in performing maximum likelihood phylogenomic analysis on data sets made up of eukaryotic nuclear genes using site heterogeneous mixture models like C60, I suggest you use the ELM model in IQ-TREE instead of the LG model /1
09.12.2025 18:30 β π 16 π 12 π¬ 1 π 1
