Dacks Lab (Evolutionary Cell Biology)

Thank you @mollyherring.bsky.social for the stunning showcase 😍

Like what you see? Come ExM with us! Let’s flood the internet with microbial marvels 🦠

#ProtistsOnSky #MicroEvoSky 🧪🔬🌍

@dudinlab.bsky.social @centriolelab.bsky.social @moorefound.bsky.social @embl.org @erc.europa.eu @embo.org

The Microbiome Within a Microbe: Rethinking Blastocystis Biology onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #protists #microbiome

A Practical Approach to Study Uncultivated Protists Using Single‐Cell Techniques for Electron Microscopy Protists represent a significant portion of eukaryotic diversity with a wide range of ecological roles, lifestyles, and diverse morphological traits. Despite their widespread importance in ecological....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#protistsonsky

The Romantic Discovery of Radiolaria in the Ocean
#microbiology #Radiolaria #protists #MicroSky
doi.org/10.1111/jeu....

My first bluesky post of 2026. I was away in the UK, for meetings with colleagues but also got to sneak in a few visits with more friends, old and new alike. In what has been a turbulent and disquieting year across the world already, personal connections and support are more important than ever.

"They're more like guidelines than actual rules"! *channeling my best Capn Barboa voice*.

Endogenized polinton-like viruses in the dinoflagellate Oxyrrhis marina uncover novel PolB fusion Marine viruses are ubiquitous entities that impact the biology of a large fraction of prokaryotic and eukaryotic diversity. Dinoflagellates are heterotrophic, mixotrophic and photosynthetic eukaryotes...

🎄 Just published 🎉! Our ongoing genome sequencing of the basal dinoflagellate Oxyrrhis marina uncovered a new lineage of endogenized Polinton-like viruses, OmPLV. Notably, OmPLV encodes ... [cont]
#VirEvol #MicroSky #Mevosky #SymbioSky #ProtistsOnSky

What a great way to end the year! This work, with a superb team, gave us the chance to put out some ideas about the evolution of meiosis (and other organellar systems) during eukaryogenesis. Congratulations especially to our undergrad Lisa Matsuo on her first ever paper:)
@cloeucl.bsky.social

Wow! Super exciting science:)

The first candle of Channukah; the lights on a Christmas tree; the solstice as the time when the days get brighter; they are about finding a light in the darkest of times.
Intentionally looking for, and appreciating something positive, when things seem dire can be a powerful act.
Now and always.

A wrong Grok post making up a white guy who stopped the Australian mass shooting.

BBC 'Hero' who wrestled gun from Bondi shooter named as Ahmed al Ahmed Emily Atkinson Sun, December 14, 2025 at 1:06 p.m. CST 2 min read A "hero" bystander who was filmed wrestling a gun from one of the Bondi Beach attackers has been named as 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed. Video verified by the BBC showed Mr Ahmed run at the gunman and seize his weapon, before turning the gun round on him, forcing his retreat. Mr Ahmed, a fruit shop owner and father of two, remains in hospital, where he has undergone surgery for bullet wounds to his arm and hand, his family told 7News Australia.

This is fucking grim. Somebody invented a white guy, an "IT professional" named Edward Crabtree, who stopped the Bondi shooting and spread it all over the internet, which was picked up by AI agents and slop aggregation sites.

The real hero is a fruit stand owner named Ahmed el Ahmed.

Dynamic protrusions mediate unique crawling motility in Asgard Archaea (Promethearchaeota) Crawling motility is a hallmark of eukaryotic cells and requires a dynamic actin cytoskeleton, regulated adhesion, and spatially organized signalling pathways. Asgard archaea (phylum Promethearchaeota...

And another Asgard paper. Cells in motion! Wow! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Haven't posted here in a bit. But the public school teachers' strike is over, my program grant is submitted, and our household is now COVID-free.

Heard a great seminar today, had a catch up with a long-time collaborator, and taught a grad class to a very talented set of students. Happy Friday!

We are looking for a PhD student to work on an exciting plastid endosymbiosis in microbial eukaryotes. This position involves sampling, exciting microscopy such as CARDFISH, ExM and FIBSEM, single-cell transcriptomics and more. #protistsonsky 1/2

the top half shows two panels with microscopy images. Left is a light-microscopy image of a group of algal cells. The cells are round with different sizes. Two arrows point at sporangia: one looks as if someone stuffed 8 footballs in a thin elastic bag. The other is perfectly round and contains many small spores within. The right panel shows the same group of cells, but in fluorescent microscopy, where green color shows chloroplasts. In each cell the chloroplasts are globular with small lobes sticking out. The bottom half shows a photo of Xanthoria lichen - bright yellow and leafy growing on a tree branch

Our paper on the #genome of the Trebouxia #photobiont from Xanthoria is now out in @newphyt.bsky.social! Check below for a near-chromosome level assembly, secretome analysis, evidence of ancient HGT, and transcriptomic comparison of the alga in symbiosis and in pure culture
doi.org/10.1111/nph.70728

Holy smokes!!!!

Exciting day for the lab: our 1rst paper is officially out in @currentbiology.bsky.social 🥳 Wonderful collaboration wt @gautamdey.bsky.social showing how Cryo-ExM achieves consistent immunostaining in diverse diatoms, from the lab and the natural environment 1/n
#ProtistsOnSky
tinyurl.com/2zxaund7

Excited to share our new paper!
Tepsin and AP4 mediate transport from the trans-Golgi to the plant-like vacuole in Toxoplasma gondii.

A great collaboration between the Meissner, Jiménez-Ruiz, and Dacks labs 🙌

#Toxoplasma #Apicomplexa #Golgi #CellBiology #Parasites

See companion study from Grech et al. @jimenezruizlab.bsky.social @meissnerlab.bsky.social: rupress.org/jcb/article/...

Two Nanochloropsis gaditana cells visualized by quick-freeze deep-etch electron microscopy. Left cell displays a chloroplast containing thylakoids, a nucleus, a mitochondrion, and a fracture face of the plasma membrane. In the right cell, the innermost membrane, marked with pits, is the fractured outer membrane of the chloroplast envelope, above which is the fractured outer membrane of the chloroplast ER, above which is the granular cell wall.

🔎Check out this image from one of the articles in our Sept/Oct issue:
🔬Two Nanochloropsis gaditana cells visualized by quick-freeze deep-etch electron
▶️Read the article: Goodenough & Roth. Ultrastructure of the Endoplasmic Reticulum in Eukaryotic Microalgae. doi.org/10.1111/jeu....
#protistsonsky

Getting to do the work with friends in the Meissner lab and my talented student
@abhi-parabasal.bsky.social
is just a great bonus:)

@jcb.org

@czechacademy.bsky.social

@ualbertadom.bsky.social

@cloeucl.bsky.social

#protistsonsky

Always happy to be involved in work that better explains how parasite cells function. Especially in a group like apicomplexans with such a global health impact (Malaria, Theileria, Cryptosporidium).

The more we know, the better people are able to find ways to combat them.

doi.org/10.1083/jcb....

Getting to do the work friends in the Meissner lab and my talented student @abhi-parabasal.bsky.social is just a great bonus:)

@jcb.org @czechacademy.bsky.social @ualbertadom.bsky.social @cloeucl.bsky.social #protistsonsky

OK sure, it started out as a typo, but I d like the idea measuring of a gene or protein's "Conswervation". Just feels more groovy and less judgemental than 'divergence".

Is this one of those missing wise men that you mentioned in Sant Felui?!?

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

One is the best EMBO/EMBL symposium is coming up and it’s going to be AWESOME. Save the date !

illustration of some important traits to include in protist trait databases

New #ISEPpapers! Towards a trait-based framework for protist ecology and evolution: Mahwash Jamy et al. www.cell.com/trends/micro...

#protists #algae #microbes #ecology #evolution

#protistsonsky

I reflect on the changes in the past year and introduce and explain the rationale for JEM's newly established AI guidelines. Most importantly, this piece discusses what I see as the core mission of the journal: to provide a venue for the voices of Protistologists.

Hope you like it.