Molecular mechanisms of endosymbiosis | Herchel Smith fellow @camwallerlab @oxfordbiology | 🦠 Paramecium bursaria | 🪸 Aiptasia
A sea anemone looks very different from a coral, despite belonging to the same broad biological group. A new study from EMBL researchers and their colleagues sheds new light on how diversity arises in body shapes in the animal world. www.embl.org/news/science...
To increase the use of gene editing in corals, we have made a comprehensive methods paper describing the protocol. We hope this helps the field of functional genetics in corals. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Efficient genome editing using CRISPR–Cas9 in reef-building corals - Nature ProtocolsIn this protocol, the authors present straightforward and efficient methods to genetically modify corals and study gene function throughout various life-history stages using CRISPR–Cas9-based mutagene...www.nature.com
Dear all, registration for the upcoming EMBO/EMBL Symposium on "the cellular mechanics of symbiosis" is now OPEN 🤩 ! Feel free to register ! www.embl.org/about/info/c... #EESSymbiosis #ProtistsOnSky #SymbioSky @hassansalem.bsky.social @berasymbionts.bsky.social @embl.org
The cellular mechanics of symbiosis: sensing friend from foewww.embl.org
📢#TMHMS25 is just around the corner! 🦠🌊 Join us to dive into the latest discoveries in #marinehostmicrobesymbioses and explore how microbial superpowers can contribute to restoring ocean health! Please share with fellow marine science and microbiology enthusiasts!
Check out our new preprint all about Pirsonia, a tiny killer of bloom-forming Coscinodiscus diatoms! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #protistsonsky #marinemicrobes 🌊🔬
Spent the week in Cambridge with @benkinsjenkins.bsky.social testing this custom made microscope to live image Aiptasia larvae. Got some cool videos that we hope to share very soon! Thanks for hosting me Ben!
🪸🌊 Hidden coral cities! Scientists just found ancient “super reefs” in the Maldives’ twilight zone, thriving reefs that may help restore shallow corals threatened by climate change. Source: www.mapthegiants.com #Morivationmonday
📢 Deadline extended to May 5! Join our #ESEB2025 symposium on symbioses in microbial eukaryotes - from the origin of organelles to their roles in ecosystem functioning. Share your work and meet our great speakers @cstairs.bsky.social & @benkinsjenkins.bsky.social #ESEB25 #Symbiosis #ProtistOnSky
Anna Karnkowska🚨 Just under two weeks left to submit your abstract for ESEB2025 - don’t miss the chance to be part of the Symposium on the Evolution of Symbiosis and Interactions in Microbial Eukaryotes 🦠🔬 📅 Abstract deadline: April 25, 2025 🔗 More: eseb2025.com/list-of-symposia #ESEB25 #Symbiosis #ProtistOnSky
First study from the lab is out! We describe ApuRs, a new family of microbial rhodopsins unique from apusomonads. ApuRs represent the first anion-conducting rhodopsin channels that can be controlled by UV light, offering potential as new optogenetic tools. #protistsonsky doi.org/10.1101/2025... 👇
Corals maintain stable populations of essential photosynthetic symbionts by controlling their cell cycle, not by eating them! Our new #PNAS paper monitored and modelled #aiptasia cell cycle, autophagy, and expulsion for over a year. #symbiosis #microbiology www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
I've been busy the last couple years developing Aiptasia as a genetically tractable model organism to study corals. Here you can see me injecting CRISPR-Cas9 into these fragile little Aiptasia zygotes. Hopefully soon we will have our very first mutant lines!
Absolutely phenomenal week for the #EESWildModels. A pure celebration of biological wonders, and incredibly engaged participants. Thanks to all the co-organizers and @events.embl.org for making this possible ! See you in 2027 ? (please fill the feedback form)
EMBL EventsThat’s a wrap on the EMBO | EMBL Symposium: 'Wild frontiers of model organisms'! 🐠🌍🔍 Thanks to our scientific organisers and to all who shared their science and energy. Congrats to our poster prize winners—exceptional work! 👏 #EESWildModels Let’s keep exploring the unknown and see you next time!
Very excited for this first of its kind EMBO/EMBL Symposium on the Wild Frontiers of Model Organisms. So far Session 1 is a blast, from aiptasia symbiosis, oyster vibrio phage interactions, !! #EESWildModels @embldbunit.bsky.social @embl.org
kausthubhKicked off the #EESWildModels at @embl.org 🐟🦠🍄🟫🪰🐟 @floravincent.bsky.social started the sessions with a little survey to sample the range of expertise/skills Really diverse range of expertise amongst the attendees 💯 @events.embl.org
Very excited and proud to finally share this story! 🐙 We discovered surprising roles for dopamine and acetylcholine in the Octopus visual system… doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Novel dopaminergic neurotransmission in the Octopus visual systemColeoid cephalopods such as the common octopus have a complex visual system, with a camera-type eye and a large optic lobe, that evolved independently from its counterpart in vertebrates. However, the...doi.org
Culturing of two Asgard archaea in the Hodarchaeales order - the closest relatives to eukaryotes www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
I'm pleased to introduce our new paper rooting the eukaryote Tree of Life (eToL) that resulted from a collaboration led by PhD student Kelsey Williamson and a large group of collaborators doi.org/10.1038/s415...htt
A robustly rooted tree of eukaryotes reveals their excavate ancestry - NatureThe root of the eukaryote Tree of Life is estimated from a new, larger dataset of mitochondrial proteins including all known eukaryotic supergroups, showing it lies between two multi-supergroup assemb...doi.org
🚨 New paper alert! 🚨 A robustly rooted tree of eukaryotes sheds light on their deep evolutionary ancestry—suggesting that the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA) may have had an excavate-like cell architecture. 🧵🔬 (1/) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A robustly rooted tree of eukaryotes reveals their excavate ancestry - NatureThe root of the eukaryote Tree of Life is estimated from a new, larger dataset of mitochondrial proteins including all known eukaryotic supergroups, showing it lies between two multi-supergroup assemb...www.nature.com
In our new paper we discuss how modern coexistence theory can help microbial ecologists tackle fundamental & applied questions, and how microbial systems can help to push coexistence theory forward! With Andrew Letten and Dave Armitage (@darmitage.bsky.social). doi.org/10.1111/1462...
Coexistence Theory for Microbial Ecology, and Vice VersaClassical models from theoretical ecology are seeing increasing uptake in microbial ecology, but there remains rich potential for closer cross-pollination. Here we explore opportunities for stronger ....doi.org
PhD position available in Ceske Budejovice (Czechia), funded by ERC KLEPTOS, to study plastid endosymbiosis in kleptoplastidic protists. Are you curious about this process and do you like sampling/cultivation of protists? Join our team by applying here: jobs.bc.cas.cz/en/detail/243 #protistsonsky
New corallicolid pub in @currentbiology.bsky.social!🪸🧬 Highlights: 🌳 Phylogenomic support for Corallicolids as sister to the Ichthyocolids ☀️Corallicolids express nuclear & plastid encoded Chl biosynthesis genes ❌Multiple, parallel losses of CBP in Apicomplexa #ProtistsOnSky #CoralReefs #MicroSky
Phylogenomics of coral-infecting corallicolids reveal multiple independent losses of chlorophyll biosynthesis in apicomplexan parasitesJacko-Reynolds et al. present multi-protein phylogenetics supporting corallicolids
as a late-branching apicomplexan, closely related to coccidians. The expression of
chlorophyll biosynthesis genes in ...www.cell.com