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For me, this genome is therefore not only about what one protist eats. It offers a way to ask what protists do as biochemical agents in ecosystems, and how trophic transitions reshape the interface between cells and their environment. Thank you @huesnaoeztoprak.bsky.social the leading postdoc!

Take-home: protists do not merely occupy links in food webs. They alter extracellular chemistry, depolymerize environmental matter and release metabolites, helping determine which compounds become available to other organisms. In S. psychra, it happens through a fungal-like secretion-uptake system.

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The architecture looks strikingly fungal-like. Many secreted CAZymes and proteases have fungal secretome homologues, yet ~80% of the predicted secretome lacks detectable fungal or bacterial matches. The system combines functional convergence with substantial rhizarian novelty.

Fig. 3 shows that this is not indiscriminate secretion. Secreted CAZymes and transporters are more highly expressed than the genomic background, while specific CAZyme families dominate transcript abundance. The cell selectively deploys machinery to process its surroundings.

Phenotype closes the loop. In Biolog assays, S. psychra used 17 of 192 offered carbon sources, including all six tested C5 monosaccharides. Together with highly expressed pentose-catabolic genes, this points to a pentose-centred carbon niche in the lichen thallus.

The other half of osmotrophy is uptake. S. psychra encodes 680 putative membrane transporters, including many proton-coupled secondary carriers. They import the soluble products released by extracellular digestion. Secretion and uptake form one integrated process.

The genome encodes 1,015 predicted secreted proteins. Its CAZyme repertoire is ecologically structured: 48% of CAZyme transcript abundance targets fungal cell-wall polymers and glycoproteins, while 27.9% targets lichenan and hemicellulose.

This is more than “feeding.” It is environmental processing: modifying fungal cell walls, glycoproteins, lichen polysaccharides and hemicellulose before uptake. The protist first changes the chemical landscape, and only then consumes what it has produced.

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So what does this protist do to its surroundings? Fig. 2 gives the answer: it exports enzymes into the environment. #CAZymes, #proteases, #lipases and oxidoreductases break extracellular polymers into sugars, amino acids and lipids that the cell can import.

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S. psychra does not engulf prey, instead it feeds osmotrophically, and forms dense colonies and cellular aggregates. Its 61.7-Mb genome includes 22 telomere-to-telomere scaffolds, reaches 94.2% BUSCO completeness and encodes 17,680 genes. The best Cercozoa genome to date!

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Trophic labels are useful, but incomplete. What molecules do protists release? Which substrates do they break down? How do they alter the chemical environment around them? Our new study takes a #genomic, transcriptomic and experimental route into these questions on Saccharomycomorpha psychra.

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

New preprint! 🧵 Best #Cercozoa genome alert! For a decade, I’ve studied protist ecology through questions like who eats whom. But beyond “they eat this, they eat that,” what do #protists do to their environment, biochemically speaking? #protistsonsky @huesnaoeztoprak.bsky.social

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Kirsty, wow! You produce one banger after another. No time to rest, no room for failure, and no projects without a brilliant payoff. How do you do it? I don't know, but I know I love reading your articles :)

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Check out this stunning public outreach video by the German YouTube channel Kurzgesagt (in English). It covers predator–prey interactions involving #protists. Very happy to have contributed - the visuals are out of this world! #protistsonsky www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf-u...

youtube.com

What’s It Like to Be Killed by Nature’s Most Brutal Predator

YouTube video by Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Great news for our lab at the University of Koblenz! We have now received approval to work with potentially infectious Risk Group 2 biological material! It substantially expands the experimental possibilities for research on microbial communities, protists, and aquatic systems, including wastewater.

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Five days left to apply! 🌊 Exciting #PhDPosition in #PlanktonEcology at the University of Koblenz, Germany! Work on #marine #protists with a mix of 🔬 wet lab and 💻 bioinformatics in a 3-year, 60% position. 📅 Apply by 20 May 2026 Please repost/share 🙌 Link: tinyurl.com/yu27knau #ProtistsOnSky

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Two weeks left to apply! 🌊 Exciting #PhDPosition in #PlanktonEcology at the University of Koblenz, Germany! Work on #marine #protists with a mix of 🔬 wet lab and 💻 bioinformatics in a 3-year, 60% position. 📅 Apply by 20 May 2026 Please repost/share 🙌 Link: tinyurl.com/yu27knau #ProtistsOnSky

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Hi! I can't access the paper. Would you be so kind to send it to me? dumack [at] uni-koblenz.de

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Reposted by Kenneth Dumack

Megan Sorensen @messorensen.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Interested in working on the evolution of photosynthetic endosymbioses? Come join us! I have 2 open positions in my new group @cemess.bsky.social in Vienna 3yr postdoc info: tinyurl.com/4emkjpn4 4yr PhD info: tinyurl.com/mtxmsjpy Apply by 1st June! Please share/repost #Protists #Symbiosis #PhD

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

🌊 Exciting #PhDPosition in #PlanktonEcology at the University of Koblenz, Germany! Work on marine protists with a mix of 🔬 wet lab and 💻 bioinformatics in a 3-year, 60% position. 📅 Apply by 20 May 2026 Please repost/share 🙌 Link: tinyurl.com/yu27knau #Protists #MicrobialEcology #PhD #Ecology

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

I really admire Figure 3. Plotting both proportions and including the theoretical 1:1 line is a very elegant way of showing these complex results. I would not have come up with such a nice plot I assume - but after seeing yours, maybe I can use such a layout in the future. You never stop learning :)

Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Wow, I will go through braker4 with my group next week :)

Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Our takeaway: if we want to understand forest soils, we need to look beyond fungi. Metatranscriptomics reveal important players that PCR-based approaches miss. Really happy to share our new article: Protistan Predators Outshine Fungi in Forest Soil Activity. #ProtistsOnSky #MicrobialEcology #Soil

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Protistan Predators Outshine Fungi in Forest Soil Activity

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Protists accounted for ~20.1% of reads, while fungi accounted for merely ~9.1%. Among eukaryotes, Arcellinida stood out as the most abundant order, not fungi! Protists are not just bystanders, they are important predators that may strongly shape forest soil food webs! (pic:Arcellinida feeding hypha)

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

We all know #fungi are the dominant microbial #eukaryotes in #forest #soils… or are they really? In our new paper, we revisited 51 forest metatranscriptomes from 4 European and North American forest regions - and found that protistan predators outshine fungi in activity!

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

It even has some Medusa thing going on :D

Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

If you rotate this image by 90°, it resembles a menacing smiley face in Mesodinium. Scary!

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

I agree with what Yash said. First Bodonids, then Cercomonads, last one Bodonis again :)

Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

You know what they say: There are plenty of Syracosphaera pulchra in the sea. One day you’ll find one that stays and settles for you :)

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Following up on my last post, here is a glimpse into the culture room, where our protists are now growing and awaiting exploration. Excited to see everything fully operational! As you see, there is still a lot of shelf space to fill - one step at a time. Now back to proposal writing 🫡 #protists

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

@zlatogursky.bsky.social is correct, it looks weird that the pseudopodia are one-sided, but he also said "unless [...] Cochliopodium". I looked at it again, and at the end of the video it retracts pseudopodia and looks like a normal Cochliopodium. No doubts here from my side. Vasiliy is correct.

Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Sorry to disagree, haha, but I think this is a swimming stage of an Amoebozoa. The pseudopodia are too thick to my liking especially at the base :D

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

The molecular lab, culture and microscopy rooms, and bioinformatic server, are now fully set up! I’m very grateful for my new position 🎉 We’re already generating results and insights in Koblenz, and I’m looking forward to the years ahead! Now, I "just" need to get the proposals funded 🫡 #protists

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Hi both! Thanks Gautam for the offer - I am super interested and now have the funds. I will contact you soon via email. Comment on Omayas message: There are other groups of organisms I am now also working on, some without a shell, which should be easier.

Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Hi Gautam! Would you let me know when the next workshops are?

Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

If you read anything today, read this. Stunning images. Love it!

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

I think the January picture should be of interest to you :D I have never seen a better image of Paulinella!

Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Thank you so much for sharing! :)