iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Chung Hyun Cho @chc-evobio.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Excited to share our new preprint led by Fred and me in collaboration with the archaeal community! We found that the molecular foundation of histone-based chromatin has pre-eukaryotic roots in Asgard archaea. (1/4) #ArchaeaSky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

Emergence of histone-based chromatin complexity in Asgard archaea

The emergence of the eukaryotes coincided with the diversification of histone proteins and their post-translational modifications by enzymes that constitute the core of eukaryotic chromatin. Yet the e...

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Katrina Velle @katrinavelle.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

After a long hiatus, happy #MicroscopyMonday! Here are some amoebae squeezing themselves into narrow channels (part of a video for our preprint pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41377514/). Sound effects by Dillon (my 4 month old who may have had a little to do with the bluesky hiatus!)

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Nigel Goldenfeld @nigelgoldenfeld.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Eukaryotic evolution via massive HGT "Our relative timing estimates suggest early interactions between an Asgard archaea and a Planctomycete (bacterium) ... Thus, the prokaryotic-to-eukaryotic transition was probably a gradual and complex process, with a constant flow of HGT from diverse sources."

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Dylan Burnette @mag2art.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Not all cells do the whole membrane blebbing thing the same. Some of them get weird about it. This is a single cell videoed through a DIC microscope. #CellBiology

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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

What in the name of Beetlejuice ARE these things? They're zebra morphs of 'squat lobsters', likely in genus Allogalathea. They're not true lobsters & are more closely related to hermit crabs. Now which one is white with black stripes & which is black with white stripes? (📷: hoopderscotch)

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franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

the only character creation sliders that matter #InvertebrateShitposting

a badly drawn quadrant. the top axis is marked leggy, bottom no leggy. right side lomg, left side no lomg. on the top right, lomg leggy, is a badly drawn centipede, bottom right lomg no leggy is a worm, top left no lomg leggy is an isopod, bottom left no lomg no leggy is a blobby sea urchin with visible butthole

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EMBO @embo.org · 09/06/2026

Congratulations to Gautam Dey (EMBL) and Omaya Dudin (University of Geneva) for being awarded the EMBO Gold Medal 2026 in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the #LifeSciences in Europe! 🧪 www.embo.org/press-releases/embo-go…

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Dylan Burnette @mag2art.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

A dividing cell videoed through a microscope. Hot tip: Don't mess around with myosin II paralogs if you don't want your cells to freak out. #CellBiology www.cell.com/cell-reports...

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Ben Larson @blarson.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

And now it's out! Happy that PNAS selected for the cover this SEM image snapped by @samjlord.bsky.social, one of the most evocative visualizations of Euplotes that I have ever encountered. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Stay tuned for what is shaping up to be some fascinating follow-up in the lab...

Scanning electron microscopy image of the ciliate Euplotes gigatrox on the cover of the journal PNAS. Distinct punk rock vibes

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ISEP @isepprotists.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

New #ISEPpapers by @ankarn.bsky.social et al.! Living together: evolutionary and ecological dimensions of #protist endosymbiosis academic.oup.com/microlife/ar... #Protists #Microbes #Symbiosis #Evolution

illustration of five different microbial cells and some of the chemicals they exchange with their environment

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Brendan Harley @profharley.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

That's almost 4 years of funding for the NIH. Across the country, labs are shutting down and the next generation of scientists are seeing their futures destroyed. But let's just go buy a lot of bombs....

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Sarah Guest @sarahmoeba.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Around $300 for full outfit that looks nice and isn't walmart quality. Suitshop has suits starting just over $200 (includes tuxes). Nordstromrack has men's dress shirts (can be found <$20), dress shoes (~$50), ties (~$20).

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Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University (SLCU) @slcuplants.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Hiding in plain sight! 2.3M conserved non-coding sequences traced back 300M years across 284 plant species Ground-breaking study out in First Release @science.org from labs of @madelaineb.bsky.social, @idane.bsky.social & Zach Lippman ▶️ doi.org/10.1126/scie... ▶️ www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/news/hiding-...

Phylogeny of the 284 species of plants included in Conservatory data set. Conservatory uncovered ~2.3 million conserved non-coding DNA sequences across 284 plant species from 72 families including eudicots, monocots, gymnosperms, and algae. Illustrations by Professor Madelaine Bartlett.

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Marco Grillo @mgrillo.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Do you work with a strange model species and are frustrated by the lack of antibodies for immunos? Here's a web app that does some computational pre-screening for you. sixpack-abscan.serve.scilifelab.se

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Sophie G Martin @sophiemartinlab.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

You are finishing your PhD and looking to continue in science? The Martin lab @biology-unige.bsky.social has an open postdoctoral position in cell biology to study cell-cell fusion. For more information, please consult mocel.unige.ch/research-gro.... Thanks for reposting!

mocel.unige.ch

Contact/Job - Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology - UNIGE

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John Burns @burnsajohn.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Do the dance, do the algal dance.

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Sarah Guest @sarahmoeba.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing!

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Sarah Guest @sarahmoeba.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

We enriched for magnetotactic bacteria at the Microbial Diversity course at MBL a few summers back, and had several of these "raspberry" looking colonial types in cultures. Here, they're attracted to a magnet (on the right) but occasionally broke free and quickly rejoined the magnet herd.

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Sergio Muñoz-Gómez @sergiophyceae.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

End-of-year preprint dump! A collaboration with @messorensen.bsky.social and German and Korean colleagues: "The phylogenetic context for the origin of a unique purple-green photosymbiosis " doi.org/10.64898/202...

P. tenue, its symbionts, and natural habitat

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Sarah Guest @sarahmoeba.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

Happy solstice! These ice crystals on our windshield might have delayed the morning trek into lab, but they're at least pretty to look at! ❄️

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Sarah Guest @sarahmoeba.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

I'm so sorry for your loss. 💔🐾

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Gautam Dey @gautamdey.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Our attempt to give multinucleate cells the spotlight they deserve (seriously, they’re everywhere), led by the fearless @mrosjac.bsky.social and with @Markus Ganter doi.org/10.32942/X2M... We’d love your feedback while this goes through the peer review process! #MicroEvoSky #ProtistsonSky 🧪🌏

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H. B. Beryl Rappaport @hbrappap.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth! #protistsonsky 🧵

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Sarah Guest @sarahmoeba.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

That's exciting! I can't wait to see the results. I've found that some commercially available gamma tubulin antibodies even work in Rhizaria. I know many companies' antibodies are based on "proprietary peptides," so it's hard to predict if your species of interest even has the right region.

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Sarah Guest @sarahmoeba.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Based on this, Myo2A-1 and Myo2B-1 (both N-terminal) might work for N. fowleri? But this region is before the SH3-like predicted fold, with no predicted structure. These N-terminal regions vary widely in length outside of Heterolobosea and is only around 50-60% identical with the Naegleria genus.

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Sarah Guest @sarahmoeba.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Thanks Omaya! I didn't test them in other species, but I did look at their similarity to the aligned myosin 2 of 'closer' relatives like Naegleria fowleri. Here's the N. gruberi (Ng) peptide sequences we used vs those of N. fowleri (Nf). I highlighted the identical residues in green.

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Sarah Guest @sarahmoeba.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Our work on Naegleria Myosin 2 is out! Naegleria encodes 3 Myo2s which contract its actin network—the first evidence of contractile Myo2 outside of Amorphea. Myo2 is actually widespread in Naegleria's relatives and correlates with fast cell crawling. Read more: www.cell.com/current-biol...

cell.com

Myosin 2 drives actin contractility in fast-crawling species outside of the amorphean lineage

Myosin 2-dependent actin contractility—the force that powers cell division and migration in animals, fungi, and other Amorphea—had been previously unknown outside this single eukaryotic group. Guest e...

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Kirk Amundson @kirkamundson.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Finally out! We measured mutations in tetraploid potato. Highlights: - higher mutation rates in L1 than L2 - even higher rates and a distinct oxidative stress signature outside of meristems - lower mutation rates in genes everywhere we looked More 👇 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2514507122

nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

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Tanmay Bharat @tbharat-lab.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Katrina Velle @katrinavelle.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Just under a month left—apply by December 5 through the link on my website!

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Omaya Dudin 𓂆 ¦🍉¦🦠¦🔬¦ @dudinlab.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

🚨Our collaboration with @centriolelab.bsky.social & @gautamdey.bsky.social is out today in @cp-cell.bsky.social We show that #Expansion #Microscopy is a broad-spectrum modality for Euks, enabling 3D phenotypic maps rooted to phylogeny. #ProtistsOnSky #SciComm #SciSky www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

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Kirk Amundson @kirkamundson.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Our lab’s variegated peperomia makes green flecks on leaves, but only on the abaxial side. It’s the typical sandwich: L1 green-L2 yellow-L3 green, so guessing flecks are L1-derived cells dividing periclinally into L2. But how only on the abaxial side? Something to do with the super thick epidermis?

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Sarah Guest @sarahmoeba.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Just for fun, here's a game I like to call "Find the neuron" with examples of olfactory sensory neuron images from Šmít et al 2017 (doi.org/10.7554/eLif...) and Filoreta ramosa, a free-living syncytial amoeba from a salt marsh.

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Sarah Guest @sarahmoeba.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

My PhD work is up on bioRxiv! Read all about the #actin and #microtubule #cytoskeleton of the Rhizarian #amoeba Filoreta ramosa here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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John Burns @burnsajohn.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

This is glorious! And diatoms are as weird as ever!

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Jürgen Strassert @strassert.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Happy to have contributed to this great article: #Protist genomics: key to understanding eukaryotic evolution. Congrats Alexandra Schoenle et al. #ProtistsOnSky authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

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Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology @jeukmicro.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Highlighted paper! Daisuke Yamagishi, et al. open a new front in the drive to understand photosymbiosis in protists. Article➡️ doi.org/10.1111/jeu.... #protistsonsky

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Sarah Guest @sarahmoeba.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Synopsis: A hungry amoeba attempts to eat another amoeba roughly equal to its own size. After numerous failed attempts to engulf it, and briefly losing it in a mess of detritus, it encounters a flailing nematode. Fearing for its life, it abandons its prey, and finally captures a smaller meal.

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Ben Larson @blarson.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

I contributed an essay and some images to the new Living Futures series, an outgrowth of the fantastic Living Histories series organized by Sri Biswas and others. medium.com/@thelhseries... iyerbiswas.com/outreach/liv... 1/3

medium.com

Microbial Marvels, Microscopes, Math, and Mentorship

by Ben Larson for Living Futures

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Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd. It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.

Graphs showing 25 years of budgets for the National Institute of Health, NASA, and the NSF. In all cases, the proposed budget for next year is far, far below any year of the previous quarter century.

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John Burns @burnsajohn.bsky.social · 12/03/2024

The inside of our net was coated with these tiny jelly balls. I asked @blancobercial.bsky.social if they were some kind of ctenophore, but he said (enthusiastically) "No! These are #Rhizaria!" He is holding a single cell here. #marinelife #protistsonsky

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Kenneth Dumack @dumack.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Evidence for #recombination, and maybe #meiosis, in free-living #Rhizaria! I wish the results were clearer. As so often we raised more questions than we could answer :) If you are into #sex and the #meiosis-toolkit, this is an important read! #ProtistsOnSky link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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