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Piotr Lukasik

@sympiotr.bsky.social
601 followers 352 following 25 posts

Researching the diversity, evolution, and roles of insect-microbe interactions at Jagiellonian University, Poland. Nature lover. Traveler. Photographer.

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Reposted by Piotr Lukasik
Alejandro Manzano Marín @amanzanom.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Very happy to that our large-scale collaborative weave project (w/ @annamichalik.bsky.social & @sympiotr.bsky.social ) "Plant pathogens in #insect #microbiome [...]" has been approved! @fwf-at.bsky.social @ncn.gov.pl @univie.ac.at @jagiellonskiuni.bsky.social @dome-vienna.bsky.social 1/6 👇🏽
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Piotr Lukasik @sympiotr.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
New personal milestone - 10,000 observations on #inaturalist @inaturalist.bsky.social ! 4,290 from Poland, the rest from 20+ countries ~3,450 total species Several first species records on the platform, or range extensions. Data feeds into @gbif.org - contributes to #biodiversity research. /1
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Piotr Lukasik @sympiotr.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Our paper is now out in its final form in @natcomms.nature.com ! We show that ancient insect symbionts can undergo extreme, convergent genome reduction to as little as ~50 kb - driven by ecological shifts and symbiont replacement. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... More below 👇 1/
nature.com
Convergent extreme reductive evolution in ancient planthopper symbioses - Nature Communications
Symbiotic bacteria can have exceedingly small genomes. This study finds that ancient bacterial symbionts of planthoppers have repeatedly evolved the smallest known genomes, losing most biosynthetic fu...
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Hassan Salem @hassansalem.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
How specific are heritable symbioses? And what can we learn from swapping obligate symbionts across host species? We address this in our latest, led by @inespons.bsky.social & in our collaboration w/ @microbiome.bsky.social 🦠🪲 Out today in @natcomms.nature.com! 1/n www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Piotr Lukasik @sympiotr.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Our new paper in @natcomms.nature.com is now online-early! We describe independent evolution of bacterial genomes of only ~50–52 kb — the smallest known outside cellular organelles — revealing striking convergence toward minimal gene sets. 🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s414...
The visualization of two bacterial genomes, of 50 and 52kb, representing independent instances of extreme genomic reduction in ancient heritable endosymbionts of planthoppers.
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Rob J @w0bblyb0n3s.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
Thursday night I was lucky enough to tick off another photography milestone - documenting the moment when a cicada nymph molts its skin to reveal the adult within. For these smaller species the change is quick, they can anchor on a tree, molt and then go forth in 30 minutes #BugSky
16 shots of the two to three nymphs I was photographing, showing the process of how they discard their nymph stage shells. The shell initially cracks along a dorsal seam and the newly formed cicada pushes up through this crack, emerging at a 90° angle from the tree. From here they carefully invert themselves, a position in which they remain for a few minutes while their blood begins to flow around their new appendages. After a while their legs begin to twitch, and then using core strength that would put any human to shame they perform a full body curl, latch onto their old shell with their clawed feet and carefully pull out their abdomen. Now fully free of their former self they begin pumping blood into their wings, which quickly unfurl and flatten. Once everything has been inflated to the correct size they rest a bit more before beginning the arduous climb to a higher vantage point. At some point in the night they achieve flight for the first time in their life. Now active in the branches of the trees they emerged under they only have a short adult lifespan in which to reproduce and begin the whole cycle anew.
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Piotr Lukasik @sympiotr.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
New #microbiome paper from our lab @ioes-ju.bsky.social! Unexpected host associations for Bartonellaceae - a bacterial family primarily known as mammalian pathogens. Striking #symbiont evolutionary trajectories, exemplified by a highly reduced, 158kb genome with no nutrient biosynthetic capacity!
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Genome Biology and Evolution @genomebiolevol.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Ma, @annamichalik.bsky.social, Deng, Hu & @sympiotr.bsky.social discover the presence of Bartonellaceae bacteria in planthoppers, broadening the host spectrum of nonpathogenic Bartonellaceae. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf216 #genome #evolution
doi.org
Contrasting Genomic Trajectories of Bartonellaceae Symbionts of Planthoppers
Abstract. Symbioses with microorganisms have shaped the nutritional biology and evolution of many insects. For example, several ant clades have adapted to
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Kinga Kamieniarz-Gdula @stoplab.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Please consider signing a petition to increase the spending on science in Poland / List otwarty w sprawie finansowania nauki, w tym @ncn.gov.pl www.petycjeonline.com/list_otwarty...
petycjeonline.com
List otwarty do Prezydenta RP, Marszałka Sejmu RP, Marszałka Senatu RP,  Prezesa Rady Ministrów oraz Wiceprezesów Rady Ministrów w sprawie finansowania nauki, w tym zwłaszcza Narodowego Centrum Nauki
Szanowni Państwo, W niniejszej petycji prezentujemy List otwarty, który będzie wysłany do Kancelarii Prezydenta, Marszałków Sejmu i Senatu, Prezesa Rady Ministr&oacut...
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European Research Council (ERC) @erc.europa.eu · 15/09/2025
Based on feedback from applicants, reviewers and broader research community, the ERC Scientific Council decided to make changes in the 2026–27 calls for proposal for research funding. More details from the ERC President 👉 europa.eu/!hP3WWF What’s your take on this? Tell us! 👇
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Aileen Berasategui @berasymbionts.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
🚨 Save the date! Thrilled to be co-organizing the next iteration of the @embl.org Symposium on the Cellular Mechanics of Symbiosis (📅 March 17-20), w/ @floravincent.bsky.social, @hassansalem.bsky.social & Tom Richards. www.embl.org/about/info/c... #EESSymbiosis #Symbiosis #SymbioSky #MicroSky 🦠
embl.org
The cellular mechanics of symbiosis: sensing friend from foe
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Piotr Lukasik @sympiotr.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Last Wednesday, my first Ph.D. Student, Junchen Deng, defended his thesis! So proud! Check some of the underlying papers - on planthopper phylogenomics doi.org/10.1111/syen..., origins of Auchenorrhynchan symbionts doi.org/10.1093/gbe/..., and planthopper symbiont evolution doi.org/10.1101/2025... !
doi.org
Phylogenomic insights into the relationship and the evolutionary history of planthoppers (Insecta: Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha)
Using genomic data from 285 species across 19 planthopper families, we conducted the first phylogenomic study targeting global planthoppers and inferred their phylogeny with the highest resolution s...
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Piotr Lukasik @sympiotr.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
New preprint from our lab! We show that #Bartonellaceae bacteria, mostly known as mammalian #pathogens, also colonizes #planthoppers. The planthopper #symbionts typically resemble related ant symbionts in nutritional functions, but show a much greater breadth of #genome sizes and functions. 1/2
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Piotr Lukasik @sympiotr.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
A new paper by our team @ioes-ju.bsky.social just published in J Invert Pathol @jinvertpathol.bsky.social! In Diptera-#Entomophthora system, we show how simultaneously #sequencing #insect, #fungal #pathogen, and bacterial marker genes can aid biodiversity and biological interaction discovery.
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José Cerca @naturalselection.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
The 2025-26 Eco-Evo job list is out. Good luck to those applying! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
docs.google.com
ecoevojobs.net 2025-26
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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · 09/04/2025
NEW PAPER, JUST OUT! 👀 Insects from the '70s and '80s were already collecting microplastic, decades before the term microplastic even existed. 🤯 A thread on the surprising history of this pollutant and the incredible insect larvae that helped us uncover it. 🐛 Let's dive in! 🧵👇 1/x
Lead author Auke-Florian Hiemstra holds the oldest known caddisfly casing containing microplastic, dating to 1971. Photo: Liselotte Rambonnet.A caddisfly casing with pieces of blue microplastic, dating 1986. Photo: Auke-Florian Hiemstra
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Piotr Lukasik @sympiotr.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
New preprint by our team @ioes-ju.bsky.social! Using custom multi-target amplicon sequencing on diverse pathogen-killed dipterans from Greenland, we find multiple #Entomophthora genotypes with notable host specificity, and reconstruct bacterial communities associated with the killed insects.
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Piotr Lukasik @sympiotr.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
A convincing demonstration of a unique transmission strategy of a widespread #insect #endosymbiont --- check out the recent publication in @currentbiology.bsky.social @kaltenpoth-lab.bsky.social et al. www.cell.com/current-biol...
cell.com
Maternal symbiont transmission via envenomation in the parasitoid wasp Spalangia cameroni
Intracellular symbionts of insects are typically transmitted transovarially. Weiss et al. find that in a nascent symbiosis between a Sodalis bacterium and a parasitoid wasp, Sodalis is injected with w...
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Elisabeth Bik @elisabethbik.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Thank you, @einsteinberlin.bsky.social, for recognizing the importance of raising concerns about scientific papers. Often, science sleuths face professional, personal, and legal threats. Awards like these are vital to acknowledging the significance of our work.
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Richard K Broughton @richardkbroughton.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
Our new #OpenAccess paper How can long-term #ecology studies survive & resist political & social change, authoritarianism, war, but also embrace positive change? The Białowieża Forest as an example of the resilience of long-term studies in a changing world: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 1/
Bison in Bialowieza Forest (c) R BroughtonPoland-Belarus border fence, wiki commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Poland_Belarus_border_barrier_2023.jpg
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Carbon Brief @carbonbrief.org · 22/02/2025
Recommended read: A @theguardian.com interactive mapped the record heat experienced by two-thirds of the Earth’s surface in 2024.
buff.ly
Two-thirds of the Earth’s surface experienced record heat in 2024. See where and by how much – visualised
In oceans and on land, from the north to the south pole, records were smashed for the monthly average temperature
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Rudolf Meier @rudolf-meier.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Dark Taxonomy: From unknown to ready for biomonitoring in 5 steps. By describing 120 species, most species of fungus gnats routinely caught in Malaise traps in Singapore now have names. Bees, butterflies and birds, make room for your new friends. Read here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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Butterfly Diversity & Evolution Lab @rogervilalab.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
It’s not the head, it’s the butt! Meet a completely unknown organism: a blow fly (Calliphoridae) that evolved social integration in termite nests using a false termite head in the posterior part of the body. @CurrentBiology www.cell.com/current-biol...
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Joanna Bagniewska @joannabagniewska.com · 07/02/2025
Hardly new info, but BSky should know: Warsaw's water quality is monitored by eight clams with magnets attached to their shells. If contamination in the water causes the clams to close, the magnets trigger an alarm and shut off the city's water supply. Thank you, little guardian molluscs. 🧪🌏🚰
A clam with a spring attached to the shell. The spring has a magnet placed above a sensor.
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Piotr Lukasik @sympiotr.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
A #gingerbread Christmas #cicada - a sure sign that the much-needed vacation is just around the corner!
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Itai Yanai @itaiyanai.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
How to write a grant? 1. The application is for the reviewer, not you, the applicant. 2. Communicate in stories. 3. Make your story cohesive—leave no puzzling gaps. 4. Make your story resonate to keep the reviewer reading. 5. Accept chance and noise in peer-review. www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10....
https://www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10.1073/pnas.2315735121
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Danielle Beckman @daniellebeckman.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
A forest of neurons inside your head, happy #FluorescenceFriday! 🔬🧪🧠
Microscopy image of a piece of the cortex of rhesus macaque. Markers shown are dapi (blue), pyramidal neurons in yellow (smi32),  calreticulin (pink), and neun (purple).
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Oded Rechavi @odedrechavi.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Hope I'm the first to post this all time classic on this platform
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SAOCousins @saocousins.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
Three (!) positions as Assistant Professor in #Biodiversity We hope to get one to our department #biogeography A super recruitment within Life sciences. Maximum of 7 since PhD 🌍🧪 #biodiversity #academic #climatechange #lifescience #ecology #StockholmUniversity Please re-🦋 www.su.se/english/news...
su.se
Faculty of Science is recruiting Assistant Professors in Biodiversity - Stockholm University
Faculty of Science is recruiting Assistant Professors in Biodiversity - Stockholm University
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
I’m not sure most people appreciate how many different species our planet holds. Here are just some (maybe 20%?) of the plant- and leaf-hopper bugs, from just one state, Texas.
alexanderwild.com
Hoppers of Texas - Alex Wild
An incomplete guide to common Texas planthoppers, leafhoppers, treehoppers, spittlebugs, and relatives.
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Piotr Lukasik @sympiotr.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
I'm new to BlueSky - it's fun exploring this new site! And here is a photo of me at another site that was new to me this year: collecting insects for microbiome research in Ilulissat, #Greenland. It's turned out great. #microbiome #symbiosis #insects #biodiversity #sequencing
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