Fabien Burki

The ecology of horizontal gene transfer Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) generates genetic variation in populations across all domains of life; however, most studies focus on individual transf…

I have a new review out in TiG titled, “The ecology of horizontal gene transfer”! I’ve been thinking about these ideas for years and this field is growing so fast it’s becoming impossible to review it. I hope this paper sparks discussion on different ways we can look at DNA transfer!

I’m looking for a post doc (up to five years) interested in phylogenetics and earth systems - please spread the word!

Towards a genomic understanding of the tree of life Anja Spang, Davide Pisani; Towards a genomic understanding of the tree of life, Molecular Biology and Evolution, , msag043, https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/

Towards a genomic understanding of the tree of life academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...

very happy to have this work published in mbe @molbioevol.bsky.social can now use phyloHessian to get a (hopefully) improved div time & subs rate estimate, particularly for deep-time or fast‑evolving lineages github.com/evolbeginner... #julialang #iqtree #mcmctree #molecularclock

Congratulations

Wow. Foraminifera!

ROV pilots paused and carefully zoomed in to collect footage of these single-celled microorganisms, or protists, at 843 m during the #OBVI #LivingBioreactors expedition w/ @schmidtsciences.bsky.social offshore of Argentina. Read the full caption: youtube.com/shorts/Yv_ud...

🚨 We're hiring!
Postdoctoral positions in modeling of development and evolution at @stockholm-uni.bsky.social & @scilifelab.se

Focus: dynamical systems, time-series, phylogenetics, dimensionality reduction

📍 Stockholm
🕒 2+1 years
🔍 Details: su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

Please share!

A new era for #ONT amplicon sequencing?
We show that #ONT #amplicon sequencing now achieves accuracy sufficient for #ASV resolution using standard Illumina-based pipelines. We validated this by sequencing identical amplicons on #ONT and #PacBio. @nanoporetech.com www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Well done

So I pleased to announce the conceptual spawn of FigTree: PearTree (acronym still to be finalised). If you want to dive right in it is hosted as a web app here: artic-network.github.io/peartree (click the “Example...” button for immediate candy and then click every button you can find).

FigTree has been so essential to anyone playing with phylogenetic trees-certainly it has been for me, very rare are the days I don’t use it. Thank you for releasing it in the first place. Can’t wait to give PearTree a try

Speciation, extinction, net rate, and biodiversity curves for fixed benthos. (A-C) Brachiopoda. (D-F) Echinodermata. (G-I) Bryozoa. (J-L) Porifera. (M-O) Cnidaria.

"the Cambrian Explosion, the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE), and the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction (LOME)... traditional understanding of these events ...masks the complex dynamics of individual clades"
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio

MicroSEA (Microbial Sea Eukaryotes) course is a one-week, field-based summer school to train early-career researchers in the diversity, ecology, and single-cell biology of marine protists. MicroSEA course integrates lectures, field sampling, and lab-based practicals in advanced techniques, such as flow cytometry, microscopy, culturing, and molecular analysis. The main objectives of MicroSEA course are: Fostering a deep understanding of marine protist diversity, ecology and biology; Providing hands-on training in advanced single-cell methods that are not commonly available in university programs; Building participants' confidence in designing and conducting research projects from field to data analysis; Promoting international collaborations and peer networking among students and speakers/trainers. The course will take place at the Station Biologique de Roscoff - SBR (France) - 7th to 12th of June, 2026 (arrival on the 6th, departure on the 13th). 20 participants will be selected, including 10 from EuroMarine member institutes. https://opbc.sciencesconf.org/

Protist lovers: Please apply for a week of rhapsody! Learn by doing:

MicroSEA (Microbial Sea Eukaryotes) course is a one-week, field-based summer school to train early-career researchers in the diversity, ecology, and single-cell biology of marine protists. opbc.sciencesconf.org

#protistsonsky

Phylogenomic tree of Cercozoa based on single-cell transcriptomes from 100 uncultured cells - BMC Biology Background Cercozoa are single-celled eukaryotes (protists) and are part of the supergroup Rhizaria. Cercozoans have vastly different morphologies and are defined by their phylogenetic affinity. While...

Great to see this paper in all its glory online: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A huge effort from Gordon and the team at @pjkeelinglab.bsky.social!

Phylogenomic tree of Cercozoa based on single-cell transcriptomes from 100 uncultured cells

@ubcbotany.bsky.social @science.ubc.ca

Mainly for a method we are developing for a highly targeted sorting of protists. But these SPCs can be useful for many different things

Exciting day in the lab! We just received the Onyx, which we are going to use to encapsulate cells in semi-permeable capsules 😳 #protistsonsky

Have a novel protist's genome or transcriptome and want to predict it's mitochondrial proteome? Look no further than CoMR, this handy bioinformatic workflow to help you: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #phylogenetics

Before he passed away in 2021, Tom Cavalier-Smith had drafted parts of his autobiography. It's now 'published' because Gáspár Jékely put a lot of effort in! Please enjoy and share: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

A 🆕 #Ichthyosporea story
Led by@margaridaaraujo.bsky.social, in Co. @gautamdey.bsky.social & @hiralshah.bsky.social+🔥team across @embl.org & @sciencesunige.bsky.social
We finally have a look at what #microtubules are doing during #cellularization in #Sphaeroforma
▶️ tinyurl.com/MTSARC
#ProtistsOnSky

Plants animals and fungi are just the weird really big protists.

Check out our latest pre-print of our favourite pets - the breviates. This work was led by Zhezhen Yi in collaboration with @andrewjroger.bsky.social and many others! By studying diverse breviates we were able to see how different metabolic pathways can evolved in response to low-oxygen.

That seems about right. #protistsonsky friends

Euglena gracilis Subcellular Fractionation Subcellular fractionation of Euglena gracilis has been conducted for over 50 years in various forms by numerous research groups. The development of this technique is closely tied to the specific ...

link.springer.com/protocol/10....
#protistsonsky

Expansion Microscopy in Euglenozoa Expansion microscopy is a powerful technique, which increases the effective resolution of a fluorescence microscope by physically enlarging the specimen within a swellable polymer matrix. When combine...

link.springer.com/protocol/10....
#protistsonsky

RETRACTED: Integrative phylogenomics positions sponges at the root of the animal tree Determining whether sponges or ctenophores root the animal tree has important implications for understanding early animal evolution. Here, we examined support for these competing hypotheses by constru...

This is a beautiful case of how real science happens & serious scientists work. Kudos to both set of authors: “This has been a humbling experience, but one that speaks to the self-correcting nature of the scientific endeavor.” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Spatial Proteomics Workshop for Protists

(see more in thread below)

Registration
Early Bird Monday 22nd June 2026.
Regular Monday 10th August 2026.
There will be a conference dinner on day 1. To register visit protistology.org.uk/autumn-meeti...

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

Go @coreyholt.bsky.social

Oxygen as a primary selective pressure for photosymbiosis evolution To explore the early steps of photosymbiosis evolution, Quevarec et al. use the ciliate predator Tetrahymena thermophila and two phototrophs to mimic primary and secondary photosymbiosis. They show th...

Oxygen as a primary selective pressure for photosymbiosis evolution: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol... @currentbiology.bsky.social

New sighting of leptophytes, using similar data (ptMAGs). This corroborates our earlier finding from a different metagenomic dataset
www.nature.com/articles/s41...