Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Varsha Mathur @varshamathur.bsky.social · 14h

Wow beautiful work 😍 congratulations!

Reposted by Varsha Mathur

Shumpei Maruyama @shumpeim.bsky.social · 1d

We're excited to share with everyone a preprint of our manuscript that resolves the cellular origins of the symbiosome in cnidarian-algal symbiosis through proteomics of the symbiosome, RNAi, and CRISPR/Cas9 experiments. ⬇️
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Read on below!

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

BejaLab @bejalab.bsky.social · 1d

Online now!!! Apusomonad rhodopsins: A new family of ultraviolet to blue light–absorbing rhodopsin channels www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Apusomonad rhodopsins: A new family of ultraviolet to blue light–absorbing rhodopsin channels | PNAS

Apusomonads are sediment-dwelling bacterivorous protists that are sister to all Opisthokonta. They have been found to show a negative phototactic r...

www.pnas.org

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

Filip Husnik @filiphusnik.bsky.social · 4d

Pretty excited to share our new preprint!
Non-photosynthetic Plastid Replacement by a Primary Plastid in the Making
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

Sally Warring @sallywarring.bsky.social · 8d

A new preprint from us using a single-cell genome pipeline to investigate diversity of uncultured Bodo spp. flagellates.

We isolated 7 Bodo spp. cells from a single environmental sample and show that they represent 3 Bodo sp. each with a unique species of bacterial endosymbiont. #protistsonsky

Single-cell sequencing reveals unexpected genetic diversity among Bodo spp. flagellates and their bacterial endosymbionts

Bodo is a cosmopolitan genus of free living bacterivorous single-celled flagellates in the class Kinetoplastea. Members of genus Bodo are considered the closest free-living relatives to the parasitic ...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

Filip Husnik @filiphusnik.bsky.social · 7d

OIST is seeking up to four tenure-track or tenured faculty in Ecology, Environmental Science, Earth Science, and Oceanography. Application deadline: Oct 15. Please share. Thx!
www.oist.jp/careers/facu...

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Varsha Mathur @varshamathur.bsky.social · 8d

How to upgrade stolen organelles into permanent plastids: A comparative transcriptomic perspective | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1... #protistsonsky

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...

www.pnas.org

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

Stefan Kusch @stefankusch.bsky.social · 8d

Some highlights:
- fully sequenced and annotated genomes of two species, including transposon space using #TEtrimmer for the first time in newly sequenced genomes www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- cultured Arachnopeziza in vitro
- confirmed selective fungicides
- expressed hygromycin resistance +RFP

TEtrimmer: a tool to automate the manual curation of transposable elements - Nature Communications

Transposons are repetitive DNA sequences that are hard to identify and map accurately. TEtrimmer automates key manual steps, enabling faster and more reliable annotation of transposable elements in any genome.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

Jelena Godrijan 🫧❾🌊🦋 @godi.bsky.social · 9d

⚠️New paper ➡️ isolating >600 freshwater microbes using dilution-to-extinction and low-nutrient, lake-mimicking media.

🤯Expands cultured diversity to ~70 % of detected genera and enables physiological studies of streamlined oligotrophs.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#protistsonsky

Bringing the uncultivated microbial majority of freshwater ecosystems into culture - Nature Communications

A large fraction of aquatic bacteria remains uncultured. Here, the authors cultivated 627 strains of abundant freshwater bacteria from 14 European lakes, thus generating a collection that includes many previously uncultured, oligotrophic bacteria that may serve as model organisms.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

Hajk-Georg Drost @hajkdrost.bsky.social · 12d

Thrilled to share what we learned from re-annotating the mobilome of the brown algae model [Ectocarpus] 🌊🌿🏖️

genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

A wonderful collaboration with @ericadinatale.bsky.social, @cssmartinho.bsky.social, @rorycraig.bsky.social, and Susana Coelho! 🎉

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

PlantEvolution 🌱🌾 @plantevolution.bsky.social · Aug 20

Out after peer review, collaborative study from Nordborg & Weigel labs with help from many others. Not the largest collection of new Arabidopsis thaliana genomes, but we hopefully put forward some good ideas for how to think about pangenomes and their analysis!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

Stefan A. Rensing @rensingstefan.bsky.social · 13d

...and 10 new phylogenetically diverse hornwort genomes here:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@fernway.bsky.social @jandevries.bsky.social @watertoland.bsky.social

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

Tobias Warnecke @tobiaswarnecke.bsky.social · 15d

Become my colleague @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social !
2 Associate Professorships in the areas of
- prokaryotic/eukaryotic microbiology
- metabolism

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Job Details

my.corehr.com

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

American Society for Cell Biology @ascbiology.bsky.social · 25d

From MBoC: Wallace F. Marshall (UCSF) and team profile the giant ciliate Stentor pyriformis—symbiotic algae in microtubule baskets, symbiont-dependent phototaxis, and a standard genetic code. Paper: www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/... #CellBiology

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

Mark O. Martin @markowenmartin.bsky.social · 17d

Wow! I was fortunate to be #TWiMAdjacent again on This Week in Microbiology. So wonderful to talk about fun and interesting microbiology papers with fellow microbial enthusiasts! @univpugetsound.bsky.social @ASMicrobiology @microbetv.bsky.social

youtu.be/CzvAgd0W0tk?...

TWiM 341: Sea star wasting disease

YouTube video by MicrobeTV

youtu.be

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

Ben Engel @cellarchlab.com · 19d

Time for a thread!🧵 How different is the molecular organization of thylakoids in “higher” plants🌱? To find out, we teamed up with @profmattjohnson.bsky.social to dive into spinach chloroplasts with #CryoET ❄️🔬. Curious? ..Read on!

#TeamTomo #PlantScience 🧪 🧶🧬 🌾
elifesciences.org/articles/105...
1/🧵

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Varsha Mathur @varshamathur.bsky.social · 19d

woweee 🤩

Arnau Sebé-Pedrós @arnausebe.bsky.social · 20d

Happy to share the Biodiversity Cell Atlas white paper, out today in @nature.com. We look at the possibilities, challenges, and potential impacts of molecularly mapping cells across the tree of life.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

georghochberg.bsky.social @georghochberg.bsky.social · 20d

A new preprint from the lab. I won't do a tweetorial until this is peer reviewed, but I think it's a banger, led by
@JedNzy. It's about Rubisco and what chaperones are really for. He's on the market, get him while you can. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Origin of chaperone dependence and assembly complexity in Rubisco biogenesis

Molecular chaperones assist with the folding and assembly of protein clients. Consequently, they are essential to diverse cellular functions. In most aerobic photosynthetic organisms such as B-cyanoba...

www.biorxiv.org

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Varsha Mathur @varshamathur.bsky.social · 21d

"de novo gene formation and horizontal gene transfer as key forces that shape bryophyte diversity and adaptation." www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The dawn of bryophyte genomics is here - Nature Genetics

Bryophytes are a widespread group of land plants that occupy nearly all biomes, yet their genetics and evolutionary history have long remained underexplored. Now, a study that generates extensive geno...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

PM Delaux @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social · 22d

A milestone for plant genomics just out @natgenet.nature.com

130 bryophyte genomes!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bryophytes hold a larger gene family space than vascular plants - Nature Genetics

A super-pangenome analysis incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes reveals that bryophytes exhibit a larger number of unique and lineage-specific gene families than vascular plants.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

Corrie Moreau @corriemoreau.bsky.social · 25d

UPDATE: The 2025-2026 list of faculty and postdoc positions in ecology and evolutionary biology is out! Be sure to check out this active and helpful community run resources! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

ecoevojobs.net 2025-26

docs.google.com

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Varsha Mathur @varshamathur.bsky.social · 27d

WOW amazing news!! Congrats Rachel 🤩

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

Oxford Biology @biology.ox.ac.uk · 29d

Oxford Biology is growing 📢

We’re appointing 3 Associate Professors in:
🌱 Plant Sciences
🦉 Animal Behaviour
🔬 Molecular Cell Biology

3 fields. 3 opportunities. One new home for Oxford Biology.

Learn more 👉 bit.ly/41S2Tc7
Apply now 👉 bit.ly/488CNW3

Photo showing the inside atrium of the new Life and Mind Building

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

Bruce Taylor @brucedstaylor.bsky.social · Sep 8

I broke some shells of Galeripora artocrea, to look at their algal hostages...and accidentally created Pac-Man amoebae. #amoebae #peatlands #ProtistsOnSky

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Reposted by Varsha Mathur

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · Aug 6

We have a postdoc opening for a protistologist with biophysics inclinations to join our @hfspo.bsky.social project! (focus will be on characterising the morphology, ultrastructure and behaviour of excavates) #protistsonsky

Apply by Sept 17th (RTs appreciated!)
jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...

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