Thank you everyone for a great congress!🦠🌊😊 @same18-bcn.bsky.social

. @joanakrause.bsky.social gave a presentation on her project “Describing the diversity and global distribution of plastid-bearing coral symbionts re-using published microbiome data”

. @rociomozo.bsky.social presented a poster on “Phylogenomics of Coral Photosymbionts and their Free-Living Relatives” (her Master’s project)

For further insight, check out doi.org/10.1016/j.pr... and
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... 🦠 🪱

📷 Yokouchi et al 2022

Morphology wise, P. noduliferae has an overlall flattened shape, transverse surface folds and a flagellar apparatus, which is located at the apical end of the cell and contains two flagella (anterior and posterior) that move in a whip-like motion.
📷 Yokouchi et al 2022

The Platyproteum genus had been formerly assigned to the Apicomplexa, but was later demostrated by Mathur and colleagues that it actually branched off from the base of the chrompodellid taxa and apicomplexan clade. P. noduliferae is sister to P. vivax (Yokouchi et al 2022).

🙏 Thanks to all co-authors: Tatsuya Unuma, Joana Krause-Massaguer (@joanakrause.bsky.social‬), and Javier del Campo (@fonamental.bsky.social / @delcampolab.bsky.social)!

𝘈𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘴 is named for its host (𝘈𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘶𝘴 𝘫𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘴), while the species epithet 𝘨𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘮𝘢 draws from the Japanese pop icon Gudetama, a lazy egg, highlighting the parasite’s link to the ovaries. The name captures both ecological context and cultural ties to Japan 🇯🇵

🌊 𝘈𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘮𝘢’s close relationship to these marine host–associated clades has interesting implications for apicoplast evolution, which we hope to explore further in the future ☀️

🧬 rrn operon phylogeny revealed this parasite to be closely related to apicomplexans of marine fish 🐟 (ichthyocolids) and corals 🪸(corallicolids), while organelle phylogenetics hint at a closer relationship with Eleutheroschizon, an apicomplexan associated with a marine Polychaete 🪱

🌟 Taken together, we suggest fireworms are a reservoir and potential vector for corallicolids, moving parasites between coral hosts via feces 🪱💩🪸. This deepens our understanding of coral reef host-parasite interactions and reveals exciting new corallicolid ecology!