Gulnara Tagirdzhanova
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metalichen.bsky.social
Gulnara Tagirdzhanova
@metalichen.bsky.social
770 followers 540 following 150 posts
Postdoc at @deepsthlmuni.bsky.social‬ (Stockholm University)

lichen symbiosis | metagenomics | evolution |

Previously at @thesainsburylab.bsky.social. PhD from @ualberta.bsky.social

Personal website: metalichen.github.io

#StandWithUkraine
she/her
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metalichen.bsky.social
Huge thanks to all coauthors: @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social, @angusb.bsky.social, Ellen Cameron, Mark Blaxter, @robdfinn.bsky.social, and @mcdonaldmeganc.bsky.social!
November 28, 2025 at 2:20 PM
metalichen.bsky.social
Now, all Starship transposons are named after fictional spacecrafts, so naturally we followed suit. After being up till 2 one night, I settled on Tangerine star buggy, which made a brief appearance in D. Adams’ The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Given the color of Xanthoria, it was perfect
text. It says: “Ford and Zaphod looked and passed on. “And this baby,” said Ford, “the tangerine star buggy with the black sunbusters…” Again, the star buggy was a small ship-a totally misnamed one in fact, because the one thing it couldn’t manage was interstellar distances. Basically it was a sporty planet hopper dolled up to something it wasn’t. Nice lines though. They passed on.”
November 28, 2025 at 2:20 PM
metalichen.bsky.social
Most interesting part: it seems that Tangerine mediated HGT between symbionts present within a lichen body, as two genes from Tangerine appear to be horizontally transferred from Chaetothyriales, a group of black fungi containing many lichen-associated species, which have been found in Xanthoria.
phylogenetic tree. Lowest clade is highlighted in orange and has a pointer labelled ‘Methyltransferase from Tangerine in Xanthoria (Lecanoromycetes). This clade is nested within a different clade highlighted in green and labelled “Chaetothyriales (Eurotiomycetes). It, in turn, is nested within a purple clade labelled as “Sordariomycetes”. A sister branch to this big clade contains multiple leaves highlighted in yellow and labelled “other Lecanoromycetes”.
November 28, 2025 at 2:20 PM
metalichen.bsky.social
Tangerine is found in genomes of X. parietina, common sunburst lichen. It has all hallmark features of a Starship: 100 kb in length, the captain gene responsible for transposition, as well as accessory genes and ‘cargo’. The captain gene couldn’t be assigned to any of the described families!
Zoomed-in Tangerine. A genome fragment is shown in line with blocks in different colors showing genes. A portion of the fragment is highlighted in orange and labeled as ‘Tangerine’. Below, the legend shows starship genes, in three groups. The first contains only the captain. The second is labelled as ‘accessory genes’ and contains DUF3723, PLP, and NLR. The third group is labelled “Cargo genes” and contains the methyltransferase
November 28, 2025 at 2:20 PM
metalichen.bsky.social
New preprint: 🚀🧬 Starship in the genome of the lichen fungus Xanthoria. Discovery of giant transposons Starships challenged what we thought we knew about fungal genomes. But what about Starships in #lichen fungi? Let us present Tangerine! 🖥️ 🧪 🦠 🧫 #SymbioSky doi.org/10.1101/2025...
November 28, 2025 at 2:20 PM
metalichen.bsky.social
Big thanks to the co-authors - @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social and Jasper Raistrick, an undergrad student who did a lot of work to isolate the alga - as well as the staff of SAG!
clipart showing several algal cells with emoji-like faces
November 12, 2025 at 3:46 PM
metalichen.bsky.social
We are hoping our study will be useful for anyone interested in doing experiments on lichen symbionts or digging into algal genomics! The genome is available at NCBI/ENA, and the strain can be ordered from the SAG culture bank
sagdb.uni-goettingen.de/detailedList...
phase contrast microscopy image of bright green unicellular alga with round cells arranged in a cluster. The image has SAG watermark on it
November 12, 2025 at 3:46 PM
metalichen.bsky.social
Our paper on the #genome of the Trebouxia #photobiont from Xanthoria is now out in @newphyt.bsky.social! Check below for a near-chromosome level assembly, secretome analysis, evidence of ancient HGT, and transcriptomic comparison of the alga in symbiosis and in pure culture
doi.org/10.1111/nph.70728
the top half shows two panels with microscopy images. Left is a light-microscopy image of a group of algal cells. The cells are round with different sizes. Two arrows point at sporangia: one looks as if someone stuffed 8 footballs in a thin elastic bag. The other is perfectly round and contains many small spores within. The right panel shows the same group of cells, but in fluorescent microscopy, where green color shows chloroplasts. In each cell the chloroplasts are globular with small lobes sticking out. The bottom half shows a photo of Xanthoria lichen - bright yellow and leafy growing on a tree branch
November 12, 2025 at 3:46 PM
metalichen.bsky.social
Happy to share that I’ve now joined @hannajohannesson.bsky.social's group in Stockholm University! Thanks to support from Wenner-Gren Foundation, I will be working on self/non-self recognition in lichen symbionts
A glass door with several posters attached on and next to it. One says "välkommen till intitutionen för ekologi, miljö och botanik". The other has letters DEEP in big font and below text "Department of ecology, environment and plant studies". Both poster have Stockholm University logo.
August 14, 2025 at 4:55 PM
metalichen.bsky.social
I also loved how as I was clearing out the said apartment, I got to see Norwich pride from my window, and then arrived to Sweden precisely in time for Stockholm pride
A crowd of people, some with pride flags, standing along a street. Behind them the Stockholm city hall flying a Swedish flag. In the distance, a flagpost with a rainbow flag Corner of a window frame. Outside, can see a tree, an old church in the distance, and a crowd of people with pride flags
August 6, 2025 at 3:03 PM
metalichen.bsky.social
I'm going to miss beautiful Norwich and my apartment with the official address 'Labour in Vain Yard', which was dope and made me feel like a children book character
A brick wall painted grey with a street lamp and a sign saying 'labour in vain yard'
August 6, 2025 at 3:03 PM
metalichen.bsky.social
Some belated personal news: at the end of July it was my time to say bye to @thesainsburylab.bsky.social and Norwich. Already missing my dear friends and the lab! Big thanks to @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social and everyone else with whom I crossed paths in these 3 years!
me and a group of colleagues assembled in a coffee room me standing next to a big sign saying "Norwich Research Park. Thank you for visiting"
August 6, 2025 at 3:03 PM
metalichen.bsky.social
🌟Call for Papers on #Lichen #symbiosis🌟 Thrilled to be a guest editor for The Lichenologist, together with @veera-t-nogerius.bsky.social, @ioanabrannstrom.bsky.social, and Ellen Cameron. Send us papers on the inner workings of lichens, submission is open till September 2025!
tinyurl.com/2w7wwubm
A special issue dedicated to lichen research with emphasis on new approaches to the study of the symbiosis: The diversity of organisms present in thalli (including all fungi, algae and bacteria); Their physical and metabolic interactions; Their contributions to the functioning of the lichen symbiosis. In addition to original research, we also welcome perspectives, reviews and methods papers. Submission deadline: September 2025. Guest editors: Veera Tuovinen Nogerius, Ioana Onut Brännström, Gulnara Tagirdzhanova, Ellen Cameron
May 23, 2025 at 2:08 PM
metalichen.bsky.social
The genome is coming soon to NCBI/ENA, and the strain will be soon available from the SAG culture bank (or you can just DM me!). We are hoping it will be useful for anyone interested in doing experiments on lichen symbionts or digging into algal genomics. 5/5
clipart showing several algal cells with emoji-like faces
May 19, 2025 at 11:34 AM
metalichen.bsky.social
The secretome consisted of 103 proteins, many of which were unannotated. It included multiple proteins that potentially can selectively bind to polysaccharides, and that may be involved in cell adhesion. Hydrolases and redox enzymes were overrepresented there too 4/5
left diagram shows a bar representing the secretome, which is split into segments by color. The segment that takes up over a half is labeled as uncharacterized. Other annotations are: other hydrolases, proteases and inhibitors, lytic CAZymes, mannosyltransferases, carbohydrate-binding, redox proteins, LRR proteins, ferritin-like, antifreeze proteins, and others.
May 19, 2025 at 11:34 AM
metalichen.bsky.social
We compared the genome to another high-quality assembly of Trebouxia made by the Aquatic Symbiosis Genomics project (who btw are releasing very nice genomes from various lichens!) 3/5
top diagram shows alignment between two genomes: Trebouxia sp A48 and Trebouxia SL000003. In almost all cases, the two genomes align neatly and one contig in one assembly corresponds to one contig in the other assembly. The bottom diagram shows an upset plot for 8 Trebouxia genomes, including the two mentioned above.
May 19, 2025 at 11:34 AM
metalichen.bsky.social
The genome was contained in 20 contigs, of which 16 are likely complete chromosomes. We determined the genome ploidy (looked haploid to me!) and annotated genes linked to reproduction, life cycle, and carbon-concentration. We also confirmed 2 cases of ancient HGT from fungi. 2/5
A figure with three diagrams. First shows 20 contigs arranged lengthwise. Red caps on the contig end indicate a telomere, and 16 contigs have telomeres on both ends. The second diagram shows BUSCO completeness scores in the form of a donut chart. Complete is 95.9%, duplicated is 0.6%, fragmented is 0.7%, missing is 2.8%. The third diagram shows minor allele frequency distribution. There is a big peak near zero, which falls very sharply.
May 19, 2025 at 11:34 AM
metalichen.bsky.social
⚡ Attn anyone interested in algal genomics and lichen symbiosis! ⚡ New preprint: a near chromosome-level assembly of Trebouxia sp. A48 (member of T. decolorans species complex), the photobiont of Xanthoria parietina. 1/5 #lichen #alga #genomics
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
the top half shows two panels with microscopy images. Left is a light-microscopy image of a group of algal cells. The cells are round with different sizes. Two arrows point at sporangia: one looks as if someone stuffed 8 footballs in a thin elastic bag. The other is perfectly round and contains many small spores within. The right panel shows the same group of cells, but in fluorescent microscopy, where green color shows chloroplasts. In each cell the chloroplasts are globular with small lobes sticking out. The bottom half shows a photo of Xanthoria lichen - bright yellow and leafy growing on a tree branch
May 19, 2025 at 11:34 AM
metalichen.bsky.social
Great talk by @ciarankelly.bsky.social on antimicrobial effectors in Peltigera. Predicted antimicrobial effectors indeed suppress growth of specific bacteria, non-lichen fungi, and plants - but much less so for Cyanobacteria. Super exciting stuff!
#ecfg17
Screen with a title 'how do antimicrobial effectors support lichen?' photo shows a lichen Peltigera photo, below it photos of hyphae called mycobiont, algae called photobiont, and colonies on a plate called microbiota
March 5, 2025 at 3:45 PM
metalichen.bsky.social
Next, Yit-Heng Chooi on the discovery of BGCs in fungi. Going over strategies to use genome mining to identify novel compounds produced by and resistance genes. This resulted in the discovery of the pathway for cerulenin, a SM discovered 60 years ago
#ecfg17
A big conference hall with a screen and a presenter next to it. The slide is titled "panning for gold in mould" and shows a photo of a bucket of gold sand washed or something like that
March 5, 2025 at 11:42 AM
metalichen.bsky.social
Next, @fungage-lab.bsky.social on one of my favorite topics: starships 🚀 first, covering the discovery of unprecedentedly large mobile elements in Podospora. Shout out to @loreament.bsky.social, here with us in spirit
#ecfg17
A large conference hall with a screen and a presenter next to it. The slide is titled "very clean site specific insertion sites". The slide shows an alignment of several sequences with an insertion in one of them plus a photo of Lore Ament
March 4, 2025 at 11:54 AM
metalichen.bsky.social
Next, @hyphaltip.bsky.social on Rhodotorula extremophiles. Their genomes are mostly small, but some of them twice the size of others potentially due to hybridization. Phenoscope is a method for high throughput profiling of phenotypic variation between and within species
#ecfg17
A big conference hall with a screen and a presenter next to it. The slide is titled "Adding scoring colors as well as size in Phenoscope". The slide shows a 96 grid of pink yeast colonies growing on an algae plate, and a corresponding dot plot that shows bubbles of different size and colors that are approximating the yeast colonies phenotypes
March 4, 2025 at 10:11 AM
metalichen.bsky.social
Day 2! Chris Hittinger on yeasts diversity and evolution. Saccharomycotina are incredibly diverse, and their metabolic strategy (carbon generalist vs specialist) is reflected in the genomes. Key gene families e.g. electron transport chain proteins and mannosidases are used for ML predictions
#ecfg17
a big conference hall with a screen and a presenter next to it. The slide on the screen is titled 'the genome making of yeast metabolic diversity'
March 4, 2025 at 9:26 AM
metalichen.bsky.social
Short break to breath some air #ecfg17
A photo showing yellow daffodils in a flowerbed and a glass building on the background
March 3, 2025 at 4:04 PM
metalichen.bsky.social
Next, Yen-Ping Hsueh on everyone's favourites: the nematode-trapping fungi. Pleurotus attacks cilia of the worm and kills neurons with a 3-octanone toxin from lollipop-like cysts. Septin ring is formed in the cyst stalk, and polarity genes such as CCD42 are involved. Super cool!
#ecfg17
A photo of a big conference hall with aoudience. A slide projected on the screen is titled "How does P. oxtreatus develop toxocyst". The slide shows a SEM image of a fungal hyphae with a strucure similar to a balloon growing out of it
March 3, 2025 at 12:45 PM