Built from and for ecologists, molecular biologists, and bioinformaticians working with high-throughput or environmental sequencing data, this tool will ease the tedious work of designing specific oligonucleotides at all different users expertise.

Oligonucleotide design meets big data:
We present oligoN-design, a simple, reproducible and versatile open-source tool to design specific primers and probes directly from large environmental DNA datasets.
🔗 DOI: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
👉 github.com/MiguelMSandi...

A lovely collaboration with @plannapus.bsky.social, Noritoshi & @fabnot.bsky.social, where we merged the extensive groundwork on the Polycystine fossil record with extant molecular diversity to trace the evolutionary history of Radiolaria from their appearance ~760 million years ago

Despite 150+ years of Radiolaria diversity research, we have just scratched the surface. Nearly half of Radiolaria diversity might be naked hiding in plain sight! We unveiled the diversity and evolution of Radiolaria beyond "the stars of the ocean"
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

Ah! And if you arrived until here and were wondering about the little golden dots, yes, they are photosynthetic symbionts identified as Scrippsiella. A common dinoflagellate found in symbioses with other planktonic groups like Acantharia (also Radiolaria) or the jellyfish Vellela

We hypothesize that such a trait could increase the effective volume to weight ratio favoring prey contact and capture, and provide an advantageous microenvironment for symbionts, enhancing ecological success in nutrient-depleted waters.
Pictures credit of @n-llopis-m.bsky.social, by the way!

Despite Phlebarachnium was rarely observed, metabarcoding analyses revealed a strong biogeographic affinity to oligotrophic water masses and co-occurrence with other gelatinous-bearing Radiolaria, reaching relative abundances of more than 13% to the total eukaryotic reads in specific samples

We introduce the first molecular characterization of Phlebarachnium, one of the few Radiolaria known to live within a gelatinous matrix besides Collodaria. Yet these lineages of Nassellaria developed independently the ability to produce the gelatinous matrix ∼150 million years ago

Why do some planktonic protists develop a gelatinous matrix? We suggest that this original adaptation is a strategy to cope with ocean oligotrophy: doi.org/10.1111/1462...
Led by @n-llopis-m.bsky.social, and thanks to all co-authors, I'm very happy to finally see it out!
#protistsonsky

Next Monday 13 we have the 6th session of The Life of Retaria Seminar Series!
Join us at 08h00 (CET) and discover symbiosis in these wonderful protists with Caroline Juery and @filiphusnik.bsky.social
Check it out: thelifeofretaria.github.io
#radiolaria #foraminifera #theLifeOfRetaria #protistsonsky

Radiolaria are known for their elaborate and gorgeous skeletons, found all over our oceans. But what if I tell you that half of their diversity might be naked!?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

It’s happening!!🎉
Today our second seminar of the Life of Retaria seminar series!
Join us at 14h (CET) to dive deeper into the role of Forams and Rads in marine biogeochemical cycles! 🌊
Our presenters: Nielja Knetch & Manon Laget😍
Learn more and register here:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...