Lukas VF Novak

Urban streams: What are #diatoms trying to tell us? isdr.org/urban-stream... @youngisdr.bsky.social Seasonal effects of #urbanization on diatom communities www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #Protists #ProtistsOnSky #Algae #Ecology #Microbes

Swiss lake #symbiosis reveals unexpected role in nitrogen cycling phys.org/news/2026-06... Redox gradients define the ecological niche of #ciliates with denitrifying #endosymbionts in anoxic lake waters academic.oup.com/ismej/articl... #Protists #Microbes #Bacteria #ProtistsOnSky

Predator of #RedTide plankton reveals unusual bioluminescence today.ucsd.edu/story/ruthle... #Bioluminescence of the heterotrophic dinoflagellate Polykrikos kofoidii onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #Protists #Algae #Plankton #Dinoflagellates #ProtistsOnSky

Two new papers from our team! Both about #DeepSea #Bacteria living on #sulfur. By @kalainxtremmicrob.bsky.social #Genomics of Desulfobulbaceae B35: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #Proteomics of Dissulfuribacter thermophilus: enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

No brain required: This is how the single-celled Stentor learns phys.org/news/2026-04... Molecular pathways for learning in the single-cell #Stentor coeruleus www.cell.com/current-biol... #Protists #Microbes #Ciliates #ProtistsOnSky

Microscopic life on volcanic ice giants: #diatoms of the Ecuadorian glaciers isdr.org/microscopic-... @youngisdr.bsky.social #Protists #Algae #Microbes #Ecuador #Glaciers

New paper from my 2nd PostDoc is now published in The ISME Journal by @isme-microbes.bsky.social! #Sulfur disproportionation occurs globally across anoxic habitats & has multiple mechanisms of independent evolutionary origin academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc... #Bacteria #Microbes #Evolution #DeepSea

How a parasite gave up sex to find more hosts—and why its victory won't last phys.org/news/2026-01... Host range expansion of asexual parasite can be explained by loss of adaptions in Muller’s Ratchet www.nature.com/articles/s41... #Protists #Microbes #Parasites #Giardia #Evolution

Shelled #amoeba crawls like an octopus, shifting tactics on the go phys.org/news/2026-01... Statistical and mechanical analysis of multi-pseudopodial locomotion in a testate amoeba, #Arcella sp. www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/pjab... #Protists #Microbes #Amoebae

Our collaboration with @mbonhivers.bsky.social is now out in @plosbiology.org! 🎉Using U-ExM, we mapped the formation of the flagellar pocket collar in T. brucei. Huge thanks to everyone involved — one step closer to #PhDone! #ExM #oneringtorulethemall #Bilbo1 #trypanosoma #protistsonsky

Understanding the relationship between #foraminifera & their #symbionts can help corals phys.org/news/2025-09... Specific host - #algae relationship, yet flexible bacterial #microbiome, in diatom-bearing foraminifera: Elsa Girard et al. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #Protists #Microbes #Diatoms

#Arctic #algae aren't immobile or entombed. They're not just surviving either—they're gliding into record books phys.org/news/2025-09... Ice gliding #diatoms establish record-low temperature limits for motility in a eukaryotic cell www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #protists #microbes #extremophiles

Partnership between #algae & #bacteria reveals secrets of evolution phys.org/news/2025-08... Stepwise genome #evolution from a facultative symbiont to an endosymbiont in the N2-fixing symbioses www.cell.com/current-biol... #protists by @vesnagrujcic.bsky.social, @mehrshmali.bsky.social, et al.

Tiny marine #protist shells reveal clues for how ice ages start phys.org/news/2025-08... Progressively greater biological #CarbonStorage in the deep Atlantic during glacial inception: Monica Garity et al. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #Protists #Microbes #Foraminifera #Climate #DeepSea #IceAge

How #diatoms thrive in—and light up—the Southern Ocean phys.org/news/2025-08... agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/... #protists #algae "An area of the #SouthernOcean that's long confused satellites by reflecting large amounts of turquoise light appears to be full of silica-rich diatoms"

New genome announcement from our team: Draft genome sequence of Desulfobacterota strain M19, a mesophilic sulfur-disproportionating bacterium from a #DeepSea hydrothermal vent on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... #Bacteria #Microbes #Genomics #HydrothermalVents #Extremophiles

How an organelle evolves in #symbiosis with a cell: Intermediate stage sheds light on the assimilation process phys.org/news/2025-03... A nucleus-encoded dynamin-like protein controls endosymbiont division in the trypanosomatid Angomonas deanei www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #Protists #Microbes

A Most Useful Light Switch schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2... paper from 2023: www.nature.com/articles/s41... #Diatoms grow well in iron-limited waters. They switch their energy-generating photoreceptor to a proton-translocating #rhodopsin. #Protists #Algae via @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social

Algae May Speed Melting of Antarctic Ice eos.org/articles/new... paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... "The newly discovered algal communities may represent one of the largest photosynthetic habitats in #Antarctica." #Protists #Algae #SnowAlgae #Microbes #ClimateChange

After 7,000 years without light and oxygen in #BalticSea mud, researchers bring prehistoric #algae back to life phys.org/news/2025-03... Resurrection of a #diatom after 7000 years from anoxic Baltic Sea sediment: Sarah Bolius et al. academic.oup.com/ismej/articl... #Protists #Diatoms #Microbes

Newly discovered algae species offers insights into plant evolution and UV protection phys.org/news/2025-02... New Strains of the Deep Branching Streptophyte Streptofilum... Description of S. arcticum sp. nov enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #Protists #Algae #NewSpecies

Giving up on #photosynthesis: How a borrowed bacterial gene allows marine #diatoms to live on a #seaweed diet phys.org/news/2025-04... Diatom heterotrophy on brown algal polysaccharides emerged through HGT, gene duplication, & neofunctionalization journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... #algae #protists

Ancient marine organism's dual-layer structure reveals both past and present ocean environments phys.org/news/2025-02... A cosmopolitan calcifying benthic #foraminifera in agglutinated disguise as a geochemical recorder of coastal environments www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #Protists #Microbes

Symbiotic #bacteria ride along with single-celled #protists in ocean's upper layer phys.org/news/2025-02... #Symbionts of predatory protists are widespread in the oceans and related to animal pathogens www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

How Does Life Happen When There’s Barely Any Light? www.quantamagazine.org/how-does-lif... @quantamagazine.bsky.social Photosynthetic light requirement near the theoretical minimum detected in Arctic microalgae: Clara Hoppe et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #Protists #Algae #Diatoms #Arctic

In search of red snow microscopesandmonsters.wordpress.com/2025/01/26/i... #protists " #SnowAlgae have been known for a long time – earliest records are from the alps in the late 18th century... and first recognised as #algae 40 years later when an expedition was exploring the North-West passage "

New research on #protists sheds light on #DeepSea energy sources www.whoi.edu/press-room/n... Array of metabolic pathways in a kleptoplastidic #foraminifera supports #chemoautotrophy in dark, euxinic seafloor sediments academic.oup.com/ismej/articl... by Fatma Gomaa et al., @whoi.bsky.social

Tiny microbe colonies communicate to coordinate their behavior www.uib.no/en/michaelsa... Electrical signaling and coordinated behavior in the closest relative of animals www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #Protists #ProtistsOnSky #Microbes by @jeffcolgren.bsky.social @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social

#ClimateChange Threatens Key Ocean #Plankton Groups www.mpic.de/5618027/klim... Migrating is not enough for modern planktonic #foraminifera in a changing ocean: Sonia Chaabane et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #Protists #ProtistsOnSky #Microbes #Acidification #ClimateCrisis #Climate

Discovery of enzyme pathway may lead to #leishmaniasis treatments phys.org/news/2024-12... " #Leishmania have biochemical similarities to #fungi... But scientists were unable to effectively use #antifungals... those #azoles don't work unless they inhibit the new pathway" #Protists #Parasites

Comprehensive analysis reveals hidden genomic #evolution of brown algae phys.org/news/2024-12... Evolutionary #genomics of the emergence of #BrownAlgae as key components of coastal ecosystems www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... #Protists #Algae #ProtistsOnSky #Seaweed #Biology

#Phytochromes: The 'eyes' that enable #microalgae to find their way in aquatic depths phys.org/news/2024-12... #Diatom phytochromes integrate the underwater light spectrum to sense depth: Carole Duchêne et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #Protists #ProtistsOnSky #Algae #Diatoms #Microbes

This #amoeba eats prey like #owls do www.sciencenews.org/article/amoe... The vampyrellid amoeba #Strigomyxa ruptor gen. et sp. nov. and its remarkable strategy to acquire algal cell contents onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #Protists #Algae #Amoebae #ProtistsOnSky #Microbes

Research reveals even single-cell organisms exhibit habituation, a simple form of learning phys.org/news/2024-11... Biochemically plausible models of habituation for single-cell learning: Lina Eckert et al. www.cell.com/current-biol... #Protists #Microbes #Ciliates #ProtistsOnSky

Advanced genetic techniques & #microscopy offer new insights into anaerobic ciliate + methanogen #symbiosis phys.org/news/2024-10... Methanogenic #symbionts of anaerobic #ciliates are host, habitat specific academic.oup.com/ismej/articl... #protists by @micrott.bsky.social @symbiosisrox.bsky.social

Scientists discover #mitochondria -like #symbionts with surprising metabolic capacities phys.org/news/2024-12... Genetic potential for aerobic respiration and #denitrification in globally distributed respiratory #endosymbionts www.nature.com/articles/s41... #protists #ciliates #microbes #symbiosis

#NewSpecies: November 2024 earthlingnature.wordpress.com/2024/12/06/n... by @piterkeo.bsky.social

A single cell's siesta: How non-moving #microbes manage to avoid bright light phys.org/news/2024-11... Light-regulated #chloroplast morphodynamics in a single-celled dinoflagellate www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #Protists #Algae #Biology #Organelles #Biology #Dinoflagellates #Organelles

Chromosphaera perkinsii: Unicellular organism indicates embryonic development might have existed prior to animals' evolution phys.org/news/2024-11... A multicellular developmental program in a close animal relative: Marine Olivetta et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #protists #microbes

Early evidence of #symbiosis found in ancient coral phys.org/news/2024-10... Coral photosymbiosis on Mid- #Devonian reefs www.nature.com/articles/s41... "These findings provide conclusive geochemical evidence of the earliest known example of symbiosis in #corals" #protists #algae #microbes

Protein shell discovery reveals how #diatoms capture CO₂ so effectively phys.org/news/2024-10... "diatom pyrenoids are encased in a lattice-like protein shell... it helps create a high CO2 concentration in this compartment. This enables Rubisco to efficiently fix CO2" #protists #algae #microbes

#NewSpecies: October 2024 earthlingnature.wordpress.com/2024/11/01/n... by @piterkeo.bsky.social

We are family: Tracing the #evolution of animals knowablemagazine.org/content/arti... #protists "To understand the origins of muticelled life, researchers are studying a motley assortment of simpler animal relatives. The commonalities they’re unearthing offer a trove of clues about our mutual past"

#Bacteria & #Fungi Come Together in #Endosymbiosis Study www.labroots.com/trending/cel... www.nature.com/articles/s41... "After several generations, the health of the fungi began to improve. They were changing and adapting to their new resident bacteria. The bacteria also changed."

Single-celled eukaryote employs unconventional cytoskeletal components for dynamic shape-shifting phys.org/news/2024-10... Dynamic shape-shifting of #Lacrymaria via unconventional cytoskeletal components www.cell.com/current-biol... #protists #microbes #ciliates #cytoskeleton

#Plankton balloon to 6x their size in newly discovered mode of oceanic travel phys.org/news/2024-10... #protists Inflation-induced motility for long-distance vertical migration www.cell.com/current-biol... "Pyrocystis balloons to travel 200 m toward the surface to capture sunlight, then sink back"

Uncovering the Ancient Origins of Key Immune Machinery www.ualberta.ca/en/departmen... #protists "the BLOC machinery plays an important role in #microbes today for our ecosystem and health and may help to explain the #evolution of the basic cellular configuration over 1.5 billion years ago."

These #microbes have been thriving without #mitochondria since the age of #dinosaurs! #Genomics of Preaxostyla Flagellates Illuminates the Path Towards the Loss of Mitochondria journals.plos.org/plosgenetics... #Protists #Organelles #Biology #Bioinformatics #ISEPpapers #CellBiology #Evolution