Chris Greening

Beyond thrilled to share that our study has been published! This project encompasses years of work, including my thesis research on Asgard archaea in the @archaeal.bsky.social lab at @utmsi.bsky.social and @texasscience.bsky.social!!! #MicroSky #ArchaeaSky 1/12

Finally out in @nature.com: a new piece of the puzzle of how complex life evolved. Lead by @archaeal.bsky.social & @katyappler.bsky.social. Great collab with @greening.bsky.social and @kassipan.bsky.social. More pieces to follow soon! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Fortunate my DECRA fellowship 'Uncovering divergent hydrogen-dependent methane metabolism in novel Archaea' was successful! Immensely grateful to @greening.bsky.social for the continued support and all present/past collaborators, mentors, and colleagues that made this possible!! tinyurl.com/45cc9ner

#NewResearch A widespread hydrogenase supports fermentative growth of gut bacteria in healthy people @greening.bsky.social #microsky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

📢 Extra, extra: our collaborative study on trace gas oxidizers in a warmer soil is out as a preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Big thanks to @thanh0109.bsky.social @bobpmleung.bsky.social @wutkowska.bsky.social @andreasrichter.bsky.social @mathildebio.bsky.social @greening.bsky.social ...

In our latest collection of free education resources, we explore bioconversion with Professor Esteban Marcellin, Professor @greening.bsky.social and Dr Leonie Van 't Hag from the RECARB hub. They are using bioconversion to convert greenhouse gases into proteins. futurumcareers.com/tackling-cli...

Why can our farts ignite? Time to find out (and quite a bit more) in our new paper in Nature Microbiology led by the amazing Dr Cait Welsh. Integrating atomic-to-ecosystem level insights. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cool study on aerotolerant methanogens! Options they might protect themselves from O2 include biofilm formation in response to O2 exposure and antioxidants (F420-H2-oxidases, rubredoxins, thioredoxins, and peroxiredoxins). This opens up a vareity of new possible habitats for methanogens.

New preprint up now! Interested in the evolution of halophily within DPANN archaea we decided to investigate the sister phylum to the Nanohaloarchaeota, GTDB phylum EX4484-52, for which we propose the name Caliditerrarchaeota www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Masterpiece paper from Ning, Perran, Amelia and co! Great mix of field-based geochemistry, laboratory manipulations, methanogen cultivation, and isolate / environmental genomics. An unexpected feedback between eutrophication and climate change that could shake up how we think about methane budgets.

Does the atmosphere harbour a resident, growing microbial ecosystem? ⛅ Here in @jgrbiogeo.bsky.social we outline how theoretical tools 📝 & modelling 💻 can bring us closer to the answer Congrats lead author @drmartinezrabert.bsky.social @mioceanologie.bsky.social 🧵 thread 👇 tinyurl.com/7pdfm7uw

Our article showing energy production from air alone is in PNAS today. This paper provides an ultimate biochemical proof that microbes can survive simply by 'making' energy from air (making two ATP per molecule atmospheric H2 consumed) and has biotech applications. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Out in @natbiotech.nature.com: Metagenome taxonomy profilers usually ignore unknown species. SingleM is an accurate profiler which doesn't, even detecting phyla with no MAGs. Profiles of 700,000 metagenomes at sandpiper.qut.edu.au. A 🧵

Extraordinary keynote lecture by Prof. Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social about Microbial oxidation of atmospheric trace gases: from enzymes to ecosystems. #FEMS2025 @femsmicro.org

Getting inspired @femsmicro.org ! Thanks @greening.bsky.social for the very interesting talk !

Day 3 at #fems2025 started with an exciting and inspiring keynote by Chris @greening.bsky.social on microbes living out of thin air @femsmicro.org

That's only half the issue - check out these great Reviews, too! 📝 Oxygen-adapted hydrogenases - @greening.bsky.social et al 📝 RNA processing in innate immunity - Kristen Lynch et al 📝 connexins and pannexins beyond the cell surface - Henrique Girao et al

Guess who's the coverboi for @natmicrobiol.nature.com this month? 💁 A huge shout-out to Dr Rachael Lappan for entrusting me to carry out the sampling for this incredibly cool atmosphere microbiome project on her behalf, & to Braydon Moloney for capturing this moment in Antarctica last summer. [1/2]

Our paper demonstrating that within-species warfare interactions are ecologically important on human skin is now published in Nature Micro! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hope this is useful - consensus statement "Guidelines for preventing and reporting contamination in low-biomass microbiome studies" rdcu.be/er3Io

An editorial in @natmicrobiol.nature.com highlighted issues with reports dealing with low-biomass microbiome. A new consensus statement provides guidelines to prevent and report contamination in low-biomass studies. A step towards ensuring rigour! #MIcrobiomeSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A new Consensus Statement led by @greening.bsky.social and @noahfierer.bsky.social in @natmicrobiol.nature.com Guidelines for preventing and reporting contamination in low-biomass microbiome studies ❗A must-read for anyone working in this field #microsky 🧪🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

After some more awesome science from amongst others @greening.bsky.social, Simon Newstead & @martinsteinegger.bsky.social and unfortunately a long drive back home, we made it back to Umeå! Thank you #Sweprot and all participants for the great company and hopefully see you next year!

Online now - the Review "Diverse lineages and adaptations of oxygen-adapted #hydrogenases" from @greening.bsky.social, @rhyswg.bsky.social‬, and colleagues. #metalloenzyme #evolution #O2Tolerant #O2Sensitive #GasChannels Read it here 👉 authors.elsevier.com/a/1lA2s3S6Gf...

I'm absolutely taken by your work – and your team's work – on how microbes get by living from "thin air". it's only a "paradigm shift' for microbiologists brought up with the idea that bugs live by "feast or famine", what they do not only in the lab. but the famine part is way more interesting...

Energy from air? No problem! In our new preprint, we reconstitute the machinery that allows microbes to endure starvation. By using the trace amounts of hydrogen in air alone, they produce plenty of chemical energy (2 ATP) to get by. The only byproduct? Water. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Hydrogenase-driven ATP synthesis from air www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... New work from us where we put the Huc hydrogenase to work to see if it can generate a proton motive force. It can! cc: @ashleighkropp.bsky.social @rhyswg.bsky.social @greening.bsky.social

Wonderful opportunity. So excited for where Sophie and our team have taken the Antarctic program.

Our lab has come back refreshed from our annual retreat. Blending personal/scientific talks with group discussions and team activities. I come away amazed by our team -- not just for our science, but for how mature, caring, and forward-thinking everyone is. So proud! P.S. Can you guess the microbe?

Methanol transfer supports metabolic syntrophy between bacteria and archaea www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In Nature Chemical Biology today, we reveal how microbes clean our atmospheres by consuming carbon monoxide (CO) gas. A methodological tour de force from Ashleigh Kropp, Rhys Grinter, and David Gillett with broad implications for the atmosphere and bioenergetics. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Extensive new preprint with Ying Teng's lab on how carbon monoxide affects soil communities and activities. Contrary to popular belief, CO at biologically relevant concentrations mainly stimulates rather than inhibits growth. Diverse bacteria grow and fix CO2 with it. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Completely agree. The field also critically needs biochemists, biogeochemists, and true ecologists too. To become more mechanistic rather than observational, and bounded in biogeochemical principles and ecological frameworks. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Melbourne Pride (Midsumma) started yesterday. Very thankful to live in such a cosmopolitan and progressive city.

New life goal unlocked! Getting to work on marsupials, including kangaroos, koalas, and my all time faves, wombats. Privileged to help on this great UQ-led study showing differences in hydrogen cycling and electron flow explain low methane emissions in marsupials. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

GRWM to fly to #Antarctica tomorrow! Our flight from Cape Town aims to land in the coldest part of the "night", for the best runway conditions, so this is everything I'll be wearing when I step off the plane and onto the ice ❄️ #SAEFgoesSouth

Huge congrats to Cait Welsh for submitting her PhD thesis today. As reflected in the preprint below, Cait has bridged methods to understand gas cycling in the human gut in health and disease. Also a huge source of enthusiasm, innovation and support over the years. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

One of the joys of my HoD role is to see the excellence of our PhD students being recognised. Very proud of Dr Bob Leung, recipient of the Mollie Holman award for excellence in graduate research, @monashuniversity.bsky.social supervised by @greening.bsky.social, Congrats to all the award recipients