New #ISEPpapers! Morphology and Molecular Phylogeny of Endosymbiotic #Ciliates (Peritrichia, Mobilida) of Marine #Invertebrates with Descriptions of Two #NewSpecies Urceolaria clepsydra n. sp. and Urceolaria bratalia n. sp. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jeu.70003

After 7,000 years without light and oxygen in #BalticSea mud, researchers bring prehistoric #algae back to life https://phys.org/news/2025-03-years-oxygen-baltic-sea-mud.html

Resurrection of a #diatom after 7000 years from anoxic Baltic Sea sediment: Sarah Bolius et al. https://academic.oup.com/ismej/article/19/1/wrae252/7942337

"Such deposits are like a time capsule containing valuable information about past ecosystems and the inhabiting biological communities, their population development and genetic changes"

#ISEPpapers 26: October 2024 to March 2025 https://www.isep-protists.com/post/iseppapers-26

Your twenty-sixth digest of papers and preprints published by members of the International Society for Evolutionary Protistology is here!

New #ISEPpaper! On the possibility of yet a third #kinetochore system in the protist phylum Euglenozoa https://journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/mbio.02936-24 by Corinna Benz et al.

"While #kinetoplastids have an unconventional kinetochore system and #euglenids have a canonical one similar to traditional model #eukaryotes, preliminary searches detected neither unconventional nor canonical kinetochore components in #diplonemids."

Stemonitopsis typhina different stages of life cycle - slime mold on a rotting poplar tree

Olympus OM1
Olympus M.60mm F2.8 Macro
Kenko extension tubes

New #ISEPpapers! Hijacking and integration of algal #plastids and #mitochondria in a polar planktonic host: Ananya Kedige Rao et al. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)00392-6

"Hosts steal active plastids, mitochondria, and nuclei from the microalga #Phaeocystis... Stolen plastids increase in volume, and their photosynthetic activity is boosted... Stolen mitochondria transform into a network in close association with plastids"

Semicircle of Stemonitopsis typhina

slime mold on a rotting poplar tree

Olympus OM1
Olympus M.60mm F2.8 Macro
Kenko extension tubes

Stemonitopsis typhina on a rotting poplar tree

Olympus OM-1
M.Zuiko 60mm f2.8 macro
Kenko extension tubes

Pink snow tints the edges of Antarctica https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-03-24/pink-snow-tints-the-edges-of-antarctica.html

"The #algae that covers Mount Reina Sofía in patches is Sanguina nivaloides, a species first described in 2019. The meaning of its scientific name in Latin is eloquent: blood in the snow. Each creature has a single cell, about 20 thousandths of a millimeter in size, with a molecule inside that gives it its characteristic red color: #astaxanthin... the same pigment that produces the color of salmon"

today's confusing taxonomic terms:

Saturnaliidae , a clade of early branching saurpodomorph dinosaurs
Saturnalidae , a clade of radiolarians
Saturniidae , a clade of moths

#dinosaurs
#radiolarians
#moths
#insects
#arthropod
#protists
#reptile

Ancient marine organism's dual-layer structure reveals both past and present ocean environments https://phys.org/news/2025-02-ancient-marine-dual-layer-reveals.html

A cosmopolitan calcifying benthic #foraminifera in agglutinated disguise as a geochemical recorder of coastal environments https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2413054122

"This species has a remarkable hidden feature—an inner shell made of calcium carbonate beneath its outer layer of gathered particles... [this] made them an excellent recorder of environmental conditions."

#biology #symbiosis #protists #bacteria #oceans

An article published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe reports the results of a study on the symbiosis between predatory protists and bacteria related to species that are pathogenic to various animal species and sometimes to humans. A team of researchers conducted a series of analyses on water samples and identified protists with predatory habits that eat some species of bacteria but are in symbiosis with other species.

https://english.netmassimo.com/2025/02/13/a-research-on-symbiosis-between-predatory-protists-and-bacteria-in-the-oceans/

Maybe some Gonium and Dinobryon, among other algae?

Ciliates party hard in my hay infusion even on a Sunday morning.

New research on #protists sheds light on #DeepSea energy sources https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-release/foraminifer/

Array of metabolic pathways in kleptoplastidic #foraminifera supports #chemoautotrophy in dark, euxinic seafloor sediments https://academic.oup.com/ismej/article/19/1/wrae248/7923457 by Fatma Gomaa et al.

"This species takes up unrelated organism’s #chloroplasts — #organelles that perform #photosynthesis... We know #kleptoplasty is happening here, but we needed to understand why this foraminifer is so successful in the dark, without oxygen"

Tiny microbe colonies communicate to coordinate their behavior https://www.uib.no/en/michaelsarscentre/175104/tiny-microbe-colonies-communicate-coordinate-their-behavior

Electrical signaling and coordinated behavior in the closest relative of animals https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adr7434

"A new study reveals evidence of electrical signaling and coordinated behavior in #choanoflagellates, the closest living relatives of #animals. This elaborate example of cell communication offers key insights into the early #evolution of animal #multicellularity and nervous systems."

New #ISEPpapers! Reduced plastid #genomes of colorless facultative pathogens Prototheca (#Chlorophyta) & retained for membrane transport genes https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-024-02089-4

"relatives of model #algae #Chlorella include two secondarily non-photosynthetic genera – #Helicosporidium (gut #parasites of #insects) and #Prototheca, which are predominantly free-living opportunistic #pathogens of diverse vertebrates, including humans"

New #ISEPpapers! The nature of ‘jaws’: a new predatory representative of #Provora and the ultrastructure of nibbling protists https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsob.240158

"we identified four main microtubular roots... which support the strong feeding apparatus resembling jaws... We also describe a new species, Nibbleromonas piranha sp. nov., and highlight features of its feeding behaviour, which can be so aggressive as to result in cannibalism."

Giant virus encodes key piece of protein-making machinery of cellular life

"Viruses are integral to the functioning of ocean ecosystems, influencing biological productivity, shifting community interactions, and driving evolutionary change," 

https://phys.org/news/2024-12-giant-virus-encodes-key-piece.html

#Phytochromes: The 'eyes' that enable #microalgae to find their way in aquatic depths https://phys.org/news/2024-12-phytochromes-eyes-enable-microalgae-aquatic.html

#Diatom phytochromes integrate the underwater light spectrum to sense depth: Carole Duchêne et al. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08301-3

"These photoreceptors enable them to detect changes in the light spectrum in the water column, thereby providing information regarding their vertical position within it."