Anna Schrecengost
annaschreck.bsky.social
Anna Schrecengost
@annaschreck.bsky.social
biological oceanography PhD candidate at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography studying marine anaerobic ciliates & their prokaryotic symbionts | she/her
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
And vice versa, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria are masters of colonizing marine hosts!
This was a wonderful collaboration with Sam Vohsen, Eslam Osman, Mandy Joye, Matt Saxton, grubervodicka.bsky.social, @ibaums.bsky.social
Corals are masters of obtaining nutrition via symbioses, in the light and in the dark: deep sea corals can associate with sulfur-oxidizing chemoautotrophs, expressing pathways that oxidize sulfur and fix C. Corals hosting them derive some carbon from chemosynthesis. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Deep-sea corals near cold seeps associate with sulfur-oxidizing chemoautotrophs in the family Ca. Thioglobaceae - Microbiome
Background Corals are known for their symbiotic relationships, yet there is limited evidence of chemoautotrophic associations. This is despite some corals occurring near cold seeps where chemosymbiotic fauna abound including mussels that host sulfur-oxidizing chemoautotrophs from the SUP05 cluster (family Ca. Thioglobaceae). We investigated whether corals near cold seeps associate with related bacteria and report here that these associations are widespread. Results We screened corals, water, and sediment for Thioglobaceae using 16S metabarcoding and found ASVs associated with corals at high relative abundance (10 – 91%). These ASVs were specific to coral hosts, absent in water samples, and rare or absent in sediment samples. Using metagenomics and transcriptomics, we assembled the genome of one phylotype associated with Paramuricea sp. B3 (ASV 4) which contained the genetic potential to oxidize sulfur and fix carbon, and confirmed that these pathways were transcriptionally active. Furthermore, its relative abundance was negatively correlated with the stable isotopic composition of its host coral’s tissue suggesting some contribution of chemoautotrophy to the coral holobiont. Conclusions We propose that some lineages of Thioglobaceae may facultatively supplement the diet of their host corals through chemoautotrophy at seeps or may provide essential amino acids or vitamins. This is the first documented association between chemoautotrophic symbionts and corals at seeps and suggests that the footprint of chemosynthetic environments is wider than currently understood.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40168-025-02254-z?utm_source=rct_congratem[…]ampaign=oa_20251113&utm_content=10.1186%2Fs40168-025-02254-z
November 14, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
We are looking for a PhD student to work on an exciting plastid endosymbiosis in microbial eukaryotes. This position involves sampling, exciting microscopy such as CARDFISH, ExM and FIBSEM, single-cell transcriptomics and more. #protistsonsky 1/2
November 12, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
Job Opening **ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MARINE ECOLOGY**, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Rhode Island.

jobs.uri.edu/postings/15960
November 10, 2025 at 4:03 PM
This past Thursday I successfully defended my dissertation! Thank you @symbiosisrox.bsky.social and the rest of the lab for making it a super fun celebration! I dressed up my son as a #ciliate for the occasion and we jumped into Narragansett Bay at @urigso.bsky.social beach afterwards #ProtistsOnSky
November 12, 2025 at 3:49 PM
This is a long shot but does anyone know how to pronounce Epalxellidae?? 😂 #ProtistsOnSky
November 5, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Happening tomorrow!
I am defending my dissertation titled "Ecology and evolution of anaerobic ciliate methanogen symbioses in marine oxygen depleted environments" on Nov 6 at 9:30 am EST!

Message me for the zoom link if you are interested in joining! (Or join in person at beautiful URI GSO)
#ProtistsOnSky #SymbioSky
November 5, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
🎃 👻 Happy Halloween! Last-minute costume idea: giant tubeworm. 🦑 🌊
October 31, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
New paper out! 💌🔬Spirorhynchus verrucosus is a Muranotrichean and its sister has been livin' in the deep sea Santa Barbara Basin since the 90's! See them TUFTS!! Wonderful work of B Bourland & Cepicka Lab, R Beinart, & J Bernhard enabling deep sea sampling. Read h1.nu/spiror #ProtistsOnSky #MicroSky
October 9, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
✨🌊 The ones who get it, get it.

⬇️ 💭 What are we missing? #URIGSO
October 24, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
I am defending my dissertation titled "Ecology and evolution of anaerobic ciliate methanogen symbioses in marine oxygen depleted environments" on Nov 6 at 9:30 am EST!

Message me for the zoom link if you are interested in joining! (Or join in person at beautiful URI GSO)
#ProtistsOnSky #SymbioSky
October 20, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
#SymbioSky #MicroSky #ProtistsOnSky
the plot thickens 👇 as we all suspected and feared(?), organellogenesis is not straightforward, but rather, well,... a thicket ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
October 10, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
Love #protists? Then you'd love this! Beautiful collection of hand-drawn critters represented here at the Oxford-Japan symposium on ethological dynamics in diorama environments sites.google.com/view/oxford-... #ciliates #testateamoeba #diatoms
September 24, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
From MBoC: Wallace F. Marshall (UCSF) and team profile the giant ciliate Stentor pyriformis—symbiotic algae in microtubule baskets, symbiont-dependent phototaxis, and a standard genetic code. Paper: www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/... #CellBiology
September 19, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
What a lovely find! I adore that I’m always seeing new things, even after 3 years of looking at plankton. This is a ciliate from the family Folliculinidae (thanks for the ID @microbe_guru !). I adore its colour!
#marineplankton 🦑
October 1, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
We're hiring for several positions (a post-bac researcher in #transcriptomics, a #phage #postdoc, a senior researcher (broad topics) and a graduate student to work on #ciliates) - find info here: www.marine.usf.edu/genomics/app...
Apply - Genomics
www.marine.usf.edu
October 2, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
New publication out!
Happy to share our new paper led by Corinna Breusing about how the Hunga volcanic eruption's decimation of nearby hydrothermal vent snails and mussels led to a significant reduction in the genomic diversity of their bacterial symbionts.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 3, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
I had such a great time doing this podcast! Thanks @markowenmartin.bsky.social for the chance to talk about snails and their microbial friends.
New week-new episode of the #MattersMicrobial podcast!! Dr. Roxanne Beinart of the University of Rhode Island joins the #QualityQuorum to chat about the work her group does on deep sea chemoautrophic communities & symbioses! Please spread the #GoodMicrobialWord?

youtu.be/mERRJOuEsB4?...
September 4, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
How bad will it be? Catastrophic.

Proposed cuts to #NSF, #NIH, and #NASA will set the US R&D landscape back 25 yrs+, cause economic and job loss now, and undermine innovations to come.

But, this is the WH's *proposed* budget.

Speak up now before it is too late.

(inflation adjusted $-s below)
May 31, 2025 at 2:50 AM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
Propaganda we're not falling for:

🦈Sharks are scary (amazing creatures, important for the ecosystem)
🌊Benthic invertebrates aren’t cute (they are precious)
🪨Geology is boring (rocks ROCK)
📈Long-term data sets aren't important (they are SO important!)
🔬Science isn’t cool (science rules, obviously)
May 30, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
RFK Jr. says the top scientific journals are “corrupt”. Yet his MAHA disinformation report includes fake references and grossly false statements.

Reviewers and editors at any of these journals would have caught these, resulting in its wholesale rejection.

Don’t give an inch to this charlatan.
May 29, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
🎺🚨👀 WATCH TODAY: over 200 climate scientists and meteorologists (including NOAA and NASA veterans) are hosting a 100-hour livestream starting **today at 1 PM ET**, exploring how DOGE is impacting weather & climate science.

Trailer: youtu.be/-Go-RCg3AjI
Watch: wclivestream.com/watch
Weather and climate science needs your help
YouTube video by The Weather & Climate Livestream
youtu.be
May 28, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
An open letter highlighting the co-optation of open science language in the latest Executive Order to justify policies that are, in fact, antithetical to open science principles.

Read and consider signing with your support.

www.standupforscience.net/open-letter-...
Open Letter in Support of Science — STAND UP FOR SCIENCE
www.standupforscience.net
May 26, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Question for #protistsonsky #SymbioSky: what are examples of prokaryotic genera which form mutualistic symbioses with both animals and free-living protists? i know about methanogenic endosymbionts of protists/animals, and examples of pathogenic microbes e.g. with amoeba, looking for more examples!
May 20, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Reposted by Anna Schrecengost
🎓🌊 A weekend full of celebration, tradition, & new beginnings. Congrats to the Class of 2025! We were proud to honor our graduates at the GSO Shirting Ceremony on Friday & commencement ceremony on Saturday. Here’s to the next chapter for this incredible group of ocean scientists.

➡️ buff.ly/2dXsHqX
May 19, 2025 at 7:58 PM