Roland Hatzenpichler
@environmicrobio.bsky.social
archaea, methane, microbial ecophysiology, single cell activity, next generation physiology / for evidence-based decision-making / I hold strong opinions / I don’t mince words / posts reflect personal views / www.environmental-microbiology.com
Pinned
Physiology, the functioning of a cell at a given time and in a given set of physiochemical conditions, is an emergent property that cannot be reliably predicted from genomic data or metabolic reconstructions alone. #testthy(metagenomic)hypotheses
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
We have wondered what a complex archaeal cell might look like ever since 2014. It’s been a long road (and the journey is far from over), but it’s a good time to pause for breath and look. These Asgard archaeal cells are a surprise! And that is the joy of being a cell biologist.
November 7, 2025 at 11:02 AM
We have wondered what a complex archaeal cell might look like ever since 2014. It’s been a long road (and the journey is far from over), but it’s a good time to pause for breath and look. These Asgard archaeal cells are a surprise! And that is the joy of being a cell biologist.
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments
Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 7, 2025 at 10:44 AM
An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments
Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Congrats to my former grad student George Schaible @quantaofgeorge.bsky.social who continues to rock!
Congrats to @quantaofgeorge.bsky.social for being awarded best postdoc talk NeLLi symposium for his phenomenal work on the first successful cultivation of Thiovulum. Mind blowing collective behaviors by the fastest organism per body length on the planet!
Abstracts are due Oct. 19 for the 2025 New Lineages of Life Symposium — 80 slots available!
See speakers below.
More info: jgi.doe.gov/work-with-us...
Full Agenda: jgi.doe.gov/work-with-us...
@axelvisel.bsky.social 🖥️🧬
See speakers below.
More info: jgi.doe.gov/work-with-us...
Full Agenda: jgi.doe.gov/work-with-us...
@axelvisel.bsky.social 🖥️🧬
November 7, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Congrats to my former grad student George Schaible @quantaofgeorge.bsky.social who continues to rock!
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
A #Micronaut in a prior #microbiology #Bio350 course at @univpugetsound.bsky.social made this for me a couple of years ago. I will miss working with students very much. @asmicrobiology @microbe.tv
November 6, 2025 at 11:00 PM
A #Micronaut in a prior #microbiology #Bio350 course at @univpugetsound.bsky.social made this for me a couple of years ago. I will miss working with students very much. @asmicrobiology @microbe.tv
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
Letters to scientific journals surge as ‘prolific debutante’ authors likely use AI | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
Letters to scientific journals surge as ‘prolific debutante’ authors likely use AI
New study reinforces worries about “mass production of junk” by unscrupulous scholars aiming to pad their CVs
www.science.org
November 4, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Letters to scientific journals surge as ‘prolific debutante’ authors likely use AI | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
For those keeping track, my lab has tried to culture Odinarchaea from the hot spring the MAG was obtained from. We took many samples to find the right inoculum, including cores (in a hot spring, which was f* hard!). Hardly any contained Odin. So far, cultivation efforts failed.
We’re on the cover of @embojournal.org
Odin, from Norse mythology, emerges from the Odinarchaeota yellowstonii genome, holding FtsZ1 and FtsZ2 the ancestral twins of tubulin highlighting their evolutionary divergence in Asgard archaea. 👉 shorturl.at/n7iZE
#archaea #evolution #tubulin #cytoskeleton
Odin, from Norse mythology, emerges from the Odinarchaeota yellowstonii genome, holding FtsZ1 and FtsZ2 the ancestral twins of tubulin highlighting their evolutionary divergence in Asgard archaea. 👉 shorturl.at/n7iZE
#archaea #evolution #tubulin #cytoskeleton
November 4, 2025 at 3:12 PM
For those keeping track, my lab has tried to culture Odinarchaea from the hot spring the MAG was obtained from. We took many samples to find the right inoculum, including cores (in a hot spring, which was f* hard!). Hardly any contained Odin. So far, cultivation efforts failed.
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
Our latest work on the nitrogenase-like methylthio-alkane reductase, which specifically reduces reduces carbon-sulfide bonds is now out @natcatal.nature.com: doi.org/10.1038/s419.... We find for the first time large #nitrogenase metalloclusters (P- and L-cluster) outside nitrogenases.
October 23, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Our latest work on the nitrogenase-like methylthio-alkane reductase, which specifically reduces reduces carbon-sulfide bonds is now out @natcatal.nature.com: doi.org/10.1038/s419.... We find for the first time large #nitrogenase metalloclusters (P- and L-cluster) outside nitrogenases.
Good luck Florian! I am looking forward to continuing our collaboration with your new lab and the Pilhofer lab.
🥳 Today marks the start of the lab of former postdoc @florianwollweber.bsky.social at @embl.org Grenoble!
www.embl.org/groups/wollw...
Florian-- we will miss you dearly and wish you much success!
With us, Florian applied multiscale imaging 🔬to Asgard archaea ...👇
www.embl.org/groups/wollw...
Florian-- we will miss you dearly and wish you much success!
With us, Florian applied multiscale imaging 🔬to Asgard archaea ...👇
November 1, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Good luck Florian! I am looking forward to continuing our collaboration with your new lab and the Pilhofer lab.
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
Great to see this finally published!
Metalog: curated and harmonised contextual data for global metagenomics samples
now out in @narjournal.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
Metalog: curated and harmonised contextual data for global metagenomics samples
now out in @narjournal.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
Metalog: curated and harmonised contextual data for global metagenomics samples
Abstract. Metagenomic sequencing enables the in-depth study of microbes and their functions in humans, animals, and the environment. While sequencing data
academic.oup.com
October 31, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Great to see this finally published!
Metalog: curated and harmonised contextual data for global metagenomics samples
now out in @narjournal.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
Metalog: curated and harmonised contextual data for global metagenomics samples
now out in @narjournal.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
What a quote! "Every two or three generations, when memory has faded and the last witnesses of previous massacres have died, reason fades and people sow evil again."
Olivier Guez
„Immer nach zwei oder drei Generationen, wenn das Gedächtnis verkümmert und die letzten Zeugen der vorherigen Massaker sterben, erlöscht die Vernunft, und Menschen säen wieder das Böse“
„Immer nach zwei oder drei Generationen, wenn das Gedächtnis verkümmert und die letzten Zeugen der vorherigen Massaker sterben, erlöscht die Vernunft, und Menschen säen wieder das Böse“
October 30, 2025 at 8:23 PM
What a quote! "Every two or three generations, when memory has faded and the last witnesses of previous massacres have died, reason fades and people sow evil again."
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
How did life begin, and why does it matter? Scientists are tracing early microbial life–from LUCA to multicellularity–to unlock insights for biotech, climate science and even space exploration. Read the article: asm.org/articles/202...
Early Microbial Evolution | ASM.org
How did life begin, and why does it matter? Scientists are tracing early microbial life—from LUCA to multicellularity—to unlock insights for biotech, climate science and even space exploration.
asm.org
October 30, 2025 at 2:09 PM
How did life begin, and why does it matter? Scientists are tracing early microbial life–from LUCA to multicellularity–to unlock insights for biotech, climate science and even space exploration. Read the article: asm.org/articles/202...
Beautiful first in vitro structures of Asgard histones! (In vivo structures soon?!)
Lab’s first paper is out!! We show the first structures of #Asgard #chromatin by #cryo-EM 🧬❄️
Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
October 28, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Beautiful first in vitro structures of Asgard histones! (In vivo structures soon?!)
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
How to become a "hot RNA" 🌡️? The answers were kindly provided by hyperthermophilic archaea: rRNA modifications are key! Check out this new publication presenting pan-modification profiling of the epitranscriptome. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex.... (1/3)
Pan-modification profiling facilitates a cross-evolutionary dissection of the thermoregulated ribosomal epitranscriptome
Pan-Mod-seq enables systematic, multi-modification mapping of rRNA across life. Applying
it to diverse organisms reveals that hyperthermophiles dynamically install stabilizing
modifications to support...
www.cell.com
October 27, 2025 at 1:19 PM
How to become a "hot RNA" 🌡️? The answers were kindly provided by hyperthermophilic archaea: rRNA modifications are key! Check out this new publication presenting pan-modification profiling of the epitranscriptome. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex.... (1/3)
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
October 24, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
The CAMBIUM NSF NRT is recruiting PhD students @uarizona.bsky.social! Fellowships for interdisciplinary training in biodiversity big data to adapt to & mitigate climate change impacts. Great fit for evolutionary genomics, bioinformatics, plant adaptation, ecology & more. cambium.arizona.edu 🧬🌐🌎
October 24, 2025 at 5:19 AM
The CAMBIUM NSF NRT is recruiting PhD students @uarizona.bsky.social! Fellowships for interdisciplinary training in biodiversity big data to adapt to & mitigate climate change impacts. Great fit for evolutionary genomics, bioinformatics, plant adaptation, ecology & more. cambium.arizona.edu 🧬🌐🌎
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
New study by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the BBC confirms that genAI is full of BS. www.ebu.ch/Report/MIS-B...
October 23, 2025 at 6:14 PM
New study by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the BBC confirms that genAI is full of BS. www.ebu.ch/Report/MIS-B...
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
Our @narjournal.bsky.social manuscript is out! It explores the growth of the GTDB (gtdb.ecogenomic.org) since its inception, as well as updates to the website, methodology, policies, and major taxonomic and nomenclatural changes over the past three years.
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
GTDB release 10: a complete and systematic taxonomy for 715 230 bacterial and 17 245 archaeal genomes
Abstract. The Genome Taxonomy Database (GTDB; https://gtdb.ecogenomic.org) provides a phylogenetically consistent and rank normalized genome-based taxonomy
academic.oup.com
October 22, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Our @narjournal.bsky.social manuscript is out! It explores the growth of the GTDB (gtdb.ecogenomic.org) since its inception, as well as updates to the website, methodology, policies, and major taxonomic and nomenclatural changes over the past three years.
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
Is this accurate?!? Re Harvard CCB
"Chemistry and Chemical Biology will go down to four or five admits, one of the professors added."
"Chemistry and Chemical Biology will go down to four or five admits, one of the professors added."
Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
Harvard FAS Cuts Ph.D. Seats By More Than Half Across Next Two Admissions Cycles | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for th...
www.thecrimson.com
October 21, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Is this accurate?!? Re Harvard CCB
"Chemistry and Chemical Biology will go down to four or five admits, one of the professors added."
"Chemistry and Chemical Biology will go down to four or five admits, one of the professors added."
Nice work by @ryanziels.bsky.social lab that combines BONCAT, FACS, and genome-resolved metaproteomics using affinity capture of newly made proteins.
I’m very happy this is finally out! Here, we showcase the combination of BONCAT and SIP metaproteomics to uncover rare and active microbes driving anaerobic acetate turnover. We are excited to see what other microbial metabolisms and ecosystems this approach can help to illuminate! 🦠
OUT NOW Activity-targeted metaproteomics uncovers rare syntrophic bacteria central to anaerobic community metabolism by @ryanziels.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
October 21, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Nice work by @ryanziels.bsky.social lab that combines BONCAT, FACS, and genome-resolved metaproteomics using affinity capture of newly made proteins.
Reposted by Roland Hatzenpichler
New preprint: Methyl co-enzme M reductase encoding (potentially methanogenic) Thermoproteota are widespread and transcriptionally active in diverse anoxic ecosystems! @dr-zj.bsky.social, Matthew Kollom & @emileyeloe-fadrosh.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... Funded by the DOE BER program.
October 16, 2025 at 9:10 PM
New preprint: Methyl co-enzme M reductase encoding (potentially methanogenic) Thermoproteota are widespread and transcriptionally active in diverse anoxic ecosystems! @dr-zj.bsky.social, Matthew Kollom & @emileyeloe-fadrosh.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... Funded by the DOE BER program.
Preprint: Comparing BONCAT and MAR. Pro tips: don't buy the ClickIT kit, it's 25x overpriced as compared to buying individual chemicals by themselves (see my 2015 protocol chapter) and making reagents fresh gives superior results. And yes, only use picolyl dyes, my lab has been doing so since 2018.
Comparison of picolyl azide-based BONCAT and microautoradiography for assessing the heterotrophic prokaryotic activity in the deep ocean www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs 🌊
October 21, 2025 at 4:38 AM
Preprint: Comparing BONCAT and MAR. Pro tips: don't buy the ClickIT kit, it's 25x overpriced as compared to buying individual chemicals by themselves (see my 2015 protocol chapter) and making reagents fresh gives superior results. And yes, only use picolyl dyes, my lab has been doing so since 2018.