Fabien Burki
@fburki.bsky.social
Exploring the great microbial eukaryote diversity and evolution, one protist at a time. I’m fascinated by this question: how have #plastids evolved? #ProtistsOnSky | Associate Prof at Uppsala University. My lab: https://www.burki-lab.net/
Reposted by Fabien Burki
I have a postdoc position in metagenomic exploration available in my group. Candidates with documented experience in phylo & metagenomics and preferably with petabase-scale data mining and GLM workflows are encouraged to apply. Come join us! 🧬🦠💻
Please repost
Apply here: www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/p...
Please repost
Apply here: www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/p...
January 5, 2026 at 10:45 PM
I have a postdoc position in metagenomic exploration available in my group. Candidates with documented experience in phylo & metagenomics and preferably with petabase-scale data mining and GLM workflows are encouraged to apply. Come join us! 🧬🦠💻
Please repost
Apply here: www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/p...
Please repost
Apply here: www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/p...
Reposted by Fabien Burki
New #ISEPpapers #preprint! Environmental #phylogenetics supports a steady diversification of crown #eukaryotes starting from the mid Proterozoic www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#Protists #Microbes #Evolution #Phylogeny #Proterozoic #Eukaryogenesis
#Protists #Microbes #Evolution #Phylogeny #Proterozoic #Eukaryogenesis
January 2, 2026 at 1:33 PM
New #ISEPpapers #preprint! Environmental #phylogenetics supports a steady diversification of crown #eukaryotes starting from the mid Proterozoic www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#Protists #Microbes #Evolution #Phylogeny #Proterozoic #Eukaryogenesis
#Protists #Microbes #Evolution #Phylogeny #Proterozoic #Eukaryogenesis
Reposted by Fabien Burki
A free, open-access library of high-quality organism illustrations for science communication
A free, open-access library of high-quality organism illustrations for science communication
We create vector graphics of model organisms and emerging biological research organisms to enhance our publications. We’re sharing these editable graphics under a CC0 license for other scientists to...
doi.org
December 29, 2025 at 6:03 PM
A free, open-access library of high-quality organism illustrations for science communication
Reposted by Fabien Burki
End-of-year preprint dump! A collaboration with @messorensen.bsky.social and German and Korean colleagues: "The phylogenetic context for the origin of a unique purple-green photosymbiosis "
doi.org/10.64898/202...
doi.org/10.64898/202...
December 23, 2025 at 2:51 PM
End-of-year preprint dump! A collaboration with @messorensen.bsky.social and German and Korean colleagues: "The phylogenetic context for the origin of a unique purple-green photosymbiosis "
doi.org/10.64898/202...
doi.org/10.64898/202...
Reposted by Fabien Burki
Amazing several millimeters diameter single* celled acantharian. It is huge.
*presumably it is multi-nucleated and has hundreds of symbionts, but still! Way bigger than the ones I see locally. Only one set of spikes!
*presumably it is multi-nucleated and has hundreds of symbionts, but still! Way bigger than the ones I see locally. Only one set of spikes!
This is what I’m really here for :) These are the radiolarians we have been finding. Chock full of photosynthetic symbionts in a very interesting pattern- but no idea on the species. Doing some oxygen experiments and will sequence! #oceanography #zooplankton #christmasatsea ❤️🌊 #microsky
December 23, 2025 at 3:21 AM
Amazing several millimeters diameter single* celled acantharian. It is huge.
*presumably it is multi-nucleated and has hundreds of symbionts, but still! Way bigger than the ones I see locally. Only one set of spikes!
*presumably it is multi-nucleated and has hundreds of symbionts, but still! Way bigger than the ones I see locally. Only one set of spikes!
Reposted by Fabien Burki
Discovery of the most intron-rich eukaryotic genome phys.org/news/2025-12...
New #ISEPpapers: Nuclear #genome sequencing reveals the highly intron-rich architecture of the chlorarachniophyte alga Amorphochlora amoebiformis academic.oup.com/dnaresearch/...
#Protists #Algae #Microbes #Genomics
New #ISEPpapers: Nuclear #genome sequencing reveals the highly intron-rich architecture of the chlorarachniophyte alga Amorphochlora amoebiformis academic.oup.com/dnaresearch/...
#Protists #Algae #Microbes #Genomics
December 21, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Discovery of the most intron-rich eukaryotic genome phys.org/news/2025-12...
New #ISEPpapers: Nuclear #genome sequencing reveals the highly intron-rich architecture of the chlorarachniophyte alga Amorphochlora amoebiformis academic.oup.com/dnaresearch/...
#Protists #Algae #Microbes #Genomics
New #ISEPpapers: Nuclear #genome sequencing reveals the highly intron-rich architecture of the chlorarachniophyte alga Amorphochlora amoebiformis academic.oup.com/dnaresearch/...
#Protists #Algae #Microbes #Genomics
Reposted by Fabien Burki
De novo genome sequence assembly of the model algal endosymbiont Micractinium conductrix derived from its host Paramecium bursaria 186b.
Guy Leonard, Irma Vitonyte, Fiona R Savory, Erika M Hansson, Duncan D Cameron, Michael Brockhurst, Thomas A Richards
bioRxiv doi: doi.org/10.64898/202...
Guy Leonard, Irma Vitonyte, Fiona R Savory, Erika M Hansson, Duncan D Cameron, Michael Brockhurst, Thomas A Richards
bioRxiv doi: doi.org/10.64898/202...
De novo genome sequence assembly of the model algal endosymbiont Micractinium conductrix derived from its host Paramecium bursaria 186b
Endosymbiosis is a major driver of evolutionary innovation and underpins the function of diverse ecosystems. The origins and evolution of endosymbiosis are challenging to study experimentally due to t...
doi.org
December 17, 2025 at 8:32 PM
De novo genome sequence assembly of the model algal endosymbiont Micractinium conductrix derived from its host Paramecium bursaria 186b.
Guy Leonard, Irma Vitonyte, Fiona R Savory, Erika M Hansson, Duncan D Cameron, Michael Brockhurst, Thomas A Richards
bioRxiv doi: doi.org/10.64898/202...
Guy Leonard, Irma Vitonyte, Fiona R Savory, Erika M Hansson, Duncan D Cameron, Michael Brockhurst, Thomas A Richards
bioRxiv doi: doi.org/10.64898/202...
Reposted by Fabien Burki
Thanks @jcellsci.bsky.social for this opportunity to contribute to your centenary collection with our take on the state of the field - 10 years after its modern reincarnation 🧪🌍
W/ @alebenoit.bsky.social @eelcotromer.bsky.social @fritzlaylin.bsky.social
journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
W/ @alebenoit.bsky.social @eelcotromer.bsky.social @fritzlaylin.bsky.social
journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
Evolutionary cell biology comes of age
Summary: This Perspective discusses how the discipline of evolutionary cell biology, by integrating evolutionary theory, comparative physiology and modern molecular approaches, works to understand how...
journals.biologists.com
December 19, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Thanks @jcellsci.bsky.social for this opportunity to contribute to your centenary collection with our take on the state of the field - 10 years after its modern reincarnation 🧪🌍
W/ @alebenoit.bsky.social @eelcotromer.bsky.social @fritzlaylin.bsky.social
journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
W/ @alebenoit.bsky.social @eelcotromer.bsky.social @fritzlaylin.bsky.social
journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
Just on time for the holidays! Happy to share the published version of the discovery of leptophytes, a new deep-branching and widespread group of microalgae based on plastid MAGs (ptMAGs). Now with additional support from a mitochondrial MAG (mtMAG) of leptophytes.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Identification of a deep-branching lineage of algae using environmental plastid genomes - Nature Communications
Here, the authors leverage data from the Tara Oceans expeditions to perform a phylogeny-guided plastid genome-resolved metagenomic survey and provide 660 non-redundant plastid genomes from marine alga...
www.nature.com
December 18, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Just on time for the holidays! Happy to share the published version of the discovery of leptophytes, a new deep-branching and widespread group of microalgae based on plastid MAGs (ptMAGs). Now with additional support from a mitochondrial MAG (mtMAG) of leptophytes.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Fabien Burki
So excited to see this preprint out!! There is so much gold hiding in public eDNA studies, just waiting for taxon-focused investigations to pull out stories like this. Congrats on a great analysis @annaschreck.bsky.social @symbiosisrox.bsky.social
New preprint led by @annaschreck.bsky.social that capitalized on the wealth of publicly available 18S rRNA datasets to explore the oceanic distribution and diversity of understudied anaerobic ciliates. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A meta-analysis of environmental sequencing data reveals the global distribution and hidden diversity of marine anaerobic ciliates
Anaerobic protists are diverse, ecologically important members of anoxic microbial communities, acting as grazers, nutrient cyclers, and partners in multi-domain associations, yet remain understudied ...
www.biorxiv.org
December 16, 2025 at 10:12 PM
So excited to see this preprint out!! There is so much gold hiding in public eDNA studies, just waiting for taxon-focused investigations to pull out stories like this. Congrats on a great analysis @annaschreck.bsky.social @symbiosisrox.bsky.social
Reposted by Fabien Burki
Our raxtax tool for taxonomic classification is published: it is 2.7–100 times faster than competing tools but equally accurate - raxtax has increasing speedups with growing query and reference sequence numbers compared to existing tools: academic.oup.com/bioinformati...
December 17, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Our raxtax tool for taxonomic classification is published: it is 2.7–100 times faster than competing tools but equally accurate - raxtax has increasing speedups with growing query and reference sequence numbers compared to existing tools: academic.oup.com/bioinformati...
Reposted by Fabien Burki
Are you very busy but still want to learn what Aphelids are and why they are important to understand the evolution of Fungi?
Then check out our “Quick guide” on Aphelids published in collaboration with @deemteam.bsky.social, Sergey and Guifré. #protistsonsky
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
Then check out our “Quick guide” on Aphelids published in collaboration with @deemteam.bsky.social, Sergey and Guifré. #protistsonsky
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
December 15, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Are you very busy but still want to learn what Aphelids are and why they are important to understand the evolution of Fungi?
Then check out our “Quick guide” on Aphelids published in collaboration with @deemteam.bsky.social, Sergey and Guifré. #protistsonsky
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
Then check out our “Quick guide” on Aphelids published in collaboration with @deemteam.bsky.social, Sergey and Guifré. #protistsonsky
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
It has been so rewarding to combine all these different expertise
This work started more than 5 years ago and combines molecular phylogenetics, diversification models, paleoecology and micropaleontology, requiring ~136 CPU-years 🧬💻! A lovely interdisciplinary collaboration with @phoebefossil.bsky.social, Hélèn Morlon and @fburki.bsky.social.
#ProtistsOnSky
#ProtistsOnSky
December 15, 2025 at 8:23 AM
It has been so rewarding to combine all these different expertise
Reposted by Fabien Burki
New preprint out! Using ~75k environmental OTUs + 77 fossil calibrations, we reconstructed a Proterozoic timeline of eukaryote evolution. Our results show crown eukaryotes were already diversifying >1.6 Ga, long before the first undisputed fossils (~1.05 Ga).
🔗 DOI: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
🔗 DOI: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
December 15, 2025 at 8:19 AM
New preprint out! Using ~75k environmental OTUs + 77 fossil calibrations, we reconstructed a Proterozoic timeline of eukaryote evolution. Our results show crown eukaryotes were already diversifying >1.6 Ga, long before the first undisputed fossils (~1.05 Ga).
🔗 DOI: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
🔗 DOI: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Fabien Burki
Aha, I realized that I forgot to add #ProtistsOnSky and #SymbioSky to this thread highlighting our recent respiratory endosymbiont paper.
Respiratory endosymbionts, that allow their ciliate hosts to breathe nitrate instead of (or in addition to) oxygen are frequent members of the wastewater microbiome. 🦠 🖥️🧬
Great to see this work by @louison-nicolas.bsky.social published in ISME coummuncations!
doi.org/10.1093/isme...
Great to see this work by @louison-nicolas.bsky.social published in ISME coummuncations!
doi.org/10.1093/isme...
Validate User
doi.org
December 12, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Aha, I realized that I forgot to add #ProtistsOnSky and #SymbioSky to this thread highlighting our recent respiratory endosymbiont paper.
Reposted by Fabien Burki
We’re excited to announce the opening of the Geneva Expansion Microscopy Facility (GenExM)!
GenExM is a full-service U-ExM platform (U-ExM, Cryo-ExM, iU-ExM), delivering nanoscale imaging.
Led by Dr. Olivier Mercey, GenExM welcomes academic & industrial collaborations.
👉 www.unige.ch/genexm/
GenExM is a full-service U-ExM platform (U-ExM, Cryo-ExM, iU-ExM), delivering nanoscale imaging.
Led by Dr. Olivier Mercey, GenExM welcomes academic & industrial collaborations.
👉 www.unige.ch/genexm/
December 10, 2025 at 8:43 PM
We’re excited to announce the opening of the Geneva Expansion Microscopy Facility (GenExM)!
GenExM is a full-service U-ExM platform (U-ExM, Cryo-ExM, iU-ExM), delivering nanoscale imaging.
Led by Dr. Olivier Mercey, GenExM welcomes academic & industrial collaborations.
👉 www.unige.ch/genexm/
GenExM is a full-service U-ExM platform (U-ExM, Cryo-ExM, iU-ExM), delivering nanoscale imaging.
Led by Dr. Olivier Mercey, GenExM welcomes academic & industrial collaborations.
👉 www.unige.ch/genexm/
Reposted by Fabien Burki
Those interested in performing maximum likelihood phylogenomic analysis on data sets made up of eukaryotic nuclear genes using site heterogeneous mixture models like C60, I suggest you use the ELM model in IQ-TREE instead of the LG model /1
December 9, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Those interested in performing maximum likelihood phylogenomic analysis on data sets made up of eukaryotic nuclear genes using site heterogeneous mixture models like C60, I suggest you use the ELM model in IQ-TREE instead of the LG model /1
Reposted by Fabien Burki
People working with #protists and #fungi might be interested to hear that we in this study sequenced 13.4 mio. eukaryotic rRNA operons from 450 representative samples. #ProtistsOnSky #Metabarcoding
Microflora Danica: What can you learn from collecting and sequencing 10,000+ samples from a single country? Check out our new paper in @nature.com to find out. Incredible work led by Caitlin Singleton, Thomas B. N. Jensen, and Mads Albertsen from @aau.dk. 🦠🧫🧬
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The Microflora Danica atlas of Danish environmental microbiomes - Nature
Microflora Danica—an atlas of Danish environmental microbiomes—reveals that although human-disturbed habitats have high alpha diversity, species reoccur, revealing hidden homogeneity.
www.nature.com
December 5, 2025 at 11:03 AM
People working with #protists and #fungi might be interested to hear that we in this study sequenced 13.4 mio. eukaryotic rRNA operons from 450 representative samples. #ProtistsOnSky #Metabarcoding
One more week to apply to this PhD position on working out an endosymbiosis relationship in a protist. Please share widely to prospective PhD student #protistsonsky
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
December 5, 2025 at 8:48 AM
One more week to apply to this PhD position on working out an endosymbiosis relationship in a protist. Please share widely to prospective PhD student #protistsonsky
Reposted by Fabien Burki
#Diplonemids are among the most diverse & abundant #protists in the deep #ocean. This study localises >5,000 proteins of #Paradiplonema papillatum, revealing #organelle compartmentalisation, including a membrane coated with carbohydrate-degrading enzymes @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3XvmpIO
December 4, 2025 at 5:30 PM
#Diplonemids are among the most diverse & abundant #protists in the deep #ocean. This study localises >5,000 proteins of #Paradiplonema papillatum, revealing #organelle compartmentalisation, including a membrane coated with carbohydrate-degrading enzymes @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3XvmpIO
Reposted by Fabien Burki
Sequence alignments are notoriously prone to error. Our latest preprint offers a new tool for filtering errors out, assesses it and other filtering tools, and recommends new best practice. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @phylowheeler.bsky.social 1/10
Improved gene tree inference from removing alignment errors both from focal genes and when training substitution models
Multiple Sequence Alignment (MSA) is a key step in phylogenetic analysis, and is prone to error. Unfortunately, algorithms that remove likely alignment errors from MSAs sometimes also remove informati...
www.biorxiv.org
December 4, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Sequence alignments are notoriously prone to error. Our latest preprint offers a new tool for filtering errors out, assesses it and other filtering tools, and recommends new best practice. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @phylowheeler.bsky.social 1/10
Reposted by Fabien Burki
Microflora Danica: What can you learn from collecting and sequencing 10,000+ samples from a single country? Check out our new paper in @nature.com to find out. Incredible work led by Caitlin Singleton, Thomas B. N. Jensen, and Mads Albertsen from @aau.dk. 🦠🧫🧬
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The Microflora Danica atlas of Danish environmental microbiomes - Nature
Microflora Danica—an atlas of Danish environmental microbiomes—reveals that although human-disturbed habitats have high alpha diversity, species reoccur, revealing hidden homogeneity.
www.nature.com
December 3, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Microflora Danica: What can you learn from collecting and sequencing 10,000+ samples from a single country? Check out our new paper in @nature.com to find out. Incredible work led by Caitlin Singleton, Thomas B. N. Jensen, and Mads Albertsen from @aau.dk. 🦠🧫🧬
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Fabien Burki
I just published: ERC-Plus: jackpot science or missed chance to fix academia?
My reflections on ERC-Plus, Europe’s newest ultra-competitive research grant and what it tells us about the academic culture we’re building.
medium.com/p/erc-plus-j...
My reflections on ERC-Plus, Europe’s newest ultra-competitive research grant and what it tells us about the academic culture we’re building.
medium.com/p/erc-plus-j...
ERC-Plus: jackpot science or missed chance to fix academia?
My reflections on ERC-Plus, Europe’s newest ultra-competitive research grant and what it tells us about the academic culture we’re…
medium.com
December 3, 2025 at 11:42 AM
I just published: ERC-Plus: jackpot science or missed chance to fix academia?
My reflections on ERC-Plus, Europe’s newest ultra-competitive research grant and what it tells us about the academic culture we’re building.
medium.com/p/erc-plus-j...
My reflections on ERC-Plus, Europe’s newest ultra-competitive research grant and what it tells us about the academic culture we’re building.
medium.com/p/erc-plus-j...