L. Felipe Benites
@lfelipeb.bsky.social
Postdoc at @Beyond_ASU | Gardener and Evolutionary Biologist | Astrobiology | Virus evolution | Children's book author | Experimental musician | Brasileiro.
https://lfbenites.com/
https://lfbenites.com/
Last days to submit your cool symbiosis abstracts to our cool symbiosis-astrobiology session at #AbSciCon26!!!
Our session on symbiosis and biointeractions for the #Astrobiology meeting #AbSciCon26 was accepted! Please share widely and submit your abstract by 14 of January 2026; Let's put more biology into Astrobiology!
agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon...
agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon...
January 12, 2026 at 6:43 PM
Last days to submit your cool symbiosis abstracts to our cool symbiosis-astrobiology session at #AbSciCon26!!!
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
New OoL digest is out! 🪐 12 new papers, ft. the Viking missions, exoplanet habitability, and lava tubes on Mars.
#OriginOfLife #Astrobiology
#OriginOfLife #Astrobiology
OoL digest — January 5
buttondown.com
January 5, 2026 at 12:01 PM
New OoL digest is out! 🪐 12 new papers, ft. the Viking missions, exoplanet habitability, and lava tubes on Mars.
#OriginOfLife #Astrobiology
#OriginOfLife #Astrobiology
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
🚀 Planning to attend #AbSciCon2026 and study the role of metals in life evolution and life elsewhere? Then consider submitting an abstract to our session #20- Transition Metals in Habitability and Biological Evolution. Details below and at this link: agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon...
December 31, 2025 at 10:01 PM
🚀 Planning to attend #AbSciCon2026 and study the role of metals in life evolution and life elsewhere? Then consider submitting an abstract to our session #20- Transition Metals in Habitability and Biological Evolution. Details below and at this link: agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon...
post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't nirvana, pearl jam, soundgarden, or Alice In Chains. >>> Hard one to choose, but this one from MBV (Loveless) still one of my favorites!
December 29, 2025 at 6:19 PM
post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't nirvana, pearl jam, soundgarden, or Alice In Chains. >>> Hard one to choose, but this one from MBV (Loveless) still one of my favorites!
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
🎄 Just published 🎉! Our ongoing genome sequencing of the basal dinoflagellate Oxyrrhis marina uncovered a new lineage of endogenized Polinton-like viruses, OmPLV. Notably, OmPLV encodes ... [cont]
#VirEvol #MicroSky #Mevosky #SymbioSky #ProtistsOnSky
#VirEvol #MicroSky #Mevosky #SymbioSky #ProtistsOnSky
Endogenized polinton-like viruses in the dinoflagellate Oxyrrhis marina uncover novel PolB fusion
Marine viruses are ubiquitous entities that impact the biology of a large fraction of prokaryotic and eukaryotic diversity. Dinoflagellates are heterotrophic, mixotrophic and photosynthetic eukaryotes...
doi.org
December 23, 2025 at 4:39 PM
🎄 Just published 🎉! Our ongoing genome sequencing of the basal dinoflagellate Oxyrrhis marina uncovered a new lineage of endogenized Polinton-like viruses, OmPLV. Notably, OmPLV encodes ... [cont]
#VirEvol #MicroSky #Mevosky #SymbioSky #ProtistsOnSky
#VirEvol #MicroSky #Mevosky #SymbioSky #ProtistsOnSky
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
6 - These results highlight host traits and cross-kingdom microbial interactions as key drivers of colony-level microbiome assembly, beautifully illustrated by @lifesciencestudios.bsky.social in the final fig. We hope this guides discussions in microbiome research to bee eco-evo and conservation.
December 22, 2025 at 8:37 AM
6 - These results highlight host traits and cross-kingdom microbial interactions as key drivers of colony-level microbiome assembly, beautifully illustrated by @lifesciencestudios.bsky.social in the final fig. We hope this guides discussions in microbiome research to bee eco-evo and conservation.
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
Our manuscript on the microbiome of a stingless bee hive is out! 🦠🐝 So excited! Here’s a short thread with some findings, going from the assembly of a consistent multi-kingdom microbiome to discussions on host traits that contribute to it. Please take a look and share : ) rdcu.be/eVNFJ
Spatial segregation and cross-kingdom interactions drive stingless bee hive microbiome assembly
Nature Communications - Here, the authors characterize the microbiome assembly across an entire stingless bee colony, revealing site-adapted within-hive communities, and showing that nest...
rdcu.be
December 22, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Our manuscript on the microbiome of a stingless bee hive is out! 🦠🐝 So excited! Here’s a short thread with some findings, going from the assembly of a consistent multi-kingdom microbiome to discussions on host traits that contribute to it. Please take a look and share : ) rdcu.be/eVNFJ
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
🚨 Surprise podcast episode alert! 🚨
This week on Tiny Living Beings, I interviewed @oliverio.bsky.social and @hbrappap.bsky.social who led the discovery of the ‘fire amoeba’, that can reproduce at the highest temperature ever recorded for a eukaryote! 🌋 #protistsonsky
This week on Tiny Living Beings, I interviewed @oliverio.bsky.social and @hbrappap.bsky.social who led the discovery of the ‘fire amoeba’, that can reproduce at the highest temperature ever recorded for a eukaryote! 🌋 #protistsonsky
Introducing the Fire Amoeba
open.spotify.com
December 22, 2025 at 1:01 PM
🚨 Surprise podcast episode alert! 🚨
This week on Tiny Living Beings, I interviewed @oliverio.bsky.social and @hbrappap.bsky.social who led the discovery of the ‘fire amoeba’, that can reproduce at the highest temperature ever recorded for a eukaryote! 🌋 #protistsonsky
This week on Tiny Living Beings, I interviewed @oliverio.bsky.social and @hbrappap.bsky.social who led the discovery of the ‘fire amoeba’, that can reproduce at the highest temperature ever recorded for a eukaryote! 🌋 #protistsonsky
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
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 L. Felipe Benites
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 L. Felipe Benites
An alternative view of a Serpulidae (bristle worm) larva! Such a cutie!
#marineplankton 🦑
#marineplankton 🦑
December 16, 2025 at 6:03 PM
An alternative view of a Serpulidae (bristle worm) larva! Such a cutie!
#marineplankton 🦑
#marineplankton 🦑
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
New blog post for my microbiologist colleagues:
merenlab.org/2025/12/15/r...
In which Meren talks about a paper by Valentina Marcheselli on how microbiologists navigate the tension between reductionism and complexity in their everyday practices.
merenlab.org/2025/12/15/r...
In which Meren talks about a paper by Valentina Marcheselli on how microbiologists navigate the tension between reductionism and complexity in their everyday practices.
Lost and Found in Modern Microbiology: An Ethnography of Modern Microbiologists
A paper on how microbiologists navigate the tension between reductionism and complexity in their everyday practices, and my 2 cents on it.
merenlab.org
December 15, 2025 at 1:55 PM
New blog post for my microbiologist colleagues:
merenlab.org/2025/12/15/r...
In which Meren talks about a paper by Valentina Marcheselli on how microbiologists navigate the tension between reductionism and complexity in their everyday practices.
merenlab.org/2025/12/15/r...
In which Meren talks about a paper by Valentina Marcheselli on how microbiologists navigate the tension between reductionism and complexity in their everyday practices.
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
This light installation in @rbgkew.bsky.social is what I imagine #coccolithophores 👀 like in sunlight ocean 🫧🌊
December 10, 2025 at 10:55 PM
This light installation in @rbgkew.bsky.social is what I imagine #coccolithophores 👀 like in sunlight ocean 🫧🌊
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
Confused by all the histones that are cropping up in organisms that are decidedly NOT eukaryotes? check out our review - fantastic work by team NucEvo in the #Lugerlab
The Expanding Histone Universe: Histone-Based DNA Organization in Noneukaryotic Organisms - www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
The Expanding Histone Universe: Histone-Based DNA Organization in Noneukaryotic Organisms - www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
December 9, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Confused by all the histones that are cropping up in organisms that are decidedly NOT eukaryotes? check out our review - fantastic work by team NucEvo in the #Lugerlab
The Expanding Histone Universe: Histone-Based DNA Organization in Noneukaryotic Organisms - www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
The Expanding Histone Universe: Histone-Based DNA Organization in Noneukaryotic Organisms - www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
🦠🧪🧬🚨 New paper and database alert: the new IMG/VR release is now MetaVR ! We have a new website - meta-virome.org - with quick search capabilities for the >24M viruses, >12M vOTUs, and >42M protein clusters (including >790k with predicted structures !). academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
Meta-virus resource (MetaVR): expanding the frontiers of viral diversity with 24 million uncultivated virus genomes
Abstract. Viruses are ubiquitous in all environments and impact host metabolism, evolution, and ecology, although our knowledge of their biodiversity is st
academic.oup.com
December 3, 2025 at 2:34 AM
🦠🧪🧬🚨 New paper and database alert: the new IMG/VR release is now MetaVR ! We have a new website - meta-virome.org - with quick search capabilities for the >24M viruses, >12M vOTUs, and >42M protein clusters (including >790k with predicted structures !). academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
A dinoflagellate, Prorocentrum micans.
#marineplankton 🦑
#marineplankton 🦑
November 26, 2025 at 8:39 AM
A dinoflagellate, Prorocentrum micans.
#marineplankton 🦑
#marineplankton 🦑
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
Come join us! Soon I will be advertising a postdoc vacancy in my group as part of my @erc.europa.eu AdG project 'DARK ROOTS'. Focus of the project will be on phylo- and metagenomic mining of novel prokaryotic lineages. I will soon post a link here - stay tuned, and please repost! #asgardarchaea
a man walking in a field with an umbrella
ALT: a man walking in a field with an umbrella
media.tenor.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Come join us! Soon I will be advertising a postdoc vacancy in my group as part of my @erc.europa.eu AdG project 'DARK ROOTS'. Focus of the project will be on phylo- and metagenomic mining of novel prokaryotic lineages. I will soon post a link here - stay tuned, and please repost! #asgardarchaea
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
Introducing ** Incendiamoeba **, a eukaryote that can live at temperatures well beyond what we thought possible. 63C!!
Read @hbrappap.bsky.social thread to see what we’ve already started to learn from this amazing organism!
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#MicroSky #protistsonsky 🧪 #evobio
Read @hbrappap.bsky.social thread to see what we’ve already started to learn from this amazing organism!
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#MicroSky #protistsonsky 🧪 #evobio
So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth!
#protistsonsky 🧵
#protistsonsky 🧵
November 25, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Introducing ** Incendiamoeba **, a eukaryote that can live at temperatures well beyond what we thought possible. 63C!!
Read @hbrappap.bsky.social thread to see what we’ve already started to learn from this amazing organism!
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#MicroSky #protistsonsky 🧪 #evobio
Read @hbrappap.bsky.social thread to see what we’ve already started to learn from this amazing organism!
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#MicroSky #protistsonsky 🧪 #evobio
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
Strain-level diversity of #giantViruses infecting #chlorarachniophyte #algae in the subtropical North Pacific
by @fischerlab.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
by @fischerlab.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Strain-level diversity of giant viruses infecting chlorarachniophyte algae in the subtropical North Pacific
Giant DNA viruses are ubiquitous among unicellular eukaryotes and occur in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments. Despite intense metagenomic data mining, their strain-level diversity remai...
doi.org
November 25, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Strain-level diversity of #giantViruses infecting #chlorarachniophyte #algae in the subtropical North Pacific
by @fischerlab.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
by @fischerlab.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
Time to start planning for ASM Microbe 2026! Among the amazing sessions announced (see link), Chris and I are thrilled to be convening “From the Rhizosphere to Pollinators: Studying Agricultural Microbiomes Across Biological Scales”. We can’t wait to see you all there! More details coming soon!
Some fantastic sessions being planned for ASM Microbe 2026, including "Long-term Dynamics of Environmental Microbiomes", and "Eco-evolutionary Dynamics of Phages and Their Roles in Horizontal Gene Transfer". Get your abstract(s) ready, and join us June 4–7, 2026 in D.C. ! asm.org/events/asm-m...
November 24, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Time to start planning for ASM Microbe 2026! Among the amazing sessions announced (see link), Chris and I are thrilled to be convening “From the Rhizosphere to Pollinators: Studying Agricultural Microbiomes Across Biological Scales”. We can’t wait to see you all there! More details coming soon!
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
We have a new paper out, led by my PhD student Linda! Ni and Cu are common co-occurring contaminants. They are also synergistic in their toxicity. We examined the mechanisms of this synergism, finding that sulfur assimilation and Fe-S cluster biogenesis are targets.
We have a new paper out, led by my PhD student Linda! Ni and Cu are common co-occurring contaminants. They are also synergistic in their toxicity. We examined the mechanisms of this synergism, finding that sulfur assimilation and Fe-S cluster biogenesis are targets.
The molecular basis of the synergistic toxicity of nickel and copper, common environmental co-contaminants | Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Many environments are contaminated by metals. These metals are toxic to the microorganisms
that inhabit these environments and carry out important ecosystem services. While
much is known about bacteri...
journals.asm.org
November 24, 2025 at 1:24 PM
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
We have a new paper out, led by my PhD student Linda! Ni and Cu are common co-occurring contaminants. They are also synergistic in their toxicity. We examined the mechanisms of this synergism, finding that sulfur assimilation and Fe-S cluster biogenesis are targets.
We have a new paper out, led by my PhD student Linda! Ni and Cu are common co-occurring contaminants. They are also synergistic in their toxicity. We examined the mechanisms of this synergism, finding that sulfur assimilation and Fe-S cluster biogenesis are targets.
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
New paper out: An archaeal genetic code with all TAG codons as pyrrolysine: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
An archaeal genetic code with all TAG codons as pyrrolysine
Multiple genetic codes developed during the evolution of eukaryotes and bacteria, yet no alternative genetic code is known for archaea. We used proteomics to confirm our prediction that certain archae...
www.science.org
November 23, 2025 at 7:22 PM
New paper out: An archaeal genetic code with all TAG codons as pyrrolysine: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
14 years since we lost Lynn Margulis (November 22, 2011). Still can’t believe she’s gone.
A giant of biology, through her co-creation of the Gaia Hypothesis, & her endosymbiotic theory, she changed the way we see life, evolution, our planet, ourselves. I feel so privileged to have known her.
🧪
A giant of biology, through her co-creation of the Gaia Hypothesis, & her endosymbiotic theory, she changed the way we see life, evolution, our planet, ourselves. I feel so privileged to have known her.
🧪
November 22, 2025 at 7:36 PM
14 years since we lost Lynn Margulis (November 22, 2011). Still can’t believe she’s gone.
A giant of biology, through her co-creation of the Gaia Hypothesis, & her endosymbiotic theory, she changed the way we see life, evolution, our planet, ourselves. I feel so privileged to have known her.
🧪
A giant of biology, through her co-creation of the Gaia Hypothesis, & her endosymbiotic theory, she changed the way we see life, evolution, our planet, ourselves. I feel so privileged to have known her.
🧪
Reposted by L. Felipe Benites
Deadlline is soon!! Please repost!!
The School of Ocean Futures of ASU (where I am faculty) has two Presidential Graduate Assistantship fellowships for new PhD students to ensure ASU's inclusivity charter.
Students from underrepresented groups are encouraged to contact the faculty at SOF for potential synergies!
tinyurl.com/yjnvd25b
Students from underrepresented groups are encouraged to contact the faculty at SOF for potential synergies!
tinyurl.com/yjnvd25b
Presidential Graduate Assistantship Program | Office of the University Provost | ASU
provost.asu.edu
November 21, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Deadlline is soon!! Please repost!!
Look how beautiful is this capture by Enric Madrenas! The sea slug Elysia timida and its food and chloroplast source Acetabularia, a giant single celled algae. This sea slug can steal plastids from the algae and become a photosynthetic animal:
opistobranquis.info/en/guia/saco...
opistobranquis.info/en/guia/saco...
elysia-timida-12
Visit the post for more.
opistobranquis.info
November 22, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Look how beautiful is this capture by Enric Madrenas! The sea slug Elysia timida and its food and chloroplast source Acetabularia, a giant single celled algae. This sea slug can steal plastids from the algae and become a photosynthetic animal:
opistobranquis.info/en/guia/saco...
opistobranquis.info/en/guia/saco...