Megan Sorensen
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messorensen.bsky.social
Megan Sorensen
@messorensen.bsky.social
Interested in evolutionary microbiology, symbiosis, organelles and protists. Currently an MSCA postdoc at HHU, Düsseldorf.
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
This paper has been a must! Great collaboration with @mkrupovic.bsky.social and @yifanzhou.bsky.social, a N&V by a legend of halophilic archaea tinyurl.com/yc3dcv72, and one picture of one of our expeditions to Dallol making the cover of the November issue of @natmicrobiol.nature.com

rdcu.be/eLtCH
November 2, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
Exciting day for the lab: our 1rst paper is officially out in @currentbiology.bsky.social 🥳 Wonderful collaboration wt @gautamdey.bsky.social showing how Cryo-ExM achieves consistent immunostaining in diverse diatoms, from the lab and the natural environment 1/n
#ProtistsOnSky
tinyurl.com/2zxaund7
October 31, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
🚨Our collaboration with @centriolelab.bsky.social & @gautamdey.bsky.social is out today in @cp-cell.bsky.social
We show that #Expansion #Microscopy is a broad-spectrum modality for Euks, enabling 3D phenotypic maps rooted to phylogeny.
#ProtistsOnSky #SciComm #SciSky

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
October 31, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
Please share this with anyone who may be interested in a post-doc in Germany:

jobs.awi.de/Vacancies/20...

This is quite an exciting opportunity to push the boundaries of what is known regarding the molecular basis of the formation and demise of photosymbiotic relationships in marine habitats.
October 22, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
We are happy to share our latest work in @nature.com . We study the genomic and cellular basis of facultative symbiosis in Oculina patagonica - a Mediterranean coral remarkable for its ability to survive long periods without algal symbionts. Led by Shani Levy and @xgrau.bsky.social
rdcu.be/eLbaZ
October 15, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
Pretty excited to share our new preprint!
Non-photosynthetic Plastid Replacement by a Primary Plastid in the Making
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 10, 2025 at 3:34 AM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
🪸🧪 We’re hiring! Join our ERC-funded group at the @hifmb.de in Oldenburg, Germany to explore the cellular origins of photosymbiosis:⁣

𝟏 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐝𝐨𝐜 + 𝟐 𝐏𝐡𝐃𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.⁣
Deadlines: Oct 29 & Nov 5. Links below. ⁣

Questions: nils.raedecker@hifmb.de⁣
#Photosymbiosis #HIFMB #ERC #AcademicJobs
October 6, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
How to upgrade stolen organelles into permanent plastids: A comparative transcriptomic perspective www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1... #protists #protistsonsky
October 7, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
OIST is seeking up to four tenure-track or tenured faculty in Ecology, Environmental Science, Earth Science, and Oceanography. Application deadline: Oct 15. Please share. Thx!
www.oist.jp/careers/facu...
October 7, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
Dear all, registration for the upcoming EMBO/EMBL Symposium on "the cellular mechanics of symbiosis" is now OPEN 🤩 ! Feel free to register ! www.embl.org/about/info/c...
#EESSymbiosis #ProtistsOnSky #SymbioSky
@hassansalem.bsky.social @berasymbionts.bsky.social @embl.org
The cellular mechanics of symbiosis: sensing friend from foe
www.embl.org
September 29, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
Now completely published :)
Really proud of this paper led with Karla at @cstairs.bsky.social lab.
doi.org/10.1093/isme...
Anaerobic breviate protist survival in microcosms depends on microbiome metabolic function
Abstract. Anoxic and hypoxic environments serve as habitats for diverse microorganisms, including unicellular eukaryotes (protists) and prokaryotes. To thr
doi.org
September 27, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
Apply online by November 1st! Wiko Early Career Call for fellowships 2026/27 in the #NaturalSciences and #LifeSciences. Gain time to think during a 3–5 month #fellowship at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin – Institute for Advanced Study: wiko-berlin.de/fellow-werde... #cfa
September 24, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
Check out our new paper on adopting a trait-based framework for protist diversity! We make the case for a unified protist trait database, how to build it, and how it could transform research on protist ecology and evolution.
#protistsonsky
Hello there 🦋
Happy to share our piece "Towards a trait-based framework for protist ecology and evolution" in @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social

Let's build a unified trait 📏 database to unlock transformative insights into protist 🔬 ecology 🌍 and evolution ⏳

▶️ doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...

#protistsonsky
September 3, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
📢 New paper in @nature.com

Microbes rock 🎸🤘 with sulfide and iron minerals

I am very excited to share our recent study, which describes a previously unknown microbial energy metabolism ⚡⚡⚡🦠🧫⚡⚡⚡

🆕 Microbial iron oxide respiration coupled to sulfide oxidation - MISO

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Microbial iron oxide respiration coupled to sulfide oxidation - Nature
Genomic and biochemical analyses of prokaryotic sulfur metabolism identify diverse microorganisms with the capacity to oxidize sulfide using iron(iii).
www.nature.com
August 27, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
I gave a symposium talk at the European Society for Evolutionary Biology 2025 (#eseb2025) meeting last week and this was my title slide showcasing how I was speaking as an independent scientist because @dalhousieu.bsky.social @dalhousie.bsky.social has locked us out.
August 25, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
I am really excited to see this article on basic experimental design principles published. Definitely will be mandatory reading for incoming graduate students in my lab. Maggie Wagner who led this article did an amazing job with the illustrations of basic principles www.nature.com/articles/s41...
How thoughtful experimental design can empower biologists in the omics era - Nature Communications
Here, the authors discuss principles of experimental design that are relevant for all biology research, along with special considerations for projects using -omics approaches, highlighting common expe...
www.nature.com
August 7, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
The first paper from my PhD is out now! doi.org/10.1111/jeu....

We describe a new photosynthetic #Paulinella species from a brackish beach in British Columbia 🇨🇦

Big thanks to the co-authors Maia Palka and @alive-in-the-ocean.bsky.social, and my supervisor @fburki.bsky.social

#protistsonsky
August 18, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
New #symbiosky paper from Cory Bishop and collaborators (including me 😊) on the remarkable specificity of the symbiosis between spotted salamanders and the alga in their eggs. Cory organized colleagues to get egg fluid from NC USA to NS Canada. He found extremely low...

tinyurl.com/2jmwce2s
Frontiers | High partner specificity in an algal-salamander mutualism at continental scale
The mutualism between the green alga Oophila amblystomatis (“Oophila”) and egg masses of the spotted salamander Ambystoma maculatum involves acquisition of a...
www.frontiersin.org
August 17, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Genomes of nitrogen-fixing eukaryotes reveal an alternate path for organellogenesis #protistsonsky
Genomes of nitrogen-fixing eukaryotes reveal an alternate path for organellogenesis | PNAS
Endosymbiotic gene transfer (EGT) and import of host-encoded proteins have been considered hallmarks of organelles necessary for stable integration...
www.pnas.org
August 14, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
🚨New Preprint Alert🚨 P. strigosa, a reef-building coral shows tightly regulated transcriptional control over natural diel cycles. #CoralReefs #Symbiosky #bioinformatics #marinemicrobes #protistsonsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
August 7, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
🚨3-yr Postdoc Position on #SingleCell Activities in #Marine #N-Cycling🦠🧪👩‍🎓🔬

Join me @univie.ac.at @dome-vienna.bsky.social
Part of our ERC Synergy #RECLESS looking at microbes in marine oxygen minimum zones

Apply by Oct 15, start March 2026!

-> ucloud.univie.ac.at/index.php/s/...
RECLESS_Postdoc_single_cell_UniVie.pdf
u:cloud - Ihre Daten, auf Wolken gebettet.
ucloud.univie.ac.at
August 4, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
Check out our new preprint all about Pirsonia, a tiny killer of bloom-forming Coscinodiscus diatoms!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#protistsonsky #marinemicrobes 🌊🔬
July 30, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
🚨 We’re hiring! Join our Aquatic Ecosystem Analysis group #UniversityKoblenz,Germany as a PhD researcher (m/f/d) in #plankton #ecology. Dive into #protist- #algae interactions, molecular ecology & sustainable water management. Apply by 14.08.2025! 🌊🔬 #protistsonsky #parasites #microbiology
July 31, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by Megan Sorensen
Excited to share our first paper on the symbiosis between chlamydiae and social amoebae showing in detail the adaptations of endosymbionts to the social life style of their host! 🎉
July 9, 2025 at 1:03 PM