Looking back on last week's Molecular Life of Diatoms conference 🌊. Honored to be hosting this tight-knit, creative and collaborative community in Ghent! Topics ranged from single-cell approaches, imaging breakthroughs, new insights into photosynthesis and symbioses etc. #protistsOnSky #MLD8

In the last talk of the #MLD8 conference, Peter Kroth gave an excellent overview of recent advances on diatom transcription factors, and how they regulate surface adhesion and light sensing 🧬👋

Several genes were only expressed in a specific mating type below the size threshold, highlighting how differentiation between mating types only happens when cells are small enough. One example is a local gene cluster of three MT+ and small cell specific genes that are pheromone responsive (3/n)

Proud to share our latest work, out in @newphyt.bsky.social, where we use single-cell #microsurgery to investigate the molecular fingerprints of size-dependent sexual maturation in diatoms 🔥 (1/n)
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Happy to see that our study on the gene expression behind salinity-induced morphological changes in Pleurosira laevis is now published in Journal of Phycology. Very pleasant collab lead by the Shinya Sato lab.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....