Here comes the catch: what about their functional capacity? If we take the same 500+ genomes you saw on the previous plot, and make genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) out of them, the plot showing the number of metabolic reactions vs. genome size looks a little bit different... 5/10

And indeed, if we plot the number of annotated ORFs against the genome size, we observe that genomes of endosymbiotic bacteria have drastically shrunk from, e.g. E. coli (~6Mbp, ~6k ORFs). And bi-obligates have really small genomes. Seems like we are still on board with the linear commitment. 4/10

Had an extremely intense day on Thursday at the @synmikro.bsky.social in Marburg. After the whole day of speed-dating with the local PIs, I had an opportunity to showcase my past research and share my vision for the future of cellular economics - also outside a single cell!

I don't have any photos of the event (yet?) but I was delighted to give a talk at BioQuant/Uni Heidelberg on cellular economics and future prospects - including my own aspirations. I hope this inspires some young scientists (a lot in the auditorium!) to pursue the economic view to living matter.

We had a great #MB10.0 meeting today in Delft! Genetic engineering toolboxes, algae for CO2 capture and valorisation, and plant-protecting molecules. My MSc student Blanka Izsó also presented a poster on the modeling toolkit she is busy extending. Proud supervisor moment! To be continued...