Dive #1 of the GulfofCali2024 expedition is a wrap. Carmen Millan joined me to explore and sample otherworldly hydrothermal vents in the Pescadero Basin in the HOV #Alvin operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) #NDSF @nsf #funded UGA Research UGA Marine Sciences #ExtremeEnvironments #Vents

From leaders of UT Austin’s Faculty Council on the pro-Palestine protest:

“We are gravely alarmed by yesterday’s events on our campus–including President Hartzell’s decision to invite DPS officers, armed and in riot gear, onto the Forty Acres to disrupt a non-violent protest.”

Full moon over Guaymas Basin tonight

Some of our latest research now featured on Radio-Canada Info 📻🇨🇦😀

ici.radio-canada.ca/ohdio/premiere…

Gino Harel interviewed Paul Wilmes about our work led by fdelogu on multi-year forecasting 📈 microbial community dynamics.

nature.com/articles/s4155…

Chimeric Origin of Eukaryotes from Asgard Archaea and Ancestral Giant Viruses biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Join our LIVE stream via UTMSI Facebook or Zoom on April 17, 9:45 am CT, led by Maggie Langwig. Watch Drs. Brett Baker @archaea and Valerie De Anda aboard R/V Atlantis.

us02web.zoom.us/j/81501221114?…

Meeting ID: 815 0122 1114
Passcode: 334982

#AlvinSub #GulfofCali2024 #TexasScience

My first dive to Guaymas is tomorrow!!🥹😭❤️🌊

Brett Brett Baker and I will be diving 2km below the surface to collect sediment samples and sequence them onboard the R/V Atlantis
#GulfofCali2024

Don’t miss out the live stream!

Plz RT! ‼️

We are underway - finally - and ~12 hours closer to the mouth of the Gulf of California. Enjoy the first sunset of the #GulfOfCali_2024 expedition. #NSF_funded @NSF_Geo UGA Research UGA Marine Sciences

Done sampling Pescadero basin, now in transit to the famous Guaymas Basin!

Grateful to be part of this expedition on board @WHOl
vessel R/V Atlantis led by Dr. Mandy Joye 🇺🇦 🌻. We've already set up the lab, did emergency training, watch the eclipse and we're ready to do some science!
Karthik Anantharaman, Roland Hatzenpichler Brett Baker
Maggie Langwig #GulfofCali2024

Beautiful day over Pescadero Basin. #GulfofCali2024 #NSF

Getting ready for first dive tomorrow… #GulfofCali2024

New in JB: Arthur Charles-Orszag Dyche Mullins et al. propose that it archaeal actins paved the way for multifunctional, eukaryote-like actin filaments.
ASM JBacteriology Eds
doi.org/10.1128/jb.003…

Big news - I am leaving academy to play guitar in a touring band called Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol.

UT pays well!

Want to investigate the molecular basis of a symbiosis between an anaerobic protist Anaeramoeba and Desulfobacter? We now have an open postdoc position and welcome applicants! I'll post more details soon. Meanwhile check it out: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

5/ Excitingly, we found evidence that some putative Atabeyarchaeia MGEs encode eukaryotic signature proteins like small GTPases, hinting at a potential role for horizontal gene transfer in the emergence of eukaryotic cellular complexity. Work lead by Katy Appler, Pedro Leão,…

4/ The second approach is using CRISPR spacers to uncover other MGEs. Indeed, we found a diversity of spacers targeting a group of new viruses that infect Atabeyarchaeia and a group of putative plasmids (lack of structural viral proteins).

3/ We used this approach to expand the inventory of iMGEs. While the classification of archaeal genetic elements is still open to questions, our work includes a group of complete plasmids among the first reported for Asgard archaea, one encoding an active methylase that likely…

2/ We used depth-resolved metagenomics to track integrated and extrachromosomal mobile elements in the genomes of Atabeyarchaeia. Uncovered a diverse suite of plasmids, viruses, and other genetic elements associated with these archaea.