F. Schulz

Time-series metagenomics reveals changing protistan ecology of a temperate dimictic lake

The paper analyzes time-series metagenomic data from Lake Mendota to study changes in protistan ecology, revealing shifts in community structure linked to invasive species and environmental factors.

Discovery of Mycodnaviridae, a clade of giant viruses that persistently infect zoosporic fungi

The paper discovers a new family of giant viruses, Mycodnaviridae, that infect zoosporic fungi and persistently infect them, expanding the known host range of Nucleocytoviricota.

Multicellular magnetotactic bacterial consortia are metabolically differentiated and not clonal

This study reveals that multicellular magnetotactic bacterial consortia are not clonal and exhibit metabolic differentiation, challenging previous assumptions about their biology.

From head to tail - Atomistic mechanism of long-range coupling from the cytosolic sensor domain to the selectivity filter in TREK K2P channels

The paper reveals the atomistic mechanism of long-range coupling between the cytosolic sensor domain and the selectivity filter in TREK K2P channels, showing how conformational changes and phosphorylation regulate channel activity.

Missing microbial eukaryotes and misleading meta-omic conclusions

The paper highlights issues with taxonomic annotation in microbial eukaryote meta-omic datasets and proposes clustering as a more accurate approach than alignment-based methods.

The anti-tubercular callyaerins target the Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific non-essential membrane protein Rv2113

This study identifies callyaerins as antitubercular agents targeting the M. tuberculosis-specific protein Rv2113, showing efficacy against drug-resistant strains with minimal cytotoxicity.

Arabidopsis Nicotianamine Synthases (NAS) comprise a common core-NAS domain fused to a variable auto-inhibitory C-terminus

This study identifies amino acids critical for AtNAS1 activity, showing that the C-terminal domain auto-inhibits NAS function and that its removal enhances activity.

A centimeter-long bacterium with DNA compartmentalized in membrane-bound organelles

The paper characterizes Ca. Thiomargarita magnifica, a centimeter-long bacterium with DNA compartmentalized in membrane-bound organelles, revealing unique biology and challenging traditional bacterial cell concepts.

A Catalog of the Diversity and Ubiquity of Metabolic Organelles in Bacteria

The paper catalogs the diversity and ubiquity of bacterial microcompartments (BMCs) using genome-resolved metagenomics, finding a twenty-fold increase in identifiable BMC loci and doubling the number of distinct BMC types since 2014.

A genomic perspective on genome size distribution across Earth's microbiomes reveals a tendency to gene loss

The paper analyzes genome size distribution across Earth's microbiomes and finds that environmental microorganisms have smaller genomes than lab-cultivated ones, with ecological and phylogenetic factors influencing genome size.

Evolutionary recent dual obligatory symbiosis among adelgids indicates a transition between fungus and insect associated lifestyles

The paper investigates the symbiosis of Adelges laricis/tardus, revealing two endosymbionts that evolved from fungal endosymbionts and transitioned to insect-associated lifestyles.

A mysterious 80 nm amoeba virus with a near-complete "ORFan genome" challenges the classification of DNA viruses

The paper describes the discovery of Yaravirus, a new amoeba virus with a near-complete ORFan genome, challenging existing DNA virus classifications.

Advantages and limits of metagenomic assembly and binning of a giant virus

This study evaluates genome-resolved metagenomics for recovering giant virus genomes, showing success at high spike-in levels but highlighting the underdetection of most giant viruses.

Cryptic inoviruses are pervasive in bacteria and archaea across Earth's biomes

The paper identifies 10,295 inovirus-like genomes across diverse ecosystems, revealing their widespread presence and complex interactions with bacterial and archaeal hosts.

Hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis in archaeal phylum Verstraetearchaeota reveals the shared ancestry of all methanogens

The paper discovers a hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis pathway in Verstraetearchaeota and the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway in Desulfurococcales, suggesting an ancient origin of hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis and a later adaptation to methylotrophic methanogenesis.

Hydrogen-based metabolism - An ancestral trait in lineages sibling to the Cyanobacteria

This paper predicts the metabolisms of Margulisbacteria and Saganbacteria using genomic data and compares them to their phylogenetic neighbors, supporting the hypothesis that their ancestor used hydrogen metabolism and fermentation.

Microfluidic-based mini-metagenomics enables discovery of novel microbial lineages from complex environmental samples

This paper introduces a microfluidic-based mini-metagenomic method to extract novel microbial genomes from complex environmental samples, revealing 29 new genomes with diverse metabolic pathways and SNP distributions.