Nicole Coots
Postdoctoral Researcher @UBC in Patrick Keeling's Lab || PhD earned @ASU in Gillian Gile's Lab || Interested in endosymbiosis, plastid evolution, marine microbial ecology, and all things protists 🦠
- Reposted by Nicole CootsDiscovery of a photophobic response in #Apusomonads reveals insights into Opisthokont origins phys.org/news/2026-02... New #ISEPpapers! Photophobic response in Podomonas kaiyoae is mediated by coordination of cilia, actin filaments: Aika Shibata et al. www.nature.com/articles/s42... #Protists
- I organized a writing retreat for the Keeling Lab at the Hakai Institute for this weekend. Gonna be hanging out in this yurt for the next two days 😀📝📖📃📚
- Reposted by Nicole Coots📢 Open faculty position – Origins of Life We have an opening in our section at the University of Geneva! 🧬🚀 SPREAD THE WORD Apply here: jobs.unige.ch/www/wd_porta...
- Reposted by Nicole CootsAnd some parting #protist shots - two giant acantharians hand-collected with prey inside (a copepod and maybe a foram) - crazy to see a copepod being digested by an acanth, so curious how the acanth managed to catch it! #microbialsky #microsky #christmasatsea ❤️🌊
- Reposted by Nicole CootsNew preprint out! Using ~75k environmental OTUs + 77 fossil calibrations, we reconstructed a Proterozoic timeline of eukaryote evolution. Our results show crown eukaryotes were already diversifying >1.6 Ga, long before the first undisputed fossils (~1.05 Ga). 🔗 DOI: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by Nicole CootsHappy to share this work with Virginia Sanchez-Puerta (not on bsky) and colleagues on how loss of photosynthesis in these (strange!) plants affects translation and tRNAs in plastids and mitochondria.... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/n
- I've been knitting on my bus rides to work enough in the last year that I finished a sweater with fish on it 🐟 still waiting for the knitters that sell knitting patterns to develop protist colorwork sweater patterns...
- Reposted by Nicole CootsHalf of microbial eukaryote literature focuses on only twelve human parasites #microbiology #protists #eukaryotes @isme-microbes.bsky.social academic.oup.com/ismej/articl...
- found this lil guy in a sand sample recently 😍🦑 #protistsonsky
- Reposted by Nicole CootsOur 2nd heterotrophic #Paulinella culture! Really proud of this one. After days at the microscope picking cells, I finally got it growing happily :) #protistsonsky
- Made some cyanotype prints from a figure I pulled from @sandinmm.bsky.social 's 2019 paper on the morpho-molecular classification of Nassellaria. #protistsonsky Those SEMs are so stunning, they were just begging to be turned into art! doi.org/10.1016/j.pr...
- Reposted by Nicole Cootswww.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Genomes of nitrogen-fixing eukaryotes reveal an alternate path for organellogenesis #protistsonsky
- Reposted by Nicole CootsPromethea = PROvora + MEteora + HEmimastigophora. The new supergroup, unifying previously “orphan” lineages with gene-rich mitogenomes. Position of #telonemids is still uncertain. #protistsonsky tinyurl.com/yk9xkt49
- Currently geeking out over this recent paper from the @mixotrophe.bsky.social lab!: Environmental Fluctuations Promote Host Reward Strategies That Maintain Partner Diversity in Multispecies Mutualisms By Bethany LF Stevens et al. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
- Was literally just panicking about this over the weekend 💩
- I love the way they move
- This week’s sample was teeming with amoebae! I know nothing about marine amoebae and I rarely see them, so this was unusual for me. Do you think their presence is associated with the Phaeocystis bloom happening right now? Timelapse videos of their movement. 🦑 #plankton
- Anybody know what this marine invert is? It's from an epipelagic plankton net tow in the middle of the Atlantic #invertID
- It was identified as a nectosome elsewhere 😌
- Reposted by Nicole CootsThrilled to have won @nature.com 2025 #ScientistAtWork photo competition! 🧪🐳📷 www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
- My friends in the Life of Retaria group decided to make a podcast! In the first episode, they interview @fabnot.bsky.social about his journey as a scientist. I loved the first episode, hope you do too! @juliemeilland.bsky.social @sandinmm.bsky.social et al. thelifeofretaria.github.io/podcast.html
- testate amoebae are my fave 🤩
- Some specimens of a shelled amoeba called Heleopera sphagni, from a northern fen. The shell is assembled from jagged siliceous plates, but where did they come from? Stolen from a prey organism, or generated by the amoeba itself? I have no idea! #protistsonsky #amoebae #peatlands
- Reposted by Nicole Coots
- Reposted by Nicole CootsWhy do some planktonic protists develop a gelatinous matrix? We suggest that this original adaptation is a strategy to cope with ocean oligotrophy: doi.org/10.1111/1462... Led by @n-llopis-m.bsky.social, and thanks to all co-authors, I'm very happy to finally see it out! #protistsonsky
- Reposted by Nicole CootsPause for a minute to appreciate the valiant Program Officers still at NSF, who are doing their utmost to preserve what they can. They’re in the stinking rotting belly of the beast, laboring on our behalf. ❤️❤️❤️❤️ to them
- It's an incredibly depressing time to be an American scientist
- Science news is particularly grim this week. For NSF funding, 2 key fronts: 1) freeze on ALL existing grants (portal is down - no $$ going out, including reimbursements) www.nature.com/articles/d41... 2) budget proposes 40% overall cut & 15% cap on indirects (lawsuits blocked same for NIH in Feb)
- Reposted by Nicole CootsLichen collage. Northwest Territories, Canada.
- Reposted by Nicole CootsThese guys got the first living footage of the Indonesian coelacanth! Amazing work. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Algal symbiont diversity and host fitness variation in the amoebozoan photosymbiosis 🦠 by Yamagishi et al. @jeukmicro.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
- Reposted by Nicole Coots🚨🧵 Out now in ISMEJ (@ismepublications.bsky.social)! We find abundant corallicolid sequences within bearded fireworms (𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘢) across reefs and years in Curaçao 🇨🇼! 🪱🪸 This is the first report of corallicolids inside a non-anthozoan host! #ProtistsOnSky #MicroSky #SymbioSky #Corals
- Reposted by Nicole CootsNitrogen isotopes are a promising tool to reconstruct symbiosis in planktic foraminifera! Check out our latest paper: bg.copernicus.org/articles/22/...
- Reposted by Nicole CootsA dream come true: the first expansion microscopy images of C. flexa 🤩 Generated by Mylan & Uzuki who learned from the best (@hiralshah.bsky.social @gautamdey.bsky.social @dudinlab.bsky.social). We will learn so much from these!
- Reposted by Nicole CootsNew lab preprint! Unveiling the Molecular Architecture of T Cells and Immune Synapses with Cryo-Expansion Microscopy (Cryo-ExM). A fantastic collaboration with Dr. Benita Wolf. Congratulations to all authors, especially Florent Lemaitre, for leading this amazing work! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- A spumellarian (Tetrapyle?) and its symbionts 😌 left: brightfield, middle: DAPI, right: symbiont FISH probes #ProtistsOnSky
- Reposted by Nicole CootsHappy to share our last study led by @akrao.bsky.social published in @currentbiology.bsky.social, showing how a planktonic host steals and hijacks chloroplast and mitochondrion of a microalga using 3D subcellular imaging. Funded by @moorefound.bsky.social; @erc.europa.eu #Protistsonsky #SymbioSky
- Reposted by Nicole CootsTrump's team backing down in front of Harvard should embolden EVERYONE to stand up to them. Do not comply in advance. Instead say "Fuck you, make me."
- Reposted by Nicole CootsTowards community-driven visual proteomics! Excited to finally share this large-scale curated & annotated dataset of 1829 high-quality #cryoET tomograms of the little green alga that just keeps giving— Chlamydomonas! 🧪🧶🧬🌾🌊🌍 Preprint📜: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A short thread🧵👇
- Stability of the cnidarian–dinoflagellate symbiosis is primarily determined by symbiont cell-cycle arrest By Lucy Gorman et al. 🤯 sounds cool as heck, gonna read this tonight !!! www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
- fourth and final chapter of my PhD is out! 🚨 We used single cell metabarcode sequencing to describe the diversity of organisms associated with polycystine radiolarians near Bermuda. we found that polycystines associate with a really wide diversity of phytoplankton, compared to other radiolarians! 🤩
- I thought of this project during my Bachelor's, and I really fought to make it happen throughout my PhD. So much of my heart went into this paper, and so much of my life has been influenced by these ideas, however modest they are. it just feels really good to finally see it out in the world 💕
- Was feeling so sappy that I forgot the link 😂 academic.oup.com/plankt/artic...
- Reposted by Nicole Coots🚨New preprint out! We show that Arcella spp., a shell-bearing amoeba, controls the abundance of the filamentous bacterium Ca. Microthrix parvicella, the main culprit behind sludge bulking in wastewater treatment plants. Interested in applicability of protists? Read along! #protistsonsky #microsky 🧵👇
- Reposted by Nicole CootsThis week on the podcast I spoke with Matt Johnson about ciliates, kleptoplasty, mixotrophy, and the Grateful Dead! Found everywhere you get podcasts. Please consider subscribing, sharing, and rating the show! #scicomm open.spotify.com/episode/0jdh...
- Reposted by Nicole CootsYet to share our recent paper “Phylogenomic resolution of marine to freshwater dinoflagellate transitions” led by Mahara and @protistwtmostest.bsky.social. Includes work from two @science.ubc.ca undergraduates! 🤩 Freshwater dinoflagellates need more love! 💚 academic.oup.com/ismej/articl...
- Reposted by Nicole CootsSeattle, WA #sciencenotsilence
- Grateful to be a part of it 🌞
- Peaceful Protest for peaceful protists! #StandUpForScience
- Seattle, WA Stand Up for Science rally yesterday with some really inspiring speakers @standupforscience.bsky.social
- The colors of Quadra Island 🤩
- Reposted by Nicole CootsHow many of my academic friends saw this? Pitt Pauses All PhD Admissions. www.wesa.fm/health-scien...
- Reposted by Nicole CootsAs a very small act of resistance, which is to continue creating reliable science content for non-scientists, I’ve decided to revive my podcast from 2022. The first episode of season 2 will be released on March 10th on all podcast platforms!
- Reposted by Nicole CootsI lost my job at the National Science Foundation yesterday, along with 167 of my colleagues, including some dear friends. This was the best job I've ever had, and I thought it would be my last. The PI community has been sympathetic and supportive, without exception. I will miss working for you.
- Reposted by Nicole CootsFirings are happening right now at the National Science Foundation. Essential staff are being cut. This isn’t about the budget. If it was, they’d be going after the military (17%) or state appropriations (38%). NSF is 0.7% of the federal budget. All federal employees make up only 4% of the budget.
- Reposted by Nicole CootsMore corallicolid data! 🪸 www.cell.com/current-biol...
- Reposted by Nicole CootsSymbionts of predatory #protists are widespread in the oceans and related to animal pathogens #symbiosis sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii…
- Reposted by Nicole CootsInternational Day of Women and Girls in Science => Pioneers of Plankton Research! Priscilla Susan Bury (1799–1872): doi.org/10.1093/plan... Marie Lebour (1876–1971): doi.org/10.1093/plan... Sheina Marshall (1896–1977): doi.org/10.1093/plan... Easter Ellen Cupp (1904–1999): doi.org/10.1093/plan...
- the third chapter of my PhD is now published! 🚨 We describe the protist symbiont diversity of the termite species Reticulitermes tibialis. This project was performed in a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) which was super fun 😊 #protistsonsky authors.elsevier.com/a/1kaMa56A9x...
- there are some pretty wacky protists in R. tibialis... go check out our supplemental videos ;-) #protistsonsky
- Reposted by Nicole Coots“The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is seeking to withdraw all papers involving its researchers that are being considered for publication by external scientific journals to allow for a review by the Trump administration” 🧪 www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...
- Reposted by Nicole CootsI had some time to look through my #microscope today and captured this Amoeba engulfing a ciliate. (MoticBA310e - Labcam Ultra/iPhone15) Enjoy the cycle of life in the #Microcosmos! #microscopy #cell #scicomm #biology #Science
- Keeling Lab Writing Retreat on Quadra Island is going down this weekend. It's so beautiful here, can I stay? 😍
- Reposted by Nicole CootsIt is very easy to call your representatives’ offices. They have to log your calls and the call numbers are meaningful. You don’t even have to try to convince anyone; just call and tell them your concerns. They are there to represent you. Let them know what that means. www.usa.gov/elected-offi...
- Reposted by Nicole CootsWearing diatoms is a popular fashion choice among some groups
- Reposted by Nicole CootsInterested in protist parasites? Want to learn some fun bioinformatics? Think this apicomplexan looks cool? Great! Come and do some protist genomics at @uniofbath.bsky.social! We're advertising a fully-funded PhD studentship open to UK & International applicants! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
- Reposted by Nicole CootsStoked about this manuscript, many years in the making. We present an original resource of ~700 highly curated plastid MAGs of marine pelagic algae. Among these we found a novel deep branching group of plastid genomes; we informally call them leptophytes www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- First week as a postdoc in the Keeling Lab at UBC ✅️ i love all of the protist decorations here 😍
- Reposted by Nicole CootsNext Monday 13 we have the 6th session of The Life of Retaria Seminar Series! Join us at 08h00 (CET) and discover symbiosis in these wonderful protists with Caroline Juery and @filiphusnik.bsky.social Check it out: thelifeofretaria.github.io #radiolaria #foraminifera #theLifeOfRetaria #protistsonsky
- Reposted by Nicole CootsI know everything is on fire, literally and existentially, but I'm really proud of this paper out today, led by my lab manager, Kristina Terpis, with some amazing collaborators. We expanded sampling in photosynthetic stramenopiles and show total plastid loss twice! www.cell.com/current-biol...
- Looking forward to hearing Caroline Juéry talk about this work during the Life of Retaria seminar series next week :-)
- Endosymbiosis remodels transporter expression in Phaeocystis algae. Beautiful work from the @johandecelle.bsky.social lab. It would be amazing to know whether the patterns in diurnal transporter expression also change the directionality of transport. 🧫🦠 academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...
- Reposted by Nicole CootsLet's kick of the New Year like an acantharian with a little #protistsonsky fireworks magic. Happy New Year 2025! 🦑
- Found this dino (some member of Dinophysiales?) in an old sample that @blancobercial.bsky.social sent me almost a year ago.... looks to have some kind of infection 😵 #protistsonsky
- Reposted by Nicole CootsWe have a new paper out today in #ScienceAdvances from a #COVIDcollab with postdocs Kevin Archibald, Suzana Leles, and Ferdi Pfab. Our #MOCHA☕💻🦠 team developed a new model to describe how #mixotrophs optimize metabolism. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #protistsonsky #NSFfunded (1/6)
- Reposted by Nicole CootsWe've got a new paper out! Our team shows that #Mesodinium rubrum can (temporarily) make a living on blue-green prey, something that surprised my science-big-brother Matt Johnson so much that he made me run the central experiment 5 times. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
