🧠🦠🚨 New preprint alert! We’ve built the first trait database for Amoebozoa, and showcase ecological insights and evolutionary patterns. If you're into protists, soil ecology, or functional biodiversity - this is for you! #ProtistsOnSky #MicroSky 🧵👇 - ThreadSky

dumack.bsky.social • 85 days ago

🧠🦠🚨 New preprint alert! We’ve built the first trait database for Amoebozoa, and showcase ecological insights and evolutionary patterns. If you're into protists, soil ecology, or functional biodiversity - this is for you! #ProtistsOnSky #MicroSky 🧵👇

Comments

dumack.bsky.social•85 days ago

Protists are everywhere - but we lack tools to connect their taxonomic identity to what they do. Now, we provide trait data for >300 amoebozoan genera across 8 categories: nutrition, habitat, morphology, locomotion, size, spore formation, etc.

dumack.bsky.social•85 days ago

As you see in the image above, Amoebozoa can be macroscopic, or tiny, some bear elaborate shells, others lack them. What we can learn by comparing these traits?

dumack.bsky.social•85 days ago

Amoebozoa with Cercozoa (Rhizaria) are the main soil protist taxa, which is why we compared them: We found both functional redundancy and complementarity. They share forms—naked, testate, flagellated—but differ in habitats and feeding strategies. So far, not too suprising for experts, but see this:

dumack.bsky.social•85 days ago

Our key finding: Cell size predicts feeding mode in Amoebozoa. Small cells = bacterivores. Big ones? They go after everything - bacteria, fungi, even animals. Cercozoa are selective irrespective of size, Amoebozoa more opportunistic. Size = strategy! Almost no specialized eukaryvores in Amoebozoa!

dumack.bsky.social•85 days ago

We applied the database to metatranscriptomes from soil, bark, and litter. Result? Trait profiles vary hugely by habitat. On bark, we found a spike in spore-forming and saprotrophic Amoebozoa. In soil: more pathogens.

dumack.bsky.social•85 days ago

Cercozoa communities are functionally stable across environments (at least in these traits). Amoebozoa, in contrast, show more variability - suggesting they respond more strongly to habitat differences. Big implications for understanding soil food webs.

regularslimeguy.bsky.social•81 days ago

This is really interesting!

regularslimeguy.bsky.social•81 days ago

The soil / marine comparison is really fascinating. Rhizarians are really successful by many different metrics

regularslimeguy.bsky.social•81 days ago

Another difference between the two branches is rhizarian pseudopods contain microtubules while amoebozoan pseudopods only contain actin

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply