Nature and Science are renowned for publishing the highest-quality peer-reviewed research across all fields of science and technology, with articles that consistently rank among the most cited globally. While Cell focuses on experimental biology, its impact is equally profound. Tomáš Pánek provides a summary of the latest protistology research published in these prestigious journals.
Vaccination to mitigate climate-driven disruptions to malaria control in Madagascar
Rice et al., July 17, 2025, Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.adp5365
The increasing prevalence of extreme weather events creates severe disruptions to public health, as well as to the environment. In the wake of two successive cyclones hitting Madagascar in 2022 and 2023, Rice et al. examined the effect of these extreme weather events in a high-malaria region. In the aftermath, infection rates by the mosquito-vectored parasite increased to 10% for school-aged children within 3 months as mosquito and malaria control activities were interrupted. Modeling showed that the recently available vaccines supply prolonged protection (up to 10 months) against repeat malaria infections and offer a sustainable instrument for health resilience in the wake of climate change. (Caroline Ash, editor’s summary)
Mitochondria protect against an intracellular pathogen by restricting access to folate
Medeiros et al., August 14, 2025, Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.adr6326
Mitochondria consume nutrients that are also needed by invading pathogens. Whether cells exploit this overlap for host defense has been unclear. Medeiros et al. found that cells harness mitochondrial metabolism to restrict access of the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii to the essential B vitamin folate. When host cells detect intracellular parasite effectors, they activate the integrated stress response and its key effector, ATF4. ATF4 induces one-carbon metabolism processes in host mitochondria that use folate. Because Toxoplasma requires folate to generate thymidine for DNA synthesis, ATF4 activation restricts parasite replication. Thus, infected cells can weaponize mitochondrial metabolism to defend against pathogens. (Stella M. Hurtley, editor’s summary)
The Biodiversity Cell Atlas: mapping the tree of life at cellular resolution
Sebé-Pedrós et al., September 24, 2025, Nature, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09312-4
Cell types are fundamental functional units that can be traced across the tree of life. Rapid advances in single-cell technologies, coupled with the phylogenetic expansion in genome sequencing, present opportunities for the molecular characterization of cells across a broad range of organisms. Despite these developments, our understanding of eukaryotic cell diversity remains limited and we are far from decoding this diversity from genome sequences. Here we introduce the Biodiversity Cell Atlas initiative, which aims to create comprehensive single-cell molecular atlases across the eukaryotic tree of life. This community effort will be phylogenetically informed, rely on high-quality genomes and use shared standards to facilitate comparisons across species. The Biodiversity Cell Atlas aspires to deepen our understanding of the evolution and diversity of life at the cellular level, encompassing gene regulatory programs, differentiation trajectories, cell-type-specific molecular profiles and inter-organismal interactions. (abstract of the study)
Calcifying plankton: From biomineralization to global change
Ziveri et al., October 23, 2025, Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.adq8520
Calcifying planktonic organisms—coccolithophores, foraminifers, and shelled pteropods—are the linchpins of the marine carbonate cycle and key regulators of atmospheric carbon dioxide. What allows these tiny creatures to be such important players in the global carbon cycle? Ziveri et al. reviewed which of their functional traits make them so successful and how they respond to changes in climate and ocean chemistry. Knowing these properties is essential for better understanding their system dynamics and improving their representation in climate models. (Jesse Smith, editor’s summary)
Charting the landscape of cytoskeletal diversity in microbial eukaryotes
Mikus et al., October 31 (online, in press), 2025, Cell. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.09.027
Several authors of this study are ISOP members. Microbial eukaryotes remain understudied despite their critical ecological importance, with the exception of a few established models. They are often small, difficult to culture, and resistant to standard labeling and imaging techniques. Here, we use ultrastructure expansion microscopy (U-ExM) to carry out high-resolution volumetric imaging of over 200 cultured planktonic eukaryotes across major lineages. By combining U-ExM with pan- and specific immuno-labeling, we reveal microtubule and centrin-containing elements and assign molecular identities to enigmatic cytoskeletal structures observed previously only by electron microscopy. This comprehensive resource provides a basis for understanding cytoskeletal diversity, phenotypic plasticity, and evolutionary dynamics. Moreover, our approach extends to mixed environmental samples, paving the way for environmental cell biology at ultrastructural resolution — a crucial step toward understanding and protecting ecosystems in the face of accelerating biodiversity loss. (abstract of the study)
Figure Credit: Cell (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.09.027, Mikus et al., Cell Press. Licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Rare microbial relict sheds light on an ancient eukaryotic supergroup
Valt et al., November 19, 2025, Nature, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09750-0
Most authors of this study are ISOP members. The study reports a newly recognized eukaryotic supergroup Disparia that includes provorans, hemimastigophoreans, genus Meteora, and newly discovered lineage Solarion arienae, an inconspicuous, free-living heterotrophic protist with two morphologically distinct cell types and a novel type of predatory extrusome. Moreover, S. arienae has some noteworthy traits associated with the mitochondrial genome; in particular, the mitochondrially encoded secA gene, a remnant of an ancestral alphaproteobacterial protein secretion pathway. The discovery of S. arienae broadens understanding of eukaryotic evolution and shedding light on the complexity of ancestral eukaryotic life. The study further delivers a nuclear genome for Solarion arienae, the first high-quality genome generated for any member of Disparia. (summary by T. Pánek)
Figure credit: Nature (2025), DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09750-0, Valt et al., Springer Nature. Licensed under https://www.nature.com/nature-portfolio/reprints-and-permissions/permissions-requests (as author’s reuse).
