Protists are appearing in various news outlets. These fascinating organisms continue to make headlines, sparking interest due to their ecological significance and unique characteristics. Tomáš Pánek and Donna Huber have carefully selected some of the most noteworthy examples of protist-related media coverage, showcasing how these microscopic wonders are increasingly being recognized for their importance in diverse scientific and environmental contexts. Additionally, they feature exclusive insights from interviews with protistologists—both Society members and experts outside the organization. Together, these stories offer a closer look at how protists are gaining recognition and sparking conversations in the broader scientific community.
Single-celled organisms set for greater role in gut health
Outlook published in Nature by Anthony King
“The typical human digestive tract is home to one of the densest communities of microorganisms on the planet. Bacteria dominate researchers’ attention, with the roles of other members of this ecosystem, such as tiny but abundant viruses, receiving less scrutiny. Perhaps the most neglected players of all, however, are also among the largest and most complex: single-celled organisms called protists. Long cast as villains, some protists, such as Blastocystis, are potentially beneficial to human health.“ (citation from the article)
Australia’s toxic algal bloom has a surprise culprit
News published in Science by Erik Stockstad
“For 8 months, South Australia has been besieged by mysterious toxic algae. Dead rays, octopuses, crabs, and other marine species, some shrouded in grayish foam, litter tens of kilometers of shoreline. “There’s a very strange feeling when you’re on the beach,” says marine biologist Shauna Murray of the University of Technology Sydney. “It’s just eerie.” Besides sickening people, the toxins have caused large economic losses in fisheries, aquaculture, and tourism. Murray and her colleagues have now identified the culprit. In a preprint posted to bioRxiv last week, they show that an obscure singlecelled algae called Karenia cristata is blooming and producing copious amounts of neurotoxins called brevetoxins.“ (citation from the article)
See the original research article: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.31.685766v1.abstract
Single-celled organisms have more complex DNA epigenetic code than multicellular life, researchers discover
Published in https://phys.org by the Queen Mary University of London
“In a paper appearing in Nature Genetics, researchers discover that in more “primitive” unicellular organisms, both the adenine and the cytosine bases are methylated. This would suggest that in some ways, these unicellular organisms are more complex than their multicellular peers. The team also found that methylation of the adenine base was, in the case of many of these unicellular organisms, vital for controlling which genes are switched on, which is important for their viability.“ (citation from the article)
See the original research article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-025-02409-6
Expansion microscopy helps chart the planktonic universe
Published at https://phys.org by European Molecular Biology Laboratory
“The new technique called expansion microscopy, first developed by scientists at MIT, U.S., and further optimized into ultrastructure expansion microscopy (U-ExM) for exploring sub-cellular ultrastructure by Paul Guichard and Virginie Hamel at the University of Geneva, had made the cell wall permeable, and the protist’s inner structures could now be clearly visualized and studied. Determined to study more marine organisms with this method, Dudin, Dey, Guichard and Hamel started a cooperation that, three years later, has succeeded in generating almost encyclopedic knowledge of hundreds of protist species and is on its path to creating a planetary atlas of plankton.“ (citation from the article)
See the original research article: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)01127-4
Tiny marine protist shells reveal clues for how ice ages start
Published at https://phys.org by Elaina Hancock, University of Connecticut
“What leads to lower atmospheric CO2 during ice ages is a question that has puzzled scientists for decades, and it is one that UConn Department of Marine Sciences Ph.D. student Monica Garity and co-authors are working to understand. By looking at patterns of carbon storage in the deep ocean, the researchers shed new light on this decades-old question.“ … „Within the sediment are the shells of tiny protists called foraminifera which record the chemistry of the ocean at the time they were alive. They analyzed the foraminifera for stable isotopes and metal ratios, including boron and calcium. The ratio of boron to calcium in the foraminifera can be used to reconstruct past carbonate ion concentration in the ocean, which is inversely related to the carbon content.“ (citation from the article)
See the original research article: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2510171122
Automated chloroplast screening platform speeds up crop trait development
Published at https://phys.org by Max Planck Society
“Despite this potential, chloroplast biotechnology remains in its infancy because standardized, scalable methods for rapid testing of diverse genetic parts have been missing. A research team from the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg has now presented a micro‑algal platform that allows automated, fast, and large‑scale testing of chloroplast genetic modifications.“ (citation from the article)
See the original research article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-025-02126-2
Discovery of Rare Protist Reveals Previously Unknown Branch of Eukaryotic Tree of Life
Published at https://phys.org by the Charles University
“Through genomic sequencing and extensive phylogenomic analyses, scientists from Charles University and their collaborators in the U.S. demonstrated that Solarion does not belong to any previously recognized major lineage of eukaryotes. Only one close relative is known so far—the peculiar protist Meteora sporadica. Together they form a new phylum, Caelestes, which, along with the protist phyla Provora and Hemimastigophora, constitutes the newly defined eukaryotic supergroup (kingdom) Disparia. Although only a few species of Disparia are currently known, this represents an ancient evolutionary lineage whose surviving members may be relics of a once much greater diversity.”
See the original research article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09750-0
Malaria Parasites are Full of Wildly Spinning Iron Crystals. Scientists Finally Know Why.
Published by the University of Utah
“Every cell of the deadly Plasmodium falciparum parasite, the organism that causes malaria, contains a tiny compartment full of microscopic iron crystals. As long as the parasite is alive, the crystals dance. They spin, jolt, and ricochet in their little bubble like change in an overclocked washing machine, too fast and chaotic to even be tracked by traditional scientific techniques. And when the parasite dies, they stop.” … “The crystals, which are made of an iron-based compound called heme, move by triggering the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. The reaction releases energy, giving the crystals the kick they need to spin into motion.” (citation from the article)
See the original research article: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2513845122
Scientists Uncover Cellular Secret Weapon in the Fight Against Pathogens
Published at https://bioengineer.org/
“In a groundbreaking study that could redefine our understanding of cellular defenses, researchers at UCLA have uncovered a novel role for mitochondria extending far beyond their traditional identity as the cell’s energy generators. Published recently in the prestigious journal Science, this research reveals that mitochondria act as active participants in immune defense by directly competing with invading pathogens for essential nutrients, particularly vitamin B9, also known as folate. This unexpected discovery illuminates a sophisticated cellular strategy in which the mitochondria effectively starve parasites, such as the notorious Toxoplasma gondii, reducing their ability to multiply and cause infection.” (citation from the article)
See the original research article: 10.1126/science.adr6326
New Research in Japan Finds Slime Mold Metabolites are a Promising, Eco-friendly Repellent of Root-knot Nematodes
Published by Ohio’s Country Journal by Dusty Sonnenberg
Cellular slime mold (Dictyostelium discoideum) is a soil-dwelling microorganism known for its aggregative multicellularity. Previous studies have shown that D. discoideum secretions can repel root-knot nematodes (RKNs) and protect plant roots. Japanese researchers have identified 14 compounds secreted by D. discoideum that repel RKNs and could be the source of new, non-toxic anti-RKN pesticides. (summary by T. Pánek)
See the original research article: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.jafc.5c04345
Algae of polar origin may impact tropical ocean biogeochemistry and food webs
Published at https://www.the-microbiologist.com/ by Linda Steward
“A tiny single-celled organism may have a big impact on how the world’s basic chemical building blocks cycle between living things and the non-living environment. Called Polarella, the algal genus was thought to be restricted to polar cap regions of the Earth, but a team has revealed that it is abundant and influential in the Eastern Tropical North Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico.“ (citation from the article)
See the original research article: https://spj.science.org/doi/10.34133/olar.0094
Rediscovery of the protist Glissandra: Elucidating common features of the uncharacterized CRuMs lineage
Published at https://phys.org by the University of Tsukuba
Figure Credit: Open Biology (2025). DOI: 10.1098/rsob.250057, Yazaki et al., The Royal Society. Licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
See the original research article: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsob.250057
