Joined July 2018
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Thrilled to share that I recently got a position of an Assistant Professor/SciLifeLab Fellow at Stockholm University, where I will continue my work on #lichen symbiosis. The lab opens in April 2026, and if you are interested in joining please get in touch! #newPI
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Can't wait for this meeting!
Here we go again! Join us in Vienna, May 21–22, for two days of plant science—talks, discussions, and celebration of what makes plants both beautiful and essential 💚Full program registration here: oeaw.ac.at/gmi/news-events/e… Come be part of it — each of you counts!
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One week left to apply for the PhD position in my group in Stockholm!
⚡️Fully funded #PhD position in my lab at Stockholm University / SciLifeLab! If you’re interested in #lichens, #symbiosis, fungal biology, or meta-omics, please apply. Deadline Feb 1. Read more here: su.varbi.com/en/what:job/job…
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⚡️Fully funded #PhD position in my lab at Stockholm University / SciLifeLab! If you’re interested in #lichens, #symbiosis, fungal biology, or meta-omics, please apply. Deadline Feb 1. Read more here: su.varbi.com/en/what:job/job…
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The lab opens in April 2026, and now the new lab website is live, check it out! metalichenlab.github.io/

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Gulnara Tagirdzhanova retweeted
New preprint from our group led by @metalichen on the discovery of a Starship giant transposable element in the genome of a lichen-forming fungus.
New preprint: 🚀🧬 Starship in the genome of the lichen fungus Xanthoria. Discovery of giant transposons Starships challenged what we thought we knew about fungal genomes. But what about Starships in #lichen fungi? Let us present Tangerine doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.25.6…

ALT left part shows bright yellow lichen growing on wood. The lichen is leafy with round dish-shaped fruiting bodies. The right top part shows alignment of 4 genome fragments. The top three all come from different genomes belonging to Xanthoria parietina, the bottom is from Xanthoria calcicola. Grey blocks connecting the genome fragments to show synteny. Overall, the four fragments show synteny, but the X. parietina genomes have an insert missing from X. calcicola. The insert is highlighted in orange and labeled as ‘Tangerine’. The right bottom part shows a gif of a brightly covered cartoon spacecraft shooting through a starry void. The spacecraft is PlanetaryExpress from Futurama.

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New preprint: 🚀🧬 Starship in the genome of the lichen fungus Xanthoria. Discovery of giant transposons Starships challenged what we thought we knew about fungal genomes. But what about Starships in #lichen fungi? Let us present Tangerine doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.25.6…

ALT left part shows bright yellow lichen growing on wood. The lichen is leafy with round dish-shaped fruiting bodies. The right top part shows alignment of 4 genome fragments. The top three all come from different genomes belonging to Xanthoria parietina, the bottom is from Xanthoria calcicola. Grey blocks connecting the genome fragments to show synteny. Overall, the four fragments show synteny, but the X. parietina genomes have an insert missing from X. calcicola. The insert is highlighted in orange and labeled as ‘Tangerine’. The right bottom part shows a gif of a brightly covered cartoon spacecraft shooting through a starry void. The spacecraft is PlanetaryExpress from Futurama.

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Now, all Starship transposons are named after fictional spacecrafts, so naturally we followed suit. After being up till 2 one night, I settled on Tangerine star buggy, which made a brief appearance in D. Adams’ The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
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Huge thanks to all coauthors: @talbotlabtsl, @ahbucknell, @ellenscameron, Mark Blaxter, @robdfinn, and @McdonaldMeganc!

ALT gif showing words ‘thank you’ in big red font and a flying rocket in a corner

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Gulnara Tagirdzhanova retweeted
#Fungi at all levels matter! From tiniest to largest, they are an essential part of our world. Here we map familiar fungi on #fungal tree of life: doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.70119 Thank you @VaianaAnna for putting this together! Thank you @fmartin1954, Toby & Rasmus! #lichens #mushrooms
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Gulnara Tagirdzhanova retweeted
New paper led by @metalichen from our group presenting a chromosome-level assembly of the Trebouxia photobiont alga from the lichen Xanthoria parietina - a resource we hope will enable significant new insight into the symbiosis @NewPhyt doi.org/10.1111/nph.70728
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Our paper on the genome of Trebouxia photobiont from Xanthoria is now published in @NewPhyt! Check below for a near-chromosome level assembly, secretome analysis, evidence of ancient HGT and transcriptomic comparison of the alga in symbiosis and in culture doi.org/10.1111/nph.70728
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We are hoping our study will be useful for anyone interested in doing experiments on lichen symbionts or digging into algal genomics! The genome is available at NCBI/ENA, and the strain can be ordered from the SAG culture bank sagdb.uni-goettingen.de/deta…
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Big thanks to the co-authors - @talbotlabtsl and Jasper Raistrick, an undergrad student who did a lot of work to isolate the alga - as well as the staff of SAG!
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Gulnara Tagirdzhanova retweeted
Delighted that our work on the Sanctuary Starship #transposon is now published! A big thanks to all co-authors, especially to the ever-amazing @McdonaldMeganc for her mentorship! doi.org/10.1128/mbio.01371-2…

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Gulnara Tagirdzhanova retweeted
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The #transposon within transposons: this #mBio study shows that ToxTA, formerly ToxhAT, is found in 2 different Giant Starship transposons, Sanctuary & Horizon, and provides further evidence that Starships are the units driving HGT between fungal species. doi.org/10.1128/mbio.01371-2…
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Gulnara Tagirdzhanova retweeted
So excited to see our review on how to detect horizontal gene transfers and their impact on plant functional evolution finally published in @ThePlantCell! Great teamwork between @LRSV_Toulouse and @LGDP_Perpignan 😎🥳🌱 academic.oup.com/plcell/adva… 1/15
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Reminder about our special issue on lichen symbiosis in @T_Lichenologist 👇 the deadline for submission is in September!
🌟Call for Papers on #Lichen #symbiosis🌟 Thrilled to be a guest editor for @T_Lichenologist, together with Veera Tuovinen, @IoanaBrannstrom, and @ellenscameron. Send us papers on the inner workings of lichens, submission is open till September 2025! tinyurl.com/2w7wwubm
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