We discovered massive accumulation of barium and strontium in marine diplonemids.

The study the prevailing paradigm that Ba and Sr cycling is primarily abiotic or bacterially mediated, instead identifying protists as major and previously unrecognized contributors. Given that Ba sediment records are widely used as proxies in paleoceanography, this work calls for a reassessment of long-standing geochemical interpretations.

Pilátová et al. (2023). mBio

Pilátová, J.,* Tashyreva, D., Týč, J., Vancová, M., Bokhari, S.N.H., Skoupý, R., Klementová, M., Küpper, H., Mojzeš, P., Lukeš, J. (2023) Massive accumulation of strontium and barium in diplonemid protists. mBio, 14(1):e03279-22. 10.1128/mbio.03279-22