https://cardonalab.uk/blog daily 0.75 2023-11-08 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/using-dalle-to-create-a-logo-for-the-lab monthly 0.5 2023-11-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/3066bbe7-23c3-4c7a-a585-5e909081dd18/DALL%C2%B7E+2023-11-05+12.12.16+-+Design+a+sleek%2C+minimalist+logo+for+a+%27Molecular+Evolution+Lab%27+incorporating+shades+of.png Blog - Using DALL•E to create a logo for the lab - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://cardonalab.uk/blog/a-science-fiction-short-story monthly 0.5 2023-02-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/2ae418e6-2b53-4722-91ab-4fa83a9bb569/jpegPIA25334.jpg Blog - Life Anew - A Science Fiction Short Story - Make it stand out A photo of Europa by NASA’s Juno Spacecraft (2022) https://cardonalab.uk/blog/evolution-of-photosynthesis-some-brief-historic-considerations-part-1 monthly 0.5 2021-04-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1619176441269-9MALOMT3X1U2FYUKAELM/Figure+9.jpg Blog - Evolution of photosynthesis: some brief historic considerations – Part 1 The synthesis of my work published in BBA -Bionergetics, 2021. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1619176214506-UIMRY6L2UOQ1DT60T98C/IMG_4501.jpg Blog - Evolution of photosynthesis: some brief historic considerations – Part 1 An evolutionary scenario. This is by Pierson and Olson, in a book chapter from 1989, but this one is elaborated on his 1970 ideas. The same figure was reprinted in 1992’s Blankenship paper. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1619185895781-IE1CDO203DLKGKJSAAA4/Blum.jpg Blog - Evolution of photosynthesis: some brief historic considerations – Part 1 Early concepts on the evolution of photosynthesis, by Harold F. Blum, 1937, published in The American Naturalist, 71:350-362. This scheme was produced using data from van Niel’s experiments characterizing anoxygenic photosynthesis! https://cardonalab.uk/blog/biological-evidence-for-early-oxygen monthly 0.5 2021-03-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1614534213326-NPQ4SARAAUEPZF8V0F5N/Figure+9.jpg Blog - Biological evidence for early oxygen and the evolution of photosynthesis This is Figure 9 from our recent paper in BBA-Bioenergetics. It shows the evolutionary relationships of the photosystem core subunits in comparison with the evolution of bacteria to the right. I’m quite pleased with the final result, if I may say so myself. Check the paper for all the details! https://cardonalab.uk/blog/the-predictive-power-of-evolution-photoactivation-of-the-mn-cluster-of-photosystem-ii monthly 0.5 2020-11-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1597920908508-9DWLUJK74VZ6KSFHXBQK/fpls-07-00257-g002.jpg Blog - The predictive power of evolution: photoactivation of the Mn cluster of Photosystem II This is Figure 2 from my paper. My hypothesis is represented in panel C. https://cardonalab.uk/blog/timing-the-origin-of-oxygenic-photosynthesis-some-updates-and-unpublished-data monthly 0.5 2019-10-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1569860723002-VPC2F2Y7XYZYSDP3TWJ6/Rpo_O1_3800_500_sample-Recovered_B.jpg Blog - Timing the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis: some updates and unpublished data A molecular clock of D1 and D2 at the top, and RpoB at the bottom. The mrca of Cyanobacteria inherited D1 and D2, but there is a large phylegenetic distance between these two. This is large enough to contain the distance between the mrca of Cyanobacteria and most other clades of Bacteria, most certainly Margulisbacteria, Sericytochromatia, and Vampirovibronia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1569861032716-IZEJUG8UDDYXJX1HXH4V/Rates.jpg Blog - Timing the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis: some updates and unpublished data Comparison of the instant rate of evolution of D1 and D2 (left) and RpoB (right) of an autocorrelated clock. An exponential decrease in the rates of evolution is observed in both cases. These are just two examples, in this particular case, for D1 and D2 the tree was calculated assuming an origin of Type II reaction centres at about 3.8 Ga, which places the D1 and D2 duplication at about 3.6 Ga, making ΔT, well over 1 Ga. Even like that, an exponential decrease in the rates is necessary. The shorter ΔT, the faster the rate at the point of duplication. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1569860496840-65MNLLLOLXU9OKYDKIWG/Rates_Time.jpg Blog - Timing the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis: some updates and unpublished data A comparison of the rates of evolution of different proteins. Those in black I have calculated myself. Those in grey I have taken from the literature. A larger list of rates reported as amino acid changes per site per billion years can be found in (Cardona, Sanchez-Baracaldo et al. 2019). The blue line at 1 subs./site/Ga marks the rate at which two identical sequence would lose all sequence identity after 1 billion years. The region marked in orange marks the predicted rates of evolution at the point of duplication of those ancient proteins. https://cardonalab.uk/blog/chlorophyll-a-synthase-in-two-non-photosynthetic-cyanobacteria-of-the-sericytochromatia monthly 0.5 2020-01-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1566557382592-XS9RP1OS7T4U8V4MEAQC/trees.jpg Blog - Chlorophyll-a synthase in two non-photosynthetic Cyanobacteria of the Sericytochromatia Phylogeny of ChlG and BchG. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1566557822030-0G8VCY842B50EFQP6WRN/transmembranes.jpg Blog - Chlorophyll-a synthase in two non-photosynthetic Cyanobacteria of the Sericytochromatia https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1566557576968-LJCCM60IHXTUJGHTLIGC/alignment.jpg Blog - Chlorophyll-a synthase in two non-photosynthetic Cyanobacteria of the Sericytochromatia An alignment showing some interesting indels. This is just a part of the alignment. The sericytochromatian sequences are highlighted in black. https://cardonalab.uk/blog/my-two-pesos-on-the-metagenome-anomaly-controversy monthly 0.5 2019-08-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1565702713280-7RTY77QNEPXJDBVKSWQT/Figure+3+Garg+et+al.jpg Blog - My two pesos on the metagenome anomaly controversy Fig. 3 Neighbor-Nets reconstructed from concatenated alignments of 23 ribosomal proteins for archaeal reference samples and archaeal MAGs. (a) The Neighbor-Net of a concatenated alignment of 23 ribosomal proteins in the archaeal reference sample ARS3001 shows very little conflict throughout, resulting in a tree-like network with 16 well supported splits (indicated with red dots). (b) A Neighbor net drawn from a concatenated alignment of the same 23 ribosomal proteins from Asgard archaeal MAGs results in a network with a star-like structure. The insets magnify the central area of interest to better highlight the difference of signals of the two networks. Taken from Garg et al. (2019). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1565702919281-RB2KB7SEAHBQTSWKU6S4/Figure+1+Photosynthetica.jpg Blog - My two pesos on the metagenome anomaly controversy Phylogeny of FtsH proteases. CPR in red. https://cardonalab.uk/blog/chlorophylls-the-origin-of-membranes-and-bioenergetics monthly 0.5 2020-01-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1565280412245-54MNZJ4D0AEVSIF4GWRH/Lipids+DGGGPS.jpg Blog - Chlorophylls, the origin of membranes and bioenergetics Supplementary Figure S25. UbiA full tree, 227 sequences, 69 positions, inferred under LG+C60 model. DGGGPS sequences in blue, chlorophyll a synthase in green, protoheme IX farnesyltransferase in red, and 4-hydroxybenzoate octaprenyltransferase in black. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1565279827009-5FSQ6A4EFZPD7M3PF438/Coleman+lipid+synthesis.jpg Blog - Chlorophylls, the origin of membranes and bioenergetics Membrane lipids in bacteria and archaea, see the reference for all the details. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1565293003796-V27XOENSU4KFFBKM7HCL/diagram.jpg Blog - Chlorophylls, the origin of membranes and bioenergetics https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1565280112791-0ASFCR519LXR9DMXKP9N/Reaction.jpg Blog - Chlorophylls, the origin of membranes and bioenergetics Comparison of enzymatic reactions. https://cardonalab.uk/blog/category/Commentary monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/category/Unpublished+results monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/origin+of+life monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/Loki monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/Margulisbacteria monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/candidate+phyla+radiation monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/evolution monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/Sericytochromatia monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/archaea monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/Vampirovibronia monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/membranes monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/Asgard monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/bioenergetics monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/photosynthesis monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/Melainabacteria monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/metagenomics monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/cyanobacteria monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/Cyanobacteria monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/Phylogenetics monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/genomics monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/Evolution monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/phylogenetics monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/melainabacteria monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/Photosynthesis monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/blog/tag/Molecular+clock monthly 0.5 https://cardonalab.uk/home daily 1.0 2025-06-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1564846796737-RCQ52NR4XCEIDHBS7ZV3/PAge.jpg Home When did photosynthesis originate? Can we evolve photosystems with novel chemistries? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/9f00eb11-bef0-4a6e-ad90-fbb0bcca3d99/Figure+1+copy.jpg Home - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/9844ff7e-c31d-4ed1-9a5f-af5feeb0760a/News+A+panamensis+PSI.jpg Home - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1667994102517-M9Y7DHZJBWB84ME4VTOP/Murphy_pb_cover.jpg Home - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/d1514221-a172-40a9-af43-7a5b7b234daa/Sponsors+copy.jpg Home - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1699467181321-VLA87J3SLSNKJ7AVFQZL/DALL%25C2%25B7E%2B2023-11-08%2B16.34.jpg Home https://cardonalab.uk/projects daily 0.75 2024-12-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1564925258318-TSUY2MPZKGG01KRRFQ41/Figure+1.jpg Projects Evolution of Type II reaction centre proteins. For more information visit Cardona et al. 2019, Geobiology. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1627658384136-7061GTRKAZXLX8Z040GK/210713_molecular_evolution_tanai_027b.jpg Projects - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1604571871550-KUH9KVQSEPVRIYOW5DW6/D1_diversity.jpg Projects https://cardonalab.uk/publications daily 0.75 2025-10-04 https://cardonalab.uk/labmembers daily 0.75 2025-05-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/852047c2-3d84-4d8c-a872-29f01656c417/IMG_7705.jpeg Lab members - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1627654916890-ILNF47J9IFQV3T8IPQ5N/210713_molecular_evolution_tanai_029b.jpg Lab members https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/1603452468227-MFZFHCMHQTJBDJ2924MP/IMG_3729_Original.jpg Lab members https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/eba37e19-a2fe-4291-9488-3654bee4524f/NEW_IMG_0969+copy.jpg Lab members https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/167a3f9d-9934-438e-90ab-334de3ba46a6/hannes_giovanazzi_profile_photo.jpg Lab members - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/69e91f37-21cc-436e-aac0-1599f8e4ce6f/tmp_9b2c66ef-8dfb-43ee-bd0a-a479978130c6.jpeg Lab members - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/9ede94a9-d4c6-4f86-a5d1-bfbfdfae8e8c/imperial+pic.png Lab members - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://cardonalab.uk/joinus daily 0.75 2025-02-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/ccc0f857-9b26-4a49-a90c-41f85197ce49/60981b6e-f353-41d7-90f9-d4ff39dadfee+copy.jpg Join us - Make it stand out The team as of January 2025 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d459191826a910001f70a78/dcd7e1de-3a8e-4f5f-bb45-ec6f1d966175/Fogg+winter.jpg Join us G. E. Fogg Building, a crisp late autumn afternoon https://cardonalab.uk/read-me-om daily 0.75 2025-05-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5052176b84aeb45fa5cfcc83/1377097104716-HDI53XJVV0DKZ24A3T68/51e453dee4b06abd3403c22e.png Read Me https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5052176b84aeb45fa5cfcc83/1377096775448-0L7B4Q54H1VLOGFF1DPR/synthetica+%2820130821%29.jpg Read Me https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5052176b84aeb45fa5cfcc83/1377096507573-1MU42OOOOGIM9URAJ9D9/515c4225e4b0afec1218b21e.png Read Me