EESS talk on "Metagenomics-guided discovery of new microbial biotransformations"
Event details
| Date | 03.05.2022 |
| Hour | 12:15 › 13:15 |
| Speaker | Dr Serina Robinson, Group Leader Tenure Track, Department of Microbiology, EAWAG |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
Abstract:
Over 350’000 different chemicals and chemical mixtures are documented for human production and use. Many of these chemicals have negative effects on ecosystems and human health, driving a need for their environmental removal. Microbes are adept at degrading anthropogenic chemicals, but the vast majority of microbial biotransformations are characterized from bacteria cultivable in the laboratory. Environmental microbiome surveys using ‘omics techniques reveal we have cultivated less than 1% of total microbial biodiversity. From the ‘uncultivated majority’ we still lack a functional understanding of thousands of protein families which play as-yet unknown roles in microbial metabolism. In this talk, I will describe our research on cultivation-independent techniques to characterize the chemical biotransformation potential of marine and aquatic microbiomes. Specifically, I will cover our recent functional characterization of new enzymes involved in bioactive peptide modification by an abundant marine bacterium belonging to the uncultivated phylum, ‘Candidatus Eremiobacterota.’ In addition, I will describe our new research directions on pollutant transformations by uncultivated Planctomycetes. As an outlook, I will explore how metagenome mining and synthetic biology techniques can be combined to link genotype to metabolic phenotype in environmental microbiomes.
Short biography:
Serina L. Robinson started as a tenure track group leader in the Department of Environmental Microbiology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) in September 2021 following an ETH Zurich postdoctoral fellowship in the Institute of Microbiology advised by Prof. Dr. Jörn Piel. She obtained her PhD in Microbiology and MSc in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA (advisor: Larry Wackett). Her current research focuses on the characterization of microbial enzymes from aquatic microbiomes involved in specialized metabolism including pollutant biotransformations.
Over 350’000 different chemicals and chemical mixtures are documented for human production and use. Many of these chemicals have negative effects on ecosystems and human health, driving a need for their environmental removal. Microbes are adept at degrading anthropogenic chemicals, but the vast majority of microbial biotransformations are characterized from bacteria cultivable in the laboratory. Environmental microbiome surveys using ‘omics techniques reveal we have cultivated less than 1% of total microbial biodiversity. From the ‘uncultivated majority’ we still lack a functional understanding of thousands of protein families which play as-yet unknown roles in microbial metabolism. In this talk, I will describe our research on cultivation-independent techniques to characterize the chemical biotransformation potential of marine and aquatic microbiomes. Specifically, I will cover our recent functional characterization of new enzymes involved in bioactive peptide modification by an abundant marine bacterium belonging to the uncultivated phylum, ‘Candidatus Eremiobacterota.’ In addition, I will describe our new research directions on pollutant transformations by uncultivated Planctomycetes. As an outlook, I will explore how metagenome mining and synthetic biology techniques can be combined to link genotype to metabolic phenotype in environmental microbiomes.
Short biography:
Serina L. Robinson started as a tenure track group leader in the Department of Environmental Microbiology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) in September 2021 following an ETH Zurich postdoctoral fellowship in the Institute of Microbiology advised by Prof. Dr. Jörn Piel. She obtained her PhD in Microbiology and MSc in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA (advisor: Larry Wackett). Her current research focuses on the characterization of microbial enzymes from aquatic microbiomes involved in specialized metabolism including pollutant biotransformations.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
- This event is internal
Organizer
- EESS - IIE
Contact
- Prof. Janet Hering, UPHERING EPFL and Director EAWAG