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- Ass. Prof. A. MURAT EREN: Teasing apart evolutionary processes that shape SAR11 biogeography
Ass. Prof. A. MURAT EREN: Teasing apart evolutionary processes that shape SAR11 biogeography
Abstract
The astonishing diversity of SAR11 in marine habitats challenges not only emerging operational boundaries defined for microbial 'species' but also state-of-the-art strategies to study microbial population genetics. With its ubiquity in surface seawater samples, extensive diversity in sequence space, and unique evolutionary history, SAR11 is one of the most exciting puzzles of contemporary microbiology. In this seminar I will describe our recent attempts to integrate multiple 'omics strategies and analytical approaches to take a deeper look into the ecological and evolutionary forces that maintain the genomic heterogeneity of cosmopolitan microbial populations. While our findings suggest environmentally-mediated selection as the main driver of SAR11 diversity and biogeography, the new approaches that emerge from our investigation, such as mapping environmental genetic heterogeneity to predicted protein structures, brings us closer to understanding determinants of fitness at resolutions that matter.
To join the seminar, please use the following link:
To learn more about A. Murat Eren and his research, look here.
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