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I am a Heisenbergprofessor at the CAU Kiel and lead a work group focusing on 'Marine Symbiosis'
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MY RESEARCH MY METHODS
My research focuses on intracellular symbiosis and the innovations that can come from such intimate associations. To gain fundamental insights into intracellular collaboration, I work with basal marine invertebrates that are associated with specific and selected sets of bacterial partners. All of the basal animal taxa exclusively occur in the aquatic, and compared to higher and terrestrial animals, very little is known of intracellular symbioses in these enigmatic hosts. As much as I have a zoological background, I also love and apply molecular biology, microbiology and bioinformatics, and I never forget to get wet as a marine biologist raised in the Viennese style. My broad set of skills and interests is reflected in my interdisciplinary science that spans organismal biology, molecular ecology, evolutionary biology, and biodiversity research. Many of my research insights were sparked by analyzing sequencing data, both short and long reads, depending on the question. To make a stronger case, I often collaborate with colleagues from around the globe that add, e.g., quantitative imaging, proteomics, or metabolomics to test our predictions from phylogenetic, genomic, or transcriptomic analyses.
We managed to cultivate both the Paracatenula as well as the Trichoplax species I focus my work on. While placozoans are easy to keep, this breakthrough makes Paracatenula the first chemosynthetic animal that can be cultivated.
Integrated into my organismal work, my team developed and published software tools (gbtools and phyloFlash) for analyzing genomic and metagenomic NGS read data. We strive to make our bioinformatics solutions as well-documented as possible and design them to be widely applicable across all domains of life.
We managed to cultivate both the Paracatenula as well as the Trichoplax species I focus my work on. While placozoans are easy to keep, this breakthrough makes Paracatenula the first chemosynthetic animal that can be cultivated.
Integrated into my organismal work, my team developed and published software tools (gbtools and phyloFlash) for analyzing genomic and metagenomic NGS read data. We strive to make our bioinformatics solutions as well-documented as possible and design them to be widely applicable across all domains of life.
Research and Key Publications
C corresponding author, L Last authorship indicating study PI, S shared first authorship, contributions by members of my group are underlined
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TRICHOPLAX SYMBIOSIS CHARACTERIZATION 2019
Gruber-Vodicka, HR, N Leisch, M Kleiner, T Hinzke, M Liebeke, M McFall-Ngai, MG Hadfield and N Dubilier (2019). "The Trichoplax microbiome: the simplest animal lives in an intimate symbiosis with two intracellular bacteria." Nature Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-019-0475-9 C KENTROPHOROS SYMBIONT PHYSIOLOGY 2019
Seah, BKB, CP Antony, B Huettel, J Zarzycki, L Schada von Borzyskowski, T Erb, A Kouris, M Kleiner, M Liebeke, N Dubilier and HR Gruber-Vodicka (2019). "Sulfur-oxidizing symbionts without canonical genes for autotrophic CO2 fixation." mBio 10(3), e01112-19 L PARACATENULA SYMBIONT PHYSIOLOGY 2019
Jäckle, O, BKB Seah, M Tietjen, N Leisch, M Liebeke, M Kleiner, JS Berg and HR Gruber-Vodicka (2019). "A chemosynthetic symbiont with a drastically reduced genome serves as primary energy storage in the marine flatworm Paracatenula." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 116(17) 8505-8514. C,L KENTROPHOROS SYMBIONT IDENTIFICATION 2017
Seah, BKB, T Schwaha, J-M Volland, B Huettel, N Dubilier and HR Gruber-Vodicka (2017). "Specificity in diversity: single origin of a widespread ciliate-bacteria symbiosis." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 284(1858): 20170764. C,L PARACATENULA SYMBIONT IDENTIFICATION 2011
Gruber-Vodicka, HR, U Dirks, N Leisch, C Baranyi, K Stoecker, S Bulgheresi, NR Heindl, M Horn, C Lott, A Loy, M Wagner and J Ott (2011). "Paracatenula, an ancient symbiosis between thiotrophic Alphaproteobacteria and catenulid flatworms." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 108(29): 12078-12083. C |
My research has covered new grounds of animal microbe interactions in several aspects. In my first line of research that focuses on the marine flatworm Paracatenula, we were able to expand the known diversity of chemosynthetic symbionts in animals with the characterization of the first chemosynthetic symbiont group from the Alphaproteobacteria. We could show that the Paracatenula – Ca. Riegeria symbiosis is the oldest extant symbiosis between animals and bacteria, and the symbionts have the highest share of bacterial biomass in an animal host. The symbionts efficiently and elegantly nourish their host with a drastically reduced gene set compared to free-living relatives of approximately 1000 genes. Furthermore, we could show that with massive storage capabilities for carbon and energy, the symbionts take over the main energy storage for the consortium, a function that is typically performed by the animal. In contrast to all other nutritional symbioses, the symbionts are not digested but transfer nutrients via the secretion of outer membrane vesicles.
My second line of research centers on one of the simplest animal groups, the placozoans. We could show that the placozoan Trichoplax is stably associated with two intracellular bacteria. One is phylogenetically very remote and we could show that it represents the first finding of a new phylum of intracellular bacteria in animals in the last 5 decades. For the second symbiont, a Rickettsiales, we found that it defies its highly detrimental parasitic relatives and inhabits the rough endoplasmatic reticulum of its host without detrimental effects.
In a third line of research we could show that the ciliate Kentrophoros is associated with gammaproteobacterial symbionts - 'Kentron'. These symbionts, that initially were thought to be chemoautotrophic, can not fix carbon autotrophically - they are chemolithoheterotrophs that efficiently recycle small organics from the environment.
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Get In Touch
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We are hiring! PostDoc and technician position available! Or are you Interested in collaborating? Want to simply chat about my science?
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IMAGE CREDITS | All images on this page were taken by HGV except the beach walk shot and the underwater shot with the core both done by Manuel Kleiner, the Paracatenula in the sand that was imaged by Oliver Jäckle and the icons for the animals that were designed by Brandon Seah and that are available for Paracatenula, Trichoplax and several more taxa at Wikimedia Commons.
