20.11.2024 Experimental evolution sheds insights on the intracellular lifestyle

Prof. Anthony Poole from the University of Auckland came all the way from New Zealand to the SYNMIKRO lecture hall.

On 19 November, we welcomed Anthony Poole to RTG 2937. The professor of biological sciences at the University of Auckland, New Zealand is on a two-week visit to Marburg  and talked about how "Experimental evolution sheds insights on the intracellular lifestyle" to the MiNu PhDs and postdocs as well as a broad range of scientists in the audience. The lecture was based on the observation that intracellularity leads to some quite unusual changes to genomes and to nucleotide metabolism. He presented the results of two studies that make use of experimental evolution for to examine the evolution of two phenomena: firstly, work from the Poole lab on the impact of knocking out genes for ribonucleotide reduction in the bacterium E. coli, and secondly, the serial bottlenecking of E. coli to see whether genetic drift hastens the emergence of genomic errors that can be corrected via slippage (during) or via editing (after) transcription.

The Poole lab is primarily interested in molecular evolution, particularly of early life, early genomes and of the eukaryote cell. They use both experimental and computational approaches in their work.  Click here for more information about his research.

Thank you for the impulses you gave us, Anthony! We hope you enjoy your stay as much as we do.

Anthony Poole will be in Marburg until the end of November. If you would like to meet with him, please contact our PI Marcus Lechner (Project 3) to get in touch, or drop by Anthony's temporary office at the rear of the SYNMIKRO building on the ground floor close to the back entrance (A 043).