Publications in peer reviewed journals

4 Publications found
  • Global biogeography of chemosynthetic symbionts reveals both localized and globally distributed symbiont groups.

    Osvatic JT, Wilkins LGE, Leibrecht L, Leray M, Zauner S, Polzin J, Camacho Y, Gros O, van Gils JA, Eisen JA, Petersen JM, Yuen B
    2021 - Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 29: in press


    In the ocean, most hosts acquire their symbionts from the environment. Due to the immense spatial scales involved, our understanding of the biogeography of hosts and symbionts in marine systems is patchy, although this knowledge is essential for understanding fundamental aspects of symbiosis such as host-symbiont specificity and evolution. Lucinidae is the most species-rich and widely distributed family of marine bivalves hosting autotrophic bacterial endosymbionts. Previous molecular surveys identified location-specific symbiont types that "promiscuously" form associations with multiple divergent cooccurring host species. This flexibility of host-microbe pairings is thought to underpin their global success, as it allows hosts to form associations with locally adapted symbionts. We used metagenomics to investigate the biodiversity, functional variability, and genetic exchange among the endosymbionts of 12 lucinid host species from across the globe. We report a cosmopolitan symbiont species, Thiodiazotropha taylori, associated with multiple lucinid host species. T. taylori has achieved more success at dispersal and establishing symbioses with lucinids than any other symbiont described thus far. This discovery challenges our understanding of symbiont dispersal and location-specific colonization and suggests both symbiont and host flexibility underpin the ecological and evolutionary success of the lucinid symbiosis.

  • Multiplexed detection of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory infections in high throughput by SARSeq.

    Yelagandula R, Bykov A, Vogt A, Heinen R, Özkan E, Strobl MM, Baar JC, Uzunova K, Hajdusits B, Kordic D, Suljic E, Kurtovic-Kozaric A, Izetbegovic S, Schaeffer J, Hufnagl P, Zoufaly A, Seitz T, Födinger M, Allerberger F, Stark A, Cochella L, Elling U
    2021 - Nat Commun, 1: 3132


    The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the need for massively-parallel, cost-effective tests monitoring viral spread. Here we present SARSeq, saliva analysis by RNA sequencing, a method to detect SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses on tens of thousands of samples in parallel. SARSeq relies on next generation sequencing of multiple amplicons generated in a multiplexed RT-PCR reaction. Two-dimensional, unique dual indexing, using four indices per sample, enables unambiguous and scalable assignment of reads to individual samples. We calibrate SARSeq on SARS-CoV-2 synthetic RNA, virions, and hundreds of human samples of various types. Robustness and sensitivity were virtually identical to quantitative RT-PCR. Double-blinded benchmarking to gold standard quantitative-RT-PCR performed by human diagnostics laboratories confirms this high sensitivity. SARSeq can be used to detect Influenza A and B viruses and human rhinovirus in parallel, and can be expanded for detection of other pathogens. Thus, SARSeq is ideally suited for differential diagnostic of infections during a pandemic.


    2021 - ISME J, In press




    2021 - ISME J, 3: 833-847



Book chapters and other publications

No matching database entries were found.