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Fields of expertise:
Metagenomics
Applied Microbiology
Genes and enzymes for biotechnology
Academic Activities:
Editorial board member of Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
Review services for journals (JBAC, AMB, JMMB, Nature Rev. Microbiol, Nature Rev. Genetics)
Editor of Molecular Methods in Metagenomics (publication end of 2009).
Head of the organizing committee of the Fourth European Conference on Prokaryotic Genomics (ProkaGENOMICS 2009)
Research interests:
The major research interest is to explore and to exploit the enormous and largely untapped physiological, metabolic, and genetic diversity of environmental microorganisms by culture- independent metagenomic approaches. This comprises the direct isolation of high-quality DNA from various habitats such as soils, marine sediments, freshwater sediments, glacier ice, and volcanic regions and the construction of small-insert and large-insert metagenomic libraries from the isolated DNA. In this way, approximately 100 metagenomic libraries from different worldwide environments have been generated. Subsequently, function-driven or sequence-based screening of the constructed metagenomic libraries and recovery of novel genes and gene products are performed. This work has led, i.e., to the successful identification and characterization of novel oxidoreductases, B12-dependent dehydratases, lipases, proteases, antiporters, and genes conferring antibiotic resistance from metagenomes. The phylogenetic diversity represented in the studied metagenomes is analyzed by characterization of 16S rRNA gene diversity. To gain insights into the genomes of the uncultivated microorganisms present in the metagenomes partial sequencing (snapshot sequencing) of the constructed libraries is carried out. Currently, the research is focused on metagenomes from extreme environments such as glaciers, volcanic soils, and hot springs. In addition to metagenomic approaches, enrichment and isolation of novel single microorganisms from extreme environments is also performed.
One other research interest is the molecular and biochemical characterization of genes and gene products involved in the anaerobic conversion of glycerol to 1,3-propanediol by Escherichia blattae, Citrobacter freundii, and Clostridium pasteurianum. In our group, the key enzymes for this pathway and the corresponding genes have been identified and characterized. The coenzyme B12-dependent glycerol dehydratase is of special interest because its reaction proceeds via a radical mechanism and its activity is the limiting factor for the biotechnological production of 1,3-propanediol. In addition, the group is working together with the Göttingen Genomics Laboratory on sequencing and annotation of the Escherichia blattae genome.
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