Lecture: Genetic Diversity of Natural Products in Cyanobacteria 

Lecturer: Dr. Muriel Gugger, Collection of Cyanobacteria, Department of Microbiology, Institut Pasteur, France 

Time: 9:45am, Nov 3, 2016 

Location: Meeting Room 205 of Administration Building  

Introduction of Lecturer:  

Muriel obtained her Ph.D in 2001 from the University Paris VII, based on her studies on toxic planktonic cyanobacteria, under the Co-direction of Pr Kaarina SIVONEN from Helsinki University where she worked 2 years and 4 months, and of Pr Alain COUTE from MNHN Paris. She joined the lab of Pr Lucien HOFFMANN at CRP-GL in Luxembourg for 2 years and half post-doctoral fellowship on the European Project MIDICHIP, followed by another 2 years and half post-doctoral fellowship in Pr Cécile BERNARD lab at MNHN, Paris. During these two positions, she investigated the diversity and evolution of the branching cyanobacteria, as well as the bloom forming species and their cyanotoxins, notably on neurotoxin dog poisonings. After a short period working as Project Manager on wastewater management, Muriel joined the lab of Dr Nicole TANDEAU DE MARSAC at the Institut Pasteur in August 2007 as Adjunct Curator of the PCC to work with Rosi RIPPKA. This led to her current position as Head of the Collection of Cyanobacteria in July 2009. Her main interests are the evolution of the cyanobacterial phylum, and the diversity of the genes involved in the synthesis of cyanotoxins and natural products in Cyanobacteria. 

Recent Publications: 

1.      Echenique-Subiabre I, Villeneuve A, Golubic S, Turquet J, Humbert JF, Gugger M. Influence of local and global environmental parameters on the composition of cyanobacterial mats in a tropical lagoon. Microb Ecol. 2015; 69:234-44. 

2.      Calteau A, Fewer DP, Latifi A, Coursin T, Laurent T, Jokela J, Kerfeld CA, Sivonen K, Piel J, Gugger M. Phylum-wide comparative genomics unravel the diversity of secondary metabolism in Cyanobacteria. BMC Genomics. 2014; 15:977. 

3.      Shih PM, Wu D, Latifi A, Axen SD, Fewer DP, Talla E, Calteau A, Cai F, Tandeau de Marsac N, Rippka R, Herdman M, Sivonen K, Coursin T, Laurent T, Goodwin L, Nolan M, Davenport KW, Han CS, Rubin EM, Eisen JA, Woyke T, Gugger M, Kerfeld CA. Improving the coverage of the cyanobacterial phylum using diversity-driven genome sequencing. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013; 110:1053-8.