SymbNET Online Seminar Series – Jan Van der Meer (UNIL) & Tina Keller Costa (IST)

Dear all,

On 19^th May (Thursday), we will have the next session of the SymbNET Seminar Series:

Culturing and managing complex soil microbiomes.
Soils harbour among the most species-complex known microbial communities, which are thought to be key for plant health and ecosystem services like element cycling, carbon storage, or water purification. How soil communities form or how their equilibria maintain is largely unknown. In order to better understand intricacies of soil community growth, we focus on developing methodologies to reproducibly culture communities, measure interspecific interactions and provide management strategies to introduce specific metabolic functionalities.   

The Microbiome of Octocorals: Community structure, Function, and possible Metabolic Interactions
Octocorals (Octocorallia, Cnidaria) are an integral part of benthic marine ecosystems. They increase habitat complexity and biodiversity and play key roles in coastal food chains, helping to regulate primary and secondary production. They are found in association with various microorganisms, including micro-eukaryotes, prokaryotes, and viruses. However, the role of their microbial symbionts is still poorly understood. In this talk, I will present our research on the microbiomes of temperate octocoral species using cultivation-dependent and -independent, metagenomics approaches. I will identify functional features that collectively may contribute to the stabilization of symbiosis, and that suggest niche partitioning and metabolic specialization among symbionts which could contribute to the plasticity and adaptability of the octocoral holobiont in changing marine environments.

These will be monthly online seminars on host-microbe symbiosis, genomics, and metabolomics, with two talks from SymbNET researchers.

Slots of 30 minutes to talk with the speakers will be available after the seminars. Priority will be given to students and Postdocs from SymbNET members Institutions. If you are interested, please contact Mariana Simões at symbnet@igc.gulbenkian.pt.

These seminars are open and free of charge. You can find more information at https://igc.events.idloom.com/symbnet_seminars.

If you already registered for SymbNET activities before, you will receive a link to this seminar closer to the date. If not, please register at https://igc.events.idloom.com/symbnet_seminars.

We are looking forward to your participation.