Seminar Series – 21 Apr

SymbNET Online Seminar Series

Monthly seminars on host-microbe symbiosis, genomics, and metabolomics, with two talks from SymbNET researchers.

The seminars are open and free to all, but registration is required.

Please register once for the entire seminar series.

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15:00 WEST / 16:00 CEST

 

Speaker: Nils Raedecker 

Affiliation: Laboratory for Biological Geochemistry, EPFL-UNIL, Switzerland

Title: Resource competition regulates the cnidarian-algal symbiosis

Abstract: The evolutionary success of the cnidarian-algal symbiosis has given rise to the formation of coral reef ecosystems. Yet, climate change and other anthropogenic impacts are disrupting this symbiosis at increasing frequencies and scales. Understanding the collapse of this symbiosis will not be possible without considering its ecological foundation: the nutrient exchange between coral host and algal symbiont. Combining physiological, Omics, and NanoSIMS imaging approaches, our work focuses on metabolic regulation of symbiotic interactions in the onset, maintenance, and breakdown of the cnidarian-algal symbiosis. Our findings suggest that stable mutualistic nutrient exchange in the symbiosis can passively arise from competition for inorganic nutrients between the host and its symbionts. A breakdown of this resource competition during heat stress, in turn, destabilizes nutrient cycling and thus the symbiosis itself. Taken together, we conclude that the functioning of this symbiosis is a direct consequence of the coupling of heterotrophic and phototrophic metabolisms. While this passive regulation has underpinned the evolutionary success of coral holobionts for millions of years, it also renders these organisms highly vulnerable to the rapid environmental change of the Anthropocene.

 

15:30 WEST / 16:30 CEST

Speaker: Ricardo Henriques

Affiliation: Optical Cell Biology Lab, FCG-IGC, Portugal

Title: Open technologies for Super-Resolution and Machine Learning in BioImaging

Abstract: Super-resolution microscopy has become essential for the study of nanoscale biological processes. This type of imaging often requires specialised methods to collect and process a large volume of recorded data and extract quantitative information. In recent years, our team and collaborators have built an open-source ecosystem of computational, biochemical and optical approaches for live-cell super-resolution microscopy, designed to combine high performance and ease of use. This talk will present some of these approaches such as SRRF, SQUIRREL, VirusMapper, Super-Beacons, ZeroCostDL4Mic and vLume, showcasing their application in the study of biological processes such as viral infection.

 

SymbNET Seminars