Bioinformatics, Microbiome, Bacteriophages
Interactions between mobile genetic elements and bacteria
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is the process by which organisms acquire genetic material from a non-parental organism and has a crucial role in shaping the evolution and ecology of prokaryotes. Mobile genetic elements (MGE) mediate conjugation and transduction, both major mechanisms of HGT. MGE genetic architecture consists on arrays of genetic modules often shared between different types of MGEs, suggesting that recombination drives the emergence of new types of MGEs. My group seeks to develop a an integrative computational framework combining multi-omics and network analyses to investigate the complex interactions between MGEs and their microbial hosts at ecological and molecular levels.