Research
I study the rate and molecular spectrum of mutations arising in microbial species, exposed to both natural background environments and to potential environmental mutagens such as sublethal concentrations of antibiotics/herbicides/pesticides.
Mutation is the ultimate source of genetic variation. However, mutations are notoriously hard to catch, because of their rarity and easy loss due to purifying selection. Mutation accumulation procedures conquer these difficulties by setting up large number of replicate cell lines from a single cell ancestor and single-cell/colony transfers on rich media to maximize genetic drift. Most studies on spontaneous mutations were based on indirect methods to derive mutation rates, for example, synonymous site or pseudogene mutation rate through DNA sequence comparison between different organisms, reporter construct based on only one or a handful genes, or fitness assays on mutation accumulation lines. Since 2008, when whole-genome sequencing began to be commercially available, people started directly detecting spontaneous mutations by deeply sequencing the mutation accumulation lines. Besides, spontaneous mutations, my previous research extended to environmental mutagenesis using mutation accumulation techniques combined with whole-genome sequencing (MA/WGS).
My current research fields are:
Genome evolution and instability of deep sea organisms,
Functional genomics of microbial reproduction,
Antibiotic resistance evolution
To be updated soon...
Mutation is the ultimate source of genetic variation. However, mutations are notoriously hard to catch, because of their rarity and easy loss due to purifying selection. Mutation accumulation procedures conquer these difficulties by setting up large number of replicate cell lines from a single cell ancestor and single-cell/colony transfers on rich media to maximize genetic drift. Most studies on spontaneous mutations were based on indirect methods to derive mutation rates, for example, synonymous site or pseudogene mutation rate through DNA sequence comparison between different organisms, reporter construct based on only one or a handful genes, or fitness assays on mutation accumulation lines. Since 2008, when whole-genome sequencing began to be commercially available, people started directly detecting spontaneous mutations by deeply sequencing the mutation accumulation lines. Besides, spontaneous mutations, my previous research extended to environmental mutagenesis using mutation accumulation techniques combined with whole-genome sequencing (MA/WGS).
My current research fields are:
Genome evolution and instability of deep sea organisms,
Functional genomics of microbial reproduction,
Antibiotic resistance evolution
To be updated soon...