Model Organisms and their Microbiomes
Choanoflagellates
Choanoflagellates are a diverse group of free-living, unicellular and colonial flagellate eukaryotes widely regarded as the closest living relatives of animals. These organisms are found in aquatic environments worldwide, from marine to freshwater ecosystems, where they play important roles in microbial food webs. Their name derives from their distinctive morphology: a single flagellum surrounded by a funnel-shaped “collar” of interconnected microvilli, which they use to capture bacteria and other particles from the surrounding water. Choanoflagellates share striking structural similarities with choanocytes, specialized feeding cells found in sponges, highlighting a key evolutionary link between unicellular organisms and early multicellular animals. Choanoflagellates and their microbiomes serve as powerful model systems for studying the origins of animal life and and the transition to multicellularity.
Cnidaria
Hydrozoa is a group within the phylum Cnidaria and includes all the freshwater as well as many marine forms, and has both sessile members, such as Hydra, and colonial swimmers.
Microbial Symbionts
Microbes associated with marine invertebrates are known to possess remarkable biosynthetic potential. By integrating innovative bioassays with advanced genome sequencing and mining approaches, we uncover novel secondary metabolites featuring unique chemical structures and promising pharmaceutical applications.
Morphogenic Signaling Molecules
More and more examples show that bacterially produced small molecules contribute to the host’s fitness and development by acting as biological information carrier to maintain and modulate the multilateral interaction network. But fully characterized examples are still rare, and the mode-of-actions of those molecules are often not well understood.
Field Research
We collect biosamples directly from field stations in Sylt and the Wadden Sea to monitor microbial communities associated with Cnidaria and their habitat.
