Diversité et écologie moléculaire des cyanobactéries

Annick Wilmotte

Senior Research Associate FRS_FNRS

Centre for Protein Engineering (CIP)
Bât.B6a Quartier Agora
allée du six Août 11
4000 Liège 1
Belgique
+32 4 3663387
+32 4 3663364

DETAILED INFORMATION

pUBLICATION LIST

Research interests

• Molecular approaches to taxonomy and ecology of microorganisms, with a focus on cyanobacteria
• Microbial biodiversity and phylogeny
• Planktonic cyanobacteria forming toxic blooms in surface waters
• Biogeography of polar cyanobacteria (Antarctic and Arctic)
• Genomic research on Arthrospira ('spirulina') and polar cyanobacteria, and search for secondary metabolites
• Importance of cyanobacteria in the search for life traces in fossil rocks, including the UV-screening pigments
• Conservation of the Antarctic ecosystems and microbial terrestrial biotopes

Research summary

Cyanobacteria are the core of our research, focussed on a polyphasic approach to their diversity, phylogeny, biogeography and taxonomy. This means that we include, as far as possible, cultivation-dependent and –independent methods, and phenotypic (morphological) and molecular characterizations. The studied cyanobacterial populations come from a variety of biotopes: Azolla symbioses, blooms in freshwater lakes, marine plankton, rock surfaces, microbial mats, soil crusts, biofilms... We had the chance to be actively involved in polar research and got very interested in the biodiversity and biogeography of Antarctic and Arctic cyanobacteria, where we recently could apply High-Throughput Sequencing methods.

Cyanobacteria are members of microbial communities, and thus, we are also involved in the more holistic studies of all organisms present and interacting with cyanobacteria.

Cyanobacteria have been very important for the evolution of our planet, and we also collaborate with Prof. E. Javaux (Astrobiology, Uliège) on the isolation and characterization of the compounds, mostly pigments, that they can be used as ‘traces of life’ in astrobiological studies. Moreover, cyanobacteria seem to have a diversity of UV-screening pigments (e.g. scytonemin, gloeocapsin) that are not yet so well known.

We have built a collection of strains that has formed the core of the BCCM/ULC culture collection of cyanobacteria that was supported since 2011 by the Belgian Coordinated Collections of Microorganisms (funded by BELSPO). This public collection, currently contains one of the largest collections of documented (sub)polar cyanobacteria worldwide.

As cyanobacteria are prolific producers of secondary compounds, we have started to determine and explore the genome sequences of some BCCM/ULC strains for gene clusters known to produce bioactive molecules. The activities are also tested in collaboration with P. Jacques (MIPI, Ulg) and P. Becker (BCCM/IHEM, Brussels).

Lab members

• Beatriz Roncero Ramos (Postdoc)
• Anne-Catherine Ahn (Scientist)
• Valentina Savaglia (PhD student)
• Benoit Durieux (PhD student)
• Wannes Van Hassel (PhD student)
• Kim Beets (Technician)
• Mathilde Ferriere (Technician)

Selected publications

• Kurmayer, R., Sivonen, K., Wilmotte, A., & Salmaso, N. (Eds.). (2017). Molecular Tools for the Detection and Quantification of Toxigenic Cyanobacteria (This edition first published 2017). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and sons LTD.
• Pessi, I. S., Puschkareva, E., Lara, Y., Borderie, F., Wilmotte, A., & Elster, J. (2019). Marked Succession of Cyanobacterial Communities Following Glacier Retreat in the High Arctic. Microbial Ecology, 77, 136-147.
• Hughes, K., Constable, A., Frenot, Y., Lopez-Martinez, J., McIvor, E., Njåstad, B., Terauds, A., Liggett, D., Roldan, G., Wilmotte, A., & Xavier, J. C. (2018). Antarctic environmental protection: strengthening the links between science and governance. Environmental Science and Policy, 83, 86-95.
• Cornet, L., Bertrand, A., Hanikenne, M., Javaux, E., Wilmotte, A., & Baurain, D. (2018). Metagenomic assembly of new (sub)polar Cyanobacteria and their associated microbiome from non-axenic cultures. Microbial Genomics, 4.
• Pessi, I. S., Lara, Y., Durieu, B., Maalouf, P., Verleyen, E., & Wilmotte, A. (2018). Community structure and distribution of benthic cyanobacteria in Antarctic lacustrine microbial mats. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 94(5), 042.