Evolutionary Dynamics of the Haitian Cholera Outbreak Strains

Yan and Fabini were part of a huge collaborative group, lead by Dr. Lee Katz and Dr. Cheryl Tarr of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that published an article today in mBio entitled "Evolutionary dynamics of Vibrio cholerae O1 following a single-source introduction to Haiti." The article shows that the source of cholera, caused by V. cholerae, that hit Haiti in 2010 following the devastating earthquake came from a single source and was not introduced repeatedly to Haiti.

Other members of the group were researchers and public health officials from the National Microbiology Laboratory – Public Health Agency of Canada, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Georgia Institute of Technology, Pacific Biosciences, Haiti National Public Health Laboratory, and Harvard University.

The manuscript was received, accepted (unconditionally), and published all within SIX WEEKS. The release was also picked up by science news blogs EurekAlert! and mBiosphere.

The radiation of numerous lineages of V. cholerae O1 strains from a single sequence type that predominated in the early part of the Haiti cholera epidemic (from Katz et al., 2013)

2013 CIFAR-IMB General Meeting – Whistler, British Columbia

The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) annual meeting of members of the Integrated Microbial Biodiversity (IMB) Program was held in Whistler, British Columbia on May 14-17, 2013. As IMB Fellow, Yan could bring one student to the conference. Tania attended the conference with Yan this year, and she presented a poster entitled "Environmental multilocus sequence typing of natural Vibrio cholerae populations."

Lateral Gene Transfer and Its Effects on Microbial Diversity

Yan and Tania recently published a book chapter in the Encyclopedia of Metagenomics entitled "Lateral gene transfer and microbial diversity," with co-author Dr. Rebecca Case, also from the Department of Biological Sciences. The chapter discusses the processes involved in lateral gene transfer, the acquisition of genetic material from individuals that are not an organism's direct cellular parent, and their consequences on the diversity of microbial populations.

Generating genetic diversity in bacteria and archaea (from Nasreen et al., 2013)

2013 R.E. Peter Biology Conference

The 2013 Dr. Richard E. Peter Biology Conference was held at the Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences, University of Alberta on March 7-8. 2013. This annual student-run conference is organized by the Biological Sciences Graduate Student Association of the Department of Biological Sciences to showcase life sciences research conducted by students at the University of Alberta and institutions across the province.

Research projects from the Microbiology 492 class (Environmental Microbiology Laboratory) of Dr. Rebecca Case were presented at the conference. Paul co-authored the poster "Influence of vertically inherited symbionts and environmental bacteria on microbial communities in glass sponges." Both Tania and Fabini co-authored the poster "Microbial community analysis of wastewater tertiary effluent using 16S rRNA PCR-DGGE." These were presented by fellow graduate students, Anna Bramucci and Albert Rosana, respectively.

This year's internal keynote speaker was Dr. Heather Proctor (Department of Biological Sciences). Dr. Lenore Fahrig from Carleton University was the external keynote speaker.

Paul's Second M.Sc. Defense

With a bit of delay, Paul passes his Master's thesis defense in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Graz, Austria. His thesis title is "Evolutionary histories of Lake Tanganyika cichlids differ between habitats: phylogenetic evidence from two deepwater tribes." He now has two Master's degrees (the other in Molecular Microbiology, also from the University of Graz).

Better late than never. Congratulations!

Tania and Fabini Join the Lab

The Boucher Lab welcomes Ph.D students Tania Nasreen and Fabini Orata.

Tania holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Microbiology from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Fabini has a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the University of the Philippines. They are both recipients of the University of Alberta Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship.

Paul is glad to have new company in the lab.

Tania (top) and Fabini attracting goats with KFC (bottom)

ISME14: The Power of the Small – Copenhagen, Denmark

Yan recently attended and presented a poster at the 14th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology (ISME), which took place in the Bella Center, Copenhagen, Denmark on August 19-24, 2012. The theme for this year is "The Power of the Small." Yan's poster title is "The ecology of Vibrio metecus, Vibrio cholerae's cryptic sister taxa."

The 15th ISME will be held in Seoul, South Korea on August 24-29, 2014.

Paul Joins the Lab

Paul Kirchberger joins the Boucher Lab as the first graduate student. He is originally from Graz, Austria. He holds a B.Sc. in Molecular Biology and an M.Sc. in Molecular Microbiology from the University of Graz.

Paul, together with Yan, will attend the annual meeting of the Integrated Microbial Biodiversity Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research on May 8-12, 2012 in Québec City, Québec. He will present a poster entitled "Exploring integron evolution in coral reefs."

Paul with a Dunkleosteus skull

AIMS Cruise on the Great Barrier Reef

Yan joined a five-day cruise from May 17-21, 2011 with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) around the Palm islands off the coast of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The cruise leader was Dr. Nicole Webster. Water, coral tissues, and mucus were collected through two day-night-day cycles.

Yan working hard at the Great Barrier Reef