After his sabbatical, Yann has been offered a joint position at the Singapore Center for Environmental Life Sciences (Nanyang Technological University) and the Saw Swee hock School of Public Health (National University of Singapore). He is now recruiting new graduate students and postdocs in this tropical paradise :) The lab will open its doors in the new year at SCELSE.
New Vibrio cholerae Core-Genome Multi-Locus Sequence Typing (cgMLST) Website Online
A new core-genome multi-locus sequence typing (cgMLST) scheme for V. cholerae is now publicly available on pubmlst.org/vcholerae. New genomes can now be submitted and analyzed on PubMLST within minutes. Tools such as GrapeTree, Interactive Tree of Life, and PHYLOViZ are all integrated within the website to allow for quick follow-up analyses. This cgMLST scheme, containing 2,443 core genes, has been used to analyze over 1,000 V. cholerae genomes from both private collections and publicly available databases. This dataset includes representative isolates from known outbreaks and endemic countries. Along with epidemiological data, it is possible to use this cgMLST scheme to monitor V. cholerae diversity at both the local and global levels. A 1:1 mapping with a previously established V. cholerae MLST scheme from our lab has been carried out to demonstrate backwards compatibility with prior MLST studies.
The full manuscript entitled "A Vibrio cholerae core genome multilocus sequence typing scheme to facilitate the epidemiological study of cholera," published in the Journal of Bacteriology, details the application of this cgMLST scheme to study cholera outbreaks. This work was done in collaboration with Dr. Cheryl Tarr from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and Dr. Munirul Alam from the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh.
cgMLST minimum spanning tree of all Yemen isolates and representative 7th pandemic El Tor strains (from Liang et al., 2020)
Nora defends her MSc...from home!
Nora defended her MSc thesis, “Intraspecies Antagonistic Interactions Driven by the Type VI Secretion System in Vibrio cholerae,” from the comfort of her own home. As the defence was remotely done in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, people from all around the world attended her public seminar. This was a nice surprise, and replaced the fact she was unable to bake her science-themed cookies she would have shared during an in-person defence.
Congrats, Nora!
Nora’s defence seminar via Zoom.
Insights into an Environmental Vibrio cholerae Population on a Subspecies Scale
This manuscript represents the original Boucher Lab Gang’s (Paul, Fabini and Tania) first paper together! Their publication in Environmental Microbiology, “Culture‐independent tracking of Vibrio cholerae lineages reveals complex spatiotemporal dynamics in a natural population”, combines culture-independent amplicon sequencing and qPCR to study the diversity and abundance of dozens of sympatric V. cholerae strains in a single location. Kirchberger et. al finds that among many co-occurring strains, few manage to grow to large numbers on resource-rich particles, while the rest fight for the scraps (perhaps using their diverse Type VI secretion system toxins?).
Size-fractionated Vibrio cholerae population composition using culture independent techniques from a single, cholera-free environment. From Kirchberger et al., 2020.
Kevin's MSc Defence!
Our morning defence resulted in a MSc degree by lunchtime. Congrats on your successful thesis defence on “Bacterial Taxonomy in the Genomic Era”, Kevin!
Yann introducing Kevin before his seminar.
Nora is Awarded the Alberta Excellence Graduate Scholarship!
As a great start to the new year, Nora receives the new Alberta Excellence Graduate Scholarship offered by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research from the University of Alberta for the Winter 2020 semester. Congrats, Nora!
Happy Holidays from the Boucher Lab!
♪ The weather outside is frightful, but our microbes are so delightful… ♫
Our Christmas tree (reflecting Nora’s actual data and pictures of the lab) is up, and Santa has arrived just in time. Here is to hoping everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2020!
Fabini, Tareq, Santa, Nora, and Kevin wishing you Merry Christmas and Happy 2020!
VIBRIO2019 - Montréal, Quebec
The entire lab attended the 2019 International Vibrio conference hosted at McGill University, in Quebec. Despite it being in the middle of winter, the weather was much nicer than back in Edmonton.
Yann was involved in the local organization committee for the meeting. Kevin and Tareq showcased posters on “Establishing a core genome multilocus sequence typing scheme for Vibrio cholerae in the epidemiology of cholera outbreaks” and “Intra-species diversity in geographically distinct V. cholerae populations,” respectively. Nora presented a talk on “Horizontally transferred type VI secretion systems effector-immunity gene arrays determine life and death in a diverse Vibrio cholerae population”. Both Nora and Kevin’s submissions were presented during the sessions sponsored by the Canadian Society of Microbiology. The entire lab enjoyed meeting new people, seeing familiar faces in the group, and exchanging ideas in the Vibrio field.
Attendees from the 2019 Vibrio conference. Photo credit: Cyrielle Noël.
Tareq is selected for the UAGF Award!
Tareq was among 19 applicants in the Department of Biological Sciences selected to receive the University of Alberta Graduate Fellowship (UAGF), a new award that will be allocated this month. Congrats, Tareq!
Nora Receives a Dissertation Award!
Nora is one of the first students to receive a new award offered by the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta. The Dissertation Award for the 2019 Fall term commences today. Congrats, Nora!