Methanotrophic bacteria, and environmental genomics/transcriptomics
PD Dr. Werner Liesack (retired in May 2022)
Research areas
Rice field soils and temperate grassland represent excellent model systems to study fundamental aspects of microbial ecology. Rice field soils are one of the few environmental systems that are regularly exposed to alternate dry/wet and oxic/anoxic cycles. The increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration due to climate change may have a major impact on temperate grassland ecosystems and, in consequence, on the belowground biota. We apply omics approaches to understand the structural and functional responses of the microbial communities in paddy and grassland soils to environmental change. In another line of research, we investigate the link between physiology and molecular biology of methanotrophic bacteria. Aerobic methanotrophs function as a biological filter for the greenhouse gas methane in various environmental settings. Our model system is Methylocystis sp. strain SC2.
Recent publications
Bei, Q., Moser, G., Müller, C., and Liesack, W.* (2021) Seasonality affects function and complexity but not diversity of the rhizosphere microbiome in European temperate grassland. Sci. Total Environ., doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147036.
Hakobyan, A., Zhu, J., Glatter, T., Paczia, N., and Liesack, W.* (2020) Hydrogen utilization by Methylocystis sp. strain SC2 expands the known metabolic versatility of type IIa methanotrophs. Metab. Eng. 61, 181-196.
[online access]
Bei, Q., Moser, G., Wu, X., Müller, C., and Liesack, W.* (2019) Metatranscriptomics reveals climate change effects on the rhizosphere microbiomes in European grassland. Soil. Biol. & Biochem. 138, article 107604.
[online access]
Abdallah, R.Z., Wegner, C.E., and Liesack, W.* (2019) Community transcriptomics reveals drainage effects on paddy soil microbiome across all three domains of life. Soil Biol. & Biochem. 132, 131-142.
[online access]
[online access]
(*Correspondence)