MICROBIAL DIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION: RESEARCH FOOTPRINTS

Fernando Tavares, will give a seminar entitled ”Microbial Diversity and Evolution: research footprints” on 6th January, at 14.30, in Campus Agrário de Vairão auditorium. In this seminar Fernando Tavares will do an overview of the work done by the group, centered in two main topics: Bacteria diversity and evolution and Science education.

Bacteria diversity and evolution: The increasing availability of bacterial genome sequences and the development of bioinformatics, has given the potential to screen thousands of DNA sequences and select taxa-specific genomic markers. Our primary goal has been to develop molecular strategies for bacteria detection, identification and typing as an alternative/complement to the certified culture-based methods, acknowledge to underestimating bacterial diversity. Additionally, we believe that the phylogeny analyses of these DNA-signatures may contribute to further elucidate the evolutionary history of some bacterial taxa.

Science education: In the last years, society debates concerning biotechnology applications, such as the use of GMO’s, have been frequently sustained by misconceptions. Our research interest is to understand how the knowledge may reach elementary and high-school students, teachers, and the common citizens to increase their scientific literacy, allowing them to take scientific-sustained decisions.

Fernando Tavares is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto (FCUP) and the Principal Investigator of the CIBIO group Microbial Diversity and Evolution.

Right after, at 15:45, Sónia Rosenbom will present the Student Seminar on "Genetic Diversity, Conservation and Phylogenetic History of the African Wild Ass (Equus africanus): A Non-invasive molecular approach B". Sónia Rosenbom is a PhD student supervised by Albano Beja-Pereira.