Andrew J. Roger

Wanda Danilchuk

Marlena Dlutek

Dayana Salas

Joran Martijn

Gregory Seaton

Dandan Zhao

Shelby Williams

Tengteng Zhang

Kelsey Williamson

Former Roger Lab Members


Jon Jerlström Hultqvist, Research Associate


After completing a Master Science in Biotechnology at Uppsala University I joined the lab of Prof. Staffan Svärd at Uppsala University in Sweden. In 2012 I earned a Ph.D. in Microbiology on genomics, transcriptomics and cell biology of Diplomonads (Spironucleus and Giardia). The following year I started a Post Doc in the group of Prof. Dan Andersson at Uppsala University on experimental approaches to investigate the impact of lateral gene transfer in antibiotic resistance and metabolism in E. coli. I joined the Roger Lab in September 2016 for my second Post Doc.


Research Interests:


Development of genetic tools in microbial eukaryotes
Research on microbial eukaryotes has been greatly facilitated by the introduction of next generation sequencing techniques. However, the development of genetic systems to establish the function of genes has been more difficult to realize in many organims. One of my interests is to develop novel systems for transfection in protists with the intention to enable functional studies of genes and proteins.

Genomics of protists
To date, the main focus of the sequencing revolution has been on a limited set of eukaryotes mostly consisting of animals, plants, fungi and parasites of these. However, the vast majority of eukaryote diversity is microbial and free-living and to fully appreciate the path to parasitism we need to sample the genomes of these organims. I seek to obtain genome information from a diverse set of poorly sampled organisms, some of which are related to significant parasites in humans and animals.

Adaptation to an ananerobic life-style in eukaryotes
The ancestor of all eukaryotes was a free-living organism with aerobic mitochondrial metabolism. Many eukaryotic parasites have adapted to living in oxygen-deprived environments of their hosts with a reduction in the metabolic capacity as a result. Interestingly, free-living relatives to parasites can be found in oxygen-poor niches such as ponds and marine sediments. My research focused on understanding the tempo, mode and mechanisms of these adaptations, especially in the form of lateral gene transfer and gene duplication.


Publications:


    Xu F., Jerlström Hultqvist J., Kolisko M., Simpson A.G.B, Roger A.J., Svärd S.G., Andersson J.O.A. 2016. On the reversibility of parasitism: adaptation to a free-living lifestyle via gene acquisitions in the diplomonad Trepomonas sp. PC1. BMC Biology 2016 Aug 114:62
    Einarsson E., Ástvaldsson Á., Hultenby K., Andersson J.O., Svärd S.G, Jerlström Hultqvist J. 2016. Comparative cell Biology and evolution of Annexins in Diplomonads. mSphere 2016 Mar 23;1(2). pii: e00032-15.
    Ankarklev J., Franzén O., Peirasmaki D.,Jerlström Hultqvist J., Lebbad M., Andersson J., Andersson B., Svärd S.G. 2015. Comparative genomic analyses of freshly isolated Giardia intestinalis assemblage A isolates. BMC Genomics 2015 Sep 15;16(1):697
    Andersson D.I., Jerlström Hultqvist J., Näsvall J. 2015. Evolution of New Functions De Novo and from Preexisting Genes. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2015 Jun 1;7(6)
    Xu F., Jerlström Hultqvist J., Einarsson E., Astvaldsson A., Svärd S.G., Andersson J.O. 2014. The genome of Spironucleus salmonicida highlights a fish pathogen adapted to fluctuating environments. PLoS Genetics 2014 Feb 6;10(2)
    Jerlström Hultqvist J., Einarsson E., Xu F., Hjort K., Ek B., Steinhauf D., Hultenby K., Bergquist J., Andersson J.O., Svärd S.G. 2013. Hydrogenosomes in the diplomonad Spironucleus salmonicida. Nature Communications 4:2493
    Franzén O.*, Jerlström Hultqvist J.*, Einarsson E., Ankarklev J., Ferella M., Andersson B., Svärd S.G. 2013. Transcriptome Profiling of Giardia intestinalis Using Strand-specific RNAseq. PLoS Computational Biology 9(3) *These authors contributed equally to this manuscript
    Jerlström Hultqvist J., Einarsson E., Svärd S.G. 2012. Stable transfection of the diplomonad parasite Spironucleus salmonicida. Eukaryotic Cell 11(11):1353-61
    Jerlström Hultqvist J., Stadelmann B., Birkestedt S., Hellman U., Svärd S.G. 2012. Plasmid vectors for proteomic analyses in Giardia: purification of virulence factors and analysis of the proteasome. Eukaryotic Cell 11(7):864-73.
    Xu F., Jerlström Hultqvist J., Andersson J.O. 2012. Genome-Wide Analyses of Recombination Suggest That Giardia intestinalis Assemblages Represent Different Species.Molecular Biology and Evolution 29(10): 2895-98.
    Hertz H.M., von Hofsten O., Bertilson M., Vogt U., Holmberg A., Reinspach J., Martz D., Selin M., Christakou A.E., Jerlström Hultqvist J., Svärd S.G. 2012. Laboratory cryo soft X-ray microscopy. J Struct Biol. 177(2):267-72
    Roxström-Lindquist K., Jerlström Hultqvist J., Jørgensen A., Troell K., Svärd S.G., Andersson J.O. 2010. Large genomic differences between the morphologically indistinguishable diplomonads Spironucleus barkhanus and Spironucleus salmonicida. BMC Genomics 11:258.
    Jerlström Hultqvist J., Franzén O., Ankarklev J., Xu F., Nohýnková E., Andersson J.O., Svärd S.G., Andersson B. 2010. Genome analysis and comparative genomics of a Giardia intestinalis assemblage E isolate. BMC Genomics 11:543.
    Franzén O., Jerlström Hultqvist J., Castro E., Sherwood E., Ankarklev J., Reiner D.S., Palm D., Andersson J.O., Andersson B., Svärd S.G. 2009. Draft genome sequencing of Giardia intestinalis assemblage B isolate GS: is human giardiasis caused by two different species? PLoS Pathogens 5(8)

Invited Publications:


    Ankarklev J., Jerlström Hultqvist J., Ringqvist E., Troell K., Svärd S.G. 2010. Behind the smile: cell biology and disease mechanisms of Giardia species. Nat Rev Microbiol. 8(6):413-22.
    Jerlström Hultqvist J., Ankarklev J., Svärd S.G. 2010. Is human giardiasis caused by two different Giardia species? Gut Microbes 1(6):379-82.

Book Chapter:

    Anaerobic Parasitic Protozoa: Genomics and Molecular Biology Book, Chapter 2 The Genome of Giardia and Other Diplomonads (2010) Andersson J.O., Jerlström Hultqvist J., Svärd S.G.

    You can reach Jon at:
    Work Phone: (+1) 902-494-2881
    Fax: (+1) 902-494-1355
    E-mail: jon{dot}jerlstromhultqvist{at}dal{dot}ca