Postdoc

CEFE/CNRS
Campus du CNRS
1919, route de Mende
34293 Montpellier

martijn.callens[at]cefe.cnrs.fr

Brief CV

2017-                   Postdoc at Génétique et Ecologie Evolutive group (CEFE, CNRS)

2012-2017          PhD at the laboratory for Aquatic Biology (KU Leuven KULAK, Belgium)

2011-2012          Teaching assistant biology, KU Leuven KULAK (Belgium)

Research theme

My research focuses on the evolutionary consequences of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in bacteria. I am interested in the impact of HGT on the evolution of both the transferred genes in question and on the receiving host genome, and this on different timescales.

On short timescales, I am interested in the distribution of fitness effects of synonymous/non-synonymous mutations or mutations in regulatory regions of horizontally transferred genes. This is investigated by competing different versions of an antibiotic resistance gene against each other within bacterial populations.

To estimate the effect of HGT on longer timescales, I use a comparative genomics approach to detect evolutionary signatures in transferred genes (e.g. is there an evolution in codon bias after HGT, what is the effect of transfer on regulatory regions?).

Publications 

Callens, M., Watanabe, H., Kato, Y., Miura, J., Decaestecker, E. (2018). Microbiota inoculum composition affects holobiont assembly and host growth in Daphnia. Microbiome – in press.

Macke, E., Callens, M., De Meester, L., Decaestecker, E. (2017). Host genotype-dependent gut microbiota drives zooplankton tolerance to toxic cyanobacteria. Nature Communications 8:1608

Macke, E., Tasiemski, A., Massol, F., Callens, M., Decaestecker, E. (2017). Life history and eco-evolutionary dynamics in light of the gut microbiota. Oikos, 126 (4): 508-531

Callens, M., Macke, E., Muylaert, K., Bossier, P., Lievens, B., Waud, M., Decaestecker, E. (2016). Food availability affects the strength of mutualistic host-microbiota interactions in Daphnia magna. The ISME Journal 10 : 911-920

Callens, M., Gheerardyn, H., Ndaro, S., De Troch, M., Vanreusel, A. (2011). Harpacticoid copepod colonization of coral fragments in a tropical reef lagoon (Zanzibar, Tanzania). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 92(7): 1535-1545.