The Yeast Genomics* lab @ NOVA
(*evolutionary, functional, comparative and more)
Carla Gonçalves
PhD Student
Lab: (+351) 21 294 85 30 (ext. 11108)
Email: carla.goncalves@fct.unl.pt
BSc in Cellular and Molecular Biology, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2009
MSc in Applied Microbiology, Universidade de Lisboa, 2011
Research interests
My interest covers different areas of Evolutionary Biology. I am currently focused on elucidating the genetic requirements and evolutionary history of the fructophilic behavior in Saccharomycotina yeasts. Special emphasis is now being given to a peculiar sugar transporter named Ffz1, which seems to be specific for fructose transport. However, contrary to other sugar transporters known to date, Ffz1 apparently evolved from a family of drug-proton antiporters.
Until now, this transporter has only been detected in fructophilic yeasts and, for this reason, the distribution, evolutionary trajectory and biochemical characterization of this transporter is being investigated in several other fungal lineages.
Using comparative genomics and phylogenetic analyses I have recently identified other genes that seem to be associated with fructophily in these yeasts, some of which have likely been acquired by horizontal gene transfer.
Publications
Gonçalves C, Coelho MA, Salema-Oom M, Gonçalves P. 2016. Stepwise functional evolution in a fungal sugar transporter family. Mol Biol Evol. 33:352-66.
DOI:10.1093/molbev/msv219
Almeida P&, Gonçalves C&, Teixeira S, Libkind D, Bontrager M, Masneuf-Pomarède I, Albertin W, Durrens P, Sherman DJ, Marullo P, Hittinger CT, Gonçalves P, Sampaio JP. 2014. A Gondwanan imprint on global diversity and domestication of wine and cider yeast Saccharomyces uvarum. Nature Communications 5:4044.
DOI:10.1038/ncomms5044
Coelho MA, Gonçalves C, Sampaio JP, Gonçalves P. 2013. Extensive intra-kingdom horizontal gene transfer converging on a fungal fructose transporter gene. PLoS Genet. 9(6): e1003587.
DOI:10.1371/journal.pgen.1003587.
Libkind D, Hittinger CT, Valério E, Gonçalves C, Dover J, Johnston M, Gonçalves P, Sampaio JP. 2011. Microbe domestication and the identification of the wild genetic stock of lager-brewing yeast. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 108: 14539-14544. (*cover)
DOI 10.1073/pnas.1105430108.
(& equally contributing)