Lucas Morinière
Lucas Morinière joined the Arkin Lab in April 2023 as a postdoctoral researcher in the EDGE project to work on phage-host interactions under Adam Arkin’s and Vivek Mutalik’s supervision. He completed his education at the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1 in France by earning his PhD in 2021 at the Microbial Ecology Lab of Lyon (UMR 5557). His thesis research was focused on the
ecology, genomics, and taxonomy of Xanthomonas hortorum pv. vitians (Xhv), the causal agent of the bacterial leaf spot of lettuce disease. As part of his research, he first conducted a thorough polyphasic taxonomical study which allowed to reshape the entire X. hortorum species. Then, he used transposon insertion sequencing (TnSeq) and comparative genomics to describe the in vitro and in planta essential genomes of this non-model plant-pathogenic bacterium. Afterwards, he pursued as a Temporary Lecturer and Research Assistant (ATER) for a year and used TnSeq to elucidate the molecular determinants of the interaction between Xhv and a new lytic phage. As part of the new NSF funded project, his present research in the Arkin Lab in collaboration with Mutalik lab focuses on uncovering the genetics of phage-host interactions by submitting large collections of Escherichia coli and coliphages to high-throughput susceptibility assays and high-throughput genetic screens (RB-TnSeq, DubSeq) based on a machine-learning-driven experimental workflow.
