Research labs

Multicellgenome lab

The goal of this lab is to understand the origin of animal multicellularity from a unicellular ancestor. To this end, the genomes of animals’ closest unicellular relatives are obtained in order to perform comparative and functional genomics. Moreover, the Multicellgenome lab is working on the development of genetic tools in two close unicellular relatives of animals with the purpose of establishing them as model organisms for addressing the origin of Metazoa. This will enable the elucidation of the ancestral function of the genes involved in multicellularity and offer insight into how they were co-opted.

Principal investigator: Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo

Members of the lab: Meritxell Antó, Laboratory Technician; Xavier Grau i Bové, Postdoctoral Researcher; Helena Parra, PhD Student; David López Escardó, PhD Student; Eduard Ocaña, PhD Student; Alicia Sanchez Arroyo, PhD Student; Núria Ros, PhD Student; Alberto Perez Posada, PhD Student; Sebastian Najle, Postdoctoral Researcher; Maria Ferrer Bonet, Support Personnel; Aleksandra Kozyczkowska, PhD Student; Konstantina Mitsi, PhD Student; Andrej Ondracka, Postdoctoral Researcher; Michelle Leger, Postdoctoral Researcher; Omaya Dudin, Postdoctoral Researcher; Maria Rubio Brotons, Laboratory Technician

Oral presentations and talks given: 21

Main publications and other research activities:

Albert Rafels-Ybern, Adrian Gabriel Torres, Xavier Grau-Bove, Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo & Lluís Ribas de Pouplana. (2017) Codon adaptation to tRNAs with Inosine modification at position 34 is widespread among Eukaryotes and present in two Bacterial phyla. RNA Biology.

David López-Escardó, Xavier Grau-Bové, Amy Gillaumet-Adkins, Marta Gut, Michael E. Sieracki & Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo (2017).
Evaluation of single-cell genomics to address evolutionary questions using three SAGs of the choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis.
Scientific Reports 7. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-11466-9

Maria Ferrer-Bonet & Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo (2017) Capsaspora owczarzaki Current Biology, Vol 27, Issue 17. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.05.074

Xavier Grau-Bové, Guifré Torruella, Stuart Donachie, Hiroshi Suga, Guy Leonard, Thomas A. Richards & Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo. (2017)
Dynamics of genomic innovation in the unicellular ancestry of animals. eLife 2017;6:e26036

David López-Escardó, Purificación López-García, David Moreira, Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo & Guifré Torruella. (2017)
Parvularia atlantis gen. et sp. nov., a Nucleariid Filose Amoeba (Holomycota, Opisthokonta).
The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology  2017 Jul 25. doi: 10.1111/jeu.12450. [Epub ahead of print]

Arnau Sebé-Pedrós, Bernard M. Degnan & Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo. (2017) The origin of Metazoa: a unicellular perspective. Nature Review Genetics

Main outreach activities:

The lab has been involved in 6 outreach activities in 2017, the following ones being the worth to be highlighted:

BIYSC (Núria Ros, Alberto Pérez, Alicia Sánchez)

Science Slam (Konstantina Mitsi)

Funding (active projects in 2017 only):

Name of the project Origins, diversification and diversity of metazoa, fungi and their unicellular relatives; an evolutionary and ecological approximation
Principal investigator Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo and Josefa Gonzalez
Funding institution MINECO

 

Name of the project Screening marine microeukaryotes for their amenability for genetic tool development
Principal investigator Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo and Elena Casacuberta
Funding institution Betty and Moore foundation

 

Name of the project PREMETAZOANEVOLUTION. Unravelling the unicellular prehistory of metazoans by functional analyses and single-cell genomics
Principal investigator Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo
Funding institution ERC

 

Name of the project Origins, diversification and diversity of metazoa, fungi and their unicellular relatives; an evolutionary and ecological approximation
Principal investigator Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo and Josefa Gonzalez
Funding institution MINECO
Total funding 484.000 €

 

Name of the project PREMETAZOANEVOLUTION. Unravelling the unicellular prehistory of metazoans by functional analyses and single-cell genomics
Principal investigator Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo
Funding institution ERC

 

Name of the project SINGEK. Promoting SINgle cell GEnomics to explore the ecology and evolution of hidden microeuKaryotes
Principal investigator Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo (Coordinator: Ramón Massana, CSIC)
Funding institution EU Comission

More information: Multicellgenome lab’s website | Multicellgenome lab’s Twitter account

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