Florian MATTENBERGER

Florian MATTENBERGER

  • Postdoc
  • Group Irwin

Former and Current Positions

Since 2024 - Postdoctoral fellow in the Irwin Lab.

2021-2024 - Postdoctoral fellow at Université Laval, Québec, Canada

2017-2021 - PhD student at the Universitat de València, Spain

Research Projects

The domestication, evolution, and adaptive role of horizontal gene transfer in eukaryotes.

In my project I will investigate how horizontal gene transfer (HGT) shapes eukaryotic genome evolution and adaptation. By experimentally integrating a bacterial antibiotic resistance gene into the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, I will track its real-time co-option and domestication to shed light on the genetic and genomic features that enable successful HGT. Combining molecular biology, experimental evolution, and computational phylogenetics, I aim to reveal how foreign genes overcome evolutionary barriers, become domesticated, and drive innovation in eukaryotes.

Research interests

Understanding the origin of new genes and the mechanisms that underpin adaptation in changing environments are still major challenges in evolutionary biology. My research interests are largely centered on trying to better understand how evolutionary adaptative mechanisms work. Hence, the overarching goal of my research is to investigate how new genes, for instance acquired via Horizontal Gene Transfer or following divergence after gene duplication, can confer new functions to the organism while integrating in the complex cellular homeostasis. The stability and

the long term maintenance of this new genes is crucial for evolution, representing a biological innovation that improves adaptation to specific environments or acute stresses.