The Yeast Genomics* lab @ NOVA

(*evolutionary, functional, comparative and more)

People

Marco A. Coelho

Postdoctoral Fellow

Lab: (+351) 21 294 85 30 (ext. 11108)

Email: madc@fct.unl.pt

BSc in Biology, Universidade do Porto, 2003

PhD in Biology (Molecular Genetics), Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2011

Research interests

I’m an evolutionary biologist interested in understanding the evolutionary trajectory of the genomic regions governing mating type identity in fungi. My current research focuses on an early-branching lineage of the Basidiomycota that includes saprobic red-pigmented yeasts of the genera Rhodosporidium and Sporidiobolus and psychrotolerant yeasts of the genus Leucosporidium (Pucciniomycotina, Microbotryomycetes).

Fungi have developed unique mating systems that in some cases involve the occurrence of much more that the usual two sexes or mating types. Using whole-genome next-generation sequencing (NGS), comparative genomics, phylogenetic analyses and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, my aim is to refine the current model of mating type evolution in fungi in view of what we are learning from these early derived lineages.

Other interests include the evolution of sugar transporters in fungi and several other topics related with yeast ecology and diversity.

Publications

Branco S, Badouin H, Rodríguez de la Vega RC, Gouzy J, Carpentier F, Aguileta G, Siguenza S, Brandenburg JT, Coelho MA, Hood ME, Giraud T. 2017. Evolutionary strata on young mating-type chromosomes despite the lack of sexual antagonism. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. [Epub ahead of print].

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1701658114

Coelho MA*, Bakkeren G, Sun S, Hood ME, Giraud T. 2017. Fungal Sex: The Basidiomycota. Microbiol Spectr. 5: FUNK-0046-2016.

DOI: 10.1128/microbiolspec.FUNK-0046-2016

Bellora N, Moliné M, David-Palma M, Coelho MA, Hittinger CT, Sampaio JP, Gonçalves P, Libkind D. 2016. Comparative genomics provides new insights into the diversity, physiology, and sexuality of the only industrially exploited tremellomycete: Phaffia rhodozyma. BMC Genomics. 17:901.

DOI:10.1186/s12864-016-3244-7

Francesca N, Guerreiro MA, Carvalho C, Coelho M, Alfonzo A, Randazzo W, Sampaio JP, Moschetti G. 2016. Jaminaea phylloscopi sp. nov. (Microstromatales), a basidiomycetous yeast isolated from migratory birds in the Mediterranean basin. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. 66:824-9.

DOI:10.1099/ijsem.0.000801

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

Maia TM, Lopes ST, Almeida JMFCF, Rosa LH, Sampaio JP, Gonçalves P, Coelho MA*. 2015. Evolution of Mating Systems in Basidiomycetes and the Genetic Architecture Underlying Mating-Type Determination in the Yeast Leucosporidium scottii. Genetics 201: 75-89.

DOI:10.1534/genetics.115.177717.

Coelho MA*, Almeida JMGCF, Hittinger CT, Gonçalves P. 2015. Draft genome sequence of Sporidiobolus salmonicolor CBS 6832, a red-pigmented basidiomycetous yeast. Genome Announ 3:e00444-15.

DOI:10.1128/genomeA.00444-15.

de Garcia V, Coelho MA, Maia TM, Rosa LH, Vaz AM, Rosa CA, Sampaio JP, Gonçalves P, van Broock M, Libkind D. 2015. Sex in the cold: taxonomic reorganization of psychrotolerant yeasts in the order Leucosporidiales. FEMS Yeast Res. 15:4.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/femsyr/fov019

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.

 

Coelho MA*, Sampaio JP, Gonçalves P. 2013. Living and thriving on the skin: Malassezia genomes tell the story. mBio 4: e00117-13. doi:10.1128/mBio.00117-13.

DOI:10.1128/mBio.00117-13

Gomes-Rezende JA, Gomes-Alves AG, Menino JF, Coelho MA, Ludovico P, Gonçalves P, Mark H. J. Sturme, Rodrigues F. 2012. Functionality of the Paracoccidioides Mating -Pheromone-Receptor System. PLoS ONE 7: e47033.

DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0047033

Petit E, Giraud T, de Vien ne DM, Coelho MA, Aguileta G, Amselem J, Kreplak J, Poulain J, Gavory F, Wincker P, Young SK, Cuomo CA, Perlin MH, Hood ME. 2012. Linkage to the mating-type locus across the genus Microbotryum: Insights into non-recombining chromosomes. Evolution 66: 3519–3533.

DOI:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2012.01703.x.

Coelho MA, Gonçalves P, Sampaio JP. 2011. Evidence for maintenance of sex determinants but not of sexual stages in red yeasts, a group of early diverged basidiomycetes. BMC Evol. Biol. 11: 249.

DOI 10.1186/1471-2148-11-249.

Berraf-Tebbal, A, Bouznad Z, Santos JM, Coelho MA, Péros JP, Phillips AJL. 2011. Phaeoacremonium species associated with Eutypa dieback and esca of grapevines in Algeria. Phytopathol. Mediterr. 50S: 86-97.

DOI:10.14601/Phytopathol_Mediterr-9025.

Coelho MA, Sampaio JP, Gonçalves P. 2010. A deviation from the bipolar-tetrapolar mating paradigm in an early diverged basidiomycete. PLoS Genetics 6(8): e1001052.

DOI:10.1371/journal.pgen.1001052

Coelho MA, Almeida JMF, Martins IM, Jorge da Silva A and Sampaio JP. 2010. The dynamics of the yeast community of the Tagus river estuary – testing the hypothesis of the multiple origins of estuarine yeasts. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 98: 331-342.

DOI 10.1007/s10482-010-9445-1.

Coelho MA, Rosa Á, Rodrigues N, Fonseca Á and Gonçalves P. 2008. Identification of mating type genes in the bipolar basidiomycetous yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides: first insight into the MAT locus structure of the Sporidiobolales. Eukaryotic Cell 7: 1053-1061.

DOI:10.1128/EC.00025-08.  

(*corresponding author)