The Yeast Genomics* lab @ NOVA
(*evolutionary, functional, comparative and more)
Marcia David-Palma
PhD Student
Lab: (+351) 21 294 85 30 (ext. 11108)
Email: m.palma@campus.fct.unl.pt
BSc in Biochemistry, Universidade de Évora, 2008
MSc in Applied Microbiology, Universidade de Lisboa, 2011
Research interests
I started my work at the Yeast Genomics Lab by exploring the biogeography and population structure of Phaffia rhodozyma, a basidiomycete yeast with great biotechnological importance due to its ability to produce the carotenoid astaxanthin. Using the framework of evolutionary ecology, it was possible to reveal a diversity hot spot of Phaffia in Australasia and to discover two new species within this genus. Recent genomic information regarding the three species of Phaffia, allowed me to explore other aspects of this remarkable organism, in particular its unusual life cycle.
Currently, I’m interested in the molecular and functional characterization of reproductive systems in basidiomycetes, with special focus in homothallic organisms, where sexual development is initiated without the presence of two compatible mating partners.
I’m using molecular genetics and comparative genomics to clarify the mechanisms by which Phaffia rhodozyma completes its homothallic life cycle and shed new light on how transitions between homothallic and heterothallic species occur in the Basidiomycota.
Publications
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 
David-Palma M, Sampaio JP, Gonçalves P. 2016. Genetic Dissection of Sexual Reproduction in a Primary Homothallic Basidiomycete. PLoS Genet. 12:e1006110.
DOI:10.1371/journal.pgen.1006110
David-Palma M, Libkind D, Sampaio JP. 2014. Global distribution, diversity hotspots and niche transitions of an astaxanthin-producing eukaryotic microbe. Molecular Ecology 23: 921-932.
DOI:10.1111/mec.12642