Jonathan Eisen, Ph.D.

Professor
GBSF Room 5311
Davis Campus
(530) 752-3498
e-mail

Recent/Current
Research Funding

Graduate Group Affiliations

Research Interests

Our work focuses on genomic basis for the origin of novelty in microorganisms (how new processes and functions evolve). We are currently focusing on mutualistic symbioses involving microbes because such symbioses are one of the simplest and most important means for organisms to acquire new processes and functions. We are interested in the mechanisms through which such symbioses originate and are maintained and how symbionts communicate with their hosts or partners. We are studying a wide diversity of such symbioses ranging from single symbionts that live inside host cells to the thousands of microbes species that live inside the human digestive tract. Most of our research involves a combination of genome sequencing, bioinformatics and phylogenomic analysis, and high throughput environmental microbiology.

Lab Page: http://phylogenomics.wordpress.com/

Blog: http://phylogenomics.blogspot.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/phylogenomics/

 

Representative Publications

Eisen JA, Coyne RS, Wu M, Wu D, Thiagarajan M, Wortman JR, Badger JH, Ren Q, Amedeo P, Jones KM, Tallon LJ, Delcher AL, Salzberg SL, Silva JC, Haas BJ, Majoros WH, Farzad M, Carlton JM, Smith RK, Garg J, Pearlman RE, Karrer KM, Sun L, Manning G, Elde NC, Turkewitz AP, Asai DJ, Wilkes DE, Wang Y, Cai H, Collins K, Stewart BA, Lee SR, Wilamowska K, Weinberg Z, Ruzzo WL, Wloga D, Gaertig J, Frankel J, Tsao CC, Gorovsky MA, Keeling PJ, Waller RF, Patron NJ, Cherry JM, Stover NA, Krieger CJ, Del Toro C, Ryder HF, Williamson SC, Barbeau RA, Hamilton EP, Orias E. 2006. Macronuclear genome sequence of the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila, a model eukaryote. PLoS Biol. Aug 29;4(9)

Wu D, Daugherty SC, van Aken S, Pai G, Watkins K, Khouri H, Tallon L, Zaborsky J, Dunbar H, Tran P, Moran NA, Eisen JA. Metabolic complementarity and genomics of the dual symbiosis of sharpshooters. PLoS Biology 4: e188

Wu M, Ren Q, Durkin AS, Daugherty SC, Brinkac LM, Dodson RJ, Madupu R, Sullivan SA, Kolonay JF, Nelson WC, Tallon LJ, Jones KM, Ulrich LE, Gonzalez JM, Zhulin IB, Robb FT, Eisen JA. 2005. Life in hot carbon monoxide: the complete genome sequence of Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans Z-2901. PLoS Genetics 1(5): e65

Wu M, Sun L, Vamathevan J, Riegler M, Deboy R, Brownlie J, McGraw E, Mohamoud Y, Lee P, Berry K, Khouri HM, Paulsen IT, Nelson KE, Martin W, Esser C, Ahmadinejad N, Wiegand C, Durkin AS, Nelson WC, Beanan MJ, Brinkac LM, Daugherty SC, Dodson RJ, Gwinn M, Kolonay JF, Madupu R, Craven MB, Utterback T, Weidman J, Nierman WC, Aken SV, Tettelin H, O'Neill S, Eisen JA. 2004. Phylogenomics of the reproductive parasite Wolbachia pipientis wMel: a streamlined genome massively infected with mobile genetic elements.PLoS Biology 2(3): e69.

Eisen JA, Fraser CM. 2003. Phylogenomics: intersection of evolution and genomics. Science 300: 1706-1707.

Salzberg SL, White O, Peterson J, Eisen JA. 2001. Microbial genes in the human genome: lateral transfer or gene loss? Science 292:1903-1906.

 

 

Recent/Current Teaching

Teaching and Research Awards