Topic description / abstract:

The role of environmentally triggered genetic and epigenetic changes in microbial adaptation and evolution is still not broadly appreciated. The recently published book Brave Genomes narrates how organisms cope with environmental changes including unanticipated ones. Although it does comprise eukaryotes, it focuses on bacteria and – whenever possible – on archaea.  Among the environmentally sensitive sources of genome plasticity, the book treats tandem repeats, mutagenic break repair, transcription-associated mutagenesis and transposable elements. As key regulators of genome plasticity, the book also deals with epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation and regulatory RNA-based systems. In closing, symbiosis and genetic noise are also discussed as possible sources of phenotypic plasticity. Brave Genomes underscores the role of the environment in generating genotypic and phenotypic diversity. This emerges, in turn, as the most efficient response to challenging conditions.

Biographical note:

Silvia Bulgheresi is Associate Professor in Environmental Cell Biology and independent researcher at the University of Vienna. Her research on the molecular mechanisms underlying symbiont growth, division and chromosome segregation challenged long-established cell biology tenets. Since 2008, she has been teaching environmental cell biology, microbial symbioses, as well as microbial genome plasticity to Bachelor, Master ad PhD students. It is in the effort of collecting the notes, thoughts and students’ questions that arose during numerous microbial genome plasticity lectures that this book was born.