Morgan J. Colp

2 weeks ago | biorxiv.org | Morgan J. Colp |John Archibald

AbstractAcanthamoeba castellanii is a free-living amoeba that is emerging as a model organism for the study of eukaryotic microbiology. It is one of the most widely studied members of the Amoebozoa, and is both an important grazer in soil communities and an opportunistic human pathogen; A. castellanii is thus of evolutionary, ecological, and biomedical significance. Despite its potential as a lab workhorse, the genome biology of A. castellanii is complex and poorly understood.

Nov 3, 2024 | biorxiv.org | Cédric Blais |Morgan J. Colp |Luke A Sarre |Alex de Mendoza

AbstractAcanthamoeba is a cosmopolitan freshwater amoebae known for its association with Nucleocytoplasmic Large DNA Viruses (NCLDVs). Previous studies have shown that Acanthamoeba spp. undergo lateral gene transfer (LGT) with NCLDVs. Here we have leveraged chromosome-scale assemblies of two strains of Acanthamoeba castellanii, Neff and C3, to investigate the occurrence and genomic context of viral LGT in Acanthamoeba.

Oct 31, 2024 | biorxiv.org | Morgan J. Colp |Cédric Blais |Bruce Curtis |John Archibald

AbstractIn this study, artificial transformation experiments were performed to investigate how the A. castellanii genome responds to foreign DNA presented in both circular and linear plasmid form. Nanopore sequencing was used as a high throughput method to screen for transgene DNA in the resulting transformant cultures, and candidate transgene integrations were identified.