Christa Schleper is a German microbiologist known for her work on the evolution and ecology of Archaea. Schleper is Head of the Department of Functional and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Vienna in Austria.

Christa Schleper
Born1962
Oberhausen, Germany[1]
Alma materMax Planck Institute of Biochemistry
Known forArchaea
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Vienna
Thesis (1993)

Life and education edit

Having initially gone to university to study languages and economics, Schleper eventually switched to studying biology.[2] She received a Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in 1995 and subsequently did postdoctoral research at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.[3]

Work and discoveries edit

Schleper is known for research advancing understanding of uncultivated Archaea in marine and terrestrial systems. Schleper's early research on Sulfolobus was the first research to indicate the presence of a virus in a thermophilic Archaea.[4] Schleper went on to isolate multiple thermophilic Archaea capable of growth under acidic conditions,[5][6] and led 16S RNA surveys to define the distribution of crenarchaeota in terrestrial environments.[7] During postdoctoral research, Schleper used biochemical information from a low-temperature crenarchaeota to propose a non-thermophilic origin for these crenarchaeota, a novel idea at the time it was proposed in 1997.[8] Schleper's more recent research has advanced understanding of ammonia-oxidizing thaumarchaeota.[9][10] The research into ammonia-oxidizing archaea used the newly-isolated Nitrososphaera viennensis EN76 to provide the first description of the genes and proteins shared by terrestrial and marine ammonia-oxidizing archaea.[11][12] Schleper's research on Lokiarchaeota[13] provides a platform to examine the evolution of life from single celled organisms into complex, multicellular organisms.[14]

Schleper has three patents granted: Isolation and cloning of DNA from uncultivated organisms,[15] Archaeon expression system[16] and Nucleic acids and proteins from Cenarchaeum symbiosum.[17]

Awards and recognition edit

References edit

  1. ^ https://archaea.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/p_archaea/people/Schleper/CV_Schleper_2020_9_webpage.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  2. ^ "Pioneer in archaea research (Christa Schleper)". YouTube. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  3. ^ Albers, Sonja-Verena (2018). Christa Schleper: Enthusiasm and Insight in the World of Archaea. Washington, DC: American Society for Microbiology. pp. 253–256.
  4. ^ Schleper, C.; Kubo, K.; Zillig, W. (1992-08-15). "The particle SSV1 from the extremely thermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus is a virus: demonstration of infectivity and of transfection with viral DNA". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 89 (16): 7645–7649. Bibcode:1992PNAS...89.7645S. doi:10.1073/pnas.89.16.7645. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 49767. PMID 1502176.
  5. ^ Schleper, Christa (1995). "Picrophilus gen. nov., fam. nov.: a novel aerobic, heterotrophic, thermoacidophilic genus and family comprising archaea capable of growth around pH 0". Journal of Bacteriology. 177 (24): 7050–7059. doi:10.1128/jb.177.24.7050-7059.1995. PMC 177581. PMID 8522509.
  6. ^ Schleper, Christa; Piihler, Gabriela; Kuhlmorgen, Brigitte; Zillig, Wolfram (June 1995). "Life at extremely low pH". Nature. 375 (6534): 741–742. Bibcode:1995Natur.375..741S. doi:10.1038/375741b0. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 7541113. S2CID 4341809.
  7. ^ Quaiser, Achim; Ochsenreiter, Torsten; Lanz, Christa; Schuster, Stephan C.; Treusch, Alexander H.; Eck, Jürgen; Schleper, Christa (2003). "Acidobacteria form a coherent but highly diverse group within the bacterial domain: evidence from environmental genomics". Molecular Microbiology. 50 (2): 563–575. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2958.2003.03707.x. ISSN 1365-2958. PMID 14617179. S2CID 25162803.
  8. ^ Schleper, C; Swanson, R V; Mathur, E J; DeLong, E F (1997). "Characterization of a DNA polymerase from the uncultivated psychrophilic archaeon Cenarchaeum symbiosum". Journal of Bacteriology. 179 (24): 7803–7811. doi:10.1128/JB.179.24.7803-7811.1997. ISSN 0021-9193. PMC 179745. PMID 9401041.
  9. ^ Leininger, S.; Urich, T.; Schloter, M.; Schwark, L.; Qi, J.; Nicol, G. W.; Prosser, J. I.; Schuster, S. C.; Schleper, C. (2006). "Archaea predominate among ammonia-oxidizing prokaryotes in soils". Nature. 442 (7104): 806–809. Bibcode:2006Natur.442..806L. doi:10.1038/nature04983. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 16915287. S2CID 4380804.
  10. ^ Tourna, Maria; Stieglmeier, Michaela; Spang, Anja; Könneke, Martin; Schintlmeister, Arno; Urich, Tim; Engel, Marion; Schloter, Michael; Wagner, Michael; Richter, Andreas; Schleper, Christa (2011-05-17). "Nitrososphaera viennensis, an ammonia oxidizing archaeon from soil". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108 (20): 8420–8425. Bibcode:2011PNAS..108.8420T. doi:10.1073/pnas.1013488108. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 3100973. PMID 21525411.
  11. ^ Kerou, Melina; Offre, Pierre; Valledor, Luis; Abby, Sophie S.; Melcher, Michael; Nagler, Matthias; Weckwerth, Wolfram; Schleper, Christa (2016-12-06). "Proteomics and comparative genomics of Nitrososphaera viennensis reveal the core genome and adaptations of archaeal ammonia oxidizers". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113 (49): E7937–E7946. Bibcode:2016PNAS..113E7937K. doi:10.1073/pnas.1601212113. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 5150414. PMID 27864514.
  12. ^ "Which genes are crucial for the energy metabolism of Archaea?". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 2021-04-26.
  13. ^ Spang, Anja; Saw, Jimmy H.; Jørgensen, Steffen L.; Zaremba-Niedzwiedzka, Katarzyna; Martijn, Joran; Lind, Anders E.; van Eijk, Roel; Schleper, Christa; Guy, Lionel; Ettema, Thijs J. G. (2015). "Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes". Nature. 521 (7551): 173–179. Bibcode:2015Natur.521..173S. doi:10.1038/nature14447. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 4444528. PMID 25945739.
  14. ^ "Lokiarchaeota and the Origin of Complex Life". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 2021-04-26.
  15. ^ US US7749366, Quaiser, Achim; Ochsenreiter, Torsten & Treusch, Alexander H. et al., "Isolation and cloning of DNA from uncultivated organisms", published 2010-07-06, assigned to Biotechnology Research and Information Network AG 
  16. ^ EP 1629100, Schleper, Christa; Jonuscheit, Melanie & Eck, Jürgen et al., "Archaeon expression system", published 2010-09-15, assigned to Biotechnology Research and Information Network AG 
  17. ^ WO 0018909, Swanson, Ronald V.; Feldman, Robert A. & Schleper, Christa, "Nucleic acids and proteins from Cenarchaeum symbiosum", published 2000-07-27, assigned to Diversa Corp. 
  18. ^ "Find an EMBO Young Investigator / EMBO Installation Grantee / EMBO Global Investigator". yip-search.embo.org. Retrieved 2021-05-05.
  19. ^ "American Academy of Microbiology Fellows". Archived from the original on 2019-01-04.
  20. ^ "ÖAW Mitglieder Detail". www.oeaw.ac.at. Retrieved 2021-05-05.
  21. ^ "Mikrobiologin Christa Schleper erhält den diesjährigen "Austro-Nobelpreis"". Der Standard (in German). 22 June 2022. Retrieved 23 June 2022.

External links edit