prof. Ing. Miroslav Oborník, Ph.D.
Job Position: Director , Head of Laboratory - Laboratory of Evolutionary Protistology
Phone:
Ředitelna: +420 38777 5480 / Laboratoř: +420 38777 5464
E-mail:
obornik@paru.cas.cz
Room:
Řed. 002/ Lab. 236
Management and Leadership of the Institute of Parasitology
Research interests - Evolution of protists and related algae.
Education and employment
1985–1991 Student Ing. (MSc) , Faculty of Agriculture Ceske Budejovice, Agricultural University - Prague, specialization "Genetic Engineering and Plant Breeding"
1991 Fellowship , Faculty of Agriculture Ceske Budejovice, Agricultural University - Prague, Dept. of Plant Production, Division of Plant Protection
1991–1995 PhD student , Faculty of Agriculture, University of South Bohemia, Dept. of Plant Production, Division of Plant Protection
10/1995–12/1996 Civil service
1998–2000 Assistant Professor , Faculty of Agriculture, University of South Bohemia, Dept. of Plant Production, Division of Plant Protection
1998– Research scientist, Institute of Parasitology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Division of Molecular Parasitology
2000– Research scientist, head of the laboratory , Institute of Parasitology (IP), Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and University of South Bohemia (USB), Faculty of Biological Sciences - Laboratory of Molecular Taxonomy (joint laboratory of IP and USB)
2005–2008 Assistant Professor in Molecular and Cell Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice
2008–present Senior Research Scientist, Biology Centre ASCR, Institute of Parasitology
2008–present Associate Professor in Molecular and Cell Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice
2022–present Director of the Institute of Parasitology
Foreign programs
May–August 1993 Wageningen Agricultural University, Dept. of Entomology, The Netherlands (Dr. R. Stouthamer)
December 1994–September 1995 Wageningen Agricultural University, Dept. of Entomology, The Netherlands (Dr. R. Stouthamer)
April–May 1997 University of Horticulture and Food Industry, Budapest, Hungary
November 2002–November 2003 University of British Columbia, Department of Botany, Vancouver, Canada (Dr. B.R. Green)
Research priorities
MO is currently working on the evolution of secondary endosymbiosis. Many unicellular photoautotrophic eukaryotes (such as diatoms, heterokonts, cryptophytes, haptophytes, euglenoids) possess complex photosynthetic organelles that evolved during the process of secondary endosymbiogenesis. Such secondary (or complex) plastids are surrounded by three or four membranes. Nuclear–encoded proteins are postraslationally imported into the complex plastid via secretory pathway. We have participated on the annotation of the genome of diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, particularly on the search of nuclear–encoded plastid targeted proteins, their in silico localization and phylogeny.
Complex plastid is also present in apicomplexan parasites, however, it is not photosynthetic in this case. The size of the apicomplexan plastid genome is extremely small (35 kb) thus offering a limited number of genes for phylogenetic analysis. Moreover, the sequences of apicoplast genes are highly AT rich and rapidly evolving. Although it is evident that the apicoplast and its genome is plastid–derived, our detailed phylogenetic analysis of amino acid and nucleotide sequences of selected apicoplast ribosomal protein genes rpl2 , rpl14 and rps12 show their possible mitochondrial origin. Based on our results, a hypothesis is proposed that apicoplasts might contain both plastid and mitochondrial genes, thus constituting a hybrid assembly.
MO is also involved in phylogenetic projects concerning molecular phylogeny of protozoa, e.g. microsporidia, apicomplexan parasites and kinteoplastids.
Hobby
Playing the guitar (music group–Smutný Karel )
Introduction to Bioinformatics
Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia
Introduction to Bioinformatics exercises
Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia
Molecular Taxonomy
Faculty of Agriculture, University of South Bohemia
