Dr. rer. nat. Jürgen Wierz

During my PhD I focused on the beetle families of Melyridae and Throscidae in which I wanted to find out what the taxonomic distribution of associated bacterial symbionts to get new insights about the evolutionary history of these symbiotic systems. Furthermore, I sequenced representative symbiont genomes and compared the metabolic capabilities of the symbionts within and across those families. This allowed me to characterize the symbionts' role in their respective systems based on molecular data. Furthermore, I am always fascinated by versatile and widespread insect symbionts, which is why I was very happy when I discovered and newly described the symbiont Symbiodolus. This bacterium is present in multiple orders of insects and features a potent arsenal of interaction machineries. 

Now I am in my PostDoc, in which I take a look at weevils and their symbionts. Here, I will apply the knowledge and methods I have learned during my PhD, but also expand on them to understand the symbionts' impact on their hosts in more detail. For this, my plan is to use the institute's expertise in mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to characterize symbiont-synthesized metabolites and confirm their functions via bio-essays.