Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Protistology

Staff Gallery

Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Protistology was founded at the end of 2018. Main direction of its activity is evolutionary and taxonomic studies of the key phylogenetic clades of unicellular eukaryotes, research on species problem, biogeography, and the role of protists in natural communities. The research of the Laboratory combines both classical approaches that are based on the studies of morphology and physiology of protistan cells as independent organisms, and modern techniques of phylogenetics, phylogenomics, and molecular biology.

At present, the Laboratory staff is accumulating data on the patterns of the geographic distribution of the key taxa of amoeboid protists, and have collected data for taxonomic revision and reconstruction of the cell coat evolution of amoebae from the order Dactylopodida (Amoebozoa). The research is performed on the biodiversity of Foraminifera in the Arctic seas of Russia, lifecycles of Heliozoa, symbiotic systems of ciliates with prokaryotes, and molecular evolution of trypanosomatid flagellates. In addition, the staff of the Laboratory studies the origin and early evolution of multicellular opisthokonts based on genomic and transcriptomic data analysis.

Staff

10 employees (10 researchers).

Alexander A. Kudryavtsev (Head of Laboratory, Senior Researcher, Candidate of Biological Sciences)

Ekaterina N. Volkova (Junior Researcher)

Daria O. Drachko (Junior Researcher)

Alexei Y. Kostygov (Senior Researcher, Candidate of Biological Sciences)

Mikhail S. Krendelev (Junior Researcher)

Maksim S. Melekhin (Junior Researcher)

Igor R. Pozdnyakov (Junior Researcher)

Viktoria V. Spodareva (Junior Researcher)

Mikhail M. Tribun (Researcher, Candidate of Biological Sciences)

Former employees

Ivan B. Kuznetsov (Voltski) (Completed work in the laboratory since January, 2022)

Andrey V. Zolotarev (Completed work in the laboratory since January, 2022)

Kristina I. Prokina (Left for the University of Paris in January, 2021)

Ilya A. Udalov (Left for Saint Petersburg State University in July, 2021)

Topic of State Assignment

“Evolutionary Morphogenesis and Molecular-Genetic Bases of Protist and Invertebrate Diversity”
PI: Doctor of Biological Sciences Olga V. Zaitseva
No. 125012800894-6

Main publications of the Laboratory staff

Adl S.M., Bass D., Lane C.E., Lukeš J., Schoch C.L., Smirnov A., Agatha S., Berney C., Brown M.W., Burki F., Cárdenas P., Čepička I., Chistyakova L., del Campo J., Dunthorn M., Edvardsen B., Eglit Y., Guillou L., Hampl V., Heiss A.A., Hoppenrath M., James T.Y., Karpov S., Kim E., Kolisko M., Kudryavtsev A., Lahr D.J.G., Lara E., Le Gall L., Lynn D.H., Mann D.G., Massana i Molera R., Mitchell E.A.D., Morrow C., Park J.S., Pawlowski J.W., Powell M.J., Richter D.J., Rueckert S., Shadwick L., Shimano S., Spiegel F.W., Torruella i Cortes G., Youssef N., Zlatogursky V., Zhang Q. 2019. Revisions to the classification, nomenclature, and diversity of eukaryotes. Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 66: 4–119. https://doi.org/10.1111/jeu.12691

Kostygov A.Y., Karnkowska A., Votýpka J., Tashyreva D., Maciszewski K., Yurchenko V. & Lukeš J. 2021. Euglenozoa: taxonomy, diversity and ecology, symbioses and viruses. Open Biol, 11(3): 200407. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.200407

Kudryavtsev A., Volkova E., Voytinsky F. 2021. A checklist of Amoebozoa species from marine and brackish-water biotopes with notes on taxonomy, species concept and distribution patterns. Protistology, 15, 220-273. https://doi.org/10.21685/1680-0826-2021-15-4-3

Kudryavtsev A., Parshukov A., Kondakova E., Volkova E. 2022. Vannella mustalahtiana sp. nov.(Amoebozoa, Vannellida) and rainbow trout nodular gill disease (NGD) in Russia. Dis. Aquat. Org., 148, 29-41. https://doi.org/10.3354/dao03641

Volkova E., Kudryavtsev A. 2021. A morphological and molecular reinvestigation of Janickina pigmentifera (Grassi, 1881) Chatton 1953 - an amoebozoan parasite of arrow-worms (Chaetognatha). Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol., 71, 005094. https://doi.org/10.1099/ijsem.0.005094

Laboratory staff participate in the following grants

RSF No. 20-14-00181. “Amoebozoa of the World Ocean: phylogeny, community composition and global distribution patterns” (PI А.A. Kudryavtsev).

RSF No. 22-24-01149. “Nuclearia genome as a key to identifying polymorphism genes of basal Holomycota” (PI I.R. Pozdnyakov).