Dr. Astrid Collingro
Senior Scientist at the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science
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Research Profiles
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Publications Overview
Fascinated by the interactions between intracellular bacteria and their eukaryotic host cells, Astrid started working on bacteria-protist symbioses at the Technical University Munich (Germany), eventually joining the University of Vienna in 2003. She currently works mainly with chlamydial symbionts. By using infection experiments, comparative ‘omics and phylogenetic methods, she explores how bacteria evolved from symbionts of protists to pathogens of animals and humans. Her work often focuses on yet unexplored chlamydial lineages using ‘omics methods, together with different cultivation approaches. Recently, the impact of chlamydial symbionts on ecosystem processes and microbial community composition have gathered her interest.
Publications
Dharamshi JE, Köstlbacher S, Schön ME, Collingro A, Ettema TJG, Horn M. Gene gain facilitated endosymbiotic evolution of Chlamydiae. Nature Microbiology. 2023 Jan 5;8(1):40-54. doi: 10.1038/s41564-022-01284-9
Halter T, Köstlbacher S, Collingro A, Susanne Sixt B, Tönshoff ER, Hendrickx F et al. Ecology and evolution of chlamydial symbionts of arthropods. ISME Communications. 2022 May 24;2:45. doi: 10.1038/s43705-022-00124-5
Ghasemian E, Inic-Kanada A, Collingro A, Mejdoubi L, Alchalabi H, Kese D et al. Comparison of genovars and Chlamydia trachomatis infection loads in ocular samples from children in two distinct cohorts in Sudan and Morocco. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 2021 Aug 9;15(8):e0009655. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0009655
Koestlbacher S, Collingro A, Halter T, Schulz F, Jungbluth SP, Horn M. Pangenomics reveals alternative environmental lifestyles among chlamydiae. Nature Communications. 2021 Jun 29;12(1):4021. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-24294-3
Köstlbacher S, Horn A, Halter T, Domman D, Horn M. Coevolving Plasmids Drive Gene Flow and Genome Plasticity in Host-Associated Intracellular Bacteria. Current Biology. 2021 Jan 25;31(2):346-357. E3. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.10.030