Univ.-Prof. Dr. Martin Polz

 

 

 

 

 

Professor at the Division of Microbial Ecology

☎ +43 1 4277 91207

✉ martin.f.polz@univie.ac.at

Microbes are the most abundant and diverse organisms on the planet. Yet how this diversity is structured in the environment remains poorly understood. Martin’s group is broadly interested in structure-function relationships within microbial communities. How do gene flow, environmental interactions, and selection structure populations? How does viral predation drive the ecology and evolution of microbes? How fast do microbes grow in environmental samples?

The group addresses these questions by a combination of in situ molecular approaches, environmental genomics, traditional physiological and genetic techniques, and modelling. They study patterns of diversity among co-occurring microbes from the level of the entire community to the individual genome and gene. Their model systems include marine microbes as well as animal microbiomes. Their latest projects focus on microbe-virus interactions and on growth dynamics under environmental conditions.

Research Topics

Join the Team

If you are interested in joining our team, explore our open positions and learn more about available PhD and postdoc stipends here.

Teaching

To view Martin Polz' teaching activities at the University of Vienna, visit u:find.

Group Members

 Publications

Showing entries 67 - 72 out of 122
Polz, M. F., Alm, E. J., & Hanage, W. P. (2013). Horizontal gene transfer and the evolution of bacterial and archaeal population structure. Trends in Genetics, 29(3), 170-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2012.12.006
Szabo, G., Preheim, S. P., Kauffman, K. M., David, L. A., Shapiro, J., Alm, E. J., & Polz, M. F. (2013). Reproducibility of Vibrionaceae population structure in coastal bacterioplankton. The ISME Journal, 7(3), 509-19. https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2012.134
Cordero, O. X., Ventouras, L.-A., DeLong, E. F., & Polz, M. F. (2012). Public good dynamics drive evolution of iron acquisition strategies in natural bacterioplankton populations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(49), 20059-64. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1213344109
Materna, A. C., Friedman, J., Bauer, C., David, C., Chen, S., Huang, I. B., Gillens, A., Clarke, S. A., Polz, M. F., & Alm, E. J. (2012). Shape and evolution of the fundamental niche in marine Vibrio. The ISME Journal, 6(12), 2168-77. https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2012.65
Cordero, O. X., Wildschutte, H., Kirkup, B., Proehl, S., Ngo, L., Hussain, F., Le Roux, F., Mincer, T., & Polz, M. F. (2012). Ecological populations of bacteria act as socially cohesive units of antibiotic production and resistance. Science, 337(6099), 1228-31. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1219385
Shapiro, B. J., Friedman, J., Cordero, O. X., Preheim, S. P., Timberlake, S. C., Szabó, G., Polz, M. F., & Alm, E. J. (2012). Population genomics of early events in the ecological differentiation of bacteria. Science, 336(6077), 48-51. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1218198