Dr. Michiel Kwantes

Research

Michiel studied biology in Nijmegen (NL) and obtained a PhD in Genetics from the University of Cologne/MPI for Plant Breeding Research (MPIPZ) for his study of land plant gametophyte-specific MIKC* MADS-domain transcription factors. After further postdocs at the MPIPZ and the University of Oxford, he now is investigating the signal-mediated cross-kingdom interactions between the marine green macroalga Ulva mutabilis and its associated bacteria by applying forward/reversed genetics approaches.

Publications

Kwantes, M.*, Wichard, T.* (2022) The APAF1_C/WD40 repeat domain-encoding gene from the sea lettuce Ulva mutabilis sheds light on the evolution of NB-ARC domain-containing proteins in green plants. Planta 255: 76.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-022-03851-0External link

Alsufyani T., Califano G., Deicke M., Grueneberg J., Weiss A., Engelen A.H., Kwantes M., Mohr J.F., Ulrich J.F., Wichard T* (2020) Macroalgal–bacterial interactions: identification and role of thallusin in morphogenesis of the seaweed Ulva (Chlorophyta), Journal of Experimental Botany eraa066, https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraa066External link

Califano G., Kwantes M., Abreu M.H., Costa R. and Wichard T., Wichard T* (2020) Cultivating the Macroalgal Holobiont: Effects of Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture on the Microbiome of Ulva rigida (Chlorophyta). Frontiers in Marine Science.  7:52. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2020.00052External link

De Clerck, O.*,  Kao, S-M., Bogaert, K.A., Blomme, J., Foflonker, F., Kwantes, M., Vancaester, E., Vanderstraeten,  L., Aydogdu, E.,  Boesger, J.,  Califano, G., Charrier,  B., Clewes, R., Del Cortona, A., D'Hondt, S., Fernandez-Pozo,  N., Gachon, C.M., Hanikenne, M., Lattermann, L., Leliaert,  F., Liu, X., Maggs, C.A., Popper, Z.A., Raven, J.A., Van Bel, M., Wilhelmsson, P.K.I., Bhattacharya, D., Coates, J.C., Rensing, S.A., Van Der Straeten, D., Vardi, A., Sterck, L., Vandepoele, K., Van de Peer, Y., Wichard, T., Bothwell, J.H.* (2018) Insights into the Evolution of Multicellularity from the Sea Lettuce Genome. Current Biology 28: 2921-2933. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.08.015External link

Bösger, J., Kwantes, M., Wichard, T* (2018) Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-mediated transformation in the green macroalgae Ulva mutabilis (Chlorophyta): a forward genetic approach. In Protocols for Macroalgae Research, eds. B. Charrier, T. Wichard, C.R.K. Reddy, Chapter 31. Boca Raton: CRC Press, Francis & Taylor Group.External link