I joined the LBC in 2017 (as a bachellor student) motivated by the introductory course in command line tools for computational biology given by the lab.

Since then, I’ve been working in two main research lines: i) the study of lineage-specific duplications among multigene families in the phylum Platyhelminthes; and ii) the transcriptomic study of the intrasnail developmental stages of the trematode parasite F. hepatica.

The work done in the first of these lines is part of a grant financed by ANII, and culminated in my final work to obtain the degree of BSc. in Biochemistry. We focused our studies in the lineage-specific duplications (i.e. inparalogs) existing in thirty platyheminthic genomes. This set of duplicated genes shows an enrichment in proteins related with the interaction between parasites and their respective hosts, as well as marks of possible evolution under positive selection in their sequences and, in some cases, stage or tissue specific expression. Our work culminated in a manuscript that hopefully will be published in brief.

The second line of research is related to my work as a MSc. student, under the tutelage of Dr. José F. Tort ( Departamento de Genética - Facultad de Medicina (Universidad de la República)) and Dr. Andrés Iriarte (Laboratorio de Biología Computacional). We aim to characterize transcript expression of the laval stages of the trematode F. hepatica in one of its intermediate snail hosts, L. viatrix. This is a crucial stage in the development of these parasite, as the larval stages experiencie asexual clonal expansion, leading to the production of several infective cercariae that are ultimately capable of infect the ultimate mammalian hosts. Interestingly, up to date exists published data regarding the intermediate molluscan stages of other parasitic trematodes (such as S. mansoni and F. gigantica), but transcriptomic data regarding this stage in F. hepatica is missing. Comparative studies of the expression levels of multigene families among these trematodes in these stages can uncover conserved and specific patterns that can help to elucidate the interaction of these parasites with their intermediate hosts.

Finally, I must also mention that during these years I’ve also pérformed some minor collaborations with researches from other fields (specially microbiologists), giving some technical support in analysis such as genomic assembly of unknown strains of microorganisms.

Selected publications

• Langleib M., Beracochea M., Zabaleta M., Battistoni F., Sotelo-Silveira J., Fabiano E., Iriarte A., & Platero P. Draft genome sequence of Paraburkholderia sp. UYCP14C, a rhizobium strain isolated from root nodules of Calliandra parvifolia (MRA00173-19R2). Microbiology Resource Announcements 8(16) e00173-19. doi: 10.1128/MRA.00173-19

• Machin E.V., Asem M. D., Salam N., Iriarte A., Langleib M., Li W-J., & Menes R.J. Nesterenkonia natronophila sp. nov., an alkaliphilic actinobacterium isolated from a soda lake, and emended description of the genus Nesterenkonia. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 69:7. doi: https://doi.org/10.1099/ijsem.0.003409

• Menes R.J., Machin E.V., Iriarte A. & Langleib M. Bacillus natronophilus sp. nov., an alkaliphilic bacterium isolated from a soda lake. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 70(1):562-568. doi: https://doi.org/10.1099/ijsem.0.003792