Departamento de Parasitologia – ICB

Departamento de Parasitologia

JOÃO MARCELO PEREIRA ALVES

Phone: +55 (11) 2648-8297
Room: 21 
Email: jotajj@usp.br
Currículo Lattes

Assistent Professor - Laboratory of Genomics and Bioinformatics in Parasitology

RESEARCH LINE

Phylogeny and evolution of protozoan and bacterial genes and genomes; Bioinformatics

Recent sequencing and analysis of genomes and transcriptomes have led to the discovery of several biological phenomena, in addition to answering pending questions on the evolution, phylogeny, and cellular and molecular biology of many groups of organisms. However, sampling of organisms analyzed so far has been very biased and uneven, due to the emphasis given in previous research to organisms of economical and, mainly, medical importance. This hampers comparative analyses necessary to determine the mode(s) of evolution of many characteristics of interest. Our goal is to study, by comparative genomic and transcriptomic approaches, genome structure and evolution in unicellular organisms. The main target of our efforts are the organisms from the Trypanosomatidae family and other Kinetoplastida, specially non-parasitic ones, and other, more distantly-related Euglenozoa, in order to answer several biological questions about these protozoans. Such questions include: intron distribution in the Kinetoplastida; gene content evolution and its correlation with life style (i.e. parasitic, commensal, or free living); selective pressure among gene classes; metabolic potential reconstruction and its correlation with other biological characteristics; correlation of host and endosymbiont gene complements. Better understanding of such questions will greatly contribute to the knowledge of basic mechanisms of organismal and genomic evolution in general, and parasitism in particular, helping to elucidate what makes a parasite and how best to fight it. In addition, we evaluate and develop the bioinformatic tools and approaches needed to achieve our research goals.

PUBLICATIONS

Alves, J.M.P.* ; Klein, C.C.* ; da Silva, F.M. ; Costa-Martins, A.G. ; Serrano, M.G. ; Buck, G.A. ; Vasconcelos, A.T.R. ; Sagot, M.-F. ; Motta, M.C.M. ; Camargo, E.P. (2013). BMC Evolutionary Biology, v. 13, p. 190. PMID: 24015778

Alves, J.M.P. ; Serrano, M.G. ; da Silva, F.M. ; Voegtly, L. ; Matveyev, A.V. ; Teixeira, M.M.G. ; Camargo, E.P. ; Buck, G.A. (2013). Genome Biology and Evolution, v. 5, p. 338. PMID: 23345457

Klein, C.C.* ; Alves, J.M.P.* ; Serrano, M.G. ; Buck, G.A. ; Vasconcelos, A.T.R. ; Sagot, M.-F. ; Teixeira, M.M.G. ; Camargo, E.P. ; Motta, M.C.M. (2013). PLoS One, v. 8, p. e79786. PMID: 24260300

Ridlon, J.M. ; Alves, J.M. ; Hylemon, P.B. ; Bajaj, J.S. (2013). Gut Microbes, v. 4, p. 1. PMID: 23851335

Alves, J.M.P. ; Voegtly, L. ; Matveyev, A.V. ; Lara, A.M. ; da Silva, F.M. ; Serrano, M.G. ; Buck, G.A. ; Teixeira, M.M.G. ; Camargo, E.P. (2011). PLoS One, v. 6, p. e23518. PMID: 21853145

Harwich, M.D. ; Alves, J.M. ; Buck, G.A. ; Strauss, J.F. ; Patterson, J.L. ; Oki, A.T. ; Girerd, P.H. ; Jefferson, K.K. (2010). BMC Genomics, v. 11, p. 375. PMID: 20540756

Xu, P.* ; Alves, J.M.P.* ; Kitten, T. ; Brown, A. ; Chen, Z. ; Ozaki, L.S. ; Manque, P. ; Ge, X. ; Serrano, M.G. ; Puiu, D. ; Hendricks, S. ; Wang, Y. ; Chaplin, M.D. ; Akan, D. ; Paik, S. ; Peterson, D.L. ; Macrina, F.L. ; Buck, G.A. (2007). Journal of Bacteriology, v. 189, p. 3166. PMID: 17277061

Alves, J.M.P. ; Buck, G.A. (2007). Chemistry & Biodiversity, v. 4, p. 2593. PMID: 18027373

Xu, P. ; Widmer, G. ; Wang, Y. ; Ozaki, L.S. ; Alves, J.M. ; Serrano, M.G. ; Puiu, D. ; Manque, P. ; Akiyoshi, D. ; Mackey, A.J. ; Pearson, W.R. ; Dear, P.H. ; Bankier, A.T. ; Peterson, D.L. ; Abrahamsen, M.S. ; Kapur, V. ; Tzipori, S. ; Buck, G.A. (2004). Nature, v. 431, p. 1107. PMID: 15510150

Alves, J.M.P. ; Gusmão, C.X. ; Teixeira, M.M.G. ; Freitas, D. ; Foronda, A.S. ; Affonso, H.T. (2000). Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, v. 33, n.1, p. 19. PMID: 10625870

RESEARCH PROJECTS/FUNDING

Title: Comparative Genomics of Trypanosomatidae
Period: 10/2013 to 09/2017
Funding agency: FAPESP
Grant number: 13/14622-3

COLLABORATORS

  • Alan M. Durham | IME-USP, SP, Brazil
  • Alejandro M. Katzin, Parasitology | ICB-USP, SP, Brazil
  • André Oliveira de Souza Lima | UNIVALI, SC, Brazil
  • Arthur Gruber, Parasitology | ICB-USP, SP, Brazil
  • Erney F. Plessmann de Camargo, Parasitology | ICB-USP, SP, Brazil
  • Gregory A. Buck | Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
  • Jason Ridlon | Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
  • Karin Kirchgatter | SUCEN and IMT-USP, SP, Brazil
  • Marcelo Urbano Ferreira, Parasitology | ICB-USP, SP, Brazil
  • Maria Cristina Machado Motta | UFRJ, RJ, Brazil
  • Marta Maria Geraldes Teixeira, Parasitology | ICB-USP, SP, Brazil