Jan Wuyts

Postdoc
(Group member from 2002 until 2005)


+ 32 (0) 9 33 13 822

VIB / Ghent University
Bioinformatics & Systems Biology
Technologiepark 927
B-9052 Gent
BELGIUM

CV

Personal Details

Name: Jan Wuyts
Birthdate: 6 June 1976, Lier, Belgium
Current affiliation:

Bioinformatics research group
Department of Plant Systems Biology
University of Gent (RUG) / VIB
Technologiepark 927
B-9052 Gent
Belgium
Phonenumber: +32 9 33 13 692

University Education

1994-1996: Candidate in Chemistry, at Rijksuniversitair Centrum Antwerpen (RUCA), Belgium.
1996-1998: Licentiate in Biochemistry, at Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen (UIA), Belgium.
Title of thesis: Studie van het variabele gebied V4 van het kleine ribosomale subeenheid RNA en ontwikkeling van software voor het raadplegen van sequentie-databanken. (Study of the variable region V4 of the small ribosomal subunit RNA and the development of software to query sequence-databases)

Scientific career

1998-2002: Ph.D. studies: "Ribosomal RNA: measurement of nucleotide substitution rates, evolutionary distribution of insertions, and derivation of their secondary structure.", Department of Biochemistry, University of Antwerp (UIA), Belgium.

2002- Postdoctoral fellow of the "Instituut voor de aanmoediging van Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie in Vlaanderen" (IWT - Flanders), Department of Plant Systems Biology, University of Gent (RUG), Belgium.

Research

My research interests are protein evolution after gene duplication and RNA secondary structure. Currently, my main research focus is on protein evolution. Since sequencing projects are providing us with an ever increasing number of protein coding genes from different gene families we can use this information to learn more about the evolutionary history of these genes. It is also clear now that many genes originated after a gene duplication of an ancestral gene. After this duplication event both duplicates can diverge and ultimately obtain another function. With a growing number of annotated gene families I hope to study which mechanisms are involved in this functional divergence.

My PhD. research was focused on the structure of ribosomal RNA molecules and now I try to apply what I have learned then to help in the detection of other non coding RNA genes like microRNAs. I am also the webmaster of the European ribosomal RNA database.

Papers

(15) Martin, F., Aerts, A., Ahrén, D., Brun, A., Duchaussoy, F., Gibon, J., Kohler, A., Lindquist, E., Pereda, V., Salamov, A., Shapiro, H.J., Wuyts, J., Blaudez, D., Buée, M., Brokstein, P., Canbäck, B., Cohen, D., Courty, P.E., Coutinho, P., Danchin, E.G.J., Delaruelle, C., Detter, J., Deveau, A., DiFazio, S., Duplessis, S., Fraissinet-Tachet, L., Lucic, E., Frey-Klett, P., Fourrey, C., Feussner, I., Gay, G., Gérard, J., Grimwood, J., Hoegger, P.J., Jain, P., Kilaru, S., Labbé, J., Lin, Y.-C., Legué, V., F LeTacon, ., Marmeisse, R., Melayah, D., Montanini, B., Muratet, M., Nehls, U., Niculita-Hirzel, H., Oudot-LeSecq, M.P., Peter, G., Quesneville, H., Rajashekar, B., Reich, M., Rouhier, N., Schmutz, J., Yin, T., Chalot, M., Henrissat, B., Kües, U., Lucas, S., Van de Peer, Y., Podila, G., Polle, A., Pukkila, PJ., Richardson, P., Rouzé, P., Sanders, I., Stajich, J.E., Tunlid, A., Tuskan, G., Grigoriev, I. (2008) The genome of Laccaria bicolor provides insights into mycorrhizal symbiosis. Nature 452(7183):88-92.

(14) Robbens, S., Derelle, E., Ferraz, C., Wuyts, J., Moreau, H., Van de Peer, Y. (2007) The Complete Chloroplast and Mitochondrial DNA Sequence of Ostreococcus tauri: Organelle Genomes of the Smallest Eukaryote are Examples of Compaction. Mol. Biol. Evol. 24(4):956-68.

(13) * Derelle, E., * Ferraz, C., * Rombauts, S., * Rouzé, P., Worden, A.Z., Robbens, S., Partensky, F., Degroeve, S., Echeynie, S., Cooke, R., Saeys, Y., Wuyts, J., Panaud, O., Piegu, B., Ball, S., Ral, J.P., Bouget, F.-Y., Piganeau, G., De Baets, B., Picard, A., Delseny, M., Demaille, J., Van de Peer, Y., Moreau, H. (2006) Genome analysis of the smallest free-living eukaryote Ostreococcus tauri unveils many unique features. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103(31):11647-52. *contributed equally

(12) * Bonnet, E., * Wuyts, J., Rouzé, P., Van de Peer, Y. (2004) Evidence that microRNA precursors, unlike other non-coding RNAs, have lower folding free energies than random sequences. Bioinformatics 20(17):2911-7. *contributed equally

(11) Bonnet, E., Wuyts, J., Rouzé, P., Van de Peer, Y. (2004) Detection of 91 potential conserved plant microRNAs in Arabidopsis thaliana and Oryza sativa identifies important new target genes. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101(31):11511-6.

(10) Wuyts, J., Perriere, G., Van de Peer, Y. (2004) The European ribosomal RNA database. Nucleic Acids Res. 32(Database issue):D101-3.

(9) Alvares, L.E., Wuyts, J., Van de Peer, Y., Silva, E.P., Coutinho, L.L., Brison, O., Ruiz, I.R.G. (2004) The 18S rRNA from Odontophrynus americanus 2n and 4n (Amphibia, Anura) reveals unusual extra sequences in the variable region V2. Genome 47(3):421-8.

(8) De Rijk, P., Wuyts, J., De Wachter, R. (2003) RnaViz2: an improved representation of RNA secondary structure. Bioinformatics 19(2):299-300.

(7) Wuyts, J., Van de Peer, Y., Winkelmans, T., De Wachter, R. (2002) The European database on small subunit ribosomal RNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 30(1):183-5.

(6) Van de Peer, Y., De Rijk, P., Wuyts, J., Winkelmans, T., De Wachter, R. (2002) The European small subunit ribosomal RNA database. Nucleic Acids Res. 30(1):183-5.

(5) Wuyts, J., Van de Peer, Y., De Wachter, R. (2001) Distribution of substitution rates and location of insertion sites in the tertiary structure of ribosomal RNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 29(24):5017-28.

(4) Wuyts, J., De Rijk, P., Van de Peer, Y., Winkelmans, T., De Wachter, R. (2001) The European large subunit ribosomal RNA database. Nucleic Acids Res. 29(1):175-7.

(3) De Rijk, P., Wuyts, J., Van de Peer, Y., Winkelmans, T., De Wachter, R. (2001) The European large subunit ribosomal RNA database. Nucleic Acids Res. 29(1):175-7.

(2) Wuyts, J., De Rijk, P., Van de Peer, Y., Pison, G., Rousseeuw, P., De Wachter, R. (2000) Comparative analysis of more than 3000 sequences reveals the existence of two pseudoknots in area V4 of eukaryotic small subunit ribosomal RNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 28(23):4698-708.

(1) Ben Ali, A., Wuyts, J., De Wachter, R., Meyer, A., Van de Peer, Y. (1999) Construction of a variability map for eukaryotic large subunit ribosomal RNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 27(14):2825-31.











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Bioinformatics & Evolutionary Genomics
Technologiepark 927
B-9052 Gent
BELGIUM
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