Tomas-Tyml | LRC SYSTEMS

Tomas Tyml, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems

Education

University of South Bohemia (Ph.D., Parasitology)

Other Appointments

Postdoc at the DOE’s Joint Genome Institute

(Tanja Woyke’s team)

https://jgi.doe.gov/our-science/scientists-jgi/single-cells/

What's your background?

I completed my PhD at the University of South Bohemia (Czech Republic) in parasitology program that is supported by the Institute of Parasitology of the Czech Academy of Science. This gave me an opportunity to work on numerous diverse projects with various research groups. My empirical work has utilized a wide range of organisms, mostly unicellular eukaryotes (protists) but also metazoans.

What's your role at LRC?

I am a microbiologist/protistologist interested in symbiosis in general and particularly in all kinds of intracellular associations within eukaryotes. I joined LRC systems as a postdoctoral researcher and my role is to develop new model systems for studying intracellular associations in unicellular eukaryotes. To do this, I use a mixture of techniques including traditional cultivation methods, microscopy, and genomics.

What trend, breakthrough or discovery are you most excited about?

I am very excited by all current discoveries helping us to better understand one of the major transitions in the history of life - the origin of the eukaryotic cell. I am also thrilled by the emergence of new tools (e.g. novel single-cell and microbial culture techniques) that move us forward in uncovering the role of symbiosis in the evolutionary history of life.

Research Interests

Whether symbiotic associations have played an essential role in the evolution of life is no longer questioned. And yet, this phenomenon is mostly studied in relatively narrow and isolated directions on a limited number of model systems. Using traditional cultivation methods along with microcopy and new, cutting-edge single-cell techniques, I hope to broaden our understanding of the roles that these associations have played in the evolutionary history and diversity of life. My current research is primarily focused on these three projects:

1. How common are intracellular associations in so far neglected eukaryotic lineages?
2. Co-cultivation survey: a large-scale co-cultivation effort to access novel symbiotic taxa
3. Focusing on specific model systems to get a better mechanistic understanding of interactions between host and symbiont

Publications

Tyml, T., Date, S. V. & Woyke, T. 2019. A single-cell genome perspective on studying intracellular associations in unicellular eukaryotes. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B, 20190082.

Tyml, T. & Dyková, I. 2018. Sappinia sp. (Amoebozoa: Thecamoebida) and Rosculus sp. (SAR: Cercozoa) isolated from king penguin guano collected in the Subantarctic (South Georgia, Salisbury Plain) and their coexistence in culture. J. Eukaryot. Microbiol., 65:544–555.

Tyml, T., Lares-Jiménez, L. F., Kostka, M. & Dyková, I. 2017. Neovahlkampfia nana n. sp. strengthening an underrepresented subclade of Tetramitia, Heterolobosea. J. Eukaryot. Microbiol., 64:173–182.

Tyml, T., Skulinová, K., Kavan, J., Ditrich, O., Kostka, M. & Dyková, I. 2016. Heterolobosean amoebae from Arctic and Antarctic extremes: 18 novel strains of Allovahlkampfia, Vahlkampfia and Naegleria. Eur. J. Protistol., 56:119–133.

Schulz, F., Tyml, T., Pizzetti, I., Dyková, I., Fazi, S., Kostka, M., & Horn, M. 2015. Marine amoebae with cytoplasmic and perinuclear symbionts deeply branching in the Gammaproteobacteria. Sci. Rep., 5:13381.