prof. Ing. Miroslav Oborník, Ph.D.

Education and employment

1985–1991          Student Ing. (MSc) , Faculty of Agriculture Ceske Budejovice, Agricultural University - Prague, specialization "Genetic Engineering and Plant Breeding"

1991                      Fellowship , Faculty of Agriculture Ceske Budejovice, Agricultural University - Prague, Dept. of Plant Production, Division of Plant Protection

1991–1995          PhD student , Faculty of Agriculture, University of South Bohemia, Dept. of Plant Production, Division of Plant Protection

10/1995–12/1996  Civil service

1998–2000          Assistant Professor , Faculty of Agriculture, University of South Bohemia, Dept. of Plant Production, Division of Plant Protection

1998–                    Research scientist, Institute of Parasitology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Division of Molecular Parasitology

2000–                    Research scientist, head of the laboratory , Institute of Parasitology (IP), Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and University of South Bohemia (USB), Faculty of Biological Sciences - Laboratory of Molecular Taxonomy (joint laboratory of IP and USB)

2005–2008          Assistant Professor in Molecular and Cell Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice

2008–present      Senior Research Scientist, Biology Centre ASCR, Institute of Parasitology

2008–present      Associate Professor in Molecular and Cell Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice

2022–present      Director of the Institute of Parasitology

Foreign programs

May–August 1993              Wageningen Agricultural University, Dept. of Entomology, The Netherlands (Dr. R. Stouthamer)

December 1994–September 1995 Wageningen Agricultural University, Dept. of Entomology, The Netherlands (Dr. R. Stouthamer)

April–May 1997                  University of Horticulture and Food Industry, Budapest, Hungary

November 2002–November 2003  University of British Columbia, Department of Botany, Vancouver, Canada (Dr. B.R. Green)

Research priorities

MO is currently working on the evolution of secondary endosymbiosis. Many unicellular photoautotrophic eukaryotes (such as diatoms, heterokonts, cryptophytes, haptophytes, euglenoids) possess complex photosynthetic organelles that evolved during the process of secondary endosymbiogenesis. Such secondary (or complex) plastids are surrounded by three or four membranes. Nuclear–encoded proteins are postraslationally imported into the complex plastid via secretory pathway. We have participated on the annotation of the genome of diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, particularly on the search of nuclear–encoded plastid targeted proteins, their in silico localization and phylogeny.

Complex plastid is also present in apicomplexan parasites, however, it is not photosynthetic in this case. The size of the apicomplexan plastid genome is extremely small (35 kb) thus offering a limited number of genes for phylogenetic analysis. Moreover, the sequences of apicoplast genes are highly AT rich and rapidly evolving. Although it is evident that the apicoplast and its genome is plastid–derived, our detailed phylogenetic analysis of amino acid and nucleotide sequences of selected apicoplast ribosomal protein genes rpl2 , rpl14 and rps12 show their possible mitochondrial origin. Based on our results, a hypothesis is proposed that apicoplasts might contain both plastid and mitochondrial genes, thus constituting a hybrid assembly.

MO is also involved in phylogenetic projects concerning molecular phylogeny of protozoa, e.g. microsporidia, apicomplexan parasites and kinteoplastids.

Hobby

Playing the guitar (music group–Smutný Karel )