Mohammad Tanbir Habib

I am an evolutionary biologist, largely focusing on the genetic basis of diversity and specificity in ecological interactions. My PhD project illustrates the evolutionary dynamics of symbiotic Receptor-Like Kinases (RLKs) within the legume genus Lotus. Here we observed clade specific symbiotic preferences within the genus Lotus, where very closely related host species can choose between Bradyrhizobium sp. or Mesorhizobium loti as symbiotic partner. During my master’s project, we identified the Sporisorium reilianum secreted effector Vag2 (virulence-associated gene 2) that controls Smut symptom development on Maize inflorescence. Throughout this training period, I have gained valuable experience on many convenient biotechnology applications, such as genetic transformation of filamentous fungi, blotting techniques, qPCR and fluorescence microscopy. One of my recently completed project describes the genome of Klebsiella pneumoniae BASUSDA45pdb48, a unique prokaryotic strain capable of pesticides degradation. My contribution to this postdoctoral project has been quality control of raw sequence reads, contig assembly, scaffolding and annotation of the bacterial genome. At present, I am involved in nationwide SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance program in Bangladesh using Nanopore sequencing.