Alexandra Schmidt

My research interests lie in the fields of aquatic systems, biodiversity, and genomics. My current research is focused on the population genomics of two key Baltic phytoplankton species over the past ~8,000 years. I track population dynamics and structure over time, utilizing recent genomic data to screen for these variations. By targeting genomic regions of interest (SNPs, variations) using hybridization enrichment, I aim to uncover possible responses to changing environments. Additionally, I work with resurrected phytoplankton from resting stages, performing whole genome analysis on these ancient genomes.

My research is part of the project "PhytoArk" , funded by the Leibniz Association and the funding programme "Collaborative Excellence".

List of publications:

Schmidt, A., Romahn, J., Andrén, E., Kremp, A., Kaiser, J., Arz, H.W., Dellwig, O., Bálint, M., Epp, L.S., 2024. Decoding the Baltic Sea’s past and present: A simple molecular index for ecosystem assessment. Ecological Indicators 166, 112494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.112494

Schmidt, A., Schneider, C., Decker, P., Hohberg, K., Römbke, J., Lehmitz, R., & Bálint, M. (2022). Shotgun metagenomics of soil invertebrate communities reflects taxonomy, biomass, and reference genome properties. Ecology and Evolution, 12(6). https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8991

Merges, D., Schmidt, A., Schmitt, I., Neuschulz, E. L., Dal Grande, F., & Bálint, M. (2022). Metatranscriptomics reveals contrasting effects of elevation on the activity of bacteria and bacterial viruses in soil. Molecular Ecology, mec.16756. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.16756

Collins, G., Schneider, C., Boštjančić, L.L., Burkhardt, U., Christian, A., Decker, P., Ebersberger, I., Hohberg, K., Lecompte, O., Merges, D., Muelbaier, H., Romahn, J., Römbke, J., Rutz, C., Schmelz, R., Schmidt, A., Theissinger, K., Veres, R., Lehmitz, R., Pfenninger, M., Bálint, M., 2023. The MetaInvert soil invertebrate genome resource provides insights into below-ground biodiversity and evolution. Commun Biol 6, 1241. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05621-4

Seeber, P.A., Palmer, Z., Schmidt, A., Chagas, A., Kitagawa, K., Marinova-Wolff, E., Tafelmaier, Y., Epp, L.S., 2023. The first European woolly rhinoceros mitogenomes, retrieved from cave hyena coprolites, suggest long-term phylogeographic differentiation. Biol. Lett. 19, 20230343. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2023.0343
 

Seeber, P.A., Batke, L., Dvornikov, Y., Schmidt, A., Wang, Y., Stoof-Leichsenring, K., Moon, K., Vohr, S.H., Shapiro, B., Epp, L.S., 2024. Mitochondrial genomes of Pleistocene megafauna retrieved from recent sediment layers of two Siberian lakes. eLife 12, RP89992. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.89992

Romahn, J., Baranski, D., Schmidt, A., Kaiser, J., Arz, H., Epp, L.S., Kremp, A., Bálint, M., 2024. Glimpse of past dynamics: A new set of phytoplankton primers for sedaDNA. Environmental DNA 6, e577. https://doi.org/10.1002/edn3.577