Dr. Sebastian Fraune

Zoologisches Institut der Universität zu Kiel
(Biozentrum)
Am Botanischen Garten 9
24118 Kiel
Tel 0431-880-4149
Fax 0431-880-4747
sfraune@zoologie.uni-kiel.de


Dr.Fraune

Curriculum vitae

Research interests

My research is focused on the interaction of host organisms with its associated microbiota. In particularly, I am interested in the
questions:
 (i) Are there identifiable core microbiota associated with a given host species?
(ii) Which influences do associated microbes have on the development of host organisms?
(iii) How is the microbiota selected, and how did they evolve within and between hosts?
In order to understand the microbiota living on or in epithelia and their influences on host immunity and host development, we have
pioneered the identification of microbiota in two species of Hydra. We could show that microbiota differ significantly between different
species indicating distinct selective pressures imposed on the epithelium. Current efforts are directed towards uncovering the
mechanisms by which the hydra epithelium actively shapes its microbial community.

Publications

 

• Fraune S ,R Augustin, TCG Bosch (2011)
Embryo protection in contemporary immunology: Why bacteria matter.
Communicative & Integrative Biology (4):369-72

• Fraune S ,R Augustin, F Anton-Erxleben, Jörg Wittlieb, C Gelhaus, V. B. Klimovich,M. P. Samoilovich,
and T.C.G. Bosch (2010)
In an early branching metazoan, bacterial colonization of the embryo is controlled by maternal antimicrobial peptides
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 107,18067-18072
Featured as “Research Highlights” in Nature Immunology (2010) 11, 1083

• Fraune S and Bosch TCG
Why bacteria matter in animal development and evolution.
Bioessays 32 (7)

• Chapman JA , Kirkness EF, Simakov O, ... Khalturin K, Hemmrich G, Franke A, Augustin R, Fraune S, ..Venter JC, Technau U, Hobmayer B, Bosch TCG, Holstein TW, Fujisawa T, Bode HR, David CN, Rokhsar DS, Steele RE. 2010.
The dynamic genome of Hydra.
Nature, doi: 10.1038/nature08830

• Augustin R, Fraune S, and Bosch TCG (2010)
How Hydra senses and destroys microbes.
Sem. Immunol, 22: 54–58.

• Fraune S, Augustin R, and Bosch TCG (2009)
Exploring host-microbe interactions in Hydra.
Microbe 4(10), 457-462.

• Khalturin K, Hemmrich G, Fraune S and Bosch TCG (2009)
More than just orphans: are taxonomically-restricted genes important in evolution?
Trends in Genetics 25: 404-413.

• Fraune S, Abe Y, Bosch TCG (2009)
Disturbing epithelial homeostasis in the metazoan Hydra leads to drastic changes in associated microbiota.
Environ. Microbiol. 11: 2361-2369.

• Jaenicke E*, Fraune S*, May S, Irmak P, Augustin R, Meesters C, Decker H, and Zimmer M (2009)
Is activated hemocyanin instead of phenoloxidase involved in immune response in woodlice?
Dev Comp Immunol.

• Anton-Erxleben F, Thomas A, Wittlieb J, Fraune S, Bosch TCG (2009)
Plasticity of epithelial cell shape in response to upstream signals: a whole-organism study using transgenic Hydra.
Zoology 112: 185-94.

• Bosch TC, Augustin R, Anton-Erxleben F, Fraune S, Hemmrich G, et al (2009)
Uncovering the evolutionary history of innate immunity: the simple metazoan Hydra uses epithelial cells for host defence.
Dev. Comp. Immunol. 33: 559-69.

 • Fraune S, Zimmer M (2008)
Host-specificity of environmentally transmitted Mycoplasma-like isopod symbionts.
Environ. Microbiol. 10: 2497-504.

 • Fraune S , Bosch TC (2007) Long-term maintenance of species-specific bacterial microbiota in the basal metazoan Hydra. Proc. Natl. Acad.Sci. U S A 104: 13146-51.

* authors contributed equally

Non-peer reviewed publications

• Bosch TCG, Anton-Erxleben F, Augustin F, Franzenburg S & Fraune S (2011)
Hydra Go Bacterial
in E. Rosenberg & U. Gophna (eds.), Beneficial Microorganisms in Multicellular Life Forms, 313-322
• Fraune S, Franzenburg S, Augustin R and Bosch TCG (2011)
Das Prinzip Metaorganismus.
BIOSPEKTRUM 17: 634-636
• Fraune S, Augustin R, and Bosch TCG (2009)
Exploring host-microbe interactions in Hydra.
Microbe 4(10), 457-462.