JEFFREY SILBERMAN, Ph.D.

University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, 1993.

INTERESTS: Molecular phylogeny of eukaryotes to determine relationships within and among major protistan lines of descent, and assessing the contribution of prokaryotic genetic material that led to the creation of the eukaryotic cell and its integral components.

RESEARCH: Research projects in my lab are divided into two intertwined themes; 1) Protist phylogeny and 2) the origin, evolution, compartmentalization of eukaryotic anaerobic metabolism. Single cell eukaryotes comprise the majority of eukaryotic diversity yet the relationships among protist lineages is still controversial.  We are committed to constructing robust eukaryote phylogenies using a variety of genes (singly or in combination).  Various aerobic and anaerobic amoebae and flagellates are being studied as well as some very obscure protist parasites.

      It is becoming increasingly evident that a key event in the evolution of eukaryotes was the origin of mitochondria from endosymbiotic a-proteobacterial precursors. Molecular phylogenies and subcellular localization studies are providing stronger and stronger evidence that all extant eukaryotes have experienced the ancestral mitochondrial endosymbiosis, even ‘amitochondriate’ anaerobes.  We are searching for direct genetic evidence (mitochondrial marker genes) and genes for core enzymes of mitochondrial relic or related organelles found in these anaerobes.  We hope to clarify the evolutionary links between the mitochondria and their anaerobic counterparts.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Silberman J. D., Collins A. G., Gershwin L. A., Johnson P. J. and Roger, A. J. (2004) Ellobiopsids of the genus Thalassomyces are Alveolates.  J. Euk. Microbiol. 51(2):245-251.

Walker G., Silberman J. D., Karpov S. A., Preisfeld A, Foster P, Frolov AO, Novozhilov Y, and Sogin ML. (2003) An ultrastructural and molecular study of Hyperamoeba dachnaya, n. sp., and its relationship to the mycetozoan slime moulds Europ. J. Protistol. 39 (3):319-336.

Roger AJ and Silberman JD.  (2002) Mitochondria in hiding.  Nature, 418:827-829.

Silberman JD, Simpson AGB, Kulda J, Cepicka I, Hampl V, Johnson PJ, and Roger AJ.(2002) Retortamonad flagellates are closely related to diplomonads – implications for the history of mitochondrial function in eukaryote evolution.Mol. Biol. Evol., 19:777-786.

Dacks JB, Silberman JD, Simpson AGB, Moriya S, Kudo T, Ohkuma O, and Redfield RJ.  (2001) Oxymonads are closely related to the excavate taxon Trimastix.  Mol. Biol. Evol.  18(6): 1034-1044.

Silberman JD, Clark CG, Diamond LS, and Sogin ML. (1999) Phylogeny of the genera Entamoeba and Endolimax as deduced from small subunit ribosomal RNA sequences.  Mol. Biol. Evol. 16(12):1740-1751.

Silberman JD, Clark CG, and Sogin ML. (1996) Dientamoeba fragilis shares a recent common evolutionary history with the trichomonads.  Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 76:311-314.