Congratulations to Luo Zhen-Hao on receiving the University of Vienna Postdoctoral Researcher Seed Grant. The 7-month research grant was awarded to support the project:

Investigation of the contribution of host-associated and environmental microbiomes to the Hg detoxification strategies of two caiman species in French Guiana

In this project we propose to investigate via untargeted and targeted molecular methods the microbiome associated with both crocodilianspecies in the French Guiana, Paleosuchus trigonatusand Melanosuchus niger, in order to understand its potential contribution to the Hg resistance and detoxification in both species.

The 16S rRNA gene-based amplicon study and qPCR study with merA-specific primers would be performed to obtain an overview of the taxonomic diversity of the resident microbiota on the different sites, in order to assess the putative overlap between the environmental and animal-associated lineages.

The Postdoctoral Researcher Seed Grant is a supporting measure for initial/pilot-studies and research experiments conducted by Postdoctoral Researchers.

Congratulations Zhen-Hao!