Welcome to Archaea Biology and Ecogenomics

Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology

We belong to the Faculty of Life Sciences of the University of Vienna. On 1 January 2022 Archaea Biology, Molecular Systems Biology, Limnology and Bio-Oceanography and Marine Biology merged to the Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology.

Archaea arose together with Bacteria as the first organisms on this planet about 3.5 billion years ago. They form a separate domain of life beside bacteria and eukaryotes and inhabit virtually all environments on earth, including the most extreme environments that can sustain life.
Our unit studies the biology of archaea as well as bacterial symbioses with a focus on ecological, physiological and evolutionary aspects to shed light on the diversity and fundamental distinctions between these two prokaryotic groups.

In particular we are interested in:

- the ecological distribution of archaea from terrestrial, aquatic and hot environments

- the phylogeny of archaea

- the metabolism and genomes of ammonia oxidizing thaumarchaeota

- virus-defense (CRISPR-) systems of hyperthermophilic archaea

- archaea Biotechnology

- bacterium-nematode symbioses

We thus attempt to improve the understanding of the role of microorganisms, in particular of archaea, in global biogeochemical cycles and in early evolution.

27.07.2017
 

Thank you very much to all the participants of the ICoN5 for your contributions and for making the conference a success.

25.07.2017
 

Tu, 25 July 2017, 1:15 p.m.

Auditorium, Campus of the University of Vienna

 

Join us for a special session on nitrogen open to the public!

23.07.2017
 

Su, 23 July 2017

 

The DK plus students are participating in today's "ICoN5 Early Career and Graduate Students Workshop" that precedes the ICoN5.

20.07.2017
 

We are pleased to invite you to Vienna to attend ICoN5, the 5th International Conference on Nitrification and Related Processes.

Be prepared for an...

13.07.2017
 

The Faculty of Life Sciences honours the work of Jessica Kozlowski by awarding the Gertrud Pleskot Award.

30.06.2017
 

Female scientists are currently underrepresented at the Faculty of Life Sciences, particularly in Biology. Cornelia Welte will share her experience.

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