Q fever is a worldwide zoonotic infectious disease caused by the bacterium Coxiella burnetii. During 2007-2010, the largest Q fever outbreak was reported in The Netherlands, where more than 4000 human cases were registered showing a serious burden of the disease. During this outbreak, goats harboring predominantly the CbNL01 genotype strain were id...
The rapid decrease in costs of DNA sequencing implies that whole-genome sequence data will be widely available in the coming few years. Whole-genome sequence data includes all base-pairs on the genome that show variation in the sequenced population. Consequently, it is assumed that the causal mutations (e.g. quantitative trait loci; QTL) are includ...
Vegetative propagation is very important for the survival of species with long juvenile and adult vegetative phases, as it is the case for bulbous plants. Bulbous plants are ornamental geophytes with a bulb as an underground storage organ. Among flower bulbs, tulip and lily are the two commercially leading plants in The Netherlands. Tulip propagate...
Boswellia papyrifera is an important tree species of the extensive Combretum-Terminalia dry tropical forests and woodlands in Africa. The species produces a frankincense which is internationally traded because of its value as ingredient in cosmetic, detergent, food flavor and perfumes productions, and because of its extensive use as incense during ...
The human body is colonized by a vast number of microorganisms collectively defined as the microbiota. In the gut, the microbiota has important roles in health and disease, and can serve as a host of antibiotic resistance genes. Disturbances in the ecological balance, e.g. by antibiotics, can affect the diversity and dynamics of the microbiota. The...
The gastrointestinal tract is lined with a mucus layer, which is colonized by a distinct mucosal microbial population. The anaerobic gut bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila is a well-described member of the mucosal microbiota and has been shown to be a human gut symbiont. In the mucus layer this gut symbiont is likely exposed to the oxygen that diffu...
Bacterial stress response and heterogeneity therein is one of the biggest challenges posed by minimal processing. Heterogeneity and resulting tailing representing a more resistant fraction of the population, can have several causes and can be transient or stably in nature. Stable increased stress resistance is caused by alterations in the genome an...
After birth, our gastrointestinal (GI) tract is colonized by a highly complex assemblage of microbes, collectively termed the GI microbiota, that develop intimate interactions with our body. Recent evidence indicates that the GI microbiota and its products may contribute to the development of obesity and related diseases. This, coupled with the cur...
Chloroplast DNA sequence polymorphisms are a primary source of data in many plant phylogenetic studies. The chloroplast genome is relatively conserved in its evolution making it an ideal molecule to retain phylogenetic signals. The chloroplast genome is also largely, but not completely, free from other evolutionary processes such as gene duplicatio...
Biology is increasingly data driven by virtue of the development of high-throughput technologies, such as DNA and RNA sequencing. Computational biology and bioinformatics are scientific disciplines that cross-over between the disciplines of biology, informatics and statistics; which is clearly reflected in this thesis. Bioinformaticians often contr...
