mgr inż. Marta Sałek

Scientific interests   

• Ecology of freshwater ecosystems
• Interspecies interactions (protista – procaryota)
• Microscope techniques

Projects

Ongoing

• NCN OPUS Grant: Freshwater microbial communities in the eutrophication gradient: diversity and interactions of protists and bacteria (MicroDivEr). Principal investigator: Prof. Anna Karnkowska
• New Ideas: Establishing the protocol for high-throughput single-cell transcriptomics of microbial eukaryotes
  Principal investigator: Prof. Anna Karnkowska
• EMBO Installation Grant: Evolution of phototrophy in eukaryotes Principal investigator: Prof. Anna Karnkowska

Completed

• Trans-National Access in EXCITE project: SYMBIOSEM – Unravelling ultrastructural interactions between algal host cells and their endosymbionts. Principal investigator: M. Sc., Eng. Marta Sałek, completed in 2024
• Intramural grant for young scientist (PMB): Analysis of biodiversity of eukaryotic microorganisms in dystrophic lakes, adjactent peat bogs and soils. Principal investigator: M. Sc., Eng. Marta Sałek, completed in 2022

Internships and workshops

• April 2024: Białowieska School of Statisticks, Białowieża, Poland July 2023: SymbNET PhD Summer school on host-microbe symbioses, Lisbon, Portugal
• October 2022: Internship in FISH microscopy for euglenids, under the supervision
  of PhD Daria Tashyreva in Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre CAS, Ceske
  Budejovice, Czechia
• Septemer 2022: International FISH course at University of Vienna, Austria
• June-July 2022: EMBO workshop: Advanced electron microscopy for cell biology.
  Tromsø, Norway
• March 2022: Internship in CARD-FISH microscopy, under the supervision of Prof. Katarzyna Piwosz. National Marine Fisheries Research Institute in Gdynia, Department of Fisheries Oceanography and Marine Ecology Gdynia, Poland

Awards and distinctions

• June 2024: Holz-Conner Travel Grant (conference attendance; International Society of Protistologists, ISOP)
• June 2022: Second prize for best poster at 51st Jírovec’s Protozoological Days (Svratka, Czech Republic)
• July 2022: IDUB microgrant for International FISH course at University of Vienna

Conferences

Oral presentations

• Sałek M., Hollender M., Smacchia V., Karnkowska A. “Exploring protist-bacteria interactions
  along eutrophication gradient: insights from amplicon and single-cell analyses in freshwater
  ecosystems”; 2024 PSA-ISOP-ISEP Joint Meeting, Seattle, USA; 29.07 -1.08.2024 r.
• Sałek M., Chwalińska M., Hollender M., Hałakuc P., Karlicki M., Smacchia V., Karnkowska A. “Abundance and diversity of protistan-prokaryotic interactions in freshwater lakes of the Masurian Lakeland based on single cell microbiome study”; EMBO ecology and evolution biology of microbes meeting, Chęciny, Polska; 5-7.10.2023 r.
• Sałek M., Hollender M., Hałakuc P., Karlicki M., Maciszewski K., Karnkowska A. Finding interaction patterns between protists and eukaryotes based on single cell microbiome approach: obtaining good quality data for computational analyses; Meeting of the EMBO Young Investigator Network on computational methods in ecology and evolutionary biology of microbes, Chęciny, Poland; 7-9.07.2022 r.

Posters

• Sałek M., Chwalińska M., Hollender M., Smacchia V., Karnkowska A. “Abundance and diversity of protistan-prokaryotic interactions in freshwater lakes of the Masurian Lakeland”; SAME17 – Symposium of Aquatic Microbial Ecology, Tartu, Estonia; 21-24.08.2023
• Hollender M., Sałek M., Karlicki M., Karnkowska A. “Endosymbiont for each protist – protocol for prokaryotic endosymbionts identification from protists’ single cell”; International Society for Evolutionary Protistology virtual meeting (ISEP23), online event; 19-20.01.2023
• Sałek M., Hollender M., Hałakuc P., Karlicki M., Maciszewski K., Karnkowska A. “Finding interaction patterns between protists and prokaryotes based on a single cell microbiome analysis”; 51st Jírovec’s Protozoological Days, Svratka, Czech Republic; 20-24.06.2022
• Sałek M., Karnkowska A. “Endosymbiotic interactions of microbial eukaryotes in the environment – where and how to find them?”; EMBO Young Scientists’ Forum in Warsaw 2021, Poland; 21-22.10.2021
• Sałek M., Khomutovska N., Sandzewicz M., Łach Ł., Suska-Malawska M., Jasser I. “Occurrence of toxigenic genus Phormidium (Cyanobacteria) in microbial mats and biological soil crusts of the hot and cold desert (California and Pamir)”; Ecology in a Changing World. PhD Student Conference, Warsaw, Poland; 23-25.03 2019

Memberships

• International Society of Protistologists (ISOP)

Publications

@article{Hollender2024,

title = {Single-cell genomics revealed Candidatus Grellia alia sp. nov. as an endosymbiont of Eutreptiella sp. (Euglenophyceae)},

author = {Metody Hollender and Marta Sałek and Michał Karlicki and Anna Karnkowska},

doi = {10.1016/j.protis.2024.126018},

issn = {1434-4610},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-04-01},

urldate = {2024-04-00},

journal = {Protist},

volume = {175},

number = {2},

publisher = {Elsevier BV},

abstract = {Though endosymbioses between protists and prokaryotes are widespread, certain host lineages have received disproportionate attention what may indicate either a predisposition to such interactions or limited studies on certain protist groups due to lack of cultures. The euglenids represent one such group in spite of microscopic observations showing intracellular bacteria in some strains. Here, we perform a comprehensive molecular analysis of a previously identified endosymbiont in the Eutreptiella sp. CCMP3347 using a single cell approach and bulk culture sequencing. The genome reconstruction of this endosymbiont allowed the description of a new endosymbiont Candidatus Grellia alia sp. nov. from the family Midichloriaceae. Comparative genomics revealed a remarkably complete conjugative type IV secretion system present in three copies on the plasmid sequences of the studied endosymbiont, a feature missing in the closely related Grellia incantans. This study addresses the challenge of limited host cultures with endosymbionts by showing that the genomes of endosymbionts reconstructed from single host cells have the completeness and contiguity that matches or exceeds those coming from bulk cultures. This paves the way for further studies of endosymbionts in euglenids and other protist groups. The research also provides the opportunity to study the diversity of endosymbionts in natural populations.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}