Endosymbiotic Origin & Host-Microbe Interactions
About Us
We are a research group affiliated with Huang Lab in the Department of Life Sciences, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan.
The group leader is Shih-Hsun Walter Hung, who is now working as a Research Assistant under the collaboration projects between Dr Chieh-Chen Huang and Dr Chih-Horng Kuo at the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
Our research interests are related to Endosymbiosis and Symbiotic relationships among lives. We use Synthetic Biology and Multi-omic approaches to study Host-Microbe Interactions, aiming to reveal clues to the symbiotic events of early lives on Earth.
The topics of our current projects include Molecular Plant-Endophyte Interactions (MPEI), Coral-Symbiont Interactions, Symbiont Evolution, Marine Microbiology and Applied Microbiology (bio-/phyto-remediation and endophytic biostimulants for agriculture).
關於我們
洪世勳 (Shih-Hsun Walter Hung) 作為課題組長,目前任職研究助理,執行 黃介辰教授 與 中央研究院 植物暨微生物學研究所 郭志鴻研究員 共同合作計畫。
我們的研究興趣與內共生以及生命間共生關係有關。我們利用合成生物學與多體學方法來研究宿主.微生物間交互作用,旨在揭示地球早期生命共生事件的線索。
我們目前的研究計畫主題包括 植物.微生物交互作用、珊瑚.共生體交互作用、共生體演化、海洋微生物學以及應用微生物學 (植生修復與應用於農業之植物內生菌型生物刺激素)。
About Walter
Shih-Hsun Walter Hung (洪世勳) started his academic journey as an undergrad researcher around 2017 and focused on the symbiotic relationships among host-microbe interactions. In 2018, he and colleagues established an engineered endophyte (non-pathogenic microorganisms living inside plants)-assisted integrated system for in planta dioxin bioremediation. The results won the gold medal from the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM) and were published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials.
During the Bachelor's (2017-2021) and Master's (2021-2023) studies, Walter mainly studied the molecular mechanisms of bacterial endophytes to improve the growth and stress tolerance of their host plants, especially investigating those bacterial metabolites that can simultaneously attune plant respiration and photosynthesis. During that time, Walter was also involved in the project on researching early energy metabolisms in the origin of life, targeting carbon flux manipulation in cells. These experiences interested him in studying the communication between endophytes and plant cell organelles, i.e., mitochondria and chloroplasts. To answer these questions, Walter later joined Academia Sinica to learn more knowledge and experimental skills, including membrane protein topology of plant organelles, symbiont evolutionary and comparative genomics, multi-omics analysis, etc.
In the current stage, Walter's team used plant (mostly Arabidopsis thaliana and bacterial endophytes) and animal (Acropora corals and bacterial symbionts) models to study the metabolic crosstalks between symbiotic bacteria and their host's (sub)organelles. Through multi-omics and integrated wet bench approaches for studying present life's host-microbe interactions, Walter aims to reveal clues to those energic metabolisms among early life's cell-cell interactions.
Research
contents under construction...
Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions (MPMI), Synthetic Biology, Applied Microbiology and Horticulture
Ha-Tran et al., 2021; Hwang et al., 2021; Hwang et al., 2022; Hung et al., 2023; Hung et al., in prep
Molecular Plant-Endophyte Interactions (MPEI) among Wetland Biomes
Evolutionary and Comparative Genomics of Bacterial Endophytes
Hung et al., 2022; Hung et al., 2023; Hung et al., in prep
Marine Microbiology and Phyto/Microbial Bioremediation
Nguyen et al., 2021; Hung et al., 2023; Hung et al., in prep
Funding
Media & Case Reports