My name is Nina Dombrowski, and I am the bioinformatician at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED).

My role involves supporting scientists, postdocs, and PhDs at IBED in analyzing their bioinformatic data. I am also developing new workflows that can benefit the research community. I have experience in metagenomics, phylogenomics, amplicon data analysis, and I've also delved into metatranscriptomics in the past.

If you are curious about my past projects, feel also free to visit my personal website.

Past Work

I studied Biology at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and afterwards did my PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne. During this time, I investigated microbial communities interacting with plant roots and became interested in using computation approaches, such as amplicon sequence analysis, to address biological questions.

To understand more about hard to cultivate microbes I did a Postdoc at the University of Texas, Marine Science Institute. There I used metagenomics to study archaea in hydrothermal vent sediments. Afterwards, I moved to the Netherlands to pursue a postdoc at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ). During this time I used phylogenomics to study symbiotic archaea.

*shared first authors

2023

van der Gulik PTS, Egas M, Kraaijeveld K, Dombrowski N, Groot AT, Spang A, Hoff W, Gallie Jenna. On distinguishing between canonical tRNA genes and tRNA gene fragments in prokaryotes. RNA Biology 2023; 20: 48–58. Link to paper

2022

Moody ER, Mahendrarajah TA, Dombrowski N, Clark JW, Petitjean C, Offre P, et al. An estimate of the deepest branches of the tree of life from ancient vertically evolving genes. eLife 2022; 11: e66695. Link to paper

Krause S, Gfrerer S, von Kügelgen A, Reuse C, Dombrowski N, Villanueva L, et al. The importance of biofilm formation for cultivation of a Micrarchaeon and its interactions with its Thermoplasmatales host. Nat Commun 2022; 13: 1735. Link to paper

Langwig MV, De Anda V, Dombrowski N, Seitz KW, Rambo IM, Greening C, et al. Large-scale protein level comparison of Deltaproteobacteria reveals cohesive metabolic groups. ISME J 2022; 16: 307–320. Link to paper

2021

De Anda V, Chen L-X, Dombrowski N, Hua Z-S, Jiang H-C, Banfield JF, et al. Brockarchaeota, a novel archaeal phylum with unique and versatile carbon cycling pathways. Nat Commun 2021; 12: 2404. Link to paper

Mayer T, Mari A, Almario J, Murillo-Roos M, Syed M. Abdullah H, Dombrowski N, et al. Obtaining deeper insights into microbiome diversity using a simple method to block host and nontargets in amplicon sequencing. Molecular Ecology Resources 2021; 21: 1952–1965. Link to paper

2020

Dombrowski N, Williams TA, Sun J, Woodcroft BJ, Lee J-H, Minh BQ, Rinke C, Spang A Undinarchaeota illuminate the evolution of DPANN archaea. Nature Communications 2020. Link to paper

Baker BJ, De Anda V, Seitz KW, Dombrowski N, Santoro AE, Lloyd KG. Diversity, ecology and evolution of Archaea. Nature Microbiology 2020; 1–14. Link to paper

Rambo IM, Dombrowski N, Constant L, Erdner D, Baker BJ. Metabolic relationships of uncultured bacteria associated with the microalgae Gambierdiscus. Environ Microbiol 2020; 22: 1764–1783. Link to paper

2019

Schwank, K, Bornemann TLV, Dombrowski N, Spang A, Banfield JF, Probst AJ. An archaeal symbiont-host association from the deep terrestrial subsurface. The ISME Journal 1 (2019). Link to paper

Spang A, Stairs CW, Dombrowski N, Eme L, Lombard J, Caceres EF, et al. Proposal of the reverse flow model for the origin of the eukaryotic cell based on comparative analyses of Asgard archaeal metabolism. Nature Microbiology 2019; 1. Link to paper

Dombrowski N, Lee J-H, Williams TA, Offre P, Spang A. Genomic diversity, lifestyles and evolutionary origins of DPANN archaea. FEMS Microbiol Lett 2019; 366. Link to paper

Seitz KW, Dombrowski N, Eme L, Spang A, Lombard J, Sieber JR, et al. Asgard archaea capable of anaerobic hydrocarbon cycling. Nature Communications 10, 1822 (2019). Link to paper

Steen AD, Kevorkian RT, Bird JT, Dombrowski N, Baker BJ, Hagen SM, et al. (2019). Kinetics and Identities of Extracellular Peptidases in Subsurface Sediments of the White Oak River Estuary, North Carolina. Appl Env Micro 85(19): e00102-19 (2019) Link to paper

2018

Dombrowski N, Teske AP, Baker BJ. Expansive microbial metabolic versatility and biodiversity in dynamic Guaymas Basin hydrothermal sediments. Nature Communications 2018; 9: 4999. Link to paper

Garrido-Oter R, Nakano RT, Dombrowski N*, Ma K-W, McHardy AC, Schulze-Lefert P. Modular Traits of the Rhizobiales Root Microbiota and Their Evolutionary Relationship with Symbiotic Rhizobia. Cell Host & Microbe 2018; 24: 155-167.e5.Link to paper

Chen L-X, Méndez-García C, Dombrowski N, Servín-Garcidueñas LE, Eloe-Fadrosh EA, Fang B-Z, et al. (2017). Metabolic versatility of small archaea Micrarchaeota and Parvarchaeota. The ISME Journal. Link to paper

2017

Heijden MGA van der, Dombrowski N, Schlaeppi K. (2017). Continuum of root–fungal symbioses for plant nutrition. PNAS 201716329. Link to paper

Dombrowski N, Seitz KW, Teske AP and Baker, BJ. Genomic insights into potential interdependencies in microbial hydrocarbon and nutrient cycling in hydrothermal sediments. Microbiome 5, 106 (2017). Link to paper

Dombrowski N., Schlaeppi K., Bai Y., Agler M., Hacquard S., Kemen E., Wunder J., Coupland G. and Schulze-Lefert P.. Root microbiota dynamics of perennial Arabis alpina and root growth promoting activity of microbiota members. ISMEJ doi: 10.1038/ismej.2016.109 (2017). Link to paper

2016

Dombrowski N., Donaho J., Teske A.P., Gutierrez T., Baker B.J.. Hydrocarbon degradation pathways in uncultured bacteria from the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill. Nature Microbiology 16057 (2016). [Abstract] Link to paper

2015

­­Bai, Y., , Müller D., Srinvias G., Garrido-Oter R., Potthoff E., Rott M., Dombrowski N., Münch P., Spaepen S., Remus-Emserman M., Hüttel B., McHardy A., Vorhold J.A., Schulze-Lefert P., Pieterse C. M. J. . Functional overlap of the Arabidopsis leaf and root microbiota. Nature advance online publication, (2015). Link to paper

Zamioudis, C., Korteland, J., Van Pelt, J.A., van Hamersveld, M., Dombrowski, N., Bai, Y., Hanson, J., Van Verk, M.C., Ling, H.-Q., Schulze-Lefert, P. .  Rhizobacterial volatiles and photosynthesis-related signals coordinate MYB72 expression in Arabidopsis roots during onset of induced systemic resistance and iron-deficiency responses.  Plant J 84, 309–322 (2015). Link to paper

2014

Schlaeppi, K., Dombrowski, N., Oter, R. G., Themaat, E. V. L. van & Schulze-Lefert, P.  Quantitative divergence of the bacterial root microbiota in Arabidopsis thaliana relatives.   PNAS 111, 585–592 (2014). Link to paper