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Biography |
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Dr. Mostafa Elshahed holds a B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt (1993). After working as a pharmacist in Egypt for 3 years (1993-1996), he started his graduate studies in the United States at the University of Oklahoma. During graduate school, he worked under the guidance of Dr. Michael McInerney and researched pathways for the degradation of aromatic hydrocarbons under anaerobic conditions. He was a post-doctoral researcher in the laboratory of Dr. Lee Krumholz, also at the University of Oklahoma. His post-doctoral research was centered on microbial community characterization in hydrocarbon-impacted environments.
Dr. Elshahed joined the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics department at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK in January 2007 as a tenure-track Assistant Professor, and was promoted to a tenured Associate Professor in August 2011 and a full Professor in August 2016. Dr. Elshahed has received the Junior Faculty Award for Scholarly Excellence College of Arts & Sciences at Oklahoma State University in 2010. Dr. Elshahed has published 65 peer-reviewed journal articles, authored 3 book chapters, and was invited to present his research in 31 different regional, national, and international venues.
As a faculty member at OSU, Dr. Elshahed has multiple research interests. Some of them are a logical extension of his Ph.D. and post doctoral training e.g. Microbial ecology and Environmental genomics of anaerobic habitats. Others are new research interests the he developed since e.g. physiology and genomics of anaerobic fungi (Phylum Neocallimastigomycota).
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Abstract |
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Fungal inhabitants in the herbivorous gut |
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The digestive systems of herbivores harbor a rich microbial community that plays a crucial role in the digestion of complex plant substrates. One of the enigmatic members of the community are the anaerobic gut fungi (Neocallimastigomycota). These fungi appear to be the primary colonizers of the ingested biomass material, hence increasing its accessibility to the broader microbial community. Here, I provide an overview of our efforts to investigate various aspects of the diversity, ecology, genomics, evolution, and biotechnological potential of the Neocallimastigomycota. Our research have uncovered a wide range of novel Neocallimastigomycota genera, and provided a theoretical understanding on factors impacting their diversity and community structure in the herbivorous gut. Phylogenomic analysis suggests that the Neocallimastigomycota have evolved (~74 Ma) million years ago concurrently with the evolution of herbivory in mammals. Genomic and transcriptomic analysis identified multiple unique genes and capabilities that allow the Neocallimastigomycota to survive and thrive in the anaerobic, prokaryotic-dominated herbivorous gut. Such features include the acquisition of an impressive arsenal of lignocellulosic enzymes and the adoption of horizontal gene transfer as a primary mechanism for novel trait acquisitions. Finally, we assessed the utility of using anaerobic gut fungi for biofuel production from lignocellulosic biomass. We used a transcriptomics-guided cloning and expression strategy to design a defined enzyme cocktail that achieves biomass hydrolysis yields comparable to those obtained by commercial enzyme cocktails. We also developed a more direct approach that utilizes anaerobic fungal isolates, rather than enzymes, to convert lignocellulosic biomass to sugars and biofuels. Collectively, our results provide multiple new insights into the ecology, evolution, genomics, and biotechnological potential of this poorly studied fungal lineage. |
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