Dr. Ruiting Lan
- Position: Senior Lecturer
- Room: 301B, Biological Sciences
- Phone: (+61 2) 9385 2095
- Fax: (+61 2) 9385 1483
- email: r.lan@unsw.edu.au
Professional Experience
- Postdoc/Research fellow, University of Sydney
Research Contribution
Dr Lan came from a population genetics background and lectured in genetics before doing his PhD in molecular genetics. He combined the two fields in his research on bacterial population structures and evolution of pathogens, making unique contributions to this research field. He has made major advances in the studying of enteric pathogens and evolution of bacterial clones:
Dr Lan initiated the use of genomic subtraction to study genome variation before the genome sequencing era and discovered that horizontal gene transfer is a major factor in bacterial evolution. Although that observation was met with skepticism at the time, the findings have now been confirmed by genome sequence data. Based on that study and genome data he proposed the species genome concept which has been widely cited, and the proposal has been vindicated by microarray studies and rapidly accumulating intraspecies genome data.
His significant work on the origins of Shigella within E. coli resolved the long standing misnomer of Shigella as a separate genus with 4 species. The work was published in the prestigious journal, Proceedings of National Academy of Science, USA, and attracted commentaries in Science and Current Biology. Subsequently he and his colleagues elucidated the relationships of Shigella and enteroinvasive E. coli through a series of studies. His contributions have attracted invitations to write reviews.
Dr Lan work on V. cholerae centered on the origins and evolution of the pandemic clones. He and his colleagues determined the population structure of V. cholerae and recently resolved the relationship of the pandemic clones and their closely related toxigenic isolates. His work on the 7th pandemic clone revealed a temporal pattern of genetic changes during the global spread of the pandemic and showed multiple independent introductions of cholera into Africa during 1970s and 1990s.
Two of his major works on S. enterica were using it as a model organism to study the effect on variation of neighbouring genes by locus under selection pressure for change (the O antigen locus) and to determine the extent of horizontal gene transfer at genome level as discussed above. His studies on serovar Typhimurium, a predominant Salmonella clone, have yielded significant insights into the clone and lay the foundation for the development of a molecular phage typing scheme. His discovery of frequent recombination in subspecies I has a significant impact on our understanding of S. enterica. He also has made contributions in bioinformatics with development of software applications to studying population genetics of bacteria. He maintains two bioinformatics programs MULTICOMP and MLEECOMP, which have been distributed to the research community worldwide.
Honours & Awards
- Adjunct Senior Lecturer, University of Sydney
- Division Chair, the Australia Society for Microbiology
Active Research Projects
- Evolution of Shigella Virulence
- Molecular Evolution of E. coli Causing Extraintestinal Infections
- Molecular Typing of Australian Bordetella Pertussis Isolates
Publications
- Feng L, Reeves PR, Lan R, Ren Y, Gao C, Zhou Z, Cheng J, Wang W, Wang J, Qian W, Li D and Wang L. (2008)
- A recalibrated molecular clock and independent origins for the cholera pandemic clones.
- PLoS One. 3: e4053
- Maharjan RP, Gu C, Reeves PR, Sintchenko V, Gilbert GL and Lan R. (2008)
- Genome-wide analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms in Bordetella pertussis using comparative genomic sequencing.
- Research in Microbiology. 159: 602-608
- Tay, C.Y., Reeves, P.R. and Lan, R. (2008)
- Importation of the major pilin TcpA gene and frequent recombination drive the divergence of the Vibrio pathogenicity island in Vibrio cholerae.
- FEMS Microbiology Letters. 289: 210-218.
- Octavia, S., and R. Lan (2007)
- Single-nucleotide-polymorphism typing and genetic relationships of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi isolates
- Journal of Clinical Microbiology 45:3795-3801
- Hu, H., R. Lan, and P. R. Reeves (2006)
- Adaptation of multilocus sequencing to study variation within a major clone: evolutionary relationships of phage types in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium
- Genetics 172:743-750
- Octavia, S., and R. Lan (2006)
- Frequent recombination and low level of clonality within Salmonella enterica subspecies
- I. Microbiology 152:1099-1108
- Wirth, T., D. Falush, R. Lan, F. Colles, P. Mensa, L. H. Wieler, H. Karch, P. R. Reeves, M. C. Maiden, H. Ochman, and M. Achtman (2006)
- Sex and virulence in Escherichia coli: an evolutionary perspective
- Molecular Microbiology 60:1136-1151
- Lan, R., M. C. Alles, K. Donohoe, M. B. Martinez, and P. R. Reeves (2005)
- Relationships of pathogenic clones of Vibrio cholerae .
- Emerging Infectious Diseases 11:1758-1760
- Tominaga, A., R. Lan, and P. R. Reeves (2005)
- Evolutionary changes of the master flagellar flhDC operon in Shigella strains
- Journal of Bacteriology 187:4295-4302
- Rezwan, F., R. Lan, and P. R. Reeves. (2004)
- Molecular basis of indole negative reaction in Shigella strains: extensive damages of tna operon by IS sequences
- Journal of Bacteriology 186:7460-7465
- Lan, R., M. C. Alles, K. Donohoe, M. B. Martinez, and P. R. Reeves (2004)
- Molecular evolutionary relationships of enteroinvasive Escherichia coli and Shigella spp
- Infection and Immunity 72:5080-5088
- Lan, R., G. Stevenson, and P. R. Reeves (2003)
- Comparison of two major forms of the Shigella virulence plasmid pINV: positive selection is a major force driving the divergence
- Infection and Immunity 71:6298-6306
- Lan, R., A. M. Davison, P. R. Reeves, and L. R. Ward (2003)
- AFLP analysis of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium isolates of phage types DT 9 and DT 135: diversity within phage types and its epidemiological significance
- Microbes and Infection 5:841-850.