Xin You

Research interest

My current research interest includes:

Transport of phages in the subsurface

Here, I mainly focus on the transport of marine phages (also called tracer phages) in soil systems and aim to test their suitability as biological tracers for water flow or colloidal transport. With this aim, I use physical and biological quantification methods to reveal the changes of tracer phages during their transport in laboratory systems and under field conditions.

Related research activities and output

• Bachelor thesis (as supervisor) “Quantifying phage-transport through porous media by physical and biological methods”, Leipzig University, Student: K. Hild (03/2018 - 09/2018)
• Poster presentation “Quantifying the transport of tracer phages in soil” 8th Congress of European Microbiologists - FEMS 2019 Glasgow, Scotland (07/2019)
• Science slam “Go with the flow: How can we use bacteriophages as tracers?” N² Conference at Berlin Science Week (11/2019)
• Conference talk “Go with the flow: Quantifying the waterborne transport of phages in a soil matrix” 6th Joint Conference of the DGHM & VAAM Leipzig, Germany (03/2020)
• Science slam “Go with the flow and meet the phages” 3^rd Microbe Slam of VAAM & DGHM Leipzig (03/2020)
• Conference flash talk “Go with the flow: Changes of particle stability and infectivity of phages during transport in soil” Israel’s Microbial Ecology Meeting - MicroEco2021 (03/2021)
• Publication: You et al. Transport of marine tracer phage particles in soil (under review)

Non-specific phage-bacteria interactions

Phages and bacteria are the two most abundant biological entities in the subsurface soil environment. There, phages frequently collide into surfaces of different bacteria in a sorption/desorption manner, which is a potential but yet neglected aspect of phage-bacteria interaction in natural environments. In this respect, I aim to quantify the interaction between phages and non-host bacteria with different surface properties and understand its potential ecological implication.

Related research activities and output

• Poster presentation “Quantifying interactions of phages with non-host bacteria” Annual Conference 2019 of VAAM Mainz, Germany (03/2019)
• Invited talk “Viral nomads: Phages as transport tracers and hitchhiker of bacteria” BioGeoColloquium – FSU Jena (07/2020)
• Poster presentation “Phages on the move: Co-transport of phages and hyphal-riding non-host bacteria fuels bacterial invasion fitness in water-restricted habitats” World Microbe Forum (06/2021)
• Bachelor thesis (as supervisor) “Hitchhiking on non-host bacteria: Quantification of non- specific phage-bacteria interactions and its ecological relevance”, Leipzig University, Student: N. Klose (05/2021 – 10/2021)
• Publication: You et al. Phages co-transport with hyphal riding bacteria fuels bacterial invasion in water-unsaturated microbial ecosystems (under review; preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.28.454208 )

Phage-mycosphere interaction

The mycosphere is the microhabitat surrounding fungal mycelia. As mycelia vastly extend in soil (e.g. up to 20’000 km/m³ in a forest soil), the mycosphere is considered to be a hotspot for microbial interactions and activity. Few is known however on the effect of fungi and the mycosphere on phages. Here, I focus on understanding the role of fungi and the mycosphere for phage activities.

Related research activities and output

• Research internship (as supervisor) “Measuring real-time single cell PI staining in prophage- containing bacteria using fluorescence time-lapse microscopy”, Leipzig University, Student: L. Remus (11/2020 - 02/2020)
• Master thesis (as supervisor) “Role of fungi and the mycosphere in prophage induction”, Leipzig University, Student: L. Remus (03/2021 - 09/2021)
• Publication (in preparation)