POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER · CHARLES UNIVERSITY, PRAGUE
Halil Mert Solak, PhD
I study how diet and the gut microbiome shape the ecology and diversification of wild rodents and lizards, combining fieldwork with large-scale metabarcoding and bioinformatics.
Presenting my MSc Study. İlia State University, Georgia, 2019.
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Zoology at Charles University, Prague, studying how diet and the gut microbiome shape the ecology and diversification of wild animals. I combine fieldwork with large-scale metabarcoding (16S and 18S rRNA) and statistical modelling to link host ecology, genetics and microbial communities.
My current work follows two systems: the adaptive radiation of murine rodents in Papua New Guinea, where I ask how dietary niche partitioning and microbial shifts accompany diversification; and sympatric Darevskia lizards, where I compare the microbiota of a parthenogenetic species with its sexual ancestor.
During my MSc and PhD at Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University, I studied adaptation to high altitude in Anatolian blind mole rats, integrating population genetics, innate immunity, diet and the gut microbiome.
Bio
Current Research
Trophic and Microbial Niche Dynamics of Two Subsequent Radiations of Murine Rodents on the Island of New Guinea
Microbiota Composition in Sympatric Darevskia Lizards: Comparing Parthenogenetic and Parental Species
How do ecological opportunity and incumbency shape diversification? In Papua New Guinea I compare two waves of murine colonists: the Hydromyini, which arrived 5–7 million years ago and radiated into an unsaturated landscape, and the Rattini, which arrived about one million years ago into communities already occupied by incumbents.
Working with international partners, we sampled rodents at six localities along steep altitudinal gradients, from Baitabag and Wanang to Mount Wilhelm. Using 18S rRNA metabarcoding for diet and 16S rRNA (V3–V4) for the gut microbiome, I test how colonization history and competition structure dietary and microbial niches.
Rock lizards of the genus Darevskia offer a natural laboratory for isolating the effect of host genetics on the microbiome. I compare the parthenogenetic (clonal) D. dahli with its sympatric paternal ancestor D. portschinskii in Georgia, where both species share the same habitats.
Because D. dahli is allodiploid, carrying two distinct haploid genomes from its parental lineages, it lets us ask how hybrid genome architecture shapes the gut microbiota. Using 16S rRNA metabarcoding, this work sheds light on the role of the microbiome in the success of hybrid, parthenogenetic vertebrates.