Rebecca Case

Principal Investigator / Associate Professor

Email: rj.case@ntu.edu.sg

A/Prof Rebecca Case’s research focuses on marine algal-bacteria interactions, with the aim of elucidating the role of these relationships in the marine ecosystem and harnessing them to produce industrially important metabolites. At the cellular level, A/P Case’s interests lie in cell-cell interactions and their genetic determinants, particularly during the processes of bacterial pathogenesis of algae and host apoptosis. At SCELSE-NTU, A/P Case’s work also involves field-based studies in coastal habitats around South-East Asia, with a focus on the microbiomes and microbial interactions found in the communities of these habitats.

During her graduate career, A/P Case studied the chemical ecology of bacteria pathogenic to their seaweed host, discovering that their virulence was temperature regulated, linking climate-change to the health of marine ecosystems. Subsequently, as a Fellow at the Harvard Center for the Environment and Harvard Medical School, she focused on natural product discovery from marine bacteria and later, as an associate professor at the University of Alberta, developed a novel model host for bacterial pathogens that her research team used to decipher algal-bacterial interactions.

NTU | ORCID | Google Scholar

Research interests

  • Identification of virulence factors in algal pathogens (from Rosebacteraceae)

  • Elucidation of host defence systems in Emiliania huxleyi

  • Cell-cell and host-microbiome signalling

  • The evolution and role of biogeochemical intermediates in algal-bacterial interactions

  • Production of single celled proteins (SCP), lipids, and other metabolites of interest from microalgae

  • Microbial holobiont of organisms from marine coastal ecosystems

Academic history

  • BSc (Hons) Microbiology and Immunology, University of New South Wales (2004)

  • BA Environmental Studies, University of New South Wales (2004)

  • PhD Marine Microbial Ecology, University of New South Wales (2007)

Selected publications

  • Bramucci, A.R., Case, R.J. (2019). Phaeobacter inhibens induces apoptosis-like programmed cell death in calcifying Emiliania huxleyi. Sci Rep 9, 5215. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36847-6

  • Bramucci, A.R., Labeeuw, L., Orata, F.D., Ryan, E., Malstrom, R., & Case, R.J. (2018). The bacterial symbiont, Phaeobacter inhibens, shapes the life history of its algal host Emiliana huxleyi. Frontiers in Marine Science, 5. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2018.00188

  • Mayers, T.J., Bramucci, A.R., Yakimovich, K.M., & Case, R.J. (2016). A bacterial pathogen displaying temperature-dependent virulence of the microalga Emiliania huxleyi. Frontiers in Microbiology, 7. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.00892

  • Labeeuw, L., Khey, J., Bramucci, A.R., Atwal, H., de la Mata, P., Harynuk, J., & Case, R.J. (2016). Indole-3-acetic acid is produced by Emiliania huxleyi coccolith-bearing cells and triggers a physiological response in bald cells. Frontiers in Microbiology, 7. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.00828

  • Labeeuw, L., Boucher, Y., Martone, P., & Case, R.J. (2015). Ancient origin of the biosynthesis of lignin precursors. Biology Direct, 10(1), 23. doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13062-015-0052-y

  • Seyedsayamdost, M.R., Case, R.J., Kolter, R., & Clardy, J. (2011). The Jekyll-and-Hyde chemistry of Phaeobacter gallaeciencis. Nature Chemistry, 3(4), 331–335. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1002

  • Case, R.J., Longford, S., Campbell, A.H., Low, A., Tujula, N., Steinberg, P., Kjelleberg, S. (2011). Temperature induced bacterial virulence and bleaching disease in a chemically defended marine macroalga. Environmental Microbiology, 13(2), 529–537. doi: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2010.02356.x

  • Liang, K.Y.H., Orata, F.D., Boucher, Y.F., & Case, R.J, (2021). Roseobacters in a sea of poly and paraphyly: whole genome-based taxonomy of the family Rhodobacteraceae and the proposal for the split of the “roseobacter clade” into a novel family, Roseobacteraceae fam. nov.. Frontiers in Microbiology, 12: 683109. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.683109