Publications by Natalia Carolina Drebes Dorr

Exploring Mobile Genetic Elements in Vibrio cholerae

Melanie Blokesch, Natalia Carolina Drebes Dorr, Alexandre Lemopoulos

Members of the bacterial species Vibrio cholerae are known both as prominent constituents of marine environments and as the causative agents of cholera, a severe diarrheal disease. While strains responsible for cholera have been extensively studied over th ...

Oxford University Press (OUP)2025

Genome sequences of Vibrio cholerae strains isolated in the DRC between 2009 and 2012

Melanie Blokesch, Sandrine Stutzmann, Natalia Carolina Drebes Dorr, Alexandre Lemopoulos

Vibrio cholerae has caused seven cholera pandemics in the past two centuries. The seventh and ongoing pandemic has been particularly severe on the African continent. Here, we report long read-based genome sequences of six V. cholerae strains isolated in th ...

2024

Sporadic type VI secretion in seventh pandemic Vibrio cholerae

Melanie Blokesch, Sandrine Stutzmann, Lisa Christina Metzger, Natalia Carolina Drebes Dorr, Sandrine Natacha Isaac, Nicolas René Chiaruttini, Alexis Joseph Proutière, Loriane Bader

Vibrio cholerae is a pathogen that causes disease in millions of people every year by colonizing the small intestine and then secreting the potent cholera toxin. How the pathogen overcomes the colonization barrier created by the host’s natural microbiota i ...

2023

Single nucleotide polymorphism determines constitutive versus inducible type VI secretion in Vibrio cholerae

Melanie Blokesch, Sandrine Stutzmann, Milena Jadwiga Jaskolska, Natalia Carolina Drebes Dorr, Alexis Joseph Proutière, Loriane Bader

Vibrio cholerae is a well-studied human pathogen that is also a common inhabitant of marine habitats. In both environments, the bacterium is subject to interbacterial competition. A molecular nanomachine that is often involved in such competitive behavior ...

2022

The molecular treasure box of environmental Vibrio cholerae strains

Natalia Carolina Drebes Dorr

Cholera pandemics have been affecting humankind for centuries and are still considered a major public health problem, especially in regions around the world with poor access to clean water and sanitation. Cholera pandemics are caused by a specific lineage ...

EPFL2021

Interbacterial competition and anti‐predatory behavior of environmental Vibrio cholerae strains

Melanie Blokesch, Natalia Carolina Drebes Dorr

Vibrio cholerae isolates responsible for cholera pandemics represent only a small portion of the diverse strains belonging to this species. Indeed, most V. cholerae are encountered in aquatic environments. To better understand the emergence of pandemic lin ...

2020

Long-Read-Based Genome Sequences of Pandemic and Environmental Vibrio cholerae Strains

Noémie Matthey, Melanie Blokesch, Natalia Carolina Drebes Dorr

The bacterium Vibrio cholerae exhibits two distinct lifestyles, one as an aquatic bacterium and the other as the etiological agent of the pandemic human disease cholera. Here, we report closed genome sequences of two seventh pandemic V. cholerae O1 El Tor ...

2018

Bacterial type VI secretion system facilitates niche domination

Melanie Blokesch, Natalia Carolina Drebes Dorr

Over the last few decades humanity has experienced a series of tremendous technological advances, especially in the realm of basic science. A plethora of new approaches has allowed us to appreciate life in previously unimaginable detail, prompting the real ...

2018

Molecular insights into Vibrio cholerae’s intra-amoebal host-pathogen interactions

Graham Knott, Melanie Blokesch, Candice Stoudmann, Sandrine Stutzmann, Charles Ulric V Van der Henst, Tiziana Scrignari, Catherine Maclachlan, Natalia Carolina Drebes Dorr, Audrey Sophie Vanhove

Vibrio cholerae, which causes the diarrheal disease cholera, is a species of bacteria commonlyfound in aquatic habitats. Within such environments, the bacterium must defend itselfagainst predatory protozoan grazers. Amoebae are prominent grazers, withAcant ...

Nature Research2018