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Food Science and Technology Department

Jens WalterDr. Jens Walter
Assistant Professor

Education:
M.S. Food Technology, Hohenheim University, Germany
Ph.D. Food Technology and Microbiology, Hohenheim University, Germany
Post Doc. Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago, New Zealand

Contact Information:
333 Food Industry Complex
Lincoln, NE 68583-0919
email: jwalter2@unl.edu

Teaching and/or Extension Activities:
Food Microbiology, Microbial Ecology

For more information, please click here.

Research Area:
My research concerns the microbial ecology of the gastrointestinal tract, and how it relates to human and animal health and performance. Areas of interest involve the study of the ecological role and evolution of gastrointestinal inhabitants of the genus Lactobacillus, and the identification and characterization of genetic and phenotypic traits of lactobacilli that facilitate colonization of the gastrointestinal tract. I am further interested in the application of cultivation independent molecular approaches (metagenomics, population fingerprinting) to reveal how symbiotic gut organisms interact with host metabolism and performance, and how dietary factors can be used to influence gut microbiota composition and functionality.

Five Selected Publications:

  • Walter, J., Loach, D.M., Alqumber, M., Rockel, C., Hermann, C., Pfitzenmaier, M., and Tannock, G.W. D-alanyl ester depletion of teichoic acids in Lactobacillus reuteri 100-23 results in impaired colonization of the mouse gastrointestinal tract. Environmental Microbiology, 9:1750-1760 (2007).
  • Martínez, I., Wallace, G., Zhang, C., Legge, R., Benson, A.K., Carr, T.P., Moriyama, E.N., and Walter, J. Diet-induced metabolic improvements in a hamster model of hypercholesterolemia are strongly linked to alterations of the gut microbiota. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 75:4175-4184 (2009).
  • Oh, P.L., Benson, A.K., Peterson, D.A., Patil, P.B., Moriyama, E.N., Roos, S., and Walter, J. Diversification of the gut symbiont Lactobacillus reuteri as a result of host-driven evolution. The ISME Journal, 4: 377–387 (2010).
  • Walter, J., Britton, R. A., and Roos, S. Host-microbial symbiosis in the vertebrate gastrointestinal tract and the Lactobacillus reuteri paradigm. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. Epub ahead of print (2010).
  • Frese SA, Benson AK, Tannock GW, Loach DM, Kim J, Walter J, et al. The Evolution of Host Specialization in the Vertebrate Gut Symbiont Lactobacillus reuteri. PLoS Genet 7(2): e1001314. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1001314 (2011)