Alexandra Meziti
Assistant Professor in Marine Microbiology
Department of Marine Sciences · University of the Aegean University Hill, 81100, Mytilene, Lesvos, Greece
Education
2007-2012
PhD thesis, University of Thessaly (Volos, Greece)/ International Max PlanckResearch school of marine Microbiology (Bremen, Germany).
2005-2007
M.Sc. studies in Marine Microbiology at the Max-Planck Institute for MarineMicrobiology in Bremen, Germany (International Max Planck
2000-2004
B.Sc. Degree in Biology, University of Athens, Greece.
Professional experience
10-2023-today
Assistant professor, Department of Marine Sciences, University of the Aegean,Greece
02-07/2023
Non-tenure Lecturer, Marine Microbiology, University of the Aegean,Department of Marine Sciences, Greece
2020-2022
Post-doctoral researcher, State Scolarships Foundation, International HellenicUniversity, Greece.
02-07/2018
Non-tenure Lecturer, ‘Genomics’, Department of Ichthyology and Aquaticenvironment, University of Thessaly, Greece
03/2016-04/2020
Research Associate, Georgia Institute of Technology (Environmental genomicslab, Atlanta, USA.
2015
Post-doctoral researcher, University of Thessaly, Greece
2014-2015
Post-doctoral researcher, University of the Aegean, Greece
2012-2014
Post-doctoral researcher, University of Ioannina, Greece
10/2012-02/2013
Non-tenure Lecturer at the Department of Biological applications andTechnology, University of Ioannina.
Selected publications
Conrad RE, Tsementzi D, Meziti A, Hatt JK, Montoya J, Konstantinidis KT, (2026) Metagenome-based vertical profiling of the Gulf of Mexico highlights its uniqueness and far-reaching effects offreshwater input, Appl Environ Microbiol 92:e02589-25. https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.02589-25.
Meziti A, Nikouli E, Papaharisis L, Kormas Ar. K. Mente E. (2024) The response of gut and fecalbacterial communities of the European sea bass (Dicentrachus labrax) fed a low fish-plant mealand yeast protein supplementation diet. Sustainable Microbiology, Volume 1, Issue 1, January2024, qvae005, https://doi.org/10.1093/sumbio/qvae005 *corresponding author
Meziti A, Smeti E, Daniilides D, Spatharis S, Tsirtsis G, Kormas K. (2023) Increased contribution ofparasites in microbial eukaryotic communities of different Aegean Sea coastal systems. PeerJ,11:e16655, http://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.16655. *corresponding author
Dosi A, Meziti A, Tounta E, Koemtzopoulos K, Komnenou A, Dendrinos P, Kormas K. (2023) Fecaland skin microbiota of two rescued Meditettanean monk seal pups during rehabilitation,Microbiology Spectrum, e02805-23, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.02805-23
Meziti A, Rodriguez-R, L.M, Hatt JK, Pena-Gonzalez A, Levy K. Konstantinidis KT (2021) Thereliability of metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) in representing natural populations:Insights from comparing MAGs against isolate genomes derived from the same fecal sample,Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 26(87):6, DOI: 10.1128/AEM.02593-20.
Meziti A, Nikouli E, Hatt JK, Konstantinidis KT, Kormas KA. (2021) Time series metagenomicsampling of the Thermopyles, Greece, geothermal springs reveals stable microbial communitiesdominated by novel sulfur‐oxidizing chemoautotrophs. Environ. Microbiol. 23(7): 3710-3726;https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.15373 *corresponding author
Meziti A, Tsementzi D, Rodriguez-R M, Hatt J, Karayanni H, Kormas KA, Konstantinidis KT (2019)Quantifying the changes in genetic diversity within sequence-discrete bacterial populations acrossa spatial and temporal riverine gradient. ISME J. 13:767-779
Meziti, A., Tsementzi, D., Kormas, K., Karayanni, H., Konstantinidis, K. (2016), Anthropogeniceffects on bacterial diversity and function along a river-to-estuary gradient in Northwest Greecerevealed by metagenomics. Environmental Microbiology, 18: 4640–4652. doi:10.1111/1462-
Recent International Conferences
Karagiozi M., Chatzigeorgiou D., Alexiou N., Meziti A. (2025) Bacterial diversity Changes afterdiesel oil addition to seawater microcosms. Joint International conference of Mikrobiokosmosand CEESME, 22-24/09/2025, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Smeti E, Tsirtsis G, Meziti A, Kormas KA, Danielidis DD, Roelke DL, Spatharis S, (2023) Howvulnerable to hydraulic connectivity are phytoplankton assemblages across a salinity gradient?10th MikroBioKosmos Conference, 30/11-02/12/2023, Larisa, Greece.
Meziti A, Kormas K, Mente E, (2023) Seabass gut microbiome analysis fed with conventional andinnovative diets. 10th MikroBioKosmos Conference, 30/11-02/12/2023, Larisa, Greece.
Conrad R, Tsementzi D, Meziti A, Hatt J, Montoya J, Konstantinidis KT, (2022) DistributionAnd Structure Of Sequence-discrete Prokaryote Populations Across Ocean Depths AndBetween Ocean Basins. American Society for Microbiology Microbe, Washington D.C.,USA, 09-13/06/2022.
Book chapters
Meziti A, Kormas KA (2021) Microbial life in the Aegean Sea In: Anagnostou CL, Kostianoy AG,Mariolakos ID, Panayotidis P, Soilemezidou M, Tsaltas G (eds.), The Aegean Sea Environment:The Natural System, Springer Nature Switzerland, DOI 10.1007/698_2021_836. (After editorsinvitation).
Kormas KA, Meziti A (2020) The microbial communities of the East Mediterranean Sea mudvolcanoes and pockmarks. In: Teske A, Salman-Carvalho V (eds) Marine hydrocarbon seeps.Microbiology and biogeochemistry of a global marine habitat. Springer, Cham, p 142-148
Kormas KA, Meziti A (2011) Microorganisms in Decapods growth and nutrition; Mente Ε (eds.)Feeding and nutrition physiology of Crustaceans and fishes . Papazisis, Athens. p. 359-376. ISBN978-960-02-2612-6
Research interests
My research interests focus mainly on the study of the microbiome diversity of various marine animalsand on the microbial diversity in various aquatic ecosystems (microbial biodiversity and ecology). Ihave experience on the analysis of molecular (DNA) data in amplicon, genome and metagenome leveland on the respective statistical analysis, and on the use of bioinformatic tools to interpret microbialdiversity, activity and function. In this aspect, I have participated in five International and threeNational research projects, since 2013. All of them were related to the study of microbial diversity indifferent environments using ‘omics’ techniques.Since 2014 and after finishing my PhD I participated in several projects (e.g. Meziti and Kormas 2013,Kormas et al. 2014, Nikouli et al. 2018, 2019, 2021), which studied the gut microbiome of differentanimals including humans (Meziti et al. 2021). During my collaboration with Georgia Institute ofTechnology (2016-2020), I further focused on the use of modern bioinformatics tools for the analysisof metagenomes in microbial community and genome level (Meziti et al. 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021).Through these studies we revealed microbial functions that significantly change between differentwater samples, the different populations that dominate them and unveiled their ecological significance.