The
Evolution and ecology of animal-microbe interactions
the
Animals—from sponges to humans—form intricate partnerships with microbes that continue to have a profound impact on their ecology and evolution. These symbionts are often metabolically and physiologically intertwined with their host, and this has led to diverse aspects of animal biology being performed exclusively and in concert with these symbionts. This applies to animals that host a single, co-evolved endosymbiont as well as a diverse, more transient microbial community. One fitness landscape where these ecological and evolutionary forces are paramount—yet vastly unknown—is reproduction and development. It is this delicate arena where we seek to determine how animals utilize microbes to make their egg, how those symbionts impact fitness, and when microbes reverse the script to use these same programs for their selfish benefit. We then put these host-microbe symbioses into context to answer basic and applied questions using marine invertebrates (e.g., sea urchins, sponges, sea anemones, and oysters) as our primary experimental system. We test our hypotheses using an integrative approach, which includes field and laboratory studies, animal manipulations, molecular biology, next-generation sequencing, microscopy, and modeling.
.
.
"Life in the sea cannot be understood without understanding the sea itself" - A.C. Redfield
.
The
The