The role of ecological interactions in adaptation

At the EEG lab, we want to know how adaptation to new environments depends on biological interactions within and between species. In carefully designed experiments, we use the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and several microbial species to recreate different ecological and evolutionary scenarios, where competing hypotheses can be put to test. Our focus is either on intra-population mechanisms, where negative feedbacks lead to the maintenance of genetic diversity, or in predator-prey and host-parasite models, where selection pressures arise from inter-species interactions.