For my PhD thesis, I'm investigating the effects of host genetic variation on symbioses and how host outcomes of these interactions could shift on a mutualism-parasitism spectrum. I study pea aphids and their bacterial partners to understand the role of genetic specificity in symbiosis. Pea aphids heritably associate with facultative symbionts that provide context-dependent benefits. However, not all natural aphid populations associate with these symbionts and importantly there are non-random patterns of host-microbe specificity. The molecular mechanisms contributing to the maintenance of this specificity are not well-understood. 

For my main thesis project, I am uncovering a role for pea aphid immunity with links to regulation of symbiont abundance within hosts. 

In my second thesis project, I am testing the loss of symbiont-mediated benefits in lab-reared pea aphid host populations and species of bacterial symbionts that confer protection against a fungal pathogen. 

Master's thesis

I studied associations of wild species of yeast with bacterial communities co-isolated from lichens, mushroom, and food. Scattered reports of yeasts co-isolated with bacteria showed that yeast cells could "eat"/engulf bacteria. Along with another grad student, I first cataloged co-occurrences of bacterial species with pure isolates of yeast species from both domestic and wild sources. We then explored the interactions among these communities given the evidence from previous studies. We nutritionally starved yeast cells and co-cultured them with fluorescently tagged bacteria, and found internalization of fluorescent bacteria within yeast cells.