Plant and Microbial Biosciences

Program affiliation
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Plant and Microbial Biosciences

Research summary
The ecology and evolution of infectious diseases, with a focus on wild populations of herbaceous plant hosts and their powdery mildew pathogens.

Key words
host-parasite interactions, disease ecology, plant pathogens, urban ecology, climate change

Program affiliation
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Plant and Microbial Biosciences
Molecular Genetics and Genomics

Research summary
The evolution of sociality, cooperation, and cheating in a eukaryotic microbe, using experimental evolution, genomics, and other approaches

Key words
social interactions, evolution, microbiology, social amoebae, kin selection, moleuclar evolution, multicellularity, development, genomics

Program affiliation
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Molecular Cell Biology
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Plant and Microbial Biosciences

Research summary
Investigating the fundamental biophysical principles of biofilm assembly

Key words

Program affiliation
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Plant and Microbial Biosciences

Research summary
Evolutionary genetics and systematics of plants

Key words
evolution, population genetics, plant biology

Program affiliation
Plant and Microbial Biosciences
Molecular Genetics and Genomics

Research summary
Investigating how plant cells determine which fragments of DNA should be expressed (like genes), and which should be targeted for repression and not allowed to express

Key words
transposable element, epigenetics, DNA methylation, chromatin, transgene silencing

Program affiliation
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Immunology
Plant and Microbial Biosciences
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology

Research summary
Molecular pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Key words
bacteria, gene regulation, molecular genetics, microbiology, pathogenesis, transcription, infectious disease, innate immunity

Program affiliation
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Molecular Genetics and Genomics
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Plant and Microbial Biosciences

Research summary
We work on social interactions and mutualism using a microbial system so we can study cheating, conflict and cooperation at experimental and genomic levels, within and between species, in particular in social amoebae and their farmed bacteria

Key words
social evolution; multicellularity; mutualism; symbiosis; experimental evolution; disease; social amoebae; Dictyostelium; science education; birds

Program affiliation
Computational and Systems Biology
Plant and Microbial Biosciences
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis

Research summary
Metabolism analysis and metabolic engineering of environmental microorganisms for biofuel/chemical production

Key words
Metabolic flux analysis, bioenergy, metabolic engineering, algal bioprocess, bioremediation, kinetic modeling

Program affiliation
Plant and Microbial Biosciences
Computational and Systems Biology
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Biomedical Informatics and Data Science

Research summary
Understanding the genetic basis of root growth and environmental plasticity using phenomics

Key words
imaging; plant; genetics; computation; phenotyping; roots; plant x environment

Program affiliation
Plant and Microbial Biosciences
Molecular Genetics and Genomics

Research summary
Cell growth, size control and evolution of sex in Volvocine algae

Key words
evolution, cell biology, developmental biology, size control, cell division, sexual dimorphism