Host and symbiont genetic contributions to fitness in a symbiosis.

The fitness effects associated with infection have wide-ranging ecological and evolutionary consequences for host species. How these effects are modulated by the relative influence of host and genomes has been described as a balancing act of genomic cooperation and conflict. For vertically transmitted symbionts, like cytoplasmic , concordant host-symbiont fitness interests would seem to select for genomic cooperation.

Bridging the undergraduate curriculum using an integrated course-embedded undergraduate research experience (ICURE).

The traditional undergraduate program of study incorporates a selection of classes that represent a broad spectrum of subdisciplines. Unfortunately, few curricula successfully integrate concepts in all subdisciplines, giving undergraduates the misconception that there is a lack of application or connectedness between class subjects. An integrated course-embedded research experience (ICURE) was initiated to redress this problem by bridging classes within one discipline in an effort to engage undergraduates in a long-term analysis of biodiversity.

Evolutionary instability of symbiotic function in Bradyrhizobium japonicum.

Bacterial mutualists are often acquired from the environment by eukaryotic hosts. However, both theory and empirical work suggest that this bacterial lifestyle is evolutionarily unstable. Bacterial evolution outside of the host is predicted to favor traits that promote an independent lifestyle in the environment at a cost to symbiotic function.

Intragenomic conflict in populations infected by Parthenogenesis Inducing Wolbachia ends with irreversible loss of sexual reproduction.

Background: The maternally inherited, bacterial symbiont, parthenogenesis inducing (PI) Wolbachia, causes females in some haplodiploid insects to produce daughters from both fertilized and unfertilized eggs. The symbionts, with their maternal inheritance, benefit from inducing the production of exclusively daughters, however the optimal sex ratio for the nuclear genome is more male-biased. Here we examine through models how an infection with PI-Wolbachia in a previously uninfected population leads to a genomic conflict between PI-Wolbachia and the nuclear genome.