Competition, Mutualism and Virulence: Genomic Signatures of Species Interactions
Olivia McDermott-Sipe
Undergraduate Researcher
Environmental Science Major (College of Arts & Sciences)
Farrah Bashey-Visser
Faculty Mentor
Farrah Bashey-Visser (College of Arts & Sciences)
Project Description
Our lab focuses on how competitive and mutualistic interactions affect the evolution and coexistence of species. Our goal is to test theoretical models explaining the maintenance of genetic variation. Specifically, we work on bacteria that are insect pathogens and mutualistic partners of nematodes. These bacteria produce anti-competitor toxins that can kill closely related bacterial strains. We are characterizing the degree to which these toxins are beneficial in a competitive context, and in what ways their production can be costly in other contexts. We are also examining sequence variation among natural isolates these bacteria examine variation in toxin loci vis-à-vis diversity in other parts of the genome.
Technology or Computational Component
CEWiT students will be involved in bioinformatics analyses of bacterial genomes. Additionally, they may be involved in designing PCR primers and in statistical analysis of experimental data using techniques such as proportional hazards regression, logistic regression and analyses of covariance via SAS and R.