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Tuesday "Noon" Seminar: Nov. 21

12:30-1:45 p.m. in Biosciences West (map of building location), Room 208

Talk Abstract

Rhizobia and Legumes are an excellent model system for studying the evolution of species interactions as the symbionts are horizontally transmitted and exhibit a high degree of variation in how much benefit they provide to their hosts. The Rhizobia-Legume interaction has been extensively studied from a molecular perspective due to the importance of biological nitrogen fixation. The evolutionary processes, however, underlying this extremely diverse system are largely unexplored. After giving an overview of what is known about the biology of the system I will outline hypotheses for diversification. One popular hypothesis is that non-beneficial rhizobia are "cheaters" that don't pull their weight. I am conducting experiments to test this by measuring the degree to which fitness interests are aligned between host and symbiont.