Advancement to Candidacy: Wolbachia and the Study of Endosymbiont Evolution

Paloma Medina, PhD Student, Biomolecular Engineering & Bioinformatics
Friday, May 4, 2018 – 2:00pm
Location – Physical Sciences, Room 305
Host – Assistant Professor Russell Corbett-Detig
Abstract:   Endosymbiosis, the living together of two organisms one inside the other’s body, is critical to the evolution of many species. Well-studied endosymbiotic bacteria such as mitochondria and chloroplasts showcase the important role of inter-species relationships that have lasted billions of years. However, our knowledge of lesser well-known endosymbionts and their contribution to host biology remains lacking. Here, I propose to study the prevalence and evolution of Wolbachia, an endosymbiotic bacteria found in arthropods and nematodes. I will build a computational pipeline to find Wolbachia in publicly available insect and nematode genomes and measure rates of recombination and selection in throughout the Wolbachia genome. These results will highlight genomic regions potentially involved in Wolbachia-host interaction and, additionally, will deepen our understanding of how genetic diversity is generated and maintained in endosymbiont genome!

Last modified: Apr 25, 2018