Beneficial members of the plant microbiome can increase nutrient availability for their hosts, protect their hosts against pathogens, and enhance host resilience against abiotic stress. While previous and ongoing studies of the rhizosphere microbiome have been critical for assessing the impact of specific plant-microbe interactions, their focus has overwhelmingly targeted bacterial and fungal members of the microbiome. Viruses are ubiquitous, outnumbering all other biological entities on the planet, yet they are remarkably understudied in the rhizosphere.

Genetic, developmental, and physiological mechanisms all impact evolutionary trajectories and hence may shape responses to selection. We examined the extent to which genetic and neural mechanisms limit behavioral evolution in guppies by leveraging the parallel evolutionary transitions in Trinidadian guppies. Much prior work has characterized the parallel changes in a suite of social and antipredator behaviors that follow independent colonization of low-predation sites by guppies originally from high-predation localities.

Single cell approaches are causing biologists to re-evaluate classical ideas of cell types and how they arise during embryonic development. One population of particular interest is the neural crest, because it migrates throughout the body to give rise to a huge variety of derivatives such as peripheral neurons, pigment cells and bones of the skull. How do such migratory cells navigate through ever-changing environments yet reliably acquire these diverse fates? Our single cell transcriptomic studies in zebrafish suggest that they do so through a series of lineage bifurcations.

Timing is crucial to the nervous system; the ability to rapidly detect and process subtle disturbances in the environment determines whether an animal can attain its next meal or successfully navigate complex, unpredictable terrain.

Effects of aging on immune gene regulation
By: Marina Watowich (Snyder-Mackler Lab)

Craniodental traits predict feeding performance and dietary hardness in a community of free-tailed bats
By: David Villalobos Chaves (Santana Lab)

Grasshopper energetics as a predictor of fitness
By: Julia Smith
(Buckley Lab)