Hot time, summer in the greenhouse
It’s been a busy summer in the greenhouse this year! Clover and Rhizobium and Methylobacterium and Medicago and Sinorhizobium and soybean and Colletotrichum – oh my!
Heath Lab News
New Proc B paper!
Rebecca (now at MacMaster), Liana Burghardt (Penn State) and Katy have a new paper out in Proceedings B on the signatures of host-microbe cooperation (rather than conflict) in the many loci underlying partner quality variation in Sinorhizobium!
New commentary out in mBio!
FIG 1 Levels of horizontal mobility lead to nested interactions among the key players in the symbiosis between leguminous plants, nodulating rhizobial bacteria, the mobile genetic elements (MGEs) they host, and the symbiosis (sym) genes.
Rebecca will be setting up her new lab at McMaster University in July 2022!
Rebecca starts her new position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at McMaster. Wish her luck!
Labake earns Graduation with Distinction! Congrats!
Labake’s poster focuses on the correlations between easily measurable traits like chlorophyll content and nitrogen isotope ratios which more closely reflect biological nitrogen fixation.
James earns Graduation with Highest Distinction!
James’s presentation highlighted his research with Ensifer, Pseudomonas, and Paenibacillus root nodule endophytes in Medicago truncatula.
New Paper on Host-Host Competition and the Evolution of Mutualism
New paper accepted using evolutionary game theory to model invasibility of mutualist genotypes with varying levels of host-host competition! Find it here!
Sierra joins the lab!
Sierra, who just completed her undergrad at Montana State University, began her doctoral work in the lab in January 2022. She will study plasmid-host coevolution in Rhizobium as part of the GEMS Institute. Welcome!
Heath Lab Christmas Party 2021
The Heath Lab met at Riggs Brewing Company to welcome new members and ring in the end of a long semester with mulled wine and a Christmas market!
New paper on the microbiome of Medicago!
New paper accepted tracking the nodule, root, and leaf microbiomes of the symbiosis model Medicago truncatula across three host genotypes grown in native soils! Find it here!