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Malaria parasites

Malaria parasites (and their kin) can be viewed as minimal eukaryotes, harboring a nucleus (yellow), a secretory pathway the Golgi (purple) and specialized ‘rhotpry’ organelle (black), and two endosymbiotic organelles, the mitochondrion (red) and apicoplast (green).

Field Work

Many genes that organisms use to regulate their mutualists are also used to defend against parasites and pathogens. The shared genetic control of beneficial and harmful symbioses raises the intriguing possibility that susceptibility to infection is a pleiotropic cost of mutualism. Our goal is to understand how a genetic tradeoff between attracting mutualists and repelling parasites has shaped the genomic architecture of traits mediating species interactions, and how ongoing conflict influences adaptation. 

Sea Anemone

Porphyrogenes peterwegii

 Pupa of the butterfly Porphyrogenes peterwegii "peering" out of its leafy nest with false eyes, which in turn mimic the eyes of a snake, thereby protecting the pupa from small feather-brained  birds.

Escherichia coli

Escherichia coli cells with fluorescently labeled chromosomal loci.