I’ve been remiss in announcing many wonderful things that have happened in the lab this summer and fall! We welcomed Patrick Stillson as the lab’s first PhD student. Patrick completed his masters degree at Michigan State University, where he studied the insect vectors of aster yellows phytoplasma. At UTA, he…
Excited to share our new paper on the symbiosis between Burkholderia and little-studied stilt bugs in the genus Jalysus. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.01276 Although we detected over 60 strains of Burkholderia in wild Jalysus, a single strain dominated most stilt bug populations across the United States. This is surprising given that Jalysus and…
Check out this thoughtful and nuanced article on transient and low-titer microbiomes! I’m honored to be quoted along with a group of fantastic scientists: Some Animals Have No Microbiome. Here’s What That Tells Us.
Our research on the net effect (or lack thereof) of the gut microbiota in adult butterflies was recently spotlighted on the Molecular Ecology blog. Check it out here!
I am thrilled to announce that I’ll be joining the Department of Biology at the University of Arlington, Texas as an assistant professor this fall. The Ravenscraft Lab will explore fundamental questions about the ecology of the host-associated microbiota, including how and when microbes help insects adapt to local conditions.…