Insect Symbiosis Lab

We study termites and organisms (insects and microbes) living in symbiosis with termites to understand processes leading to convergent evolution. Our research methods span from field sampling and field observations to wet lab and in silico. We construct molecular phylogenies and perform comparative genomics and transcriptomics to infer trajectories of genome changes. We also use X-ray microtomographic imaging and other microscopy techniques to visualize the external and internal anatomy of insects and to infer the patterns of phenotypic evolution.
Our long-term research goal is to answer why evolutionary processes traversing the vast space of theoretically possible phenotypes visit some “spots” repeatedly.