Please join us on Friday for URI's Biological and Environmental Sciences (BES) Seminar Series.

This week's lecture features Dr. Christopher Lane, Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. His presentation will focus on:

Photosynthesis, Parasitism, and Symbiosis: Eukaryotic Lifestyle Transitions Across the Tree of Life"

Research Statement:

My lab focuses on the evolution of algae from a molecular, ecological and phylogenetic context, and in particular the mechanisms and consequences of genome reduction and gene transfer. Algae are fascinating subjects because they have adapted to exploit a variety of niches and habitats (marine, freshwater, snow, hot springs and almost anywhere moisture persists) and employ an array of life-history strategies (e.g., free-living, symbiotic and parasitic). Of interest to us are the algae that have taken on a parasitic lifestyle, and specifically, how this strategy affects the organism over evolutionary time.

Red algal parasites are unusual because they tend to be parasites of the species most closely related to them – like that cousin who you can’t get to stop sleeping on your couch or eating food in your fridge. However, we can take advantage of this close relationship between parasite and host to make direct comparisons between two species that share a common recent ancestor, but use fundamentally different life history strategies. Using genome sequence data we are elucidating the genomic consequence of becoming a parasite and the process by which organisms become obligately parasitic. Additionally, we are examining gene expression patterns of both infected and non-infected host tissue to gain insight into how the host reacts to parasite attack. More information on my lab will be available shortly.

Please visit the lab site at: http://cels.uri.edu/bio/lanelab/