EEB Tuesday Seminar Series - Functional and phenological consequences of host-microbe feedbacks in the pitcher plant mosquito

Description: The purple pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) harbors aquatic communities in its water-filled pitchers long used as a model system in community ecology. One inhabitant, the pitcher plant mosquito (Wyeomyia smithii), is an obligate symbiont of pitcher plants, developing exclusively inside. By studying the top-down and bottom-up interactions between mosquitoes and aquatic bacterial communities I explore feedbacks between a host organism and its environmentally-acquired microbiota. These cross-trophic interactions have consequences for host fitness and broader ecosystem function. Additionally, I study host-microbe interactions in the context of mosquito diapause (a hibernation-like state), where I explore microbiome-mediated coordination of host seasonal metabolism.