The results of our field study of the impact of different Methylobacterium strains on their host rice landraces (traditionally cultivated rice varieties from Manipur) are out! We find that strains show host-specific effects (beneficial or deleterious). Though the mechanisms remain unclear still, it is clear that there is enormous potential to use beneficial host-bacterial interactions for... Continue Reading →
We are very happy that former lab member Laasya has joined Ashoka University as an Assistant Professor and will be building her group there to continue exploring themes of mistranslation and antimicrobial resistance. If you are interested in these areas of research, do consider joining her lab.
Bacteria have remarkably diverse base composition in their genomes, with many well studied cases of rapid GC reduction associated with obligate symbiosis and genome streamlining in poor environments. But we don't really understand how GC content generally changes in evolutionary time. To find out, Saurabh tested different evolutionary models of change in GC content in... Continue Reading →
This month the lab completes a decade of existence. I am proud of all the fun science we have done as a group over the years, and the myriad ways in which all of us have grown. A lot of earlier themes are wrapping up and there are new exciting directions to pursue. Onward, to... Continue Reading →
This post is delayed by about 10 months because we couldn't have a nice farewell for Rittik during the pandemic. But he was back in the lab for a bit and we were able to do things properly this time around. We are very happy to report that Rittik has joined as a member of... Continue Reading →
Arun's paper reporting the detailed costs and benefits of evolved immune priming is now published! In an exciting earlier study, we had found that flour beetles exposed to the pathogen Bacillus thuringiensis adapted rapidly via the evolution of either immune priming or pathogen resistance. The new work – led by Arun (now at Edinburgh University)... Continue Reading →
We are very proud of Vrinda, who successfully defended her PhD thesis following a fantastic seminar. Vrinda worked with long-term selection lines of beetles adapting to new resources to understand the factors that explain population dynamics during adaptation.
Saurabh successfully defended his PhD thesis, for which he analysed patterns and causes of GC content evolution and codon usage across thousands of bacteria. He gave a superb (virtual) talk, and we all celebrated his successes with a custom cake on the lawn. Congratulations, Dr Mahajan!
AdaptationLab 