I am recruiting a postdoctoral fellow to analyze bacterial communities associated with flour beetles. The postdoctoral fellow will work with a team of researchers towards the following goals: Quantify the repeatability of ecological and evolutionary changes in the gut microbiome of an insect adapting to a new diet Determine the metabolic and genetic basis of... Continue Reading →
Summer travel
The conference season is suddenly upon us! The lab will be out in full force this year since many of the first people to join the lab have cool results to report. Everyone has received various competitive grants to help support their travel, which is superb news! We are all looking forward to good feedback... Continue Reading →
New paper on the evolutionary implications of stress-induced mutations
Recently I wrote a Primer (a short tutorial/introduction for a subject of broad interest) to accompany a new paper in PLoS Biology demonstrating stress-specific mutation spectra in E. coli (Maharjan and Ferenci 2017). Stress-induced mutagenesis (SIM) is a fascinating phenomenon, whereby some organisms show a transient increase in mutation rates when exposed to stresses such as... Continue Reading →
On insect-bacterial associations
The world around us is full of microbes that influence both biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems. For instance, nitrogen-fixing bacteria enrich the soil1, and algae in marine ecosystems provide sustenance to a variety of organisms2,3. On the other hand, pathogenic bacteria cause diseases across trophic levels, changing the environment around them dramatically. Such interactions have been extensively studied for a long period of time. However, non-pathogenic host-bacterial associations also influence host physiology and even host behaviour4,5. For example, in mice, differences in gut bacterial communities determine utilization of specific dietary components and the propensity for diseases like obesity and diabetes6,7. Gut bacteria are also linked to several neurological disorders such as depression and anxiety8. Such dependence of animal hosts on their gut microbes is not limited to humans, but extends across the tree of life.
Announcing the SPEEC Up competition
On 31 Aug 2017, NCBS will host a one-day competition for 3-minute talks in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation. The event is jointly organized by multiple institutes in Bangalore to encourage cross-talk within local ecology circles. If you have an interesting story from your work, consider competing! You can find more details here.
Goodbye Imroze!
We said a fond farewell to Imroze Khan, the first postdoc from the lab. Over the last 4 years or so, Imroze initiated and led work on the ecology and evolution of insect immune function. He is now an Assistant Professor at Ashoka University, where he will continue to work with insect life history and... Continue Reading →
New paper: A link between early inflammation, immune function and ageing
All organisms age. One prominent hypothesis suggests that infections experienced early in life accelerate ageing. In collaboration with Jens Rolff, Imroze tested this idea in mealworm beetles (Tenebrio molitor). He found that young beetles injected with bacterial cell components mounted an immune response that damaged their vital organs – Malpighian tubules, equivalent to kidneys –... Continue Reading →
Welcome to Deepa Agashe’s lab at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore!
Organisms often face new, changing or otherwise challenging environments, which can drive evolutionary adaptations. However, different populations and species often respond differentially to the same environmental change, potentially altering their evolutionary trajectories. For instance, some organisms flourish in new environments, whereas others go extinct. What factors determine individual and population-level responses, and what are the... Continue Reading →
AdaptationLab 