Quantitative Biosciences Thesis Proposal
Andreea Măgălie
School of Biological Sciences
Advisor:
Dr. Joshua Weitz
Schools of Biological Sciences and Physics
Georgia Institute of Technology
Open to the Community
Risks, benefits and eco-evolutionary implications of bacterial dormancy in microbial systems
Tuesday, October 27th, 2020
11:00am
BlueJeans Link: https://bluejeans.com/976180175
Committee Members:
Dr. Sam Brown, School of Biological Sciences; Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Rachel Kuske, School of Mathematics; Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Jay Lennon, Department of Biology; Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract:
Organisms in natural environments often face suboptimal growth conditions and long periods of resource scarcity. One common adaptation to survive extended periods of resource limitations is dormancy, a reversible low-metabolic state which acts as a refuge during unfavorable environmental conditions. However, given a wide variety of environments and other players in the microbial community, bacterial dormancy has many more diverse and important roles beyond the classical understanding. In this work I propose three aims through which I intend to gain a more thorough understanding of how dormancy affects the fitness of a bacterial population and modifies the evolutionary ecology within the larger microbial community. I explore the benefits of bacterial dormancy in the presence of exogenous fluctuations arising from stochastic environments and analyze different types of strategies based on the type of dormancy and delays to reach sporulation. I then explore the benefits of dormancy in the presence of endogenous fluctuations arising from predator-prey dynamics. Lastly, I focus on the evolution of dormancy traits in the context of phage and resource pressures. By looking at the initiation and resuscitation rates, we can better understand how much a bacterial population should invest in dormancy under top-down and bottom-up pressures.
