Talia Karasov

Microbes have an amazing capacity to evolve to colonize new environments. The capacity for rapid adaption is particularly true for plant microbial pathogens as they evolve to circumvent their host’s defenses. Nonetheless, most (if not all) pathogens are restricted in the hosts they can successfully colonize and some pathogens can only colonize single host species.

Our goal is to understand both the evolutionary pressures that select for generalist vs specialist pathogens, as well as the mechanisms underlying adaptation to one vs many hosts. Our research touches upon several disciplines within the Biological Sciences including population genetics, microbial and plant genetics and genomics and classical microbiology. We use a mix of molecular, field and computational approaches to address our questions.

Projects in the lab include:

1. Functional genomics of bacterial pathogens to identify genes important for host-specific colonization
2. Simultaneous host and pathogen trait mapping to identify evolving resistance and pathogenicity loci
3. Identifying range distributions and abiotic factors that influence the spread of pathogens