MCB Joint Seminar: Ryan Kerney "Developing Inside a Layer of Germs: Algal Influence on Salamander Development and Regeneration"

Amphibians are unique among vertebrates in developing within microbe-rich microenvironments that contain eukaryotes, prokaryotes, and viruses. Spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) egg capsules fill with a eukaryotic alga, Oophila amblystomatis, during development. Over the sequence of organogenesis these algae enter host tissues and cells and concentrate within the tail tip, head, and liver diverticulum. This talk will review our recent work on this association and the intimate physiological changes Oophila imposes on the host embryos. Through a combination of advanced imaging, phylotranscriptomics, radio-labeled metabolite tracking, natural products chemistry, and microbial meta-barcoding we have discovered new ways Oophila influences host development and regeneration as well as new Oophila hosts embryos across the Northern Hemisphere.