Seth Bordenstein: Symbionts as Targets and Agents of Change
Channel: Dr. Seth Bordenstein
Date: 2012-10-18

In this talk at the University of Idaho, Oct. 16, 2012, Prof. Seth Bordenstein discusses microbial symbionts in animals as both targets and agents of evolutionary and functional change. Animal species are a conglomerate of their own cells as well as viruses and bacterial symbiont cells. Indeed, the genes in the microbial symbiont population can vastly outnumber the genes of the animal (even in humans), and yet we know little about how often these animal symbionts exchange genes between each other, as well as the effects of the symbionts on the evolutionary process by which one species splits into two - speciation. Here, Professor Bordenstein discusses these topics in a seminar to the Department of Biology / IBEST program at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. Topics covered include Bacteria, Viruses, Insects, Speciation, Symbiosis, Ecology, and Genomics.