Semester
Summer
Date of Graduation
2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MS
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Biology
Committee Chair
Rita Rio
Committee Member
Tim Driscoll
Committee Member
Craig Barrett
Abstract
The acquisition of microbial partners is a strategy used by a diverse group of arthropods to overcome ecological barriers that might normally make certain niches uninhabitable. The unique phylogenetic opportunities attainable from the natural experiment of the Sodalis-allied clade allow for better understanding of how molecular structures evolve through time. Here, we focus on the evolution of the flagellar synthesis pathway, due to its complexity and ability to diverge in response to ecological pressures. We used this molecular pathway and natural experiment to show that normal evolutionary outcomes associated with symbiosis (i.e., genome reduction) do not explain the predicted conservation of the flagella genes or lack thereof within ancestral nodes.
Recommended Citation
Pollio, Adam R., "The Host Gatekeeper: Using the Flagellar Pathway to Understand Symbiont Host Adaptation" (2020). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 7712.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/7712
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