The life sciences rest on a new footing in which symbiotic microbes are recognized as fundamental to nearly every aspect of host form, function, and fitness. As a result, today's challenge is to unite Mendelian genetics and symbiosis in our general models and experiments of animal and plant evolution. In this talk to the Center for Evolution and Medicine, Professor Bordenstein discusses how his lab is elucidating the varied ways in which the microbiome interacts with the nuclear genome to drive animal evolution and the origin of species - what Darwin referred to as the definitive “mystery of mysteries” in the Origin of Species.
Recorded on Feb 24, 2015
Tempe, AZ, ASU
Colorized Darwin image by Mads Madsen