Colleen Cavanaugh

Edward C. Jeffrey Professor of Biology
(Not Accepting Graduate Students for 2023-2024)

Our research primarily involves the study of symbioses of bacteria in marine invertebrates from deep-sea hydrothermal vents, methane seeps, and coastal reducing sediments. Specific emphasis is placed on the characterization of metabolic and genetic capabilities of symbionts, evolutionary relationships with free-living bacteria, and co-evolution of host and symbiont.

Recent Publications

Boller, AJ, PJ Thomas, CM Cavanaugh, KM Scott. Isotopic Discrimination and Kinetic parameters of RubisCO from the Marine Bloom-Forming Diatom, Skeletonema Costatum. Geobiol 2015 13: 33-43.

Liao, L, SD Wankel, M Wu, CM Cavanaugh, PR Girguis. Characterizing the plasticity of nitrogen metabolism by the host and symbionts of the hydrothermal vent chemoautotrophic symbioses Ridgeia piscesae. 2014 Mol Ecol 23: 1544-57.

Fontanez, KM, CM Cavanaugh. Evidence for horizontal transmission from multilocus phylogeny of deep-sea mussel (Mytilidae) symbionts. 2014 Environ Microbiol 16: 3608-21.

Belzer, C, GK Gerber, G Roeselers, M Delaney, A DuBois, Q Liu, V Belavusava, et al. Dynamics of the microbiota in response to host infection. 2014 PLoS One 9: e95534.

Dmytrenko, O, SL Russell, WT Loo, KM Fontanez, L Liao, G Roeselers, R Sharma, et al. The genome of the intracellular bacterium of the coastal bivalve, Solemya velum: a blueprint for thriving in and out of symbiosis. 2014 BMC Genomics 15: 924.

Courses Taught

Freshman Seminar 24Q: Biology of Symbiosis: From the Deep-Sea to the Human Microbiome
OEB 277 In Sickness and in Health: Topics in Symbiosis
OEB 343 Microbial Ecology and Symbiosis