Colleen Cavanaugh

Sabbatical, Spring Term 2017
Edward C. Jeffrey Professor of Biology
Associate of Leverett House

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

OEB 277 In Sickness and in Health: Topics in Symbiosis
OEB 343 Microbial Ecology and Symbiosis