Dr. Hassan Salem
Max Planck Research Group on Mutualisms, MPI for Biology, Tübingen, Germany
Hassan Salem studies mutualistic symbioses between herbivorous beetles and their microbial partners. His research explores how these partnerships drive ecological adaptations and species diversification. By combining genomics and developmental biology, he investigates the molecular mechanisms sustaining these interactions.
Abstract
Symbiosis binds organisms from all domains of life. These interactions evolved frequently in animals and exhibit remarkable functional diversity. Where numerous animal traits are encoded by beneficial microbes, as a research group, we study the role of symbiosis in facilitating adaptation. By dissecting how partnerships are regulated and propagated across generations, we also describe the mechanisms ensuring specificity between microbe and host. Using leaf beetles as an experimental study system, I will outline (i) the molecular, developmental, and behavioral features ensuring symbiont maintenance and transmission, (ii) the beneficial roles microbes fulfil towards host nutrition and defense, (iii) the context dependency governing these interactions, and, finally, (iv) the fidelity that arises between symbiont and host following 60 million years of co-dependence. Throughout this talk, I will highlight how timing the acquisition of a beneficial symbiont relative to the evolutionary history of its host can shed light on the adaptive impact of a partnership. This theme is further contextualized relative to our work on mutualism breakdown and the metabolic consequences of going it alone.