Research in my lab focuses on key mechanisms regulating the specificity and stability of microbial symbioses from an evolutionary scale down to the molecular level. We are investigating an experimentally tractable symbiosis between a coral reef cardinalfish and a luminous bacterium to answer these questions. We integrate field studies and experimental assays with various genomic and molecular techniques to characterize the specificity of the association and the molecular conversation that takes place between the host and symbiont, as well as the symbiont community dynamics. We aim to build a research program that deepens our understanding of the processes that shape beneficial host-microbe associations using this experimentally tractable system.

More information on the Gould Laboratory is available at www.gouldlab.squarespace.com.