DrOlga Lastovetsky

I am fascinating by symbioses and the new capabilities organisms can acquire through these relationships. Symbiosis was instrumental in the evolution of eukaryotic life, with two key organelles - mitochondria and chloroplasts - arising from ancient bacteria incorporated through endosymbiotic events. "Endosymbiosis" is where one organism lives inside the cells of another, with both partners oftentimes benefiting significantly from the interaction.  My research is focused on unraveling the molecular biology and and evolution of symbiotic relationships, specifically focusing on fungi and their bacterial endosymbionts. Fungi are a key group of organisms on our planet, underpinning the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems with roles in nutrient recycling and carbon sequestration. Bacterial endosymbionts are common and widespread in fungi, but the functioning of bacterial-fungal symbioses is largely unexplored. My research group - the MInt lab - studies the relationships between early diverging fungi such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and bacteria that live inside their hyphae and spores. AMF themselves are symbionts of plants, colonising roots of most plant on Earth, including crops. AMF provide plants with essential mineral nutrients and water in exchange for carbon. The MInt lab is trying to understand how bacterial endosymbionts affect AMF biology and, in turn, that of their plant host, in a fascinating tri-partite Russian-doll style symbiosis. Our research approach attempts to understand these interactions at the molecular level as well as the scale of ecology.