Genome Evolution in Foraminifera

Laura Wegener Parfrey, a PhD student in OEB, is broadly interested in the evolution of diverse microbial organisms. Her focus is on marine amoebae called Foraminifera. Foraminifera are found throughout the ocean, both living on the ocean floor (benthic) and floating in the surface waters (planktonic). Laura's study site is a barrier island off the coast of Georgia, US. The species she studies live in the muddy sediment of the salt marsh. Foraminifera have complicated life cycles, and one individual can produce 1000s of offspring (gametes) at one time. Laura is testing the hypothesis that their genome changes during their life cycle in both copy number and sequence composition. Much more DNA is most likely present when the forams are big than in the tiny offspring.

Contact Laura