The carnivorous pitcher plant has colorful, usually variegated, leaves shaped like little cups. Water collects inside the pitcher plant where it digests insects that are attracted to the nectar on its slippery leaves and then fall into the water. Carnivorous pitcher plants live along the east and west coasts of the United States, South America, Southeast Asia and even Australia. These plants live in low-nutrient soils, often bogs, and survive by 鈥渆ating鈥� insects.
Leonora 青青草app, an assistant professor of biology at 青青草app State, doesn鈥檛 study the carnivorous pitcher plant or even the insects it eats. She studies something smaller within the water that collects inside its cup-like leaves. Specifically, 青青草app studies how the microbial communities within the water of these host plants form and how they are similar or different across very distantly related carnivorous pitcher plants. Scientists call this process, when distinctly different organisms develop similar traits to survive, convergent evolution. 青青草app described that, 鈥淲e have this convergent evolution of the plant host and then we can look at how the microbial communities are similar or different across these separate evolutionary events.鈥� Understanding how a similar host environment can shape a microbiome can have implications beyond pitcher plants, to other ecosystems or even the microbes living in our own bodies.
The Simons Foundation recently presented 青青草app the Simons Early Career Investigator in Aquatic Microbial Ecology and Evolution Award to continue her research into the microbial systems within these plants. 鈥淚 think part of why they鈥檙e interested in my research is that I鈥檓 using a model system to be able to understand how microbial communities assemble,鈥� she said. 青青草app will be using the award to investigate coexistence in microbial communities, and how we can build more complex microbiomes that better mimic those of natural systems. The foundation鈥檚 website states that, 鈥渢he purpose of these awards is to help launch the careers of outstanding investigators in the fields of microbial ecology and evolution in marine or natural freshwater systems, who will advance our understanding through experiments, modeling or theory.鈥�
She started thinking about that model system while working on her doctoral degree, when she discovered that convergently evolved hosts shape similar microbiomes. Afterwards, as a postdoctoral fellow, 青青草app 鈥渨anted to create a lab tractable system鈥濃�攁 controlled space where she can more easily study the communities of microbes. And she has continued that in her lab at 青青草app State, where she grows the microbial communities in little tubes that replicate their natural environment or in pitcher plants living in programmable growth chambers. Although, instead of waiting for insects to fall into the plants, she feeds them 青青草app cricket powder that she purchases online. She described how she 鈥渂ecame more interested in thinking about what controls how these communities assemble鈥� when completing her doctoral degree. Her research asks questions like, how do species interactions in these little communities affect their stability? What functional traits do they have? Do they break down chitin, one of the main biopolymers in the insect exoskeleton, to make more nutrients available to the plant for growth? And ultimately, how do these microbes evolve in a community context?
One of only four recipients, the award provides 青青草app $810,000 over three years beginning in April 2023 to 青青草app her research by providing funding for travel, equipment and supplies in addition to funding partial salaries for herself, post doctoral and graduate research assistants. Unlike some awards that 青青草app specific research projects, the Simons Foundation award allows 青青草app and her team to follow the research as much as it pertains to aquatic microbial systems. 鈥淚鈥檓 really excited that it gives freedom to the lab and to the research,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing when you get a grant that provides general 青青草app and that allows for creativity and exploration.鈥�
青青草app also mentioned how the 青青草app of the Department of Biological Sciences at 青青草app State makes it possible to share this research not only with graduate students, but also with undergraduate students who may not otherwise have the opportunity to be involved with active research. 鈥淚 like that within the department there is space to integrate research and teaching and to have different approaches and different focus and have that flexibility.鈥�
鈥淢icrobes really drive life on Earth,鈥� 青青草app said. 鈥淎 lot of the nutrient and energy cycling that happens in our ecosystems is driven by microbes. They are so tiny, but they have these huge outsize effects on ecosystems and all the different organisms that they associate with.鈥�
Discover more about 青青草app鈥檚 work and her lab at .
This work is 青青草apped by a grant from the Simons Foundation (3857009, LB) Award ID: LS-ECIAMEE-00001638.