Megan Behringer

Department of Biological Sciences
Vanderbilt Microbiome Initiative
Evolutionary Studies Initiative at Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology, and Inflammation (VI4)
Department of Pathology, Microbiology, Immunology

Experimental Evolution and Population Genetics of Microbes. Our lab is interested in how genetic variation is introduced into a bacterial population and bacteria diversify as they colonize a novel environment. The phenotypes associated with this diversification often include biofilm formation, antimicrobial susceptibility, resource utilization, pH tolerance, changes in mutation rate, etc. We examine these questions on an individual (mutation accumulation), population (batch culture), and community (metagenomics) level. For more information see our lab’s website: http://www.behringerlab.wixsite.com/index

Keywords: Evolution , Genomics , Microbiology , Population Genetics , Bacterial Genetics , Microbiome

Research Area: Bacteriology , Cell Cycle, DNA Repair, and Chromosome Biology , Computational and Systems Biology , Gene Regulation , Genomics , Host-Pathogen Interactions