Complex Interactions: Coevolution, Parasites, Mutualists, and Cheaters

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course emphasizes the enormous diversity of interactions between organisms. It is an introduction to the biology and ecology of parasitic and mutualistic symbiotic associations and their evolution. Topics include endosymbioses and their impact on the evolution of photosynthetic organisms, bacterial symbioses (e.g., nitrogen fixation), symbioses that fungi evolved with plants and animals (e.g., endophytes, mycorrhizae, lichens), pollination biology, insect-plant associations, and associations of algae with animals. Methods to elucidate the evolution of these associations are discussed with a focus on coevolutionary events and the origin of cheaters.