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Talk by Hassan Salem

Title: "Adaptation through symbiosis"
Occasion: SFB - Seminar
Start: 19.06.2025 4:15 pm
Location: CellNanOs, 38/201

About the speaker: Hassan Salem conducts research in the Group of Mutualism at the Max Planck Institute in Tübingen, Germany

Symbiosis binds organisms from all domains of life. In animals, these interactions have evolved repeatedly, giving rise to striking functional diversity. Many animal traits are shaped by beneficial microbes, and our research group explores how symbiosis drives adaptation. By investigating how these partnerships are regulated and transmitted across generations, we uncover the mechanisms that maintain host–microbe specificity. Using leaf beetles as a model system, I will present (i) the molecular, developmental, and behavioural strategies that ensure symbiont retention and transmission, (ii) the nutritional and defensive benefits microbes provide, (iii) the ecological context that modulates these relationships, and (iv) the evolutionary fidelity resulting from 60 million years of co-dependence. Throughout, I will emphasize how the timing of symbiont acquisition, relative to host evolutionary history, reveals the adaptive potential of these associations. This theme is further explored through our work on mutualism breakdown and the metabolic consequences of going it alone.