Description: We live in a microbial world, and microbes have shaped (and continue to shape) plant and animal physiology and evolution through a myriad of contributions – from mutualistic benefits to disease. Recent advances in genomic methodologies have further increased our appreciation of such contributions by highlighting the prevalence of organismal microbial communities and their complex interactions with their hosts. Through lectures and discussions, IB 118 will consider the broad range of host-microbe interactions – from mutualism to pathogenesis, and from pairwise interactions to the microbiome - learning the principles that shape these interactions, the technologies used to interrogate them and the molecular mechanisms underlying them.
Prerequisites: Biology 1A-1B.
Expected Enrollment: 50