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  • Arabidopsis

    Wild-type and transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing miR156, a microRNA that promotes juvenility and increases the rate of leaf initiation

  • Field Work

    Many genes that organisms use to regulate their mutualists are also used to defend against parasites and pathogens. The shared genetic control of beneficial and harmful symbioses raises the intriguing possibility that susceptibility to infection is a pleiotropic cost of mutualism. Our goal is to understand how a genetic tradeoff between attracting mutualists and repelling parasites has shaped the genomic architecture of traits mediating species interactions, and how ongoing conflict influences adaptation. 

  • Courtship in Drosophila

    Various courtship songs produced by Drosophila species

  • Drosophila

    Drosophila are small flies, typically pale yellow to reddish brown to black, with red eyes. Many species, including the noted Hawaiian picture-wings, have distinct black patterns on the wings. The plumose (feathery) arista, bristling of the head and thorax, and wing venation are characters used to diagnose the family.

  • Bacterial Respiratory Complex

    Structural model of a bacterial respiratory complex III: remember that when you respire, your complex III perspires to produce your body's energy.

Biology is fundamental to our changing world. The 21st century challenge for our students, our scholars, and the greater society is to understand our place in this changing world and to create fundamental knowledge for informed policies, economies, and social structure.

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Upcoming Events



Mutualism: What Do We Know, and Where Do We Go From Here?

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In this talk, I review the history of the study of mutualism, a field that has only coalesced in the past twenty years. I will identify six major research directions. I will then present our own recent work on one…



Mutualisms to scale: how ant-plant mutualisms increase diversity and impact the carbon cycle

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Mutually beneficial interactions between species (i.e., mutualisms) are well known drivers of (co)evolution and of changes in the structure of ecological interaction networks, but the effects of mutualisms…



Graduate Student Talks

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talk abstracts & zoom link to come

Due the COVID-19 epidemic, the University of Pennsylvania has limited on-campus activities. As such, our team will be working remotely until further notice. If you need assistance, please send an email to biology@sas.upenn.edu, and we will happily assist you in a virtual format. For immediate service during normal working hours (M-F, 9am to 5pm) our phones are operational.

Stay safe and take care.

For the most current information regarding the Spring 2021 Semester, please visit: https://coronavirus.upenn.edu/