Project at a glance

Our group investigates the relationships between symbiotic microorganisms and the neurophysiology and behavior of animals. We aim to identify the neuroactive effects of microbes and assess how these effects modulate host behavior. Our primary focus is on the gut microbiota of social insects, such as bees, which exhibit complex behaviors at the individual level, express sophisticated collective behaviors, and show behavioral variation across lineages. This variation can be leveraged through comparative approaches to reveal the evolutionary histories of these microbiome-host interactions. To understand the causal links between microbiome composition and host behavior, we manipulate the microbiome and perform behavioral analyses, coupled with diverse -omics techniques.