Ley Labs Scholarships enable students to study the cell, physiology and developmental biology of sponges and their microbial symbionts, with the goal of developing tools to understand the evolution of fundamental aspects of animals such as tissues, polarity, nervous systems and coordination and mechanisms of development.
The project involves developing tools for the emerging model system Ephydatia muelleri, a freshwater sponge. E. muelleri demonstrates host gene regulation in response to symbiosis. The symbionts can often be cultured outside of the host and the sponge can be grown with and without the symbionts. Wild populations harbor different communities and so laboratory culture allows study of host:symbiont integration and specialization at a cellular and genetic level, to identify selective forces that shape integration between hosts and symbionts.