Michael Manhart
Rutgers University-New Brunswick, NJ·Ecology & Evolution
Microbes pick up huge numbers of new mutations every day, which lets them adapt quickly, for example by becoming drug resistant. But microbes rarely live alone: they often trade nutrients with neighbors, called cross-feeding.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Microbiology & Immunology
Biology
- Topics
microbial evolution
experimental evolution
Escherichia coli
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2030
What they work on
- Test whether cross-feeding different nutrient types (amino acids, vitamins, carbon intermediates) changes the fitness effects of mutations differently, using engineered E. coli auxotroph partnerships and DNA-barcoded mutant libraries.
- Compare how gene knockouts from transposon insertions and spontaneous mutations from an evolution experiment respond to cross-feeding interactions in E. coli.
- Determine whether metabolic cheating and shifts in nutrient limitation explain how cross-feeding alters mutant fitness, combining experiments with whole-genome metabolic models.
More about the research
Whether a mutation helps or hurts may depend on these partners. This research asks how ecological interactions change the fitness effects of mutations, a key input for predicting how microbial populations will evolve.
Why it matters
Predicting how microbes evolve in their communities could help anticipate whether and how fast a pathogen becomes resistant to treatment, and could inform personalized medicine based on a person's changing microbiome. The work could also reveal unknown gene functions, especially activities that only show up under unusual nutrient conditions.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
William Harcombe
University of Minnesota, MN·Ecology & Evolution
Test whether mutualism changes the combined effect of antibiotic pairs by running over 3,900 growth experiments comparing Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica in monoculture versus obligate cross-feeding co-culture.
Sergey Kryazhimskiy
University of California-San Diego, CA·Ecology & Evolution
Develop mathematical theory for how the biochemical architecture of cells, starting with complex metabolic networks, constrains the shape of fitness landscapes and how mutations move organisms across them.
Kerry Geiler-Samerotte
Arizona State University Campus Immersion, AZ·Ecology & Evolution·Early-career
Evolve thousands of DNA-barcoded yeast lineages across subtly different temperatures to measure how the genetic basis of adaptation and the distribution of fitness effects (DFE) shift along the gradient.
The school
Rutgers University-New Brunswick: 57 labs on PI Pages, $837M a year on research, 713 research doctorates a year.
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