GELIFES Seminars - Sarah Worsley

Sarah Worsley (University of East Anglia)

Gut microbiome variation, fitness and senescence within a natural population of the Seychelles warbler

The vertebrate gut microbiome can vary substantially within and amongst individuals living in the same natural population. However, although there is evidence linking the gut microbiome to health in laboratory animals, very little is known about the consequences of gut microbiome variation for host fitness in the wild. Studying this will be crucial if we are to fully understand the ecological and evolutionary importance of the gut microbiome. We longitudinally characterise gut microbiome samples from individuals living in a natural population of Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis) to explore the genetic and environmental drivers of gut microbiome variation as well as its potential consequences for host survival, reproduction, and senescence.

Biosketch:
Sarah Worsley is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK. Sarah did her undergraduate degree at the University of Oxford, an MSc at Imperial College London, and her PhD at UEA. Her PhD focussed on the antimicrobial properties of leafcutter ant microbiomes. She then took up a postdoc at UEA studying gut microbiome dynamics in the Seychelles warbler. Next year, she will begin a Leverhulme Trust Fellowship exploring host-microbiome coevolutionary dynamics using diverging island populations. Her main research interests lie in understanding the ecology and evolution of host-microbe interactions, and their implications for wildlife health and conservation.