Christopher X J. Jensen
Professor, Pratt Institute

Mutualistic fungus transfers nitrogen from parasitized insects to its plant host

Posted 22 Jun 2012 / 0

Science “Endophytic Insect-Parasitic Fungi Translocate Nitrogen Directly from Insects to Plants” What I find fascinating about this story is how a fungus that parasitizes one species can use that ability to form a mutualism with a plant host. I wonder whether there is a value-added feature of this parasitism: are the parasitized insects potential parasites Read More

A Minor Post, Articles, Coevolution, Host-Pathogen Evolution, Mutualism, Parasitism

Being Clean Might Make You Allergic

Posted 10 Apr 2011 / 0

Recently, Scientific American‘s “Science Talk” podcast featured a valuable interview with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine researcher Kathleen Barnes called “Can It Be Bad to Be Too Clean?: The Hygiene Hypothesis“. In the interview, Dr. Barnes explained the state of contemporary research into the “Hygiene Hypothesis”, which suggests that the reason we are seeing an Read More

Coevolution, Host-Pathogen Evolution, Mismatch theory, Radio & Podcasts