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Highlights

  • Laboratory evolution to study predator-prey coevolution
  • Influence of bacterial predation on the evolution and maintenance of antibiotic resistance
  • Evolution of lifecycles and factors affecting them
  • Using bacterial predators to identify novel antimicrobial strategies

Research

Predation is one of the most prevalent and ancient forms of antagonistic interaction that pervades all ecosystems at all levels of biological organization. Studies with higher eukaryotes have demonstrated the significance of predator-prey interactions in speciation events, the evolution of virulence,  pathogenesis, the emergence of diversity,  cooperation, multiple levels of selection, and many more important events during the course of the evolution of life on our planet. However, unlike the historical interest in studying predator-prey interactions among higher eukaryotes, the importance of microbial predator-prey interactions has been recognized relatively recently. We study bacterial predator-prey interactions in natural populations of bacteria, using evolution in the test-tube approach.

We use M. xanthus as a model organism to study bacterial predation. M. xanthus is a predatory bacterium that kills and eats other microbes by secreting antimicrobial compounds and forms spore-filled multicellular fruiting bodies upon starvation. M. xanthus predation is mediated by contact-dependent as well as contact-independent mechanisms such as toxins, antibiotics, lytic enzymes, and secretion systems.

Specifically, we study the influence of translational and transcriptional errors, genetic diversity, environmental fluctuations, complex life-cycle, and ecological conditions on the evolution of mechanisms of bacterial predation. Please contact Samay or lab members if you want to know about our research.

Group Member

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Ananyaa Rengaprasad

Email : ananyaa.rengaprasad@gmail.com

Designation : research_assistant

Category : Microbiology, Virology, and Immunology

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Harish N

Email : harishn@iisc.ac.in

Designation : Research Assistant

Category : Microbiology, Virology, and Immunology

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Jessica Mellicent Laloo

Email : jessicalaloo@iisc.ac.in

Designation : Phd Student

Category : Microbiology, Virology, and Immunology

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Jyotsna Kalathera

Email : jyotsnak@iisc.ac.in

Designation : Phd Student

Category : Microbiology, Virology, and Immunology

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Neha Mandal

Email : nehamandal@iisc.ac.in

Designation : Phd Student

Category : Microbiology, Virology, and Immunology

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Rekha P T

Email : rekhat@iisc.ac.in

Designation : Phd Student

Category : Microbiology, Virology, and Immunology

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Saheli Saha

Email : sahelisaha@iisc.ac.in

Designation : Phd Student

Category : Microbiology, Virology, and Immunology

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Vaibhav Sharma

Email : vaibhavsharm@iisc.ac.in

Designation : Phd Student

Category : Microbiology, Virology, and Immunology

Publications

2023
Saheli Saha, Bhoomika Bhat, Jessica Laloo, Samay Pande
Community Mixing Selects For Predation Resistance In Lab-Evolved Communities Of Bacterial Prey And Social Predator Myxococcus Xanthus, bioRxiv, 0(0)

DOI

Jyotsna Kalathera, Vishwa Patel, Samay Pande
Differential evolution of cooperative traits in aggregative multicellular bacterium Myxococcus xanthus driven by varied population bottleneck sizes, bioRxiv, 0(0)

DOI

Saheli Saha, Jyotsna Kalathera, Thoniparambil Sunil Sumi, Vishwadeep Mane, Sina Zimmermann, Silvio Waschina, Samay Pande
Mass lysis of bacterial predators drives the enrichment of antibiotic resistance in soil microbial communities, bioRxiv, 0(0)

DOI

2022
Saheli Saha and Samay Pande
CRISPR evolves among the winners, Nature Ecology and Evolution, 6(0)

DOI

2020
Samay Pande , Pau Pérez Escriva, Yuen-Tsu Nicco Yu, Uwe Sauer, Gregory J. Velicer
Cooperation and Cheating among Germinating Spores, Current Biology, 30(23)

DOI

2018
Samay Pande, Gregory J Veliger
Chimeric Synergy in Natural Social Groups of a Cooperative Microbe, Current Biology, 28(2)

DOI

Alumni
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Prajwal Bharadwaj

prajwal4bharadwaj@gmail.com

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Malavika venu

malavikavenu174@gmail.com

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Debdyuti Bhadra

debdyutib@iisc.ac.in

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Kruthika sen

kruthikasen@gmail.com

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Sri Indumathi Thanga Thirupathi

heyitsindumathi@gmail.com

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Bhoomika Ashok Bhat

bhoomikabhat@iisc.ac.in

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Subrata Mishra

subratamishra7@hotmail.com

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Jyothi Basapathi R

joyjyothi94@gmail.com

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Bevan Stanley

bevanstanely@iisc.ac.in

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Sukrit Suresh

sukritsuresh@yahoo.co.uk

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Vishwa Patel

vishwa.2497@gmail.com

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Nived Krishnan S

niveds@iisc.ac.in

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Archana Muraleedharan

archanamuraleedharan2420@gmail.com

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Anusha Chavan

anusha.chavan@gmail.com

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Sneha Sureshkumar

snehasureshkumar263@gmail.com

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Krithi Nandimath

knandimath@gmail.com

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