Post by Social and Symbiotic Evolution Group

🎓☀️ Graduations before the summer break ☀️🎓   Over the past couple of weeks, many students successfully defended their theses, with projects spanning cultivation methods,  theoretical studies, and VOC measurements!🔬📚   🎓 Ellyn Paris & Kelsey Puckett (MSc) ventured into the dark to study the prevalence in Denmark of the fungus causing white-nose syndrome in bats, with morten elmeros, Rasmus Stenbak Larsen, Kasun Bodawatta, and Henrik Hjarvard De Fine Licht   🎓 Oscar Lange Carlsen (MSc) explored if farmed fungi that live in associations with ants and termites optimise nutritional intake differently from their free-living relatives, with Jonathan Shik.   🎓 Pelle Samsø Bloch (BSc) joined our cave project to culture, identify, and test methane-utilizing bacteria from sediment samples using a new VOC measurement method at VOLT - Center for Volatile Interactions, with Kajsa Roslund, Luka Civa, Kasun Bodawatta, and Riikka Rinnan.   🎓 Line Jensen (BSc) investigated the potential role of neurotoxin accumulation in the skin and feathers of several New Guinean bird species in defence against feather mites and malaria-carrying vectors, with Kasun Bodawatta, Knud Jønsson, and Christine Beemelmanns.   🎓 Kezia Bagger (BSc) investigated the evolution of termites and the loss of their symbiont protists, where a dietary shift may have replaced them with gut bacteria.    Congratulations to all of you on your excellent work and exciting discoveries! It has been such a pleasure working with you, and you are always welcome back for new projects. We wish you all the best in your future endeavours🌟   #KUscience #socsymevo