Dr. Mary Westwood
Postdoctoral Research Fellow for the National Science Foundation at the University of Denver
PhD, University of Edinburgh – Evolutionary Biology
MSc, BSc Wright State University – Biological Sciences
Date: November 1st
Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Location: Denver Campus – North Classroom, Room 1604
It’s about time: how circadian rhythms influence host-parasite interactions
The daily rotation of the Earth causes predictable cycles of day and night, which all life has evolved to cope with. Circadian clocks (i.e. daily, biological timekeepers) allow organisms to schedule activities, from gene expression to physiologies to behaviours, according to the time-of-day they are best undertaken. While nearly all organisms have evolved such rhythms, one of the most fundamental ecological interactions is that between hosts and parasites. In this talk, I discuss how and why circadian rhythms have evolved in the context of host-parasite interactions.