Holly Nichols

Host-mediated niche construction of bacterial communities in an aquatic microecosystem Abstract. Microbes coordinate homeostasis in host-associated and environmental ecosystems alike, but the connectivity of these biomes is seldom considered.

Excited to share our new paper out in @isme-microbes.bsky.social. We asked if environmental microbial communities can be adaptively modulated by host species that transiently acquire their symbionts from the environment #SymbioSky #MicrobiomeSky
doi.org/10.1093/isme...

P.S. Despite how much Trends in Parasitology believes in me, I am not yet Dr. Nichols! I’ll be defending in Spring, and I am looking for a postdoctoral position starting in Fall 2026. Reach out if you’re hiring in the fields of microbiology, symbiosis, or medical entomology! (4/4)

Finally, we highlight recent advances in manipulating mosquito microbiota in the laboratory and suggest that transplanting wild-caught mosquito microbiota into lab mosquitoes can ensure that novel strategies are robust to microbiota found in wild populations! (3/4)

First, we describe how bacteria spread within mosquito populations. Then, how do bacteria colonize and persist in the gut? We discuss how biofilms, motility, toxin production, and stress tolerance are understudied in mosquitoes but vital for understanding what makes bacteria successful. (2/4)

I’m thrilled to share my first review about microbial ecology + mosquito-borne disease control! Bacteria block pathogen development in the mosquito gut, but which bacteria will produce long-lasting results in the field? Let’s think about colonization and persistence in the mosquito gut! (1/4)

📣 Join us tomorrow (3/4) at 10 am for the upcoming #MDTP Dissertation Defense Seminar!
Andrew Sommer from Coon Lab will be presenting on "Flies as carriers of clinically relevant bacteria in agricultural reservoirs"

New community resource could create novel ways to stop the spread of pathogens carried by mosquitoes

Finally joined bsky to share a fun article from our university about MosAIC (Mosquito Associated Isolate Collection)! Read more about this highly collaborative project here:

news.cals.wisc.edu/2024/12/17/n...

Check out the new work from the MosSI lab in collaboration with @aidanfoo.bsky.social @laurabrettell.bsky.social @evaheinz7.bsky.social and heaps of others.

MosAIC: An annotated collection of mosquito-associated bacteria with high-quality genome assemblies

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...