Let’s Talk About Symbiosis - in hybrid form

This time around we were able to hold our recurrent seminar “Let’s Talk About Symbiosis” in a hybrid format. Observing the strict safety rules required, some of us could participate in person, while many colleagues joined us online. Together we listened to a keynote given by Takema Fukatsu from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan. It is safe to say that Takema inspired us all with the glimpse into his extensive and stunning research on the evolution of Escherichia coli into an insect mutualist. We learned about the Tsetse fly’s symbiosis with Spiroplasma from Fabian Gstöttenmayer, and Johannes Ben Herpell introduced us to a very successful leaf dwelling bacterium. Last but not least Verónica Barrajón Santos and Maximilian Nepel illustrated different aspects of the complex symbiosis between Azteca ants, Cecropia trees and fungi and nematodes, as well as bacteria. As always, it has been wonderful to see how active the research community in microbial symbiosis is at the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Vienna. We are already looking forward to the next iteration of “Let’s Talk About Symbiosis”!