Franka Marie Pauline Hemme
https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0403-4243
Research title: Examining the impacts of aging and the microbiome on the physiology of geothermally adapted populations of stickleback
Research summary
Unravelling the contribution of the genome and the microbiome to thermal adaptation in freshwater fish
Global warming threatens ectotherms worldwide but our understanding of how freshwater organisms evolve and adapt to rising temperatures is still limited.
In my PhD funded by the BBSRC and NorthWestBio, I combine physiological, genetic, and microbiological approaches to understand how variation arises, is inherited and shapes population persistence. I will make use of a naturally diverging system of Icelandic threespine sticklebacks and run different lab experiments to explore both genetic and microbial variation.
By identifying physiological adaptations to increasing temperatures and uncovering their underlying genetic and microbial drivers, I hope to better understand how freshwater populations may persist in the face of climate change.
