From protists to humans, all animals and plants are inhabited by microbial organisms. There is an increasing appreciation that these resident microbes influence fitness of their plant and animal hosts, ultimately forming a metaorganism consisting of a uni- or multicellular host and a community of associated microorganisms.
The subproject B1 seeks to investigate host-microbe cross talk in the early metazoan taxa Porifera and anthozoan Cnidaria.