In this episode, Dr Kirsty Short speaks to Professor Sandie Degnan, from the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Queensland.Animals evolve because their genomes need to respond to the constantly changing environment presented by both their external habitat and their internal microbial symbionts. Over evolutionary time, these different factors interact during development, when the animal body plan is being established, to generate the extraordinary animal diversity that graces our planet. In ecological time, early life history stages must detect and respond to the precise nature of their environment to generate a locally-adapted functional phenotype.Using coral reef invertebrates from phyla that span the animal kingdom, Prof Degnan and her colleagues study these gene-environment interactions using genomic, molecular and cellular approaches combined with behavioural ecology in natural populations. They work mostly with embryonic and larval life history stages of indirect developers, as these are crucial to the survival, connectivity, and evolution of marine populations. When not immersed in the molecular or computer lab, they are lucky enough to be immersed in the ocean, often in beautiful places!
