The Symbiosis Evolution group is a dynamic, international research team at the Faculty of Biology of the Jagiellonian University, established in 2019 and currently co-led by Dr. Piotr Łukasik (Institute of Environmental Sciences) and Dr. Anna Michalik (Institute of Zoology and Biomedical Research).

We carry out research projects focused on different aspects of the diversity of insects and their relationships with symbiotic microorganisms. We are interested in the biodiversity of insects, their associated bacteria and symbiotic fungi, the evolutionary history of these symbioses, features of symbiont genomes, symbiont distribution in host tissues, their transmission across generations, and the symbionts’ effects on host biology. We work with different study systems, including symbioses of hemipteran insects, and diverse insects from Sweden and Greenland.

We study these systems using a variety of methods: international fieldwork, custom high-throughput sequencing, bioinformatics and genomic analyses of the acquired data, microscopic analyses, and laboratory experiments. We collaborate with research teams from around the world.

On this website, you can learn about our research plans and ideas, meet team members and our collaborators, and stay up to date with our publications.

If you have any questions or comments, please get in touch!