AOX evolution and physiology in animals
We study mitochondrial alternative oxidase across animals, including horizontal acquisition, physiological integration, and possible consequences for life belowground and under respiratory stress.
Read moreEvolutionary Bioenergetics Lab
Evolutionary Bioenergetics Lab
We study how organisms power life under stress, from animal mitochondrial alternative oxidase and fungal pathogen respiration to pollinator physiology and mitonuclear coevolution.
What we study
Mitochondrial physiology, Ecology, and Evolution
The Evolutionary Bioenergetics Lab studies how organisms power life under stress. We connect mitochondrial physiology, ecological context, and genome evolution to ask why respiratory pathways differ across the tree of life and how those differences shape adaptation, disease ecology, and performance.
Our work spans animal mitochondrial alternative oxidase, respiratory stress tolerance in fungal pathogens, pollinator thermal and foraging physiology, and mitonuclear coevolution. The common thread is that energy metabolism is not just cellular housekeeping; it is a source of evolutionary constraint, opportunity, and ecological variation.
Research pillars
From respiratory pathways to evolutionary outcomes
Each research area asks how bioenergetic systems respond to stress and how that variation matters at ecological and evolutionary scales.
Fungal pathogen bioenergetics
We investigate how branched respiratory pathways and AOX contribute to stress tolerance, fungal metabolism, and host-pathogen interactions in changing environments.
Read morePollinator bioenergetics
We examine mitochondrial and organismal physiology in pollinators, from bumble bee foraging energetics to thermal stress responses in alfalfa leafcutting bees.
Read moreMitonuclear coevolution
We test how mitochondrial and nuclear genomes remain functionally integrated and how coevolutionary dynamics shape OXPHOS performance and constraint.
Read moreCurrent lab
People, projects, and training
The lab includes graduate students working at the intersection of microbiology, genetics and genomics, ecology, evolution, organismal physiology, and mitochondrial biology.
- Puja Bajracharya, PhD student in the Microbiology Graduate Program.
- Israt Mouri, PhD student in the Genetics and Genomics Graduate Program, studies AOX pathways in animal-associated fungi.
- Saumya Balaji, master’s student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, studies mitochondrial responses of Megachile rotundata to thermal stress.
Big picture
Why evolutionary bioenergetics?
Mitochondria sit at the center of stress physiology, life history, and genome evolution. By studying respiratory systems in organisms that experience very different ecological challenges, we can test how energy metabolism both constrains and enables evolutionary change.