Research Interests

Work in the Katz lab aims to elucidate principles of eukaryotic evolution through phylogenetic reconstruction, community sampling and analyses of genome evolution. The bulk of eukaryotic diversity is microbial, with plants, animals and fungi representing only three of some 60–200 lineages of eukaryotes. Many of these microbial lineages are understudied, yet the limited data available suggest the eukaryotic microbes challenge established principles in biology. We are currently focusing on four aspects of the evolution of eukaryotic microbes:

1. Assembling the Eukaryotic Tree of Life through Analyses of Eukaryotic Microbes
2. Phylogeography of Coastal Choreotrich and Oligotrich Ciliates
3. Molecular Systematics of Ciliates
4. Genome Evolution in Ciliates