each tree is a story or
is it a curtain
bought from ikea dot com
This image is from an ongoing project studying very closely-related strains of vibrio sampled off the coast of Massachusetts. These trees represent the evolutionary relationships among 8 of these strains: 5 that are mostly found attached to marine zooplankton (circles), and 3 that prefer a ‘free-living’ lifestyle (squares). Because of recombination (sex), bacteria can exchange genes. As a result, different parts of the genome can have different evolutionary histories, which can be visualized as different trees. In this image, I have arranged the top 20 most ‘popular’ trees for the 8 vibrios. The arrangement and colour scheme were just aesthetic choices, but the diversity of tree topologies is real, showing that there is surprising amount of sex going on in the ocean, much of it crossing habitat (free-living or zooplankton) boundaries. -Jesse Shapiro
Great work, Dr. Shapiro! You have a wonderful future in science and Ikea product design.