Faculty

Ryan McMinds

research Assistant Professor

rmcminds

Contact

Tampa campus
Office: IDRB 404 / SCA 106
Phone: (813) 974-5408

Email: mcmindsr@usf.edu

Specialty Area Recent Publications

Ecology & Evolution, Environmental Microbiology, Marine Biology

Key reseach areas: coral, reef, bacteria, phylogenetics, statistics

 Publications by Ryan McMinds
EDUCATION

Ph.D., Oregon State University

RESEARCH

I study the evolution of host-microbe symbioses. In the milieu of the host-associated microbiome, there are many distinct patterns by which groups form their associations. Some are strict, obligate symbionts, some are facultative, and others are simply passersby.

This forms a spectrum of consistency with which various microbial groups are found, and creates complex interactions with environmental factors and the phylogeny of both hosts and symbionts.

My focus has been to disentangle these complex interactions using occurrence patterns, in order to create better hypotheses regarding the functional significance of each group.