The Rio laboratory focuses on mechanisms and processes pertinent to the evolution of symbiosis. By merging theoretical predictions with empirical studies and using the medicinal leech and tsetse fly as models, species interactions are examined at various levels of biological organization.

Research foci:

• Symbiont functional genomics
• Evolutionary and ecological processes driving interspecificity
• Genome interdependency and cooperative activity

Dr. Rio's Home Page: http://www.as.wvu.edu/~rrio/