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Doctor Kylie Brice

Candidature

Kylie BriceGraduated PhD 2018

Thesis Title

Bugs in "Bears"- are Mismatches between Diets and Gut Microbial Communities a Bugbear for Translocated Koalas?

Research Project

KoalaAnimals and plants have evolved symbiotic relationships with microorganisms, many of which establish critical functions aiding in the development of physiological and metabolic pathways that the animal or plant would not be capable of developing independently. Of particular interest is the relationship which has evolved between the microorganisms within the gut of the iconic Australian marsupial, the koala, and the eucalypt species which constitutes their diet. This project seeks to determine to what extent the specialised gut microbiota of the koala is robust to dietary perturbations and whether extreme specialisation can explain translocation related mortality. Identification of microbial populations present within collected faecal samples will be through the utilisation of Next Generation sequencing and culturing techniques.

Publication

Brice KL, Trivedi P, Jeffries TC, Blyton MDJ, Mitchell C, Singh BK, Moore BD, (2019) 'The Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) faecal microbiome differs with diet in a wild population' Peer Journal, vol 7, e6534

Research Project Supervisors

Dr Ben Moore and Professor Brajesh Singh