In collaboration with Dr. Stacey Weiss of our Biology Department, I am excited to begin this NSF-funded project!  Previous work by our groups has suggested that there are interesting patterns with the cloacal region of the Striped Plateau Lizard of Southern Arizona. It was noticed years ago that eggs dissected from females seemed to suffer from pathogens, while "naturally laid" eggs appeared to be more resilient.  It is thus natural to suspect that, during the egg laying process, microbes are deposited on the eggs...and that these microbes may have antibacterial or antifungal effects.  My laboratory group will be using a number of approaches to investigate cultivable and noncultivable members of the cloacal microbiome capable of protecting offspring.  There was a very nice press release from the University of Puget Sound about our research; you can read it here.