Dr. Maren Friesen

I am fascinated by beneficial plant-microbe interactions, particularly those between nitrogen-fixing bacteria and plants. Much of my work is in the legume-rhizobia system, utilizing natural genetic variation in both partners to ask questions about adaptation and conflict. I am also working in grass-associative nitrogen fixation systems to understand the functioning of interrelationships between plants and their rhizosphere communities and the evolutionary stability and molecular basis of these interactions. Finally, I use mathematical models to explore the conceptual underpinnings of mutualisms with the goal of integrating models with empirical data to understand fundamental processes acting at molecular, organismal, population/community, and ecosystem scales.