She investigates the microbiome of Aurelia aurita and Mnemiopsis leidyi, focusing on how its structure changes throughout bloom development, how it differs from the surrounding seawater, and what role it plays in the life and decay of its gelatinous host. To address these questions, she uses a combination of bioinformatic analyses and fluorescence microscopy, which are one of the main tools in her research.
During her stay in our lab, she will lean to apply bioinformatic approaches to perform 16S rRNA gene analysis of DNA extracted from jellyfish mucus.
Maja Starovic joined the Microbial Oceanography Group!
Her research topic is called "the structure and the role of the microbiome associated with gelatinous zooplankton".
Maja Starovic