Horizontal Gene Transfer and Pathogen Dynamics in Complex Ecosystems

by Riccardo Sbarbati

Thursday 5 Mar 2026, 17:30 → 17:45 Europe/Rome

1/1-3 - Aula B (Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia - Edificio Marzolo)

Environmental change is reshaping biodiversity, yet we still lack a clear understanding of how complex ecosystems maintain diversity and stability.
Pathogens are often overlooked in ecological models, but they may play a crucial role, especially in highly diverse microbial systems.
A pathogen-centric framework can be used to model how Horizontal Gene Transfer shapes the dynamics of microbial systems, showing how maintenance and diversity can depend on infection network connectivity and pathogen burden.