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Leonora Bittleston, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences


Mailing Address:
Department of Biology
Boise State University
Boise, ID 83725-1515

Office Location: Science Building, Room 133
Email Address: leonorabittleston@boisestate.edu
Lab Website: https://www.bittlestonlab.com/

Academic Degrees

  • B.S., University of California – Berkeley, 2007
  • Ph.D., Harvard University, 2016
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016-2019

Research Interests

The Bittleston Lab investigates the ecology and evolution of multispecies interactions. We aim to understand how microbial communities form, and how their dynamics affect their hosts as well as ecosystem structure and function. To study this, we use genomics tools to connect genes with ecology. Our study system is primarily the small, aquatic ecosystems that form inside the leaves of carnivorous pitcher plants, but will soon be extending to sagebrush-associated microbial communities.

Publications

Bittleston, L.S., Wolock, C.J., Yahya, B.E., Chan, X.Y., Chan, K.C., Pierce, N.E., and Pringle, A. 2018. Convergence between the microcosms of Southeast Asian and North American pitcher plants. eLife 2018;7:e36741 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.36741

Bittleston, L.S. Commensals of Nepenthes pitchers. 2018. In Ellison, A.M., and Adamec, L. (Eds.), Carnivorous plants: physiology, ecology and evolution. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Order here.

Baker, C.C.M., Bittleston, L.S., Sanders, J.G., and Pierce, N.E. 2016. Dissecting host-associated communities with DNA barcodes. Philosophical Transactions B DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0328.

Bittleston, L.S., Pierce, N.E., Ellison, A.M., and Pringle, A. 2016. Convergence in multispecies interactions. TREE 31: 269-280

Bittleston L.S., Baker, C.C.M., Strominger, L.B., Pringle, A. and Pierce, N. E. 2016. Metabarcoding as a tool for investigating arthropod diversity in Nepenthes pitcher plants. Austral Ecology 41: 120-132

Coletta-Filho, H.D., Bittleston, L.S., Lopes, J.R.S., Daugherty, M.P., and Almeida, R.P.P. 2015. Genetic distance may underlie virulence differences among isolates of a bacterial plant pathogen. Journal of Plant Pathology 97: 465-469

Bittleston L.S., Brockmann, F., Wcislo, W. and Van Bael, S.A. 2011. Endophytic fungi reduce leaf-cutting ant damage to seedlings. Biology Letters 7: 30–32

Degnan, P.H.*, Bittleston, L.S.*, Hansen, A.K., Sabree, Z.L., Moran, N.A. and Almeida, R.P.P. 2011. Origin and examination of a leafhopper facultative endosymbiont. Current Microbiology 62: 1565-1572
*Contributed equally to this work.

Coletta-Filho, H.D., Bittleston, L.S. and Almeida, R.P.P. 2011. Spatial genetic structure of a vector-borne generalist pathogen. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 77: 2596-2601

Prospective Graduate and Undergraduate Students

Undergraduate and graduate students interested in working in the lab should email me with your C.V. or resume, and a description of what you want to study and why. Potential graduate student applicants should include their GPA and GRE scores.