Summary
Beneficial partnerships with bacteria are essential for the well-being of all of life on Earth, shaping health and fitness, ecosystem functioning, and even food security. Despite how dependent we are on these symbioitc associations; little is known regarding how hosts initially identify and select specific microbial partners from the complex communities in their surrounding environment. This is especially true at the finest scales, where hosts must distinguish between highly similar species or genetically distinct strains of the same species. This project addresses this challenge using the Sip
