Jeronimo Cifuentes

My research explores how symbiotic bacteria diversify, coexist, and evolve within animal hosts, with a particular focus on deep-sea chemosynthetic symbioses. I am especially interested in how ecological exposure, spatial organization within host tissues, and genome dynamics shape microbial diversity and the long-term stability of host–microbe associations.

I began my research studying marine microbial ecology in Antarctic and Patagonian environments, where I investigated microbial community dynamics, nitrogen cycling, and the ecological roles of marine bacteria in polar coastal ecosystems.

In my doctoral work at the MPI for Marine Microbiology, I focused on sulfur-oxidizing symbionts of deep-sea mussels from hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. Integrating deep-sea field sampling during research cruises with strain-resolved metagenomics, comparative genomics, pangenomics, and population-genetic approaches, I investigated how within-species diversity emerges and persists in host-associated microbial populations. A major focus of my research is understanding how mobile genetic elements, genome restructuring, ecological niche differentiation, and spatial compartmentalization contribute to symbiont diversification and coexistence within hosts.