Kerri Coon

• Equipped for success: genomes and metabolomes of the European Amanita muscaria are conserved in its novel South African range
  March 12, 2026
  Grant R Nickles, Cecelia K Stokes, Deborah L Narh, Kira M T Lynn, Savannah R Fuqua, Corbin Bryan, Brooke M Allen, Christopher P Bivins, Jin Woo Bok, J Stephen Brewer, Sikelela T Buthelezi, Jahiya P R M Clark, Kerri L Coon, Lauren R Corby, Martin P A Coetzee, Claudette Dewing, Tuan A Duong, Mathew A […]
• Vertical transmission of mosquito microbiota and its effects on offspring development
  December 25, 2025
  Holly L Nichols, Laura E Brettell, Miguel A Saldaña, Shivanand Hegde, Eva Heinz, Kathy Vaccaro, Grant L Hughes, Kerri L Coon bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
• Historical mosquito colonization dynamics are associated with patterns of microbial community assembly in aboveground aquatic habitats
  December 8, 2025
  Serena Y Zhao, John Hausbeck, Kerri L Coon Environmental microbiome
• A bacterial culture collection from stable flies and manure relevant to bovine mastitis
  October 20, 2025
  Andrew J Sommer, Travis K Worley, Julia E Kettner, Kerri L Coon Microbiology resource announcements
• Host-mediated niche construction of bacterial communities in an aquatic microecosystem
  October 17, 2025
  Aldo A Arellano, Journey L Prack, Kerri L Coon The ISME journal
• Transient Microbes in Insects: Fleeting but Functional
  October 13, 2025
  Alison Ravenscraft, Kerri L Coon Annual review of entomology
• Phylogenetic intermixing reveals stable fly-mediated circulation of mastitis-associated bacteria in dairy settings
  August 1, 2025
  Andrew J Sommer, Travis K Worley, Panagiotis Sapountzis, Kerri L Coon mSystems
• Leveraging microbial ecology for mosquito-borne disease control
  July 18, 2025
  Holly L Nichols, Kerri L Coon Trends in parasitology
• Genomic evidence for flies as carriers of zoonotic pathogens on dairy farms
  June 19, 2025
  Andrew J Sommer, Joseph H Skarlupka, Serafino Teseo, Saria Otani, Garret Suen, Kerri L Coon, Panagiotis Sapountzis NPJ biofilms and microbiomes
• Differential fitness effects of gut and reproductive tract bacteria in larval and adult stages of the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti
  April 14, 2025
  Sebastián Díaz, Frank W Avila, Kerri L Coon Acta tropica
• Microbiota isolate collections: A key to global vector-borne disease control
  March 18, 2025
  Miguel Medina Muñoz, Holly L Nichols, Kerri L Coon PLoS biology
• Opportunistic pathogens are prevalent across the culturable exogenous and endogenous microbiota of stable flies captured at a dairy facility
  February 11, 2025
  Andrew J Sommer, Courtney L Deblois, Andrew D J Tu, Garret Suen, Kerri L Coon Veterinary research
• Prevalence of antimicrobial resistance phenotypes and genes in stable fly- and manure-derived bacterial isolates from clinically relevant taxa in dairy settings
  January 31, 2025
  Andrew J Sommer, Julia E Kettner, Travis K Worley, Jordan Petrick, Caroline Haynie, Kerri L Coon Journal of applied microbiology
• Microbiota Composition Associates With Mosquito Productivity Outcomes in Belowground Larval Habitats
  December 14, 2024
  Serena Y Zhao, Andrew J Sommer, Dan Bartlett, Justin E Harbison, Patrick Irwin, Kerri L Coon Molecular ecology
• MosAIC: An annotated collection of mosquito-associated bacteria with high-quality genome assemblies
  November 15, 2024
  Aidan Foo, Laura E Brettell, Holly L Nichols, 2022 UW-Madison Capstone in Microbiology Students, Miguel Medina Muñoz, Jessica A Lysne, Vishaal Dhokiya, Ananya F Hoque, Doug E Brackney, Eric P Caragata, Michael L Hutchinson, Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, David J Lampe, Edwige Martin, Claire Valiente Moro, Michael Povelones, Sarah M Short, Blaire Steven, Jiannong Xu, Timothy D […]
• Stable flies are bona fide carriers of mastitis-associated bacteria
  June 26, 2024
  Andrew J Sommer, Julia E Kettner, Kerri L Coon mSphere
• An inquiline mosquito modulates microbial diversity and function in an aquatic microecosystem
  March 5, 2024
  Aldo A Arellano, Erica B Young, Kerri L Coon Molecular ecology
• Aedes aegypti gut transcriptomes respond differently to microbiome transplants from field-caught or laboratory-reared mosquitoes
  January 9, 2024
  Shivanand Hegde, Laura E Brettell, Shannon Quek, Kayvan Etebari, Miguel A Saldaña, Sassan Asgari, Kerri L Coon, Eva Heinz, Grant L Hughes Environmental microbiology
• Increased environmental microbial diversity reduces the disease risk of a mosquitocidal pathogen
  December 6, 2023
  Zhiwei Kang, Vincent G Martinson, Yin Wang, Kerri L Coon, Luca Valzania, Michael R Strand mBio
• Beyond canonical models: why a broader understanding of Diptera-microbiota interactions is essential for vector-borne disease control
  May 8, 2023
  Aldo A Arellano, Andrew J Sommer, Kerri L Coon Evolutionary ecology
• A cryopreservation method to recover laboratory- and field-derived bacterial communities from mosquito larval habitats
  April 5, 2023
  Serena Y Zhao, Grant L Hughes, Kerri L Coon PLoS neglected tropical diseases
• Aedes aegypti gut transcriptomes respond differently to microbiome transplants from field-caught or laboratory-reared mosquitoes
  March 30, 2023
  Shivanand Hegde, Laura E Brettell, Shannon Quek, Kayvan Etebari, Miguel A Saldaña, Sassan Asgari, Kerri L Coon, Eva Heinz, Grant L Hughes bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
• Interspecies microbiome transplantation recapitulates microbial acquisition in mosquitoes
  April 12, 2022
  Kerri L Coon, Shivanand Hegde, Grant L Hughes Microbiome
• Bacterial communities in carnivorous pitcher plants colonize and persist in inquiline mosquitoes
  February 17, 2022
  Aldo A Arellano, Kerri L Coon Animal microbiome
• Host-Environment Interplay Shapes Fungal Diversity in Mosquitoes
  September 29, 2021
  Patil Tawidian, Kerri L Coon, Ari Jumpponen, Lee W Cohnstaedt, Kristin Michel mSphere
• The microbiome and mosquito vectorial capacity: rich potential for discovery and translation
  May 19, 2021
  Cintia Cansado-Utrilla, Serena Y Zhao, Philip J McCall, Kerri L Coon, Grant L Hughes Microbiome
• Predaceous Toxorhynchites mosquitoes require a living gut microbiota to develop
  January 23, 2020
  Kerri L Coon, Luca Valzania, Mark R Brown, Michael R Strand Proceedings. Biological sciences
• Correction for Raymann et al., "Pathogenicity of Serratia marcescens Strains in Honey Bees"
  February 7, 2019
  Kasie Raymann, Kerri L Coon, Zack Shaffer, Stephen Salisbury, Nancy A Moran mBio
• Pathogenicity of Serratia marcescens Strains in Honey Bees
  October 11, 2018
  Kasie Raymann, Kerri L Coon, Zack Shaffer, Stephen Salisbury, Nancy A Moran mBio
• Both living bacteria and eukaryotes in the mosquito gut promote growth of larvae
  July 7, 2018
  Luca Valzania, Vincent G Martinson, Ruby E Harrison, Bret M Boyd, Kerri L Coon, Mark R Brown, Michael R Strand PLoS neglected tropical diseases
• Hypoxia-induced transcription factor signaling is essential for larval growth of the mosquito Aedes aegypti
  January 5, 2018
  Luca Valzania, Kerri L Coon, Kevin J Vogel, Mark R Brown, Michael R Strand Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
• Bacteria-mediated hypoxia functions as a signal for mosquito development
  June 21, 2017
  Kerri L Coon, Luca Valzania, David A McKinney, Kevin J Vogel, Mark R Brown, Michael R Strand Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
• Transcriptome Sequencing Reveals Large-Scale Changes in Axenic Aedes aegypti Larvae
  January 7, 2017
  Kevin J Vogel, Luca Valzania, Kerri L Coon, Mark R Brown, Michael R Strand PLoS neglected tropical diseases
• Mosquitoes host communities of bacteria that are essential for development but vary greatly between local habitats
  October 9, 2016
  Kerri L Coon, Mark R Brown, Michael R Strand Molecular ecology
• Gut bacteria differentially affect egg production in the anautogenous mosquito Aedes aegypti and facultatively autogenous mosquito Aedes atropalpus (Diptera: Culicidae)
  July 2, 2016
  Kerri L Coon, Mark R Brown, Michael R Strand Parasites & vectors
• Mosquitoes rely on their gut microbiota for development
  April 29, 2014
  Kerri L Coon, Kevin J Vogel, Mark R Brown, Michael R Strand Molecular ecology

Research in my lab centers on insect-microbe interactions, with a current focus on those between mosquitoes and their gut microbiota. We integrate field and lab-based experiments with bioinformatic approaches to tease apart the mechanisms by which microbes regulate fundamental processes in their mosquito hosts, from their development and reproduction to their ability to transmit disease-causing agents to humans and other mammals.

Other research topics of interest in my lab include: i) the ecology and evolution of host-associated microbial communities, ii) the interplay between resident and pathogenic microbes, and iii) the mechanisms underlying host-microbe specificity.

Entomology 321: Physiology of Insects

MICROBIO 345: Introduction to Disease Biology

Start and Promotion Dates

• Assistant Professor: 2019
• Associate Professor: 2025

Education

B.Sc. with Highest Distinction, Biology/Biostatistics, University of Virginia
Ph.D., Entomology, University of Georgia
Postdoctoral Research: University of Texas at Austin

• Heidi McKee – Grad Student
• Holly Nichols – Grad Student
• Travis Worley – Grad Student