DETERMINING BASELINE COMPOSITION AND FUNCTION OF SOLANUM TUBEROSUM RHIZOSPHERE MICROBIOMES USING AN ARTIFICIAL SOIL SELECTION APPROACH

Career Goal: To develop into a Primary Investigator at an intensive-research environment primary focus on plant - microbiome interactions.Obtain further Mentoring and Teaching experiences before graduating Spring of 2021. Efforts: Continue mentoring undergraduates Connor Simon, and Harrison Bieski in respective research capacities. Obtain formal classroom instruction experience by guest lecturing Plant Pathology Microbiomes course (Plant Pathology 315)Develop a research knowledge base and expertise marked by the submission of 3-4 first author publication from dissertation research.Develop competency in scientific communication through conference attendance and research presentations.Obtain Post-Doctoral or research scientist position upon graduation in Summer 2021.Research Goal: Examining plant health responses to conserved and variable aspects rhizosphere microbiome across Solanum tuberosum's domestication history.Examine differences in microbial composition that can explain differences in plant health outcome and agronomic yield in modern, landrace, and wild potatoes using amplicon 16S and ITS sequencing.Examine differences in microbial functional traits that can explain differences in plant health outcome and agronomic yield in modern, landrace, and wild potatoes using shotgun metagenomic sequencing.Conduct soil survey, sampling, and metagenome library generation to complement greenhouse findings of conserved microbial functional traits or taxa in the field.