Elucidation of powdery mildew factors controlling powdery mildew growth on Arabidopsis
Mary Wildermuth, Professor
Plant and Microbial Biology
Applications for Fall 2024 are closed for this project.
Powdery mildew is an obligate biotrophic fungus that infects a broad variety of plants including plants of agronomic (e.g. grapevine) and ornamental (e.g. roses) import. It has lost many essential metabolic pathways and relies on the plant for these compounds. We are interested in figuring out the powdery mildew genes required at each phase of its infection process and are using a newly developed RNA silencing approach to do so.
Project goal includes silencing of fungal targets to assess their impact on fungal growth and reproduction. Metabolite acquisition and other required functions may also be assessed. As this project includes technology transfer - customer segment analysis, market research, and product fit may also be included.
Role: Role: The undergraduate will work directly with a senior graduate student, postdoc or project scientist and the PI to design and implement experiments relevant to the above goal. Experimental methodologies utilized may include molecular biology, plant pathology, and cell biology approaches. Specific assays include: powdery mildew infections and quantitative disease scoring, RNA analyses, gene silencing, microscopy, and/or metabolite analyses. These will be performed as possible under COVID19 guidelines and approvals. We currently are able to have URAP students work in the laboratory.
Remote tasks include literature, data, and bioinformatic analyses to facilitate prioritization of gene targets.
There are also entrepreneurship opportunities associated with this project including customer segment discovery, market research, and product fit assessment.
There will be at least two remote meetings per week - one with your direct supervisor Dr. Taneja and one with the entire Wildermuth lab.
Qualifications: Qualifications: Introductory Biology, Chemistry, exposure to Molecular Biology desired but not required. Pursuing business degree or interest in agbiotech also desired.
Students who are on-campus and can be in the lab will be prioritized. In addition, prefer new students who can work with us for the full academic year and over the summer 2023 doing field research, paid by NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Dr. Jyoti Taneja, Staff Researcher
Hours: 9-11 hrs
Biological & Health Sciences