4 Comments

    1. I reached out to Dr. Houseman a little over a year ago, inquiring about an undergraduate research opportunity. He told me the basis of what the research would be over, M. phaseolina. From there it was up to me to find out what was known and what was not known about the pathogen. The year prior, another undergradaute student Tyler Newman did a great study establishing that this pathogen is prevalent all across Kansas, and it is not preferential on the type of land (Ag, post-ag, or untilled). This time around, we wanted to work to better understand three things. 1. Is there an observable variance of M. phaseolina across a site of untilled prairie? 2. Is the pathogen spatially structured across this plot of land. 3. Can biotic or abiotic factors (i.e., plant and soil data) have a significant correlation with pathogen density. There is no other study that we know of that has quantified M. phaseolina on such a large site in specifically native prairie. We hope to uncover the underlying ecological mechanisms of this soil-borne pathogen, as well as if it plays a large role in biodiversity in a system, which can be potentially positive or negative depending on the circumstances.

  3. The “next steps” you describe seem long-term. How much of that do you expect to be a part of and how much will be up to future undergraduates working with Dr. Houseman?

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