Speaker: Prof. Cara Haney
Time: 10:00-11:30 AM, 11 Oct., 2024
Venue: Room 111, Lynn Library
Topic: Getting to the root of plant-microbiome interactions
Speaker: Prof. Cara Haney
Time: 10:00-11:30 AM, 11 Oct., 2024
Venue: Room 111, Lynn Library
Abstract: Closely related bacteria in the microbiome can have dramatically different effects on host health and range from mutualistic to opportunistic pathogens. Using closely related Pseudomonas fluorescens strains that include both opportunistic pathogens and mutualists, and the model plant Arabidopsis, we have dissected both host and bacterial factors that determine the competitive outcomes of host-pathogen-microbiota interactions. This work has shed light on both how a host immune system shapes a beneficial microbiome, and bacterial factors that determine the competitive outcomes of host-pathogen-microbiome interactions.
Introduction: Dr. Cara Haney is a Canada Research Chair in Molecular mechanisms in host-microbiome interactions. She was previously (2016-2023) an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She is currently an associate professor in the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to joining the UBC faculty in 2016, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, and she got her PhD degree in Stanford University. Her lab uses high throughput screening combined with genetic and genomic approaches to identify the genetic basis of beneficial traits in plant-microbiome interactions. Her research focuses on elucidating basic mechanisms in host-microbiome interactions, and in finding sustainable solutions for agronomically important challenges in the face of a changing climate.