Progress 09/01/05 to 12/31/09
Outputs
The project was extended until May 2010 because Julie Campbell initiated her program in Spring 2007. Therefore the project terminates in May 2010. Julie and the other student supported by the NNF funds will submit their termination reports shortly. The graduate coursework GPA of Julie Campbell was 3.54. Julie Campbell's PhD advisory committee is chaired by Dr. James Starr, with Charles Kenerley (co-PI), David Appel, Kevin Ong, and Richard White as committee memebers. Her last committee meeting was July 2, 2009. Julie has submitted her degree plan to the Office of Graduate Studies at Texas A&M University and will take her preliminary examination for the PhD in February 2010. She expects to complete her PhD in Spring 2011. The second student, Frankie Crutcher, was recruited in 2006 as a graduate fellow pursuing a Ph.D. in genetics. The graduate coursework GPA of Frankie Crutcher was 3.914. Since her recruitment she has reached several milestones her academic career. Both the degree plan and preliminary examinations have been completed with an expected graduation date of May 2011.In 2009, she also accepted membership into the Gamma Sigma Delta Honor Society of Agriculture. PRODUCTS: The end product of the project is to use the feedback from the two students and tracking their career progress to help judge to what degree the project goals (involvement of students in extension activities, teaching activities, leadership activities) assisted in retention of the students in agriculture and career enhancement. OUTCOMES: A major goal of this fellowship was to instill leadership qualities into the students through leadership courses. After completion of the graduate level course "Methods in Leadership Education" both students took leadership positions in various on-campus organizations. Julie Campbell became the president of the Plant Pathology Graduate Student Club and Frankie Crutcher was vice president of the Plant Pathology Graduate Student Club for one year. Frankie Crutcher has been active in the Genetics Graduate Student Association. In addition, Frankie was elected to serve as a representative to the TAMU Graduate Student Council for two years. During this time she served on university committees dedicated to improving insurance benefits of both graduate and undergraduate students. She has also been active within the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology by serving as the graduate student representative on two departmental committees. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: In August of 2009 Frankie Crutcher was awarded competitive travel grants from both the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology and the College of Agriculture at Texas A&M University to attend the American Phytopathological Society meeting. There she presented a poster on her research titled "Paralogs of the Trichoderma virens elicitor sm1." Julie Campbell presented results of her research project done at Hilltop Lakes Golf Course at a board meeting of their executive committee She also taught a Hayes County Master Gardener Workshop and presented at a Pathology Turf Field Day in Woodlands, TX FUTURE INITIATIVES: We plan to conduct exit interviews with both Julie Campbell and Frankie Crutcher to obtain additional feedback on their experience and to track their career progress. The PIs of the proposal will discuss the results of this project to improve our department-wide approach to graduate education. The emphasis on developing leadership skills appeared to have been very effective, with both students taking leadership positions within the university. One question that will be raised is what the potential trade-off was to achieve this. Did involvement in leadership roles take time away from studies or research The high GPAs of the two students indicate that academic studies were not a problem, however, it is difficult to determine if research was slowed by this. Some faculty have argued that the lack of publications is an indication that an emphasis on leadership skills may have a negative impact on research productivity, however, with just two students it is difficult to determine if this is a significant problem.
Impacts
The students gained valuable teaching experience. Early on both Julie Campbell and Frankie Crutcher were mentored by Dr. Tom Isakeit in teaching of a Master Gardener class in Corpus Christie, Texas. Both students also received mentoring to teach laboratory classes. Julie has taught the undergraduate plant pathology laboratory. Frankie is currently teaching her second semester of a microbiology laboratory. The leadership training courses also had a strong impact as both students took leadership roles both within the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology at Texas A&M University but also in broader university organizations.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 09/01/07 to 08/31/08
Outputs
The goal of this project is to formalize new methodologies in graduate training that will help the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology clearly define our ideal for program and student learning outcomes and pave the way for a clear assessment strategy for the program. The program learning outcomes are to 1) mentor students in devising responses to emerging fungal disease in Texas and U.S. agriculture; 2) provide formal training in agricultural leadership, multiculturalism, and ethics as part of the PhD coursework; and 3) establish a faster track to the PhD (goal of 4 years) in which students both employ modern interdisciplinary methodologies and excel at communicating science to a variety of audiences. The students have completed their second year of study. In the first year, the students completed a graduate level course, Methods in Leadership Education, taught in the Department of Agricultural Education. The four objectives of the course were to i) learn leadership development tools, techniques, and strategies ii) critically analyze leadership research iii) improve leadership skills and develop an understanding of small group leadership processes iv) participate in a leadership development learning community. Issues of multiculturalism and ethics were integrated within this context. Both NNF students have already become leaders in graduate student governance. Completion of formal coursework and putting that coursework into practice, provide two mechanisms of assessment that inform us that learning outcome 2 is being met successfully. Practical coursework in plant disease diagnosis and training in extension communication methods was provided to promote learning objective 1. The students have already employed the knowledge gained from these activities to make presentations to clientele in this first year. Using clientele feedback as a means of assessment, we find that the science communication learning outcome is being achieved successfully. Julie Campbell conducted research on the molecular genetics of conidiation in fungi. She characterized mutant developmental phenotypes and cross-species complementation of developmental defects by orthologs of developmental regulators. Frankie Crutcher is studying the impact of these secondary metabolites of Trichoderma on plant-microbe interactions to better understand how these metabolites impact biocontrol. Julie's training in molecular genetics was very different from the more applied research in plant pathology of her MS degree. The project she chose in learning more about molecular genetics in fungi would benefit her long term career goals. However, during the second year, in consultation with her faculty committee, she felt that a more applied research project would best serve her long-term objectives for her career in agriculture. Thus, we believe that Julie's educational interests would best be served with a project related to plant breeding for resistance to pathogens. Therefore, Julie joined the program of Dr. Jim Starr in our Department to examine plant resistance to pathogens. Julie will remain on NNF funding and we will closely monitor her progress in this project. PRODUCTS: Products include coursework completed by Julie Campbell and Frankie Crutcher. OUTCOMES: Julie Campbell has been working to characterize the morphological features of mutants in the Neurospora crassa orthologs of genes that affect conidiation in other fungi, such as Aspergillus nidulans. This characterization was done using the environmental scanning electron microscope. The use of eSEM for visualizing N. crassa macroconidiation phenotypes was explored extensively, however, ultimately it was decided that light microscopy was sufficient. Julie quantified the types and amount of conidia produced by these mutants. Preliminary data indicates that mutation of the N. crassa ortholog of the A. nidulans abaA gene is deficient in microconidia production, however it still produces macroconidia. This is the first N. crassa mutant shown to be specifically defective in microconidiation. The three other known mutants that do not macroconidiate (fl, acon-3 and a gene we call acon-4) show elevated levels of microconidia. Double mutants are being prepared by crossing the single mutants to better understand where and to what extent the genes we are working with are acting in the pathway. In addition, Julie amplified the A. nidulans genes corresponding to acon-4 and flbD to construct plasmids to test complementation of Neurospora with Aspergillus orthologs. The dissertation topic that Frankie Crutcher is working on involves the cerato-platanin protein sm1 produced by the biocontrol agent Trichoderma virens. Previous work has shown that sm1 has the ability to elicit an induced systemic resistance in both cotton and maize. It is her intent to further characterize this interaction with three objectives. The first objective involves the production of a point mutation within the sm1 protein to delete a glycosylation site believed to be responsible for the plant-microbe interaction. A system involving cotton and its foliar pathogen Xanthomonas campestris will be developed to test this theory. The second objective will use a maize protoplast system to distinguish the proteins from the plant involved in this interaction. Protein-protein crosslinking and immunoaffinity chromatography will be used to identify the maize proteins. The third objective involves the study of 3 paralogs of sm1 that have been found during a blast of the T.virens genome. One paralog, called sm3, has been found to be highly expressed during fungal interactions with maize roots. Deletion strains for sm3 as well as sm3-sm1 double deletion strains and over-expression strains will be created to study the importance of this paralog in maize-Trichoderma interactions. The other two paralogs (sm2 and sm4) do not appear to be expressed so sm1 deletion strains will be transformed using a gpd promoter to over-express the protein. It will then be possible to study the function of these two proteins in plant-microbe interactions. This work should allow for a better understanding of the elicitation of plant defense responses by Trichoderma virens. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: In their first year, the two NNF students gave a formal presentation to the Victoria County Master Gardener class. This talk covered the topics of general plant pathology, disease diagnosis and some of the common diseases in the area. The talk was a success as noted by the written feedback survey from the Master Gardener class participants. Dr. Tom Isakeit organized this event for the NNF program. Deparmental poster presentations were given by both NNF students. FUTURE INITIATIVES: The two NNF students have taken a plant disease class in which students traveled to various locations around the local agriculture areas and to examine various diseases and identify them. Dr. Tom Isakeit, an extension pathologist in the department, has also taken the NNF students on several trips around the state to observe a wide variety of crops and see numerous diseases around the state of Texas. During these trips the students have been exposed to a few emerging diseases including zebra chip disease of potato and soybean rust. We believe that this type of experience should be considered by our department as a part of general PhD training program.
Impacts
Two students, Julie Campbell and Frankie Crutcher are making satisfactory progress toward PhD degrees in the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology at Texas A&M.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 09/01/06 to 08/31/07
Outputs
The goal of this project is to formalize new methodologies in graduate training that will help the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology clearly define our ideal for program and student learning outcomes and pave the way for a clear assessment strategy for the program. The program learning outcomes are to 1) mentor students in devising responses to emerging fungal disease in Texas and U.S. agriculture; 2) provide formal training in agricultural leadership, multiculturalism, and ethics as part of the PhD coursework; and 3) establish a faster track to the PhD (goal of 4 years) in which students both employ modern interdisciplinary methodologies and excel at communicating science to a variety of audiences. Although we are early in the project (the students have just completed year 1), we have made progress in that the students have completed a graduate level course "Methods in Leadership Education" taught in the Department of Agricultural Education. The four
objectives of the course were to i) learn leadership development tools, techniques, and strategies ii) critically analyze leadership research iii) improve leadership skills and develop an understanding of small group leadership processes iv) participate in a leadership development learning community. Issues of multiculturalism and ethics were integrated within this context. Both NNF students have already become leaders in graduate student governance. Completion of formal coursework and putting that coursework into practice, provide two mechanisms of assessment that inform us that learning outcome 2 is being met successfully. Practical coursework in plant disease diagnosis and training in extension communication methods was provided to promote learning objective 1. The students have already employed the knowledge gained from these activities to make presentations to clientele in this first year. Using clientele feedback as a means of assessment, we find that the science communication
learning outcome is being achieved successfully. Both students have already begun research projects directly related to issues in plant disease and disease control. Both students have submitted abstracts that include descriptions of the research projects they have begun.
PRODUCTS: A video DVD of the Master Gardener presentation by the two NNF students has been archived to document the progress of the students in making formal presentations to clientele groups.
OUTCOMES: The dissertation topic that Julie Campbell is working on involves regulation of conidiation (asexual sporulation) in the Ascomycete fungi. Julie will characterize conidiation in Neurospora crassa, a model organism. In N. crassa there are two forms of conidiation, producing macroconidia and microconidia. She is characterizing mutants in the N. crassa orthologs of genes that affect conidiation in other fungi, such as Aspergillus nidulans. She is also creating double mutants within the conidiation pathway. This is being done in order to better understand where and to what extent these genes are acting in this pathway. Julie is following up on work done previously with an aconidial mutant (acon-3) and a newly discovered gene controlling conidiation that we call acon-4. Frankie Crutcher was recruited to join the NNF Program in the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology at Texas A&M. In Frankie's first year of graduate school she has been introduced to new lab techniques
and research opportunities. She is optimizing technology for transformation of Trichoderma virens to better understand the ability of the fungus to induce resistance in crop species such as maize and cotton against a variety of plant pathogens. One technique is the production of protoplasts and the introduction of foreign DNA into these cells. This process requires homologous recombination to disrupt the gene of interest. To make this disruption Frankie built constructs containing hygromycin resistance through the use of double-joint PCR, also know as fusion PCR, and transformed the fungus by introducing this DNA into protoplasts. Hygromycin is then used to select for transformants. Most recently, Frankie used this technique to produce a disruption in the KU70 gene, which will allow for greater homologous recombination and therefore improve the efficiency of the technique. Ms. Crutcher is attempting to design a system that allows for the transformation of T. virens using Agrobacterium
tumefaciens. She was successful in producing transformants using this system, but future work will require optimization of this technique to increase the number of transformants produced. Agrobacterium mediated transformation will be used to develop random mutants that can be screened for lack of production of certain secondary metabolites and other interesting phenotypes. These random mutants will be useful in conjunction with the completed genome sequencing of Trichoderma virens to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms of biocontrol. The two NNF students have taken a plant disease class in which students traveled to various locations around the local agriculture areas and to examine various diseases and identify them. Dr. Tom Isakeit, an extension pathologist in the department, has also taken the NNF students on several trips around the state to observe a wide variety of crops and see numerous diseases around the state of Texas. During these trips the students have been
exposed to a few emerging diseases including zebra chip disease of potato and soybean rust.
DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: The two NNF students gave a formal presentation to the Victoria County Master Gardener class. This talk covered the topics of general plant pathology, disease diagnosis and some of the common diseases in the area. The talk was a success as noted by the written feedback survey from the Master Gardener class participants. Dr. Tom Isakeit organized this event for the NNF program.
FUTURE INITIATIVES: The students will complete research for publication of original research in the coming year. The degree plans of the students are being finalized currently.
Impacts
As part of the curriculum, an agricultural leadership class was required with the main focus on developing leadership skills. As a result Frankie Crutcher has become involved in student government as a representative in the Graduate Student Council and Julie Campbell recently was elected to be an officer in the graduate student club for the department.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 09/01/05 to 09/01/06
Outputs
The project initiated in Fall 2006 semester with the successful recruitment of Frankie Crutcher and Julie Campbell. Julie deferred enrollment until January 2007. Frankie is just now completing her first semester and is working with Dr. Charles Kenerley as her primary advisor. She is developing a research project with Dr. Kenerley that is likely to be a collaboration with Dr. Daniel Ebbole. Frankie is completing Genetics 603 (graduate level genetics survey course) taught by Dr. Clint Magill (Professor Plant Pathology) and Plant Pathology 611 (graduate level plant pathology survey course) taught by Daniel Ebbole (Professor Plant Pathology). Frankie is performing well in these courses. Julie Campbell will select a faculty mentor in January 2007. The students, having just begun their studies at TAMU are adjusting well to the graduate school environment. Their submitted entry forms contain the details of their qualifications. We look forward to their course and research
progress during the coming year.
PRODUCTS: Frankie has completed a term paper on an emerging fungal disease project.
OUTCOMES: Frankie is in the process of completing GENE603, GENE681 (seminar), PLPA611.
DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: We discussed the NNF program and recruited through meeting posters, our departmental web site and networking of faculty.
FUTURE INITIATIVES: Julie and Frankie will have internships with the disease diagnostics lab during the next semester.
Impacts
Recruitment of Frankie and Julie has allowed this group to reach a critical mass of students that interact well. The NNF students have integrated well into the overall group.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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