Progress 03/15/16 to 03/14/20
Outputs
Target Audience:he target audience for this activity is undergraduates at Penn State and the collaborating institutions Alcorn StateUniversity, California State University at Monterey Bay, Morgan State University, The University of Puerto Rico, and VirginiaState University. During the present reporting period, no new students received fellowships under the award, but the existing students from the 2018 summer program completed their research projects. In addition, one new student at Penn State (Molly McGeehan) worked on a research project supported by the award, although she did not complete the summer program. Changes/Problems:Due to being somewhat under budget, the PI was able to support one more student for an academic year-only research project during the reporting period. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During the present reporting period. Ms. Molly McGeehan completed an academic year of research in the PI's lab, graduated in May of 2020, and is currently applying for jobs in the plant health field. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?During the present reporting period, the results of the work of our fellowship recipients were published in one peer-reviewed journal article. A second manuscript featuring two fellowship recipients as co-authors was submitted. We anticipate publication of this manuscript in 2020. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Provide research and extension experiential learning for 14 undergraduates in plant-microbe interactions This goal has been accomplished for 15 undergraduates, all of whom completed the summer programs held in 2016, 2017, and 2018, and then completed their academic year of research following their participation in the summer program. The last set of students formally completed their academic year work, which included summer research, in the summer of 2019. One additional undergraduate completed a research project in the PI's lab in the 2019-2020 academic year, without doing the summer reseach program. 2. Improve the multicultural literacy and capactities of Penn State faculty This has been accomplished through faculty hosting students from minority-serving institutions, participating in their mentoring and training after the completion of the summer program, and also through training received by mentoring students and faculty from the Penn State Office for Educational Equity. 3. Foster collaborations between Penn State faculty and faculty at minority-serving institutions This grant has helped create a lasting connection between at least two laboratories at Penn State and their collaborating labs at Morgan State Univesity and Virginia State University. The PI and co-PI Dr. Viji Sitther (Morgan State University) have continued to co-mentor undergraduates and have submitted an NSF proposal together, which includes proposed undergraduate research using a model similar to that used successfully by this grant. The Tumlinson lab at Penn State continues to collaborate with co-PI Dr. Witiak's lab at Virginia State University in grant proposal submission and shared training of undergraduates, including undergraduates who are coming to Penn State for summer research in a less formalized training program.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Klee, S. M., Sinn, J. P., Finley, M., Allman, E. L., Smith, P. B., *Aimufua, O., Sitther. V., Lehman, B. L., Krawczyk, T., Peter, K. A, McNellis, T. W. (2019). Erwinia amylovora auxotrophic mutant exometabolomics and virulence on apples. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 85:e00935-19. DOI:10.1128/AEM.00935-19.
* = undergraduate co-author
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Klee, S.M., Sinn, J.P., Christian. E.*,Holmes, A.* ,Lehman, B.L., A. Peter, K.A., and McNellis, T.W. Virulence genetics of an Erwinia amylovora polysaccharide transporter family member. Journal of Bacteriology, submitted.
* = undergraduate co-author
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Progress 03/15/18 to 03/14/19
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this activity is undergraduates at Penn State and the collaborating institutions Alcorn State University, California State University at Monterey Bay, Morgan State University, The University of Puerto Rico, and Virginia State University. During the present reporting period, six undergraduates received fellowships through the grant. These students included one from Penn State (Aleah Holmes), one from Alcorn State University (Lane Ross), two from California State University at Monterey Bay (Adrianna Arreola and Ros Hatlen), one from Morgan State University (Shaveen McKen), and one from Virginia State University (Bobbi Dunton). In addition, Tim Peoples, and undergraduate at Alcorn State University who had completed a fellowship on the grant during the 2017-2018 reporting period, returned to Penn State for the summer of 2018 to complete the Summer Research Opportunities Program again with partial support from the grant. Also participating in the program were three students at the University of Puerto Rico (Gabriela Butler, Daniel Gonzalez, and Gabriela Silva) who performed research at the University of Puerto Rico with support from the grant. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Ms. Bobbi Dunton of Virginia State University, mentored by co-PIs Sarah Witiak (Virginia State University) and co-PI Jim Tumlinson (Penn State) gave an oral presentation at the Emerging Researchers National (ERN) Conference held February 21-23, 2019, in Washington, D.C. Ms. Shaveen McKen of Morgan State University presented at three conferences during the reporting period: the ERN Conference in Washington, D.C., the Mid-Atlantic Plant Molecular Biology Society conference in Laurel, MD in August, 2018, and the 2019 Morgan State University Annual Undergraduate and Graduate Symposium. In addition, Ms. McKen won the James S. Birnie Award for Outstanding Reseach in the spring semester of 2019. All six students supported by fellowships during the present reporting period completed the Penn State Summer Research Opportunities Program in the summer of 2018. The summer program included professional development training for the students, including a GRE preparatory course, training in technical writing, and participation in a symposium organized by the program, including a 20-minute oral presentation on their summer research. Four of these students continued their research through the 2018-19 academic year at their home institutions. The two who did not continue their research graduated in August, 2018 (Ross Hatlen and Aleah Holmes), and had completed their year of reseach under the fellowship during the 2017-18 academic year. In addition to doing research on her project at California State University at Monterey Bay, Adrianna Arreola worked at the USDA Salinas station under the directin of Dr. Greg Martin on Fusarium detection in crop plant samples in the vicinity. Ms. Aleah Holmes (Dr. McNellis' lab) is a co-author on a paper published in 2019, for which she assisted with microbial genetics analysis and bacterial phenotype characterization during her time in Dr. McNellis lab from 2017-2018. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been disseminated to communities of interest through presentations at conferences, including published abstracts (see Products) as well as one peer-reviewed paper in the Journal of Bacteriology with Ms. Aleah Holmes as a co-author along with the laboratory of the PI (Tim McNellis). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The research of four of the six students who completed the Summer Research Opportunities Program in 2018 will continue at least through August of 2019. Additional students not on full fellowships from the grant will continue to be supported by grant funds for their independent research at all the collaborating institutions through March 14, 2020, including planned presentations at the 2020 ERN Conference held in February each year. During the remainig funding period (no-cost extension), and beyond, we will monitor student graduations and job and graduate school admission outcomes, and assist and advise fellowship recipients and other students supported by the grant in applying to jobs and graduate programs.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal #1. During the present reporting period, an additional six undergraduates were awarded fellowships under the grant. These students included one from Penn State (Aleah Holmes), one from Alcorn State University (Lane Ross), two from California State University at Monterey Bay (Adrianna Arreola and Ros Hatlen), one from Morgan State University (Shaveen McKen), and one from Virginia State University (Bobbi Dunton). This brings the total number of students awarded fellowships under the grant to 15. This means that we have exceeded our goal of providing 14 undergraduates with research and extension experiential learning. Four additional students received research support under the grant as well during the present reporting period. Goal #2. Faculty and graduate students at Penn State participated in the training and mentorship of all six students, including the laboratory of Dr. Jim Tumlinson (Entomology Department) and Drs. John Pecchia, Gretchen Kuldau, Maria del Mar Jimenez-Gasco, Don Davis and Tim McNellis (Plant Pathology & Environmental Microbiology Department). Their training included a meeting of all the advising co-PIs in May, 2018, and a training session for mentoring minority students given by the Penn State Summer Research Opportunities Program in May, 2018. Graduate students and postdocs in each lab also assisted with the training of the students. Goal #3. PIs at Penn State and co-PIs at collaborating, minority-serving institutions have been publishing meeting abstracts together. One abstract was published representing a collaborative project between co-PI Dr. Jim Tumlinson's lab at Penn State and co-PI Dr. Sarah Witiak's lab at Virginia State University. Three abstracts were published during the reporting period representing collaborative projects between PI Dr. Tim McNellis' lab at Penn State and co-PI Dr. Viji Sitther's lab at Morgan State University.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Klee SM, Sinn JP, Holmes AC, Lehman BL, Krawczyk T, Peter KA, McNellis TW. 2019. Extragenic suppression of elongation factor P gene mutant phenotypes in Erwinia amylovora. J Bacteriol 201:e00722-18. https://doi.org/10.1128/JB.00722-18.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Butler, M., L.L. Simba�a Carrera and L.I. Rivera Vargas. 2018. Development of oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) in organic substrates. Annual Meeting of the Puerto Rican Agricultural Sciences Society, Aguadilla, P.R.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Gonz�lez Rodr�guez, D. J., L.L. Simba�a Carrera and L.I. Rivera Vargas. 2018. New pathogenic agents on breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) foliage in Puerto Rico. Annual Meeting of the Puerto Rican Agricultural Sciences Society, Aguadilla, P.R.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Are Bacteria Persistent in Manduca Sexta Caterpillar Digestive Systems?
Undergraduate #246
Discipline: Ecology Environmental and Earth Sciences
Subcategory: Ecology
Session: 2
Bobbi Dunton - Virginia State University
Co-Author(s): Irmgard Seidl-Adams, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA; James H. Tumlinson, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA; Sarah M. Witiak, Virginia State University, Petersburg, VA
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
McKen, S., Klee, S., Sinn, J., Sitther, V., McNellis, T. 2019. Virulence Genetics of Erwinia Tracheiphila on the Cucurbit, Ambrosia Melon. Emerging Researchers National Conference, Washington DC. https://emerging-researchers.org/projects/277-2/
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
McKen, S., Klee, S., Sinn, J., Sitther, V., McNellis, T. 2018. Exploring the virulence genetics of Erwinia tracheiphila on Ambrosia melon. Poster presented at the 35th conference of Mid-Atlantic Plant Molecular Biology Society (MAPMBS), Laurel-Maryland. https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/wp.towson.edu/dist/7/228/files/2018/09/35th-MAPMBS-Program-2018-corrected-11vfvsy.pdf
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Mcken, S., Gharaie. F. S, Tabatabai, B., Ozturk, B and Sitther, V. 2019. Morgan State University Annual Undergraduate and Graduate Symposium, 2019.
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Progress 03/15/17 to 03/14/18
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project is undergraduates from minority serving institutions (Alcorn State University, California State University at Monterey Bay (CSUMB), Morgan State University, University Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPR), and Virginia State University) and Penn State students from underrepresented groups. This is an experiential learning fellowship program for undergraduates interested in research on plant interactions with beneficial and harmful microbes in an agricultural setting. The students are generally interested in graduate school and/or careers in agriculturally-related research and extension or biomedical sciences. So far, 15 students have been awarded fellowships through the grant: Franco Acevedo (UPR), Osaretin Aimufua (Morgan State), Sheevah Amen (Virginia State), Adrianna Arreola (CSUMB) Tresel Benjamin (Alcorn State), Elena Christian (Penn State), Bobbi Dunton (Virginia State), Ross Hatlen (CSUMB), Aleah Holmes (Penn State), Mekiya Fletcher (Virginia State), Shaveen McKen (Morgan State), Tim Peoples (Alcorn State), Octavio Rivera (UPR), Lane Ross (Alcorn State), and Amanda Sukhram (Morgan State). Five of these students have completed the full fellowship program, eight are current fellows in various stages of the program, and two elected not to complete the full fellowship after completing the Penn State Summer Research Opportunities Program in the summer of 2016. All of the students are from underrepresented groups in science, with eleven of the fellows being African American and the remaining four being Hispanic American. Ten of the fellowship recipients are female. Changes/Problems:There are no major problems to report. Fellows who elected not to continue with research after the summer program were replaced quickly. Initially, we wished to use anonymous surveys to poll fellows' responses to the program. However, we only received one response from the first cohort of fellowship recipients from our survey. The feedback was brief and positive, but not very informative for optimizing the program. In 2017, Dr. McNellis changed this to be an exit interview with all the fellows as a group at the conclusion of the summer program. This interview was much more effective, revealing some difficulties students had and which aspects of the program were running smoothly. The only problem really encountered was that one student felt that there was insufficient interaction with the mentor and that the project had not been designed well for an 8-week summer session. This feedback was covered by Dr. McNellis during the May, 2018, orientation meeting of the fellowship recipient mentors. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As part of the 2017 fellowship summer program, fellows toured four equipment core facilities at Penn State. These tours took place on the morning of June 21, 2017, and students toured the X-Ray Crystallography, Proteomics, Genomics core facilities, as well as the Plant Disease Diagnosis Clinic. In each case, the head of the facility provided a presentation and tour, explaining the capacities of the equipment and applications for the technology, and outputs of the facility. Students enjoyed these tours and the tours gave them a better appreciation for the scope of research technology available at Penn State, which could potentially be applied to their research programs through collaborations after their return to their home institutions. On July 11, 2017, the entire group of fellows took a day trip to Biglerville, PA, to see a field-to-processing-to-sales cycle for tart cherries. The fellows received a tour of the Penn State Fruit Research and Extension Center, including a tour of the cherry, peach, and apple orchards led by co-PI Dr. Kari Peter. Sour cherries were being picked, and we received a guided inside tour of the Knouse fruit processing center, observing cherry delivery, processing, cooking, and canning, complete with a visit to the cherry pie filling tasting room, and a visit to the sales facility. Students unanimously liked this tour for the way it connected the field growth of plants to the processing industry and consumer interface for the product. In addition, students received GRE practice and training, writing coaching, and professional development activities through the SROP program activities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?During the summer 2017 SROP program, the students presented their research as oral presentations at the annual Summer Research Symposium, July 24-25, 2017. The SROP program also provided practice sessions before the symposium. Students also completed a research paper as part of the SROP program. Ms. Osaretin Aimufua worked in Dr. McNellis' lab at Penn State and continued on the same project and additional projects after going back to Morgan State University. Osaretin presented a talk at the 2017 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) titled "Exploring Nutritional Interactions of auxotrophic Erwinia amylovora mutants with apples", November 1-4 at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, AZ. Ms. Sheevah Amen continued her project started at Penn State with Dr. Sarah Witiak at Virginia State, and gave an oral presentation at the ERN Conference in Washington, DC, February 22-24, 2018, on the research she conducted during her summer at Penn State and which she continued at VSU, titled "Does the insect gut microbiome affect plant volatile release?", for which she won a first place award. Sheevah has now finished her Junior year at Virginia State and this summer (2018) she is interning at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley, CA, researching microbial source tracking in contaminated water samples. Ms. Elena Christian (Penn State) presented a poster at the Potomac Division Meeting of the American Phytopathological Society (March 22-24, 2017) titled "Identification and characterization of virulence genes in Erwinia amylovora", for which she received a first place award in the Undergraduate Division. Tim Peoples presented a poster about his research at the 9th International IPM Symposium in Baltimore, MD, March 19-22, 2018 (next reporting period), titled "Capacity building in small farm IPM at Alcorn State University". Ms. Mekiya Fletcher (Virginia State University) gave an oral presentation at the Emerging Researchers National Conference in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (ERN) in Washington, DC (February 22-24, 2017) on the research she conducted during her summer at Penn State and which she continued at VSU. She won a second place award for her talk. Since graduating from VSU, Mekiya Fletcher was accepted into the post-baccalaureate research education program (PREP) for minority students at the University of South Carolina and started her studies in July 2017. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, we will complete the fellowship activities for four students and initiate the fellowships for six additional students. The fellowship program will continue as planned, with students working at Penn State generally during their first summer of the fellowship, and then continuing their reseach in the 2018-19 academic year at their home institutions.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal #1. Provide research and extension experiential learning for 14 undergraduates in plant-microbe interactions This grant supports a fellowship program that is structured as a summer of intensive research at Penn State, while participating the in the Penn State Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP), followed by an academic year of research at the student's home institution, ideally in collaboration with Penn State and certainly under the direction of mentors at their home institution. Fellows are encouraged to attend one or more conferences to present their work. The fellowship provides wage payroll, supply, and travel support, and fellowships can last for 12-15 months, sometimes longer. Of the first five fellowship recipients, three continued their research until June or August, 2017. Ms. Elena Christian graduated in May, 2017, with her B.S. degree in Immunology and is now working as a research technician at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Boston, Massachusetts. She intends to gain a few years of experience as a technician and then apply for graduate school. Elena was mentored in the lab of PI Dr. Tim McNellis. Mekiya Fletcher was mentored by co-PI Dr. Sarah Witiak (VSU) and Dr. Irmgard Seidl-Adams and co-PI Dr. Jim Tumlinson at Penn State throughout her project, and the project was a collaboration between VSU and Penn State. Mr. Octavio Rivera (University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez) continued his research at the University of Puerto Rico and presented a poster at the university, and graduated in 2017. Two of the first five fellowship recipients elected not to complete the academic year of research after completing the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) at Penn State in the summer of 2016. These were Ms. Tresel Benjamin (Alcorn State University) and Ms. Amanda Sukhram (Morgan State University). Ms. Osaretin Aimufua was awarded a fellowship to replace Amanda at Morgan as of September, 2016. Osaretin completed an academic year of research in the 2016-17 academic year and then came to Penn State to complete the SROP summer program in 2017. In January of 2017, Mr. Tim Peoples (Alcorn State University) was selected to replace Tresel, and he was awarded fellowship through the grant. He completed the SROP program in the summer of 2017, working in co-PI Dr. Cristina Rosa's lab (Penn State) and continued to do research during the academic year in Dr. Daniel Collins' and Dr. Keerthi Mandyam's laboratories at Alcorn. Tim Peoples is now back at Penn State to do the SROP again, this time working with Dr. Terrence Bell, in the summer of 2018. In the summer of 2017, four fellows completed the SROP program at Penn State: Franco Acevedo, Osaretin Aimufua, Sheevah Amen, and Tim Peoples. Mr. Franco Acevedo completed the SROP program during the summer of 2017 in the lab of Dr. Surinder Chopra (Penn State), and worked for some time in the fall in co-PI Dr. Lydia Rivera's lab at UPR. However, Hurricane Maria (September/October 2017) devastated UPR and the island in general, causing a major delay to Franco's research and laboratory access. With help from the grant, Dr. Rivera is obtaining materials for Franco to continue his research. In addition, Franco is back at Penn State for the summer of 2018 to complete the SROP program again, this time under the direction of grape researcher Dr. Michela Centinari (Plant Science Department). During January - March of 2018, six new fellowship recipients were selected: Adriana Arreola (CSUMB), Bobbi Dunton (Virginia State), Ross Hatlen (CSUMB), Aleah Holmes (Penn State), Shaveen McKen (Morgan State), and Lane Ross (Alcorn). All six accepted the fellowship offer and are currently at Penn State and have started their research programs and are participating in SROP 2018. This brings our total number of fellowship recipients to 15, meeting our grant fellowship number goal.
Publications
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Progress 03/15/16 to 03/14/17
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this reporting period was five undergraduate students, one from each of the following institutions: Alcorn State University, Morgan State University, The University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, Virginia State University, and The Pennsylvania State University. The students were: Amanda Sukhram (Morgan State University), Elena Christian (Penn State University), Mekiya Fletcher (Virginia State University), Octavio Rivera (University of Puerto Rico) and Tresel Benjamin (Alcorn State University). This fellowship program is intended for students from underrepresented groups in science and agricultural research. Four of the students were African-American, and one was Hispanic American. Changes/Problems:There were no major problems. Two fellowship recipients, Amanda Sukhram (Morgan State University) and Tresel Benjamin (Alcorn State University) chose not to continue with their research projects at their home institutions following their completion of the summer research session at Penn State in the summer of 2016. However, Amanda was successfully replaced by Morgan freshman Osaretin Aimufua, who did an academic year reserach project at Morgan, funded through this grant, and is not attending the summer 2017 Penn State summer research session. Some attrition is expected, and the quick replacement of one of the students kept the fellowship program largely on track. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The 8-week summer session part of this fellowship program in-residence at Penn State, University Park, is run in conjunction with the Penn State Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP). The SROP program is geared towards undergraduate students from underrepresented groups in research, and includes numerous activities for training and professional development. These include GRE training and practice, workshops on academic writing and one-on-one academic writing training, professional development training activities, and a research symposium in the last week of the 8-week program. The SROP program is quite large, with some 40-50 students each summer, and this provides our USDA Plant Friends and Foes Fellowship recipients a good-sized peer group with whom to socialize and associate during the 8-week summer program. Fellowship recipient Mekiya Fletcher (Virginia State University) attended he national Emerging Researchers Network Conference in Washington DC, March 2-4, 2017, which is an excellent professional development opportunity and venue for networking. Fellowship recipients also had several tours of Penn State Core Facilities, including the X-ray Crystallography, Proteomics, Microscopy, and Genomics Core Facilities, with the facility directors. These tours served to educate the students on research potentials at Penn State. The fellowship recipients also participated in two field trips, one to the Penn State Fruit Reseach and Extension Center, and one to the Penn State Research Farms at Rock Springs, to give them some insight into field research and applied research in plant-microbe interactions. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?During the reporting period, Virginia State student and fellowship recipient Mekiya Fletcher gave an oral presentation at the national Emerging Researchers Network Conference in Washington DC, March 2-4, 2017 and received a second place award for her presentation. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will host another group of students for this program at Penn State for the summer of 2017. Student selections had already been mostly completed by March 14, 2017. We have 4 fellowships assigned to students from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, Alcorn State University, Morgan State University, and Virginia State University. Several students from the first cadre who started in 2016 will be attending or have already attended conferences in 2017 (after the end of the reporting period on March 14, 2017) to present their work. Some of them will be graduating in 2017 and will be making career/graduate school decisions. The PI plans to attend the PD meeting in West Lafayette, Indiana, in June, 2017.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal #1 -Provide research and extension experiential learning for 14 undergraduates in plant-microbe interactions During this reporting period, five students received fellowships through this grant program, one each from Alcorn State University, Morgan State University, the Pennsylvania State University, the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, and the Virginia State University. The students spent an 8-week summer program at Penn State, University Park, from June 3, 2016 - July 29, 2016, during which they worked in a mentor's (grant co-PI's) lab. This was to be followed by an academic year of research at the students' home institutions. Ms. Tresel Benjamin (Alcorn State University) worked in Dr. Seogchan Kang's lab for the summer program at Penn State on fungal volatiles that affect plant growth, defense, and productivity in Arabidopsis thaliana. However, at the end of the summer program, Tresel decided that she was no longer interested in research and no longer worked on the project as planned when she returned to Alcorn. Ms. Amanda Sukhram (Morgan State University) worked in Dr. Tim McNellis' lab at Penn State on the fire blight bacterium Erwinia amylovora and did a genetic screen for E. amylovora metabolic mutants and assessed the effects of these mutations on the ability of these mutants to cause disease in apples. Prior to the summer program, Amanda Sukram received training in co-PI Dr. Viji Sitther's lab at Morgan for three weeks in the spring 2016 before starting her internship at Penn State. She was trained in a number of different laboratory techniques including media preparation, aseptic technique, cyanobacterial culture maintenance, and measurement of bacterial growth using optical density. However, Amanda decided upon her return to Morgan that she did not want to continue working on the project. Dr. Sitther replaced Amanda with Ms. Osaretin Aimufua, who has worked in Dr. Sitther's lab since fall of 2016. Osaretin's project was titled "Impact of sulfate stress on growth rate and total lipid production in Fremyella diplosiphon". She was trained in media preparation, cell culture, measuring optical density, lipid extraction, gravimetric analysis and data analysis. She submitted an abstract in March 2017 for the Morgan State University's 24th Annual Undergraduate and Graduate Symposium; this symposium took place after the end of the present reporting period. Ms. Elena Christian (Penn State) also worked in Dr. McNellis' lab (PD) at Penn State on Erwinia amylovora for the summer program; however, her project was focused on a novel transcription factor of the bacterium (ptxR) that may regulate virulence functions in the plant, and this work invovled gene expression analysis, virulence phenotyping, molecular cloning, protein expression, immunoblotting, and DNA sequencing. Ms. Christian had been working in Dr. McNellis' lab since September of 2014, and she continued to work in Dr. McNellis' lab for the 2016-17 academic year at Penn State on the same project. Elena submitted poster abstracts to the Penn State Undergraduate Research Exhibition, the Penn State Gamma Sigma Delta poster competition, and the American Phytopathological Society Potomac Division meeting. These exhibitions and meetings actually occurred after the end of the present reporting period and the activities and results from them will be described in next year's report. Mr. Octavio Rivera (University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez) worked in co-PI Dr. Gretchen Kuldau's lab at Penn State for the summer program. At Penn State during the summer proram, Octavio isolated soil microbes that could degrade or detoxify deoxinovalinol mycotoxin in culture. Octavio continued research at his home institution with co-PI Dr. Lydia Rivera. He used the same laboratory approaches he learned at Penn State to work to identify microbes that degrade mycotoxins and/or inhibit growth of the fungal producers. He switched to working on inhibition of fumonisin producers however since the organisms he worked on in Dr. Kuldau's lab are not so relevant in Puerto Rico. Octavio isolated bacteria from corn and sorghum phylloplanes and evaluated their fumonisin B1 degradation in vitro. Octavio's project title at UPRM was "Isolation of Fusarium spp. inhibiting and fumonisin B1 degrading microbes from corn (Zea mays L.) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.)". Ms. Mekiya Fletcher (Virginia State University) worked in co-PI Dr. Jim Tumlinson's lab at Penn State. Her project was focused on developing a protoplast assay to characterize gene expression in response to various volatile molecules. She continued her project at Virginia State by working to optimize a gradient system to separate protoplasts by size. She gave an oral presentation at the national Emerging Researchers Network Conference in Washington DC, March 2-4, 2017. She received a second place award for her presentation. Goal #2 - Improve the multicultural literacy and capactities of Penn State faculty Meetings of the Penn State co-PIs who hosted students during the summer of 2016 were held prior to the start of the 2016 summer program and in November, 2016, to assess project and student progress and to help co-PIs prepare to mentor students from under-represented groups and students from minority-serving universities. The adviser shared their successes and challenges. The particularly important outcome from the first year was that it is extremely important for a student to have a clearly laid-out project for them for the 8-week summer program. This allows the student to take advantage of the facilities and opportunities available at the Penn State University Park campus to fullest effect and receive sufficient training such that they can continue the project at their home institution, in collaboration with Penn State and their home institution supervisor. Although the non-Penn State co-PIs from subaward institutions were not at these meetings, some did provide input through Dr. McNellis, which mainly emphasized the importance of a feeling of camaraderie among the students. That is, it is important to make sure these is a sense of community among the fellowship recipients, and for the fellowship recipients to be part of a larger group of minority students on campus. The SROP group certainly has fulfilled the need of a larger community of peers. In addition, we had several morning coffee meetings with the Plant Pathology & Environmental Microbiology Department at large and the USDA fellowship recipients, which helped create a sense of connection to the group and the department. The SROP also held an orientation for mentors in early May, 2016, which the USDA Fellowship mentors attended, as well as any graduate students or other personnel in their labs who would be directly interacting with the Fellows. These training activities and discussion meetings for the Penn State faculty improved their abiltiy to work with and mentor minority students in future years of this program and in other contexts as well. Goal #3 - Foster collaborations between Penn State faculty and faculty at minority-serving institutions This grant has strengthened the existing collaboration between co-PI Dr. Jim Tumlinson at Penn State and co-PI Dr. Sarah Witiak's lab at Virginia State through a shared student, exchange of expertise, and use of Penn State resources for research based at Virginia State. This grant has also fostered continuing collaborations between co-PI Dr. Gretchen Kuldau at Penn State and co-PI Dr. Lydia Rivera at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez through a shared student and ongoing research on mycotoxin degradation by microbes. PD Dr. Tim McNellis at Penn State and co-PI Dr. Viji Sitther at Morgan State are developing collaborations through shared student, in particular through training of students in molecular biology techniques at Penn State.
Publications
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