Greetings to friends, alumni, and supporters of KSU Plant Pathology!
Wow – 2020! The year was extremely challenging. The covid19 pandemic disrupted KSU operations, our community, and our personal lives. The pandemic is ongoing, but the recent vaccine rollout provides hope for a return to more normal conditions later this year. 
Despite those challenges our department had many excellent achievements. Faculty shifted gears to teach online, and students shifted gears to learn online. Our research projects kept moving along. Our extension faculty developed and delivered innovative online programs. Our office staff continued to provide excellent service under the remote work situation. I am so proud of our faculty, staff, and students. However, even more than our scientific and scholarly work I am most proud of the care and grace everyone has shown each other this past year. People were checking in on each other, adjusting work schedules to help accommodate family situations, stepping up to cover gaps, and more. We often refer to the Plant Pathology “family” and this year our “family” side was more evident than ever. I am grateful to be part of this family!
Thank you to Kelsey Andersen Onofre, Giovana Cruppe, and Kelly Staab for their hard work on this newsletter and to those who contributed content and ideas.
– Megan Kennelly, Dept Head
P.S. apologies this newsletter is late! That is part of the covid19 experience, right? A few deadlines have been shifted! The delay rests on my shoulders.
Awards, Grants, and Recognitions
Eduard Akhunov lab awarded $1 million grant to lead IWYP US Winter Wheat Breeding Innovation Hub
The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has awarded a $1 million grant to Kansas State University (KSU) to lead the IWYP US Winter Wheat Breeding Innovation (WWBI) Hub. The IWYP US Winter Wheat Breeding Innovation (WWBI) Hub will focus on the development of discoveries for higher yielding winter wheats for the US wheat market. The Hub is structured as a public-private partnership and granted NIFA funds will be supplemented by its partners. The Hub will capitalize on the state-of-the-art infrastructure, equipment and widely recognized technical expertise of the KSU and USDA wheat scientists located at KSU. KSU wheat geneticist Dr. Eduard Akhunov serves as the Project Director and in collaboration with the KSU and USDA-ARS wheat breeding and genetics teams will coordinate the Hub activities.
Jesse Poland awarded $1 million from USDA NIFA to mine wheat wild relatives for disease resistance, stress tolerance, and yield potential
Jesse Poland’s team received this award from the U.S.Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, through its Agriculture and Food Research Initiative to increase genetic diversity in modern wheat cultivars. The project will focus on Aegilops speltiodes and Triticum dicoccoides, two important wild relatives of wheat. The first of two projects funded will include collaborations between K-State, 2Blades Foundation, the University of Minnesota, and the John Innes Center. The second project will bring together resources within the K-State Plant Pathology department, including collaborations with Bernd Friebe and Dal-Hoe Koo, as well as with Assaf Distelfeld of the University of Haifa in Israel.
Read more: https://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/2020-06/nifa-grant-poland61920.html
Barbara Valent, Jim Stack, Allan Fritz, Giovana Cruppe, Sanzhen Liu, and other collaborators awarded $570,000 from USDA- NIFA
Barbara Valent and collaborators received the AFRI Tactical Sciences award to continue support of their wheat blast research. The project “Strategic Resource Development and Deployment to Limit the Spread of Wheat Blast” combines the use of molecular breeding, rapid detection and diagnostics, ecology, and student training. This project involves several U.S. and international institutions
K-State teams with Canadian university to apply gene editing technology for improving wheat
Kansas State University was awarded a $650,000 grant from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to establish a breeding partnership with a Canadian university to improve wheat using genome editing technology. Eduard Akhunov will lead K-State’s work on this project in collaboration with colleague Harold Trick’s research team. Akhunov said the university will join with researchers at the University of Saskatchewan in using genome editing technology to improve productivity and nutrition in the world’s wheat lines.
Read more:
https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/news/stories/2020/08/nifa-awards-grant-to-edit-wheat-genome.html
Bob Bowden, Mary Guttieri, and other USDA-ARS scientists awarded 2020 BRGI Gene Stewardship Award
This USDA-ARS research team was awarded the 2020 BGRI Gene Stewardship Award for work to introduce and improve resistance to stem rust, particularly Ug99. Since 2006, the team has identified over 20 new resistance genes effective against this new strain of stem rust by evaluating over 20,000 germplasm accessions. This groundbreaking work has provided markers that can be deployed in breeding programs around the world to facilitate gene stewardship.
Read more: https://bgri.cornell.edu/2020/10/07/u-s-wheat-researchers-win-borlaug-gene-stewardship-award/
Upasana Dhakal wins Robert Nunemacher Scholarship
Upasana Dhakal, PhD student in Chris Toomajian’s lab, was a recipient of a 2020-21 Robert Nunemacher Scholarship from the KSU College of Agriculture for exceptional students in research programs that impact production agriculture. Congratulations, Upasana!
Afsana Noor earns Nunemacher Award
Afsana Noor, PhD student in Chris Little’s lab, received a Nunemacher Scholarship from the College of Agriculture. Congratulations Afsana!
Nar Ranabhat wins 2020 K-State International Student Scholarship and Nunemacher Award.
Nar Ranabhat, PhD student in Jessica Rupp’s lab, received the competitive 2020 International Student Scholarship from the K-State Alumni Association. This award is given to those who show exceptional academic abilities and involvement in campus activities. He also earned a Robert Nunemacher Scholarship from the College of Agriculture. Congratulations, Nar!
Elina Adhikari earns Robert Nunemacher Scholarship
Elina Adhikari, PhD student in Eduard Akhunov’s lab, earned a Robert Nunemacher Scholarship from the College of Agriculture. Congratulations Elina!
Joel Steyer earns Nolan G and Jean M McKenzie Graduate Student Fellowship
Joel Steyer, PhD student in Richard Todd’s lab, was the inaugural awardee for the Nolan G and Jean M McKenzie Graduate Student Fellowship for 2020-21. The McKenzie Fellowship is committed to an exceptional student in a research program within the College of Agriculture. Congratulations Joel!
Paper of the Year award for Poland lab members
“Combining high-throughput phenotyping and genomic information to increase prediction and selection accuracy in wheat breeding”. This paper, co-authored by Jesse Poland, Jared Crain, and collaborators, was selected as the 2020 ‘Editor’s Citation for Excellence Award for Outstanding Service’ in the journal The Plant Genome. The paper can be found here: https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3835/plantgenome2017.05.0043
LAB HIGHLIGHTS
Dr. Bernd Friebe and collaborators receive patent
Bernd Friebe, Jesse Poland, Tatiana Danilova, Bikram Gill, and Erick Jackson received the patent “Wheat lines, plants and grain with increased beta-glucan content” which is aimed at producing heart-healthy wheat with increased beta-glucan content. Bernd and several other collaborators have two other patents pending.
Nature Paper published with authors from Poland lab members and Dr. Koo
Liangliang Gao, Emily Delorean, DalHoe Koo, and Jesse Poland (plus KSU Agronomy colleague Allan Fritz) were co-authors on a paper in Nature titled “Multiple wheat genomes reveal global variation in modern breeding”. The paper can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2961-x
Dr. Chris Little was elected to Faculty Senate in Spring 2020
Dr. Chris Little also serves on the Faculty Affairs subcommittee. If you have questions, concerns, or issues that needed to be raised in these shared governance bodies, please contact: crlittle@ksu.edu. Thanks for your service, Dr. Little!
Dr. Richard Todd’s lab partners with Architecture for innovative project
Dr. Todd has started a new project funded by a Global Food Systems Seed Grant, collaborating with Dr. Jonathan Dessi-Olive (Architecture) and Dr. Vincent Amanor-Boadu (Agricultural Economics) to investigate fungal mycelium-based building materials.
Dr. Chris Toomajian publishes in special issue of Phytopathology
Dr. Toomajian and collaborators just published the paper “Divergence and Gene Flow Between Fusarium subglutinans and F. temperatum Isolated from Maize in Argentina”. The paper is part of a special focus issue on Population Genomic- and Phylogenomic- Enabled Advances to Increase Insight into Pathogen Biology and Epidemiology. Please check the online version at https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/PHYTO-09-20-0434-FI.
Personnel changes
Megan Kennelly appointed Department Head
Megan Kennelly was appointed to be the Department Head in August by Dean Ernie Minton. Prior to being named Department Head she was the Interim Department Head beginning in December 2018. There is a full story about the appointment in this KSU press release: https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/news/stories/2020/08/kennelly-named-department-head-for-plant-pathology.html
New Faces
One of my favorite things about my job is getting to meet and onboard our new employees. We added a few new Graduate Research Assistants and essential employees this semester. It’s my honor to get to introduce them to you. It’s certainly an odd time to start something new, so feel free to help me welcome them by shooting these new faces an email to introduce yourself as well. – Kelly Staab
Graduate Research Assistants
Nathan Smith joined us in August as a new Graduate Research Assistant (MS) with Chris Little. Nathan is originally from Holton, Kansas and his current project aims to identify factors that influence lodging in sorghum and their interactions with stem rot pathogens. Outside of his research, he enjoys reading, running, and biking. His favorite holiday is Fourth of July because “there’s fireworks, there’s barbeque, and it’s summertime. What more could you want?”
David Rowe is a new Graduate Research Assistant (PhD) in Genetics with David Cook (David under David, easy-peasy to remember!). Rowe is from Clarksville, Maryland. At the University of Maryland, he worked in two different labs researching drought tolerance in tomato plants and nitrogen storage in poplar trees. Prior to that, he spent two summers at the USDA National Fungal Herbarium examining historic specimens of smut fungi parasitizing poaceous hosts. His current hobbies include hiking, cooking, making bread and cheese from scratch, and an interest to get more into gardening. I bet there’s some people around here who could help with that! His favorite holiday tradition is dressing up as a headless person on Halloween and handing out candy.
Heather Forster is also pursuing her PhD in Genetics and is currently on a lab rotation with Richard Todd. She joins us from Wichita, Kansas and has an MS in Biology from Wichita State University, an MS in Biology from Emporia State University, and a BA in Environmental Science from University of Massachusetts Lowell. Her previous research focused on using RNA interference to suppress the growth of a phytopathogenic fungus. She found that knocking down expression of even a single cell wall synthesizing enzyme negatively impacted both the magnitude and quality of fungal growth. She is currently working on utilization of N-acetylglucosamine – an important component of cell walls and chitin, and a carbon and nitrogen source for the fungus Aspergillus nidulans. Her interests include anime, learning to code, music, and fitness. A favorite holiday tradition is hunting for chocolate eggs on Easter, even now, as an adult. She also enjoys cooking feasts on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Full-Time Staff
The Akhunov lab welcomed Jason Zurn as a new Post-Doc. From Horace, North Dakota, Zurn earned his B.S. in Biotechnology, a graduate
certificate in statistics, and his PhD in Plant Pathology from North Dakota State University. He was recently employed as a research geneticist/post-doc research associate with the USDA-ARS National Clonal Germplasm Repository (NCGR) in Corvallis, Oregon. At the USDA-ARS NCGR, he worked to identify QTLs associated with disease resistance and horticultural quality traits and develop diagnostic tests for DNA-informed breeding for strawberries, blackberries, roses, and pears. He also developed DNA fingerprinting assays and characterized the genotypic diversity of the U.S. pear, strawberry, blackberry, and raspberry germplasm collections. His new role with the Akhunov lab will focus on characterizing NB-LBR genes in a diverse set of wheat germplasm and identifying and characterizing wheat rust resistance genes. Outside of work, he enjoys archery, fishing, and hunting upland birds. His favorite holiday is Thanksgiving because of all the delicious foods.
Alyssa Dunnivan transitioned from a student worker to a Research Technician role in the Akhunov lab. Originally from Rantoul, Kansas, she just completed her Bachelor’s degree in Horticulture Science with a Plant Pathology minor. Her current work involves helping manage the lab and coordinate student employees. Outside of work, she enjoys true crime documentaries and podcasts, watching scary videos, and exploring the outdoors with her dog, Aries. Her favorite holiday is Christmas, because everything is a bit cheerier and everyone is a bit more generous and courteous.
Rodrigo Borba Onofre started as a Post-Doc with Dr. Kennelly. He will be working on row crop disease management and has hit the ground running
already by helping Judy O’Mara with the Crop Disease course last semester. Rodrigo is from Brazil, Conceição da Aparecida – Minas Gerais State. He has his PhD in Plant Pathology from the University of Florida and a BS in Agronomic Engineering from the Federal University of Vicosa-Brazil. His PhD work was with the management and epidemiology of strawberry powdery mildew under the guidance of Dr. Natalia Peres. His research focused on the development of practical alternative strategies to single-site fungicides to control powdery mildew. One of the projects involved night-time UV-C light application, using a tractor-drawn apparatus and robots which suppressed powdery mildew as well or better than fungicide treatments. His current hobbies include running, biking, and training his German shorthaired pointer puppy, Mabel. Christmas is his favorite holiday because he loves to see the lights and spend time with his family.
Maryam Rastegar joined us from Shiraz, Iran and is working as a post-doc for Dr. Shahideh Nouri. Maryam earned her M.S. and PhD from Shiraz University in Plant Pathology. During her PhD, she worked at the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA) in France on virus vector interaction. Then worked as a faculty member in the Iranian Research Institute for plant Protection. In her current role, she works on research with plant and insect viruses, particularly virus vector interactions. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends in nature and traveling. Her favorite holiday tradition is eating traditional Persian foods for Persian’s new year dinner. I think she’s a total rockstar for starting life in a new country during a pandemic.
The Poland Lab welcomed Chaney Courtney as a Computational Scientist. Originally from the Kansas City area, Chaney just completed his PhD in computer science with K-State. He has experience working on multiple NSF grants focusing on high-throughput phenotyping and was previously a Graduate Research Assistant creating novel deep learning algorithms and applying real-time systems to mobile devices. His hobbies include developing Android applications, computer vision projects, and kayaking.
Graduations
Congratulations! to our fall graduates
Bliss Betzen
- Degree: MS Genetics
- Major Professor: Eduard Akhunov
- Thesis: The effect of the allelic diversity in AcrSr35 on Sr350based resistance in wheat
Kseniya Chumachenko
- Degree: M.S. Plant Pathology
- Major Professor: James Stack
- Thesis Simple sequence repeat analysis and qualitative pathway analysis of Rathayibacter toxicus
Elina Adhikari
- Degree: PhD Genetics
- Major Professor: Eduard Akhunov
- Dissertation: Genetic basis of eco-geographic adaptation in wild relatives for wheat improvement
Megan Calvert
- Degree: PhD Genetics
- Major Professor: Jesse Poland
- Dissertation: Assessment and implementation of new breeding methods in the Kansas State winter wheat breeding program
