Dr. Janet Paper

Ph.D in Plant Biology
Michigan State University, 2011

Research Interests: Microbial community response to changing environments, Fusarium graminearum

 CLASSES

• Genetics
• General Biology I
• Principles of Microbiology
• Microbial World
• Mycology

EDUCATION

Doctor of Philosophy

Plant Biology

Michigan State University, 2011

Bachelor of Arts

Biology

William Jewell College, Liberty, MO

CURRENT RESEARCH

Microbial community response to changing environments

Although most of us consider microbes harmful, the vast majority are not. Many of these are essential for a healthy environment. These microbial communities influence soil composition, water chemistry and even our own health. The composition (the types of microbes and the amount present) can change with environmental changes – ultimately both the physical factors of the environment and the microbes present influence each other to provide the final environmental composition. I’m interested in how microbial communities change in response to natural and unnatural disturbances. One of the questions my students are currently investigating is how the soil microbial community on the flood plain at Benedictine Bottoms changes in response to flood, and after the flooding has receded, does the community return to the pre-flood composition.

Fusarium graminearum

Fusarium graminearum is a fungal plant pathogen that causes infection of wheat, maize, barley, and corn. During my PhD work, I investigated the role of specific proteins secreted by the fungus during infection by eliminating the gene responsible for their production. These mutants were then used to infect wheat to determine if they were inhibited in disease production. Although these mutants did not have a pathogenicity phenotype, they may have a phenotype in other environmental situations. We are testing these mutants in a variety of other conditions to better understand the function of the proteins they are secreting.

PUBLICATIONS

Msanne J, Chen M, Luttgeharm KD, Bradley AM, Mays ES, Paper JM, Boyle DL, Cahoon RE, Schrick K, Cahoon EB (2015) Glucosylceramides are critical for cell-type differentiation and organogenesis, but not for cell viability in Arabidopsis. Plant J., 84(1):188- 201

Khosla, A, Paper, JM, Boehler, AP, Bradley, AM, Neumann, TR, and Schrick, K (2014) Functional redundancy of HD-Zip proteins GL2 and HDG11 in Arabidopsis trichomes reveals a GL2-activated positive feedback loop via MYB23. Plant Cell, 26(5): 2184-2200.

Paper, JM, Scott-Craig, JS, Cavalier, D, Faik, A, Wiemels, RE, Borrusch, MS, Bongers, M, and Walton, JD (2013) α-Fucosidases with different substrate specificities from two species of Fusarium. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 97: 5371-80.

Nagendran, S, Hallen-Adams, HE, Paper, JM, Aslam, N, and Walton, JD (2008) Reduced genomic potential for secreted plant cell-wall-degrading enzymes in the ectomycorrhizal fungus, Aminita bisporigera, based on the secretome of Trichoderma reesei. Fungal Genet Biol., 46(5):427-35.

Paper, JM, Scott-Craig, JS, Adhikari, ND, Cuomo, CA, and Walton JD (2007) Comparative proteomics of extracellular proteins in vitro and in planta from the pathogenetic fungus Fusarium graminearum. Proteomics, 7(17): 3171-83.

-Featured in the article spotlight and the September 2007 Proteomics Podcast

PRESENTATIONS

Paper, JM (2017) Influence of electron donor supply and pH on iron reduction, sulfate reduction and methanogenesis in bioreactor experiments. Talk given to Kunming Botanical Institute, Kunming, China.

Paper, JM, Haller, BR, Carrender, SE, and Kirk, MF (2016) Variation in interactions between iron reducers, sulfate reducers, and methanogens with electron donor supply in semi-continous bioreactor experiments. Poster presented at Goldschmidt 2015, Prague, Czech Republic.

Paper, JM (2012) Active α-fucosidase from Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium oxysporum. Talk given to Glycosciences Department, The Royal School of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

Paper, JM, Cavalier, D, Scott-Craig, JS, Bongers, M, and Walton JD (2011) Active α-fucosidase from Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium oxysporum. Poster presented at the 26th Fungal Genetics Conference at Asilomar, Pacific Grove, CA

Paper, JM, and Walton, JD (2009) Fusarium graminearum proteins important for host interaction. Poster presented at the 25th Fungal Genetics Conference at Asilomar, Pacific Grove, CA.

Paper, JM, Scott-Craig, JS, Cuomo, CA and Walton, JD (2007) Comparative proteomics of the in vitro and in planta secretomes of Fusarium graminearum. Poster presented at the 13th International Congress on Molecular Plant Microbe Interactions, Sorrento, Italy.

Paper, JM, Scott-Craig, JS, Cuomo, CA and Walton, JD (2007) Comparative proteomics of the in vitro and in planta secretomes of Fusarium graminearum. Poster presented at the 24th Fungal Genetics Conference at Asilomar, Pacific Grove, CA.

Paper, JM, Davis, M, Boggess, K, Shafiei, H, and Stanley, J. (1998) A comparison of vegetation extraction techniques for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans. Poster presented at the 18th Symposium on Halogenated Environmental Organic Compounds, Stockholm, Sweden.