Garrett Lab

Back to Lab Homepage

Plant Disease Ecology
Ecological Genomics
Biodiversity Resource Science



Ecological genomics of the tallgrass prairie dominant, Andropogon gerardii

We have characterized the effect of simulated climate change on the transcriptome of the dominant tallgrass prairie species (Travers et al. 2007) and developed new experimental designs for incorporating gene expression studies in pre-existing ecological experiments (Milliken et al. 2007).

These projects are supported by NSF, DOE, and USDA

Collaborators on these projects include:

Jianfa Bai, Kansas State University
Shauna Dendy, Kansas State University
Erin Frank, Kasnas State University
Karen Garrett, Kansas State University
Scot Hulbert, Washington State University
Alan Knapp, Colorado State University
Jan Leach, Colorado State University
Amgad Saleh, Kansas State University
Melinda Smith, Yale University
Steve Travers, Kansas State University


Relevant Publications


In review. S. Chakraborty, J. Luck, G. Hollaway, A. Freeman, R. Norton, K. A. Garrett, K. Percy, A. Hopkins, C. Davis, and D. F. Karnosky. Impacts of global change on diseases of agricultural crops and forest trees.

In review. M. R. Cheatham, M. N. Rouse, P. D. Esker, S. Ignacio, W. Pradel, R. Raymundo, A. H. Sparks, G. A. Forbes, T. R. Gordon, and K. A. Garrett. Beyond yield: Plant disease in the context of ecosystem services.

In review. C. M. Cox, K. A. Garrett, W. W. Bockus, and L. Fang. The response of dominant grass species in tallgrass prairie to tan spot and take-all pathogens isolated from wheat.

In review. G. L. Gadbury, K. A. Garrett, and D. B. Allison. Challenges and approaches to statistical design and inference in high dimensional investigations.

In review. K. A. Garrett, S. E. Travers, G. A. Milliken, J. Bai, S. H. Hulbert, J. E. Leach, P. S. Schnable, A. Saleh, J. L. Roe, P. A. Fay, A. K. Knapp, Z. Tang, and M. D. Smith. Gene expression in the wild: Analyzing genome-wide expression in field experiments with natural populations.

K. A. Garrett. 2008. Climate change and plant disease risk. In Global Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events: Understanding the Potential Contributions to the Emergence, Reemergence and Spread of Infectious Disease. National Academy of Science, Institute of Medicine. In revision.

K. A. Garrett and C. M. Cox. 2008. Applied biodiversity science: Managing emerging diseases in agriculture and linked natural systems using ecological principles. Pages 368-386 in Infectious Disease Ecology: Effects of Ecosystems on Disease and of Disease on Ecosystems. R. Ostfeld, F. Keesing, and V. Eviner, editors. Princeton University Press. [preprint PDF]

X. Han, S. P. Dendy, K. A. Garrett, L. Fang, and M. D. Smith. 2008. Comparison of damage to native and exotic tallgrass prairie plants by natural enemies. Plant Ecology. In press.

G. A. Milliken, K. A. Garrett, and S. E. Travers. 2007. Experimental design for two-color microarrays applied in a pre-existing split-plot experiment. Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology 6, Article 20. Available at http://www.bepress.com/sagmb/vol6/iss1/art20 [PDF]

S. E. Travers, M. D. Smith, J. Bai, S. H. Hulbert, J. E. Leach, P. S. Schnable, A. K. Knapp, G. Milliken, P. Fay, A. Saleh, and K. A. Garrett. 2007. Ecological genomics: making the leap from model systems in the lab to native populations in the field. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 5:19-24. [PDF]

K. A. Garrett, S. P. Dendy, E. E. Frank, M. N. Rouse, and S. E. Travers. 2006. Climate change effects on plant disease: Genomes to ecosystems. Annual Review of Phytopathology 44:489-509. [PDF]

K. A. Garrett, S. H. Hulbert, J. E. Leach, and S. E. Travers. 2006. Ecological genomics and epidemiology. European Journal of Plant Pathology 115:35-51. [PDF]

K. A. Garrett, S. P. Dendy, A. G. Power, G. K. Blaisdell, H. A. Alexander, and J. K. McCarron. 2004. Barley yellow dwarf disease in natural populations of dominant tallgrass prairie species in Kansas [Disease Note]. Plant Disease 88:574. [link]



Kansas State University

Department of Plant Pathology

Ecological Genomics Institute


PI: Karen A. Garrett