Positions

Overview

  • My research focuses on plant interactions with their microbiomes in the context of global change stressors. I consider how evolutionary dynamics in plant-microbe interactions alter responses to stressors, and the reciprocal: how adaptation to stressors might modify plant-microbe interactions. I make use of sequencing and epigenetic sequencing, population and quantitative genetics tools, genetic evolutionary modeling, and experimentation to investigate these topics.

    • Selected Publications

    Academic Article

    Year Title
    2023 Accelerated high-throughput imaging and phenotyping system for small organisms..  PLoS ONE.  18:e0287739. 2023
    2022 Accelerated High-throughput Plant Imaging and Phenotyping System 2022
    2022 Harnessing plant-microbiome interactions for bioremediation across a freshwater urbanization gradient..  Water Research.  223:118926. 2022
    2022 Toxicity of nanoplastics to zooplankton is influenced by temperature, salinity, and natural particulate matter.  Environmental Science: Nano.  9:2678-2690. 2022
    2022 A Deep Dive into the Complex Chemical Mixture and Toxicity of Tire Wear Particle Leachate in Fathead Minnow..  Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.  41:1144-1153. 2022
    2022 Nanoplastic State and Fate in Aquatic Environments: Multiscale Modeling..  Environmental Science and Technology (Washington).  56:4017-4028. 2022
    2022 Why do sunflowers have invisible colors?.  eLife.  11:e76105. 2022
    2022 Having the ‘right’ microbiome matters for host trait expression and the strength of mutualism between duckweeds and microbes 2022
    2022 Microplastics shift impacts of climate change on a plant-microbe mutualism: Temperature, CO2, and tire wear particles..  Environmental Research.  203:111727. 2022
    2021 Microbial effects on plant phenology and fitness..  American Journal of Botany.  108:1824-1837. 2021
    2021 Host match improves root microbiome growth..  Nature Microbiology.  6:1103-1104. 2021
    2021 Effects of Hydrogen Peroxide on Cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa in the Presence of Nanoplastics.  ACS ES&T WATER.  1:1596-1607. 2021
    2021 Microbial effects on plant phenology and fitness 2021
    2021 Whose trait is it anyways? Coevolution of joint phenotypes and genetic architecture in mutualisms..  Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.  288:20202483. 2021
    2021 Strengthened mutualistic adaptation between teosinte and its rhizosphere biota in cold climates 2021
    2020 Experimental evolution makes microbes more cooperative with their local host genotype..  Science.  370:476-478. 2020
    2020 Mutualistic Outcomes Across Plant Populations, Microbes, and Environments in the Duckweed Lemna minor..  Microbial Ecology: an international journal.  80:384-397. 2020
    2020 Biological Responses to Climate Change and Nanoplastics Are Altered in Concert: Full-Factor Screening Reveals Effects of Multiple Stressors on Primary Producers..  Environmental Science and Technology (Washington).  54:2401-2410. 2020
    2020 Resilience to multiple stressors in an aquatic plant and its microbiome..  American Journal of Botany.  107:273-285. 2020
    2020 A common contaminant shifts impacts of climate change on a plant-microbe mutualism: effects of temperature, CO2 and leachate from tire wear particles 2020
    2019 Adaptive phenotypic divergence in an annual grass differs across biotic contexts..  Evolution.  73:2230-2246. 2019
    2019 Importance of plant- and microbe-driven metabolic pathways for plant defence..  Molecular Ecology.  28:1582-1584. 2019
    2018 Evolutionary Responses to Conditionality in Species Interactions across Environmental Gradients..  The American Naturalist.  192:715-730. 2018
    2018 Adaptive phenotypic divergence in an annual grass differs across biotic contexts 2018
    2015 Candidatus Frankia Datiscae Dg1, the Actinobacterial Microsymbiont of Datisca glomerata, Expresses the Canonical nod Genes nodABC in Symbiosis with Its Host Plant..  PLoS ONE.  10:e0127630. 2015
    2014 Resolving the Genera Aloysia and Acantholippia within tribe Lantaneae (Verbenaceae), using Chloroplast and Nuclear Sequences.  Systematic Botany.  39:644-655. 2014
    2012 Conifer growth and reproduction in urban forest fragments: Predictors of future responses to global change?.  Urban Ecosystems.  15:879-891. 2012
    Evolutionary consequences of microbiomes for hosts: impacts on host fitness, traits, and heritability.  Evolution. 

    Teaching Activities

  • Microbial Ecology & Evolution Taught course 2023
  • Seminar Taught course 2022

    • Full Name

  • Anna O'Brien