Ecology of insect-transmitted plant pathogens across agricultural and wild transition zones

Kerry Mauck
Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, UC Riverside

Insect-vectored plant pathogens are ubiquitous in agricultural, urban, and wild communities, but remain poorly understood from an ecological perspective. Pathogens such as viruses and phloem-limited bacteria can have drastic effects on host plant traits enabling survival and reproduction, as well as interactions with vector and non-vector insects. In my group, we seek to understand how pathogen infections alter organismal and community level interactions among plant hosts and insects. Through these efforts, we are gaining important insights into the evolution, emergence, and distributions of viral and bacterial pathogens of plants.

The seminar will be hosted on zoom and the seminar can be accessed via the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85695778528.

Additionally, the link to the seminar will be posted online on our web site (www.weeswageningen.nl) in the week of the seminar. If you experience any problems with accessing the seminar, please contact us at weeswageningen@gmail.com.

WEES background & call for new members
WEES is an initiative of PhD students and postdocs at Wageningen University to organize a continuing series of stimulating seminars on contemporary topics in evolution and ecology. For this series we invite researchers from all over the world who have leading roles in their field. We aim to bring together different groups at Wageningen University using a variety of systems, but with a common interest in evolutionary and ecological questions. WEES is funded by graduate schools PE&RC, WIMEK, EPS, VLAG, and WIAS.

Interested in joining the WEES committee and organizing seminars yourself? WEES is looking for new members! We aim for a broad and diverse range in topics and would like to welcome new members to help and include topics not represented yet. If you are curious, send an email to weeswageningen@gmail.com and join one of our meetings.

For more information please visit: www.weeswageningen.nl, Like us on Facebook, or join the Facebook Group for more participation.