Active Projects in the Friesen Lab
An Inordinate Fondness for Clover
What role do microbial mutualists play in the coexistence of their hosts? This project combines field observations with manipulative experiments, sequencing, and transcriptomic analysis to understand how diverse Trifolium communities are maintained at Bodega Bay, CA.
Collaborators:
Sharon Strauss (UC Davis)
Publications:
- Bowsher, A., Siefert, A., Shetty, P., Anacker, B.A., Strauss, S.Y., Friesen, M.L. (2017) Transcriptomic responses to conspecific and congeneric competition in co-occurring Trifolium. J. of Ecology 105(3): 602–615. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1111/1365-2745.12761
- Clark, T.J., Friel, C.A., Grman, E., Shachar-Hill, Y., Friesen, M.L. (2017) Modeling mutualisms: challenges and opportunities for data integration. Ecology Letters 20(9):1203-1215. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1111/ele.12810
- Barker, Jessica; Bronstein, Judy; Friesen, Maren L.; Jones, Emily; Reeve, Hudson; Zink, Andrew; Frederickson, Megan. (2017) Synthesizing perspectives on the evolution of cooperation within and between species. Evolution 71(4): 814-825. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1111/evo.13174
- Jones, E.I.; Afkhami, M.E.; Akcay, E.; Bronstein, J.L.; Bshary, R.; Frederickson, M.E.; Heath, K.D.; Hoeksema, J.; Ness, J.; Pankey, M.S.; Porter, S.S.; Sachs, J.L.; Scharnagl, K.; Friesen, M.L. (2015) Cheaters must prosper: Reconciling theoretical and empirical perspectives on cheating in mutualism. Ecology Letters 18(11):1270-1284 https://dx.doi.org/doi: 10.1111/ele.12507
- https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2017/more-genes-turned-on-when-plants-compete/
- http://www.futurity.org/cheating-mutualism-ecology-1010082-2/
- http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/299841.php
- http://www.sciencenewsline.com/news/2015092203330028.html
- http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/236936593/study-little-evidence-of-cheating-among-mutualist-species
- http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=156509&CultureCode=en
- http://phys.org/news/2015-09-species.html
- http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/ru-sin092115.php
How do Mutualisms Evolve During Range Expansion?
When invasive plants and their beneficial symbionts colonize a new range, what happens to the mutualism? Evolutionary ecological theory predicts that selection will result in more generalised, and thus possibly less beneficial, interactions. We are comparing European and North American populations of annual medics using population genomics and manipulative inoculation experiments to understand how invasion reshapes host-microbe interactions.
Collaborators:
Stephanie Porter (WSUV), Eric von Wettberg (U Vermont)
Publications:
- Porter, SS, Faber-Hammond, JJ, Friesen, ML. (2018) Co-invading symbiotic mutualists of Medicago polymorpha retain high ancestral diversity and contain diverse accessory genomes. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 1;94(1). https://dx.doi.org/doi: 10.1093/femsec/fix168
- Porter, S.S., Chang, P.L., Conow, C.A., Dunham, J.P., Friesen, M.L. (2017) Biogeographic patterns and adaptive variation in the pangenome of symbiotic Mesorhizobia adapted to serpentine soils ISME 11(1), 248-262. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1038/ismej.2016.88
- Jack, C.J., Friesen, M.L., Sheneman, L., Hintze, A. (2017) Third-party mutualists have contrasting effects on host invasion under the enemy-release and biotic-resistance hypotheses. Evolutionary Ecology https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1007/s10682-017-9912-5
How do plants interact with the soil microbiome to acquire nitrogen from the environment? This multi-disciplinary project seeks to link plant traits, transcriptomes, and exudates with microbial communities, functional genes, and nitrogen transformations using a unique field experimental system maintained by the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, as well as manipulative greenhouse and growth chamber experiments.
- Project Website: http://rhizosphere.msu.edu/
Collaborators:
Sarah Evans (MSU), Lisa Tiemann (MSU), Jim Cole (MSU). DOE national lab collaborators: JGI, EMSL.
Publications:
- Bowsher, AW, Evans, S, Tiemann, LK, Friesen, ML. (2017) Effects of soil nitrogen availability on rhizodeposition in plants: a review. Plant and Soil https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1007/s11104-017-3497-1
SynSym: Synthetic Symbioses
Can we engineer novel interactions between cereals and nitrogen-fixing bacteria? This project combines synthetic biology approaches with microbial physiology and experimental evolution.
Collaborators:
John Peters (WSU), Jean-Michel Ane (UW Madison), Michael Udvardi (Noble Institute), Chris Voigt (MIT)
Publications:
Oxygen-Tolerant Nitrogenase
Unfortunately, there is not evidence that the oxygen-tolerant nitrogenase enzyme exists.
Collaborators:
James Murray (Imperial College London), Bill Rutherford (ICL), Martin Buck (ICL)
Publications
- MacKellar, D., Lieber, L., Norman, J.S., Bolger, A., Tobin, C., Murray, J.W., Oksaksin, M., Chang, R., Ford, T., Nguyen, P., Woodward, J.E., Permingeat, H., Joshi, N., Silver, P., Usadel, B., Rutherford, A.W., Friesen, M.L., Prell, J. (2016) Streptomyces thermoautotrophicus does not fix nitrogen. Scientific Reports Feb 1;6:20086. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1038/srep20086
- Norman, J.S., King, G.M., Friesen, M.L. (2017) Rubrobacter spartanus HPK2-2T sp. nov., a moderately-thermophilic oligotrophic bacterium isolated from volcanic soil. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 67(9):3597-3602. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1099/ijsem.0.002175
- Norman, J.S., Hare, J.R., Friesen, M.L. (2017) Comment: Isolation and screening of bacteria for their diazotrophic potential and their influence on growth promotion of Maize seedlings in greenhouses. Frontiers in Plant Science 8:212. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.3389/fpls.2017.00212
- Norman, J.S., Friesen, M.L. (2017) Recalcitrant N acquisition by soil diazotrophs: How the ability to release exoenzymes affects N fixation by terrestrial free-living diazotrophs ISME https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1038/ismej.2016.127
- Rowe, S, Norman, JS, Friesen, ML. Coercion in the evolution of plant-microbe communication: a perspective. Accepted at Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions https://doi.org/10.1094/MPMI-11-17-0276-CR
- http://phys.org/news/2016-02-scientists-unicorns.html
- http://www.technology.org/2016/02/04/why-do-scientists-chase-unicorns/
- http://www.futurity.org/myth-bacteria-unicorn-1100122-2/
- http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2016/why-do-scientists-chase-unicorns/
- http://michiganradio.org/post/stateside-monday-march-7-2016
Completed Projects [link to new page]