Education
Research Interests
My research focuses on plant-pathogen interactions within the microbiome context with implications for crop health. Currently, I am studying the role of bacteriocins in pathogen survival on the bean leaf surface. Previously, I worked on toxin-antitoxin systems, variation in recombination rates between antibiotic-resistant pathogen mutants, the connection between plant defense and leaf surface metabolites, and changes in tomato leaf surface viral communities throughout disease progression.
Awards and Publications
Kandel, P. P., Naumova, M., Fautt, C., Patel, R. R., Triplett, L. R., & Hockett, K. L. (2022). Genome mining shows ubiquitous presence and extensive diversity of toxin-antitoxin systems in Pseudomonas syringae. Frontiers in Microbiology, 12, 815911. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.815911