Joseph Edwards

Areas of Expertise

• Plant microbiomes
• Plant genetics / genomics
• Plant immunity
• Bacterial genomics

Professional Summary

Joe Edwards is an assistant professor in the Texas A&M Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology. His research program investigates the community of beneficial, commensal, and sometimes pathogenic microorganisms which colonize plants roots (i.e. the root microbiome). He has a particular interest in uncovering the host genetic factors which impact assembly of the root microbiome of bioenergy / native grasses and the crop plant rice. His group utilizes metagenomic sequencing of microbial communities, GWAS and QTL mapping, bacterial isolation and genome sequencing, and transcriptomics.

Selected Publications

Edwards, J; Saran, U; Bonnette, J; MacQueen, A; Yin, J; Nguyen, T; Schmutz, J; Grimwood, J; Pennacchio, L; Daum, C; Glavina del Rio, T; Fritschi, F; Lowry, D; Juenger, T. Genetic determinants of switchgrass root-associated microbiota in field sites spanning its natural range. (2023) Current Biology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.03.078

 

Santos, C.; Edwards, J.; Nguyen, B.; Sundaresan, V. Acquisition of a complex root microbiome reshapes the transcriptomes of rice plants. (2022) New Phytologist DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18261

 

Santos, C.; Liechty, Z.; Edwards, J.; Nguyen, B.; Huang, B.; Weimer, B.; Sundaresan, V. Drought duration determines the recovery dynamics of rice root microbiomes. (2021) Nature Plants DOI: 10.1038/s41477-021-00967-1

 

Edwards, J., Santos-Medellin, Liechty, Nguyen, B., Kilmer, J., Liechty, Z., Veliz, E., Ni, J., Phillips, G., Sundaresan V. Soil domestication by rice cultivation results in plant-soil feedback through shifts in soil microbiota. Genome Biology 20, 221 (2019) doi:10.1186/s13059-019-1825-x

 

Edwards, J, Santos-Medellín, C., Liechty, Z., Nguyen, B., Lurie, E, Eason, S., Phillips, G., Sundaresan, V. “Compositional shifts in root-associated bacterial and archaeal microbiota track the plant life cycle in field-grown rice.” PLoS Biology 16.2 (2018): e2003862. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2003862

 

Edwards, J., Johnson, C., Santos-Medellín, C., Lurie, E., Podishetty, N.K., Bhatnagar, S., Eisen, J.A., and Sundaresan, V. (2015). Structure, variation, and assembly of the root-associated microbiomes of rice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1414592112