Jake Fountain
Graduate Student
E-mail: jfountain@agcenter.lsu.edu 

Major Professor: Dr. Zhiyuan Chen

Education:
2010-Present: M.Sc. Candidate, Dept. of Plant Pathology & Crop Physiology, Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

2007-2010: B.Sc. Biology, Georgia Southwestern State University - Americus, Georgia, USA

2005-2007: A.Sc. Biology/Pre-Medicine, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College - Tifton, Georgia, USA

Experience:
2010-Present: Graduate Research Assistant, Dept. of Plant Pathology & Crop Physiology, Louisiana State University

2005-2010: Biological Science Aid (GS-01), United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), Crop Protection & Management Research Unit - http://www.ars.usda.gov/

2004-2005: University of Georgia Young Scholars Summer Internship Program - http://www.ysp.caes.uga.edu/

Area of Research:

Corn, also known as maize, is an important staple food crop and is also used for a variety of industrial and energy-related applications. Infection of developing corn kernels by the fungus Aspergillus flavus in the field results in contamination of the crop with highly carcinogenic mycotoxins known as aflatoxins. Aflatoxin contamination of corn not only causes large economic losses, but also poses a significant threat to the health of people and livestock. In an effort to understand the host-parasite interaction during A. flavus infection of corn kernels, as well as to improve plant defense against aflatoxin contamination, my research will focus on two main aspects. Firstly, the expression of several members of the WRKY transcription factor family genes, which are known to function in response to both biotic and abiotic stress, will be evaluated in both commercial and inbred germplasm in response to A. flavus infection using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) techniques. Secondly, host induced RNA interference will be employed using transgenic corn lines possessing gene constructs expressing short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) in order to silence key genes in the aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway in infecting A. flavus. Classical breeding techniques will also be employed to produce corn lines possessing such trans-silencing gene constructs.