Joy Bergelson, Ph.D. Chair, Department of Ecology and Evolution Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolution Committee on Evolutionary Biology Committee on Genetics, Genomics & Systems Biology Committee on Microbiology Senior Fellow, Institute for Genome & Systems Biology Office: Erman 102B | Phone: (773) 702-3855 | Fax: (773) 702-9740 | email:jbergels(at)uchicago(dot)edu Subjects: Plant-enemy interactions, spatial structure, spread and impact of genetically-engineered organisms, plant evolutionary ecology

Research Interests

Our main focus is on interactions between the host plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, and the community of bacteria that inhabit it. We are interested in understanding how the ecology of these interactions shapes evolutionary trajectories, and how evolutionary change in turn impacts ecology. Our studies combine molecular evolutionary investigations with functional genomics under natural field conditions, and in that sense are broadly interdisciplinary. We are currently focusing on the following areas:

The evolution of resistance to pathogens

The evolution of pathogenicity

Community genomics of plant-pathogen interactions

Identifying the genes that matter for ecological interactions

We gratefully acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health, the Dropkin Foundation and the Packard Foundation.

Selected Publications

Tian, D, Qiang, W, Zhang, P, Araki, H, Yang, S, Kreitman, M, Bergelson, J and J-Q Chen. 2008. Indels correlated with mutation hot-spots in eukaryotic genomes. Nature 455: 105-113.

Traw, MB, Kniskern, J and J Bergelson. 2007. SAR increases fitness of Arabidopsis thaliana in the presence of natural bacterial pathogens. Evolution 61: 2444-2449.

Kniskern, J., Traw, M. B. and J. Bergelson. 2007. Salicylic acid and jasmonic acid signaling defense pathways reduce natural bacterial diversity on Arabidopsis thaliana. Molecular Plant Microbe Interactions 20: 1512-1522.

Araki, H, Tian, D, Goss, EM, Jakob, K, Halldorsdottir, S, Kreitman, M and J Bergelson. 2006. Presence/absence polymorphism for alternative pathogenicity islands in Pseudomonas viridiflava, a pathogen of Arabidopsis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 103: 5887-5892.

Bakker, E., Toomajian, C., Kreitman, M. and J. Bergelson. 2006. A genome-wide survey of R gene evolution in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell 18:1803-1818.

Goss, EM, Kreitman, M and J Bergelson. 2005. Genetic diversity, recombination and cryptic clades in Pseudomonas viridiflava infecting natural populations of Arabidopsis thaliana. Genetics 169: 21-35.

Nordborg, M, Hu, T, Ishino, Y, Toomajian, C, Jhaveri, J, Bakker, E, Calabrese, Gladstone, J, Goyal R, P, Jakobsson, M, Jhaveri, J, Kim, S, Padhukasahasram, B, Plagnol, V, Rosenberg, N, Schultz, V, Stevens, C, Shah, C, Wall, J, Wang, J, Zheng, H, Zhao, K, Kreitman, M and J Bergelson. 2005. The genomic pattern of polymorphism in Arabidopsis thaliana. PLoS Biology 3(7):e196.

Aranzana, MJ, Kim, S, Zhao, Z, Bakker, E, Horton, M, Jakob, K, Lister, C, Molitor, J, Shindo, C, Tang, C, Toomajian, C, Traw, B, Zheng, H, Bergelson, J, Dean, C, Marjoram, P and M Nordborg. 2005. Genome-wide association mapping in Arabidopsis thaliana identifies previously known genes for variation in flowering time and pathogen resistance. PLoS Genetics 1(5): e60.

Wichmann, G and J. Bergelson. 2004. avr genes of Xanthamonas axonopodis pv. vesicatoria promote transmission and enhance other fitness traits. Genetics 166: 693-706.

Korves, T. and J. Bergelson. 2004. A novel fitness cost of R-gene resistance in the presence of disease. The American Naturalist 163: 489-504.

Cipollini, D., Enright, S, Traw, MB and J Bergelson. 2004. Salicylic acid inhibits jasmonic acid-induced resistance of Arabidopsis thaliana to Spodoptera exigua. Molecular Ecology 13: 1643-1653.

Tian, D, Traw, MB, Chen J, Kreitman, M and J Bergelson. 2003. Pleiotropic fitness cost of Rpm1 resistance in Arabidopsis thaliana. Nature 423: 74-77.

Tian, D., Araki, H., Stahl, EA, Bergelson, J and M Kreitman. 2002. Signature of balancing selection in Arabidopsis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA. 99: 11525-530.

Bergelson, J, Kreitman, M, Stahl, EA and D Tian. 2001. Evolutionary dynamics of R-genes in plants. Science 292: 2281-2285.

Stahl, E, Dwyer, G, Mauricio, R, Kreitman, M and J Bergelson. 1999. Dynamics of disease resistance polymorphism at the Rpm1 locus of Arabidopsis. Nature 400: 667-671.