Angela Kaczowka
- Assistant Professor of Practice, Leadership Education
- Member of the Graduate Faculty
Contact
Degrees
- Certificate in College Teaching Education
- University of Arizona, Arizona, United States
- M.S. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
- University of Arizona, Arizona, United States
- Variation in Immune Response Among Native and Invading Genotypes of Yellow Starthistle (Centaureasolstitialis)
- B.A. Biology & Environmental Studies
- Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States
- Can Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity in Soil Moisture Affect Species Coexistence?
- Ph.D. Higher Education
- University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States
Interests
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Scholarly Contributions
Journals/Publications
- Burns, J. H., Brandt, A. J., Murphy, J. E., Kaczowka, A. M., & Burke, D. J. (2017). Spatial heterogeneity of plant-soil feedbacks increases per capita reproductive biomass of species at an establishment disadvantage. OECOLOGIA, 183(4), 1077-1086.
- Kaczowka, A. M., Dlugosch, K. M., Baltrus, D. A., & Lu-Irving, P. (2017). Variation in the oxidative burst in response to wounding and bacterial infection among native and invading genotypes of yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis). bioRxiv. doi:10.1101/156083More infoInvasive plants may leave enemies behind when they colonize a new habitat, allowing selection to favor increased investment in growth and/or reproduction over defensive traits. Previous studies have identified reduced diversity of potential bacterial pathogens and evolutionary increases in growth and reproduction in invading populations of yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis). This study leverages a recently developed high-throughput assay of immune function to test for evidence of a trade-off between increased growth and defense against bacterial pathogens in yellow starthistle's invasion of California (USA). Seven bacterial strains were cultured from infected leaf tissue in the native range. Healthy leaf tissue from five native European collections and six invading collections were exposed to these native bacterial strains. A standardized assay of peroxidase activity was used measure the oxidative burst immune response to pathogen recognition by the leaf. Immune responses were compared to plant growth within and between ranges to assess evidence for a trade-off. Plant genotypes from the native range demonstrated a higher immune response to bacterial strains than did invading genotypes, consistent with a trade-off with plant growth across regions. The same trade-off was also apparent across genotypes from the native range, but not across genotypes from the invaded range. Our results provide evidence that increased growth in a highly invasive plant species may come at a cost to immune function, consistent with the hypothesis that escape from enemies can provide opportunities for shifts in resource allocation that favor the proliferation of non-native species.
