Caylon Yates, Ph.D. Candidate Ecology Intercollege Graduate Degree Program
B.A. Boston University (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
Bio: I am interested in the interactions of the soil microbiome and how these interactions shape the composition and function of the soil microbial community. I plan on using a variety of approaches, including omics-based techniques to study how manipulation of the soil microbiome can affect soil health and plant productivity.
Fellowships and Grants: NSF GRFP Fellow (2020-2023); British Ecological Society Small Research Grant (2021) College of Agricultural Sciences Graduate Student Competitive Grant (2020) Dean's Distinguished Fellowship (2018-)
Awards and Honors: 3rd Place – PSU Microbiome Center Video Competition Plant Pathology Graduate Studies Enhancement Award (2020) Sloan Scholar (2019-) 1st place in Lightning Talk Competition at Microbiome Center Networking Event (2018)
Recent Publications: King WL†, Yates CF†, Guo J, Fleishman SM, Trexler R V, Centinari M, et al. The hierarchy of root branching order determines bacterial composition, microbial carrying capacity and microbial filtering. Commun Biol [Internet]. 2021 Dec 19;4(1):483. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-01988-4
Yates CF†, Guo J†, Bell TH, Fleishman SM, Bock HW, Trexler R V., et al. Tree‐induced alterations to soil properties and rhizoplane‐associated bacteria following 23 years in a common garden. Plant Soil [Internet]. 2021 Jan 31; Available from: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11104-021-04846-8 †authors contributed equally
Recent Presentations: Yates,C, Ryan Trexler, Kevin Hockett, TH Bell. Niche alteration by bacterial isolates conditioned to novel environments (Talk). British Ecological Society, Festival of Ecology. December 2020
Bell, T and Caylon Yates. The constraints of microbial niche breadth and what we can do about them (Talk). Biodiversity Centre of the Plant Biology Research Institute, University of Montreal, November 2020 *Invited speaker
Yates C and Bell TH. 2019. Niche expansion by bacterial isolates conditioned to novel soils. Multi-Omics for Microbiomes, Richland, WA.
Yates C. 2019. Brave new world: Adaptation of bacterial isolates to novel soils. Invited talk at USDA APHIS, Beltsville, MD.
Work experience: Research Technician, Bhatnagar Lab of Microbial Ecology, Boston University (2015-16)