Lindsay McBride ’27, Molecular Biology

Lindsay McBride ’27

Major

Molecular Biology

Project Title

Plant Pathogens in a High Altitude System

Presentation Link

View Lindsay's Presentation

I studied the evolution and epidemiology of a fungal pathogen (Melampsora lini, “flax rust”) that infects a wildflower species (Linum lewisii) in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. This dynamic has long served as a model to understand how pathogens evolve to better infect their hosts and how hosts evolve to escape their pathogens on a molecular level. However, it is less certain how this coevolutionary relationship will be affected by climate change, which has important implications for agriculture and food security. Diseases caused by fungal pathogens can cause crop losses worth billions of dollars each year and these losses are likely to increase with climate change. To better predict how a changing environment might affect the spread of disease, we conducted weekly disease surveys at field sites ranging from 8,800 to 11,500 ft. in elevation. Through my contributions in fieldwork and R programming, I gained a greater appreciation for the complexity of developing models to fit dynamic ecological systems. I enjoyed living and working alongside other scientists at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory and plan to pursue future research in disease ecology that integrates molecular and environmental data.