Jaime E. Blair
Professional Biography
2008-present Assistant Professor, Dept of Biology, Franklin & Marshall College
2006-2008 Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept of Biology, Amherst College
2005-2006 Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept of Plant Pathology, Penn State University
Education
B.A. with Honors in Biology, Ithaca College
Ph.D. Biology and Astrobiology, Penn State University
Research Interests
Evolutionary genomics of eukaryotes, specifically plant pathogens; molecular phylogenetics; bioinformatics
Grants & Awards
2012: Mycological Society of America Martin-Baker Research Award
2011-2016: USDA-NIFA Oomycete CAP: Integrated management of Oomycete diseases of soybean and other crop plants (Co-PI with 27 others)
2010-2013: USDA-AFRI Microbial Functional Genomics: Education in genomics-based microbial forensics (Co-PI with 6 others).
Publications
Blair JE, Coffey MD, Martin FN. 2012. Species tree estimation for the late blight pathogen, Phytophthora infestans, and close relatives. PLoS ONE 7(5): e37003.
Kang S, Mansfield MA, Park B, Geiser DM, Ivors KL, Coffey MD, Grünwald NJ, Martin FM, Levesque AA, Blair JE. 2010. The promise and pitfalls of sequence-based identification of plant pathogenic fungi and fungus-like organisms. Phytopathology 100(8): 732-737.
Blair JE. 2009. Fungi. In The Timetree of Life (eds. Hedges SB, Kumar S), pp. 213-220. Oxford University Press.
Balci Y, Balci S, Blair JE, Park S-Y, Kang S, MacDonald WL. 2008. Phytophthora quercetorum sp. nov., a novel species isolated from eastern and north-central US oak forests. Mycological Research 112(8): 906-916.
Blair JE, Coffey MD, Park S-Y, Geiser DM, Kang S. 2008. A multi-locus phylogeny for Phytophthora utilizing markers derived from complete genome sequences. Fungal Genetics and Biology 45(3): 266-277.
Park J, Park B, Veeraraghavan N, Jung K, Lee Y-H, Blair JE, Geiser DM, Isard S, Mansfield MA, Nikolaeva E, Park S-Y, Russo J, Kim SH, Greene M, Ivors KL, Balci Y, Peiman M, Erwin DC, Coffey MD, Rossman A, Farr D, Cline E, Grunwald NJ, Luster DG, Schrandt J, Martin F, Ribeiro OK, Makalowska I, Kang S. 2008. Phytophthora Database: a forensic database supporting the identification and monitoring of Phytophthora. Plant Disease 92(6): 966-972.
Park Jo, Park B, Jung K, Jang S, Yu K, Choi J, Kong S, Park Ja, Kim Se, Kim H, Kim So, Kim JF, Blair JE, Lee K, Kang S, Lee Y-H. 2008. CFGP: A web-based, comparative fungal genomics platform. Nucleic Acids Research 36: D562-D571.
Presentations
2011 (*indicates student co-author)
JE Blair, AL Greidinger*, and AA Collins. Oomycete diversity in soil samples from asymptomatic soybean fields, Lancaster County, PA. American Phytopathological Society Northeast Division Meeting, New Brunswick, NJ.
JE Blair, MD Coffey, and FM Martin. Gene trees versus species trees in resolving the Phytophthora Clade 1C phylogeny. American Phytopathological Society Annual Meeting, Honolulu, HI [abstract, Phytopathology 101(6S): S16].
JE Blair, AD Staffaroni*, and AM Chabitnoy*. The utility of genome survey sequences in developing anonymous loci for population-level studies in Oomycetes. 26th Fungal Genetics Conference, Asilomar, CA.
AM Chabitnoy*, L Cook*, and JE Blair. Monitoring Oomycete species diversity in a local Pennsylvania watershed. 26th Fungal Genetics Conference, Asilomar, CA.
N Matari* and JE Blair. Comparative genomics suggests the presence of RNA interference in Oomycetes. Oomycete Molecular Genetics Network Annual Meeting and 26th Fungal Genetics Conference, Asilomar, CA.
Course Information
Biology 305: Genetics
Biology 313: Introduction to Genome Analysis
Biology 37X: Pathogen Biology & Genomics
FND 178: Believing Science in the Information Age
