Clare L. Casteel

Institute for Genomic Biology
Room 1500
1206 W. Gregory Dr.
Urbana, Illinois 61801
Telephone: (217) 333-1632
E-mail:  ccastee2@igb.uiuc.edu

CV

Advisors:  May Berenbaum and Evan De Lucia

Research Interests:  Plant -insect interactions, genomics, agro-ecosystem physiology, ecology and evolution, and global change

I am interested in understanding the effects of herbivory under future scenarios of global change on the molecular level.  Most plants are sedentary organisms that must continuously respond to challenges in a fluctuating environment. In addition to adapting to naturally fluctuating abiotic challenges (e.g. light, temperature, water availability) and biotic challenges such as herbivory and infection, plants must now cope with new changes in the global climate and environment. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and ozone concentration are increasing in the troposphere, producing phytochemical changes that may alter plant-insect interactions in agro-ecosystems.  These changes will influence future climate, agricultural productivity, well-established defense responses of plants to insects and possibly alter the coevolutionary trajectory between plants and herbivores in the future.  My research applies emerging and well-established molecular, genomic, and biochemical tools to understand plant defenses and plant insect interactions in a constantly changing environment.

I utilize the SoyFACE (Soybean Free Atmosphere gas Concentration Enrichment) system. At SoyFACE, CO2 and O3 are elevated alone and in combination within a continuous canopy of soybean (Glycine max) .  Present and future work utilizes the combination of protein, metabolite and qRT-PCR analysis in order to characterize and map the allelochemical, hormonal and molecular changes that potentially control plant responses in agro-ecosystems to herbivory under projected atmospheric conditions.