Dan Naylor Email & Phone Number

St. Louis, Missouri, Us

South San Francisco, California, Us

- Used co-culture screening assays and bioinformatics to identify 10 candidate microbes that enhanced the growth and toxin production of the insecticidal microbe Bacillus thuringiensis- Identified a number of candidate microbes associated with herbicidal activity in mixed cultures

San Carlos, California, Us

My roles at this company included planning sampling strategies for field-grown maize plants, preparing sequence libraries from soil and rhizosphere microbiomes, using bioinformatics to identify nitrogen-fixing microbes that colonized root-associated communities to a large extent, designing and implementing cultivation strategies to isolate these microbes from the soil community. In addition, I prepared extensive reports on the possibility of soil substrates as carbon sources for microbial inoculants, and the efficacy of rhizosphere vs. root endosphere microbes in replacing synthetic nitrogen fertilizer.

Berkeley, Ca, Us

Developing techniques for generating plant growth-promoting microbial mixtures under low-nitrogen within an enclosed system (EcoFABs).

My project focuses on developing a methodology for increasing the ease of microbiome study. Specifically, my goals are to deconstruct the complex soil microbiome into reduced-complexity ‘functional modules’ for individual characterization. These modules are based on a distinct set of functions, including metabolism of diverse carbon substrates (organic acids, simple sugars, complex plant polysaccharides, etc.), antibiotic resistance, growth in the presence of alternative electron acceptors, and stress tolerance (including salinity, pH fluctuations, heat, and osmotic stress). Enriched microbial consortia are being characterized with respect to bacterial and fungal community profiles (through amplicon sequencing), as well as for functional profiles (through transcriptomics and metagenomics). Duties included microbial enrichments in liquid and solid media, DNA extraction and processing, library preparation and submission, bioinformatic processing and analysis.

Berkeley, Ca, Us

Research focused on the plant root microbiome and how it is affected by drought. In recent years it has become clear that root-associated bacterial communities play a vital role in plant health, especially in tolerance to abiotic stresses such as drought. I aim to characterize an array of cereal grass root microbiomes, using 16s sequencing and downstream statistical analyses, and assessing the relative contribution of host genotype, drought treatment, and other factors to microbiome community composition. Furthermore, I am creating a gnotobiotic system with which to screen synthetic microbial communities for conferred drought tolerance to the cereal crop Sorghum bicolor. Identification of key microbes in these processes can serve to enhance design of microbial-based soil amendments for crops grown in water-stressed regions.

Berkeley, Ca, Us

Taught computational resources, most notably the statistical tool Phyloseq within the programming language R, for interpreting and conducting statistical analyses on large 16s sequence datasets.

Berkeley, Ca, Us

The DuPont Pioneer Symposium series is a student-run symposium that features current research being conducted both in academic and industrial settings relating to plant genome engineering, with the goal of connecting students with current experts in these fields. My responsibilities included: speaker selection, itinerary design, and event proceedings.

Berkeley, Ca, Us

Course concerned bacterial and archaeal genetics and genomic methods concerned with understanding microbial metabolic and development processes. Taught course material to undergraduate students, led discussion sections and office hours, developed and proctored exams, and wrote quizzes and problem sets.

Berkeley, Ca, Us

Course discussed current developments and breakthroughs in biology. Taught course material to undergraduate students, led discussion sections and office hours, proctored/reviewed/developed exams.

Davis, California, Us

Studied genetic variation between Solanum lycopersicum and Solanum pennellii by means of introgression lines, to map quantitative trait loci responsible for anthocyanin accumulation in trichome base cells. Work involved qualitative and quantitative analysis of leaf phenotypes via biostatistics, transplanting and maintaining plants from seedlings, DNA isolation from leaf samples, preparation of DNA libraries, using next‐generation sequencing approaches.

Davis, California, Us

Studied parasite‐host interactions between Triphysaria parasite and Arabidopsis host. Work involved preparation of media, gel electrophoresis, isolation of plasmid DNA via miniprep procedures, preparation of competent cells, transformation of plasmid DNA into E. Coli and Agrobacterium via electroporation.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Plant Biology

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Biotechnology (Plant Emphasis)