Jana U'Ren

I am an evolutionary biologist broadly interested in the molecular systematics, evolution and ecology of plants, bacteria and endophytic fungi.  After completing my B.A. in Biology at University of Missouri-Columbia in 2001, I was a laboratory technician with Dr. Brandon Gaut at the University of California-Irvine from September 2001 to September 2002.  My work in the Gaut lab was focused on the molecular evolution of Zea mays ssp. mays.  From 2003 to 2006, I was a research specialist at the Center for Microbial Genetics and Genomics at Northern Arizona University with Dr. Paul Keim.  My work focused on utilizing high-throughput molecular methods to study the population genetics, evolution, and ecology of bacterial pathogens such as Bacillus anthracis, Coxiella burnetii and Burkholderia pseudomallei.  I am currently a graduate student in Betsy Arnold’s lab in the department of Plant Sciences, Division of Plant Pathology and Microbiology at University of Arizona and a fellow in the IGERT program in Evolutionary, Functional and Computational Genomics.  My projects include examining the evolutionary history of seed-associated fungi in the tropics, as well as the diversity and phylogenetic relationships of endophytic and saprotrophic fungi. 

Jana's publications:

U’Ren JM, Hornstra H, Pearson T, Schupp JM, Leadem B, Georgia S, Sermswan RW, Keim P. 2007. Fine Scale Genetic Diversity among Burkholderia pseudomallei Soil Isolates in Northeast Thailand. Journal of Applied and Environmental Microbiology 73(20):6678-6681.

Van Ert MN, Easterday WR, Huynh LY, Okinaka RT, Hugh Jones ME, Ravel J, Zanecki SR, Pearson T, Simonson TS, U’Ren JM et al. 2007. Global Genetic Population Structure of Bacillus anthracis. PLoS One: 5(e461).

U'Ren JM, Schupp JM, Pearson T, Hornstra H, Friedman CLC, Smith KL, Daugherty RRL, Rhoton SD, Leadem B, Georgia S et al. 2007. Tandem repeat regions within the Burkholderia pseudomallei genome and their application for high resolution genotyping. BMC Microbiology: 7.

Pearson T, U'Ren JM, Schupp JM, Allan GJ, Foster PG, Mayo MJ, Gal D, Choy JL, Daugherty RL, Kachur S et al. 2007. VNTR analysis of selected outbreaks of Burkholderia pseudomallei in Australia. Infection, Genetics and Evolution: 7(4):416-423.

Van Ert MN, Easterday WR, Simonson TS, U'Ren JM, Pearson T, Kenefic LJ, Busch JD, Huynh LY, Dukerich M, Trim CB et al. 2007. Strain-specific single-nucleotide polymorphism assays for the Bacillus anthracis Ames strain. Journal of Clinical Microbiology: 45(1):47-53.

U'Ren JM, Van Ert MN, Schupp JM, Easterday WR, Simonson TS, Okinaka RT, Pearson T, Keim P. 2005. Use of a real-time PCR TaqMan assay for rapid identification and differentiation of Burkholderia pseudomallei and Burkholderia mallei. Journal of Clinical Microbiology: 43(11):5771-5774.

Pearson T, Busch JD, Ravel J, Read TD, Rhoton SD, U'Ren JM, Simonson TS, Kachur SM, Leadem RR, Cardon ML et al. 2004. Phylogenetic discovery bias in Bacillus anthracis using single-nucleotide polymorphisms from whole-genome sequencing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America: 101(37):13536-13541.

Tenaillon MI, U'Ren J, Tenaillon O, Gaut BS. 2004. Selection versus demography: A multilocus investigation of the domestication process in maize. Molecular Biology and Evolution: 21(7):1214-1225.