A. O'Brien

Having the 'right' microbiome matters for host trait expression and the strength of mutualism between duckweeds and microbes

This study shows that host fitness and trait expression depend on microbiome composition, with local adaptation between hosts and their microbiota, but not to high-zinc environments.

A highly sensitive cell-based luciferase assay for high-throughput automated screening of SARS-CoV-2 nsp5/3CLpro inhibitors

The paper develops a sensitive cell-based luciferase assay for high-throughput screening of SARS-CoV-2 nsp5/3CLpro inhibitors and identifies four effective compounds.

A common contaminant shifts impacts of climate change on a plant-microbe mutualism: effects of temperature, CO2 and leachate from tire wear particles

This study examines how climate change and tire wear particle leachate affect plant-microbe interactions in duckweed, showing that these stressors can alter mutualistic relationships and modify each other's impacts.

Resilience to multiple stressors in an aquatic plant and its microbiome

This study examines how salt and benzotriazole contaminants affect the mutualism between duckweed and its microbiome, finding conditional effects and no mutualistic buffering.