College of Science

Assistant Professor Publishes Manuscript on Agricultural Microbiome Research

Department of Biology and Chemistry Assistant Professor, Dr. Jose Pablo Dundore-Arias, recently published a manuscript in the Phytobiomes Journal titled “Community-Driven Metadata Standards for Agricultural Microbiome Research.”

Dr. Dundore-Arias and his collaborators extensively reviewed existing metadata standards within agricultural microbiome research. In doing so, they were able to summarize the efforts to enhance data integration across various studies. Their overall goal is to increase discussion within their field in regards to adopting standardized data collection procedures and reporting protocols for agricultural microbiome research.

"Metadata is known as 'data about other data,' or in other words, the what, where, when, and how of the data or sample. This can include, for example, the crop, the sample location, the time of sampling, crop management factors, the method of DNA extraction, and many other factors," explains Dundore-Arias. "Developing a shared consensus of what needs to be reported about a microbiome sample is critical to advancing our field."

To read more, check out the official media release. To learn more about Dr. Jose Pablo Dundore-Arias’ research, check out the Plant Pathology Lab web page.