Laramy Enders

Active Mentor - currently hosting PULSe students for laboratory rotations and recruiting PULSe students into the laboratory; serves on preliminary exam committees

Current Research Interests:

Insects engage in diverse associations with microbial partners that range from parasitism to mutualism. Within both natural and agro-ecosystems the implications of microbial partnerships are important for determining how insects respond to environmental stress, overcome host plant defenses and spread diseases. For example, many insects are known for their symbiotic relationships with bacteria that play essential nutritional and defensive roles. In addition, insects are highly effective vectors of many plant pathogens. My research group is interested in understanding multi-trophic interactions between aphids, their symbionts and host plants. Ongoing research aims to investigate the extent to which the aphid microbiome mediates interactions with host plants and influences the transmission of plant pathogens. We primarily focus on a suite of aphid species that feed on toxic milkweed plants and several pest species that vector Barley yellow dwarf virus​ in cereal agro-ecosystems.

Selected Publications:

Enders, L., Girvin, J., Whitworth, J., Hefley, T., and C.M. Smith. Factors Affecting the Distribution and Abundance of Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus Vectors in Kansas. (In Review: Phytopathology)

Enders, L. and N. Miller. 2016. Stress induced changes in abundance differ among obligate and facultative endosymbionts of the soybean aphid. Ecology and Evolution. 6(3): 818-829.

Enders, L. and L. Nunney. 2016. Reduction in the cumulative effect of stress-induced inbreeding depression due to intra-generational purging in Drosophila melanogaster. Heredity. 116(3): 304-313.

Enders, L. and N. Miller. Chapter 7: Molecular Stress Biology of Aphids. 2016. In Biology and Ecology of Aphids. CRC Press, Editor: Andreas Vilcinskas. 

Enders, L., Bickel, R., Brisson, J., Heng-Moss, T., Siegfried, B., Zera, A. and N. Miller. Abiotic and biotic stresses causing equivalent mortality induce highly variable transcriptional responses in the Soybean Aphid. 2014. G3: Genes, Genomes, and Genetics. 5(2): 261-270.

Stamm, M., Enders, L., Donze-Reiner, T., Baxendale, F., Siegfried, B., and T. Heng-Moss. 2014. Transcriptional response of soybean to thiamethoxam seed treatment in the presence and absence of drought stress. BMC Genomics. 15(1): 1055.

Enders, L., Bickel, R., Brisson, J., Heng-Moss, T., Siegfried, B., Zera, A. and N. Miller. 2014. Soybean Aphid (Hemiptera:Aphididae) Response to Soybean Plant Defense: Stress Levels, Tradeoffs and Cross-virulence. Environ. Entom. 43(1): 47-57.

Enders, L. and L. Nunney. 2012. Seasonal stress drives predictable changes in inbreeding depression in field-tested captive populations of Drosophila melanogaster. Proc. Roy. Soc. B. 279(1743): 3756-3764. 

Reed, D., Fox, C., Enders, L., and T. Kristensen. 2012. Inbreeding-stress interactions: evolutionary and conservation consequences. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1256: 33-48.

Enders, L. and L. Nunney. 2010. Sex-specific effects of inbreeding in wild-caught Drosophila melanogaster under benign and stressful conditions. J. Evol. Bio. 23(11): 2309-2323.