Elle Barnes
Assistant Professor
Elle Barnes
Assistant Professor
Bio
I am a community and microbial ecologist interested in anthropogenic effects on environmental health and disease. I apply molecular, computational, and theoretical techniques to explore how host-microbe-environment interactions influence biodiversity patterns across space and time. I am especially interested in applying modern 'omic techniques (e.g., genomics) traditionally used in human medicine to issues in wildlife conservation--expanding the toolkit of conservation practitioners through less invasive and cheaper environmental methods.
In my lab, we use salamander-associated microbiomes as model systems to ask: how do you build a beneficial microbiome? We do this through field and lab-based experiments that empirically test core eco-evolutionary theories, such as community assembly theory. We are also a group that is extremely passionate about science education and literacy and advocates of mental health and diversity in STEM.
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Halliday, F. W., Barnes, E. M., Ojima, M. N., & Stiver, I. (2024). On the hunt for facilitation in symbiont communities. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2024.07.009
Barnes, E. M., Hartman, K., Chiniquy, D., Zhao, W., Liu, P., Creech, C., ... & Tringe, S. G. (2024). Abiotic stress reorganizes rhizosphere and endosphere network structure of Sorghum bicolor. Phytobiomes Journal. DOI: 10.1094/PBIOMES-02-24-0012-R
Stroud, J. T., Delory, B. M., Barnes, E. M., Chase, J. M., De Meester, L., Dieskau, J., ... & Fukami, T. (2024). Priority effects transcend scales and disciplines in biology. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2024.02.004
Qiao, Z., Barnes, E.M., Tringe, S., Schachtman, D. P., & Liu, P. (2023). Poisson hurdle model-based method for clustering microbiome features. Bioinformatics, 39(1), btac782. DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btac782
Barnes, E. M., & Tringe, S. G. (2022). Exploring the roles of microbes in facilitating plant adaptation to climate change. Biochemical Journal, 479(3), 327-335. DOI: 10.1042/BCJ20210793
Barnes, E. M., Kutos, S., Naghshineh, N., Mesko, M., You, Q., & Lewis, J. D. (2021). Assembly of the amphibian microbiome is influenced by the effects of land???use change on environmental reservoirs. Environmental Microbiology, 23(8), 4595-4611. DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.15653
Chiniquy, D., Barnes, E. M., Zhou, J., Hartman, K., Li, X., Sheflin, A., ... & Tringe, S. G. (2021). Microbial community field surveys reveal abundant Pseudomonas population in sorghum rhizosphere composed of many closely related phylotypes. Frontiers in microbiology, 12, 598180. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.598180
Barnes, E. M., Carter, E. L., & Lewis, J. D. (2020). Predicting microbiome function across space is confounded by strain-level differences and functional redundancy across taxa. Frontiers in Microbiology, 11, 101. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.00101
Currently Teaching
In the News
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March 21, 2024
Genomics lab allows scientists and students to help protect the local ecosystem
Within Brown Hall on RIT’s campus, newly renovated lab spaces house state-of-the-art equipment allowing for essential research. One such space is the genomics lab, where Elle Barnes, assistant professor in the Thomas H. Gosnell School of Life Sciences, is working to help protect one of the key members of the local ecosystem: salamanders.