Kathleen Martin

EDUCATION

• 2011 Ph.D. Plant Pathology, University of Kentucky, Lexington
• 2005 M.S. Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson
• 2002 B.S. Biology, University of Nevada, Reno

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

• August 2019-Present Assistant Professor, Auburn University, Auburn, AL
• July 2017-August 2019 Post-doctoral Fellowship, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
• September 2014-July 2017 Post-doctoral Fellowship, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
• June 2011-September 2014 Research Plant Pathologist, USDA-ARS, Ames IA
• August 2005-June 2011 Research Assistant, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY

My lab is interested at looking at new and divergent plant viruses in the state of Alabama, including cotton leafroll dwarf virus (CLRDV). CLRDV is the causal agent of cotton blue disease and causes leaf curling, reddening on the leaves, stunting and yield loss on cotton plants. This virus is vectored by aphids in a circulative, non-persistent manner and understanding the complex relationship between the virus, aphids, cotton and other infected weedy species is critical for the management of this disease. As the identification of this virus as a causal agent of disease in Alabama was done in 2018, work understanding the genetics and proteins of CLDV is in its infancy compared to other viruses which share a similar genome organization and vector transmission. To do this work, we plan on utilizing modern sequencing techniques to understand the transcriptome of both the aphids and the infected plants, microscopy to understand localization, and cloning techniques to better understand this virus and how to manage it in the field.

Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) and Soybean vein necrosis virus (SVNV) are also of interest to understand how viruses that infect both plants and insects are able to function. We are interested in the conserved or divergent mechanisms between such different host cells. To do this work, we utilize microscopy to look at viral proteins in plant cells such as soybean, tobacco and insect cells (Sf9) to determine the localization of viral proteins in the presence and absence of infection. We also look at protein-protein interactions, both virus-virus and virus-host interactions to determine if these are conserved between insects and plants. Since both viruses are in the same viral genus, it is also important to look at the differences and similarities between the two viruses to understand more about the infection cycle in a shared host such as Nicotiana benthamiana. This comparison will prompt new discoveries about how viruses are different even when they seem very similar.

1. Livingston, R.M**., Mayfield, M*., Zhao, C., Strayer-Scherer, A., and Martin, K.M. (2025). Data collection and sequence analysis of Triticum aestivum samples from Alabama exhibiting symptoms of Barley yellow dwarf virus. Frontiers in Agronomy: Provisionally accepted. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/agronomy/articles/10.3389/fagro.2025.1721047/abstract
2. Schlarbaum, K.*, Rossi, G., Connor, K., Escalante, C., Balkcom, K., Lawrence, K., Martin,  K., Jacobson, A. (2025) Effects of Cotton Leafroll Dwarf Virus Infection in Cotton Grown. In High Heat Conditions. PhytoFrontiers. In press(accepted 2025). https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTOFR-06-25-0060-R
3. Shehata*, A.H.A., Cooke, C*., Mayfield, M.A.*, Clark, W*., Kaur, L.*, Rios, A.**, Burch, K.B., Jordan, H., Jacobson, A., Graham, S.H., Strayer-Scherer, A., and Martin, K.M. (2025) Unmasking Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus in Peanuts: From Nucleocapsid Protein Sequence and Localization to Practical Management in Alabama. In press (accepted 2025).https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-06-25-0204-R
4. Shehata, A.H.A., Coneva, E., Conner, K., and Martin, K.M. (2025). First report of GLRaV-3 infecting Vitis vinifera in Alabama. Plant Disease. In press (accepted) https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-09-25-1829-PDN  

1. Shehata. A.H.A. Livingston, R., Potnis, N., and Martin, K.M. (2025) Complete Genome Sequence of Soybean Vein Necrosis Virus (SVNV) from Alabama Microbiology Resource Announcements e00498-25. https://doi.org/10.1128/mra.00498-25.
2. Rios, A.C., Shehata, A.H.A., Strayer-Scherer, A., and Martin, K.M. (2025). Tracking early cytological changes following expression of NSm and N proteins from tomato spotted wilt virus field isolates. Journal of General Virology106(9):002151. https://doi.org/10.1099/jgv.0.002151
3. Clark, W., Livingston, R., Kumari, A., Hirsch, K., Koebernick, J., Kang, S.H., Price, A., Conner, K., Jacobson, A., and Martin, K.M. (2025). Construction and analysis of infectious and fluorescent clones of cotton leafroll dwarf virus from Alabama. PhytoFrontiers.  https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTOFR-11-24-0122-R
4. Shehata, A.H.A.*, Conner, K.N., Sikora, E.J., Strayer-Scherer, A., and Martin, K.M. (2025) First Report of the Detection of Soybean Vein Necrosis Virus (SVNV) in Peanut in Alabama. Plant Disease. (109) 9:2000. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-01-25-0209-PDN.
5. Cooke, C.*, Balkcom, K., Martin, K., Strayer-Scherer, A. and S. H. Graham. (2025) Evaluation of variety, planting date, and insecticide to manage thrips and tomato spotted wilt virus in peanuts. Peanut Science 52(1), p.80-88. https://doi.org/10.3146/0095-3679-52.1-PS1630  
6. Shehata, A.H.A., Mayfield, M., Sikora, E.J., and Martin, K.M. (2025) Characterization of Soybean Vein Necrosis virus (SVNV) Proteins: Sequence Analysis of Field Strains and Comparison of Localization Patterns in Differing Cell Types. Virology. 604 :110450. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2025.110450.
7. Zhao, C., Escalante, C., Jacobson, A.L., Balkcom, K.S., Conner, K.N. and K. M. Martin (2025) Metatranscriptomic and metagenomic analyses of the cotton aphids (Aphis gossypii) collected from a cotton field in Alabama, USA. Frontiers in Insect Science. 5:1461588 https://doi.org/10.3389/finsc.2025.1461588 .
8. Murphy, R., Cotton, J., Isabella, O., Carroll, J., Martin, K.M., Held, D., Lawrence, K., and Beckmann, J. (2025) Fast Screening Libraries of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPRs) for Insecticidal Activity. Journal of Applied Microbiology 136(3). https://doi.org/10.1093/jambio/lxaf054 .
9. Martin, K.M., Chen, Y., Mayfield, M.A., Montero-Astua, M., and Whitfield, A.E. (2025) Visualizing tomato spotted wilt virus protein localization: Cross-kingdom comparisons of protein-protein interactions. MPMI. 38: 84-96. https://doi.org/10.1094/MPMI-09-24-0108-R
10. Akinyuwa, M.F., Price, B.K., Martin, K.M., and Kang, S.H. (2023) A newly isolated cotton-infecting Polerovirus with cryptic pathogenicity encodes a weak suppressor of RNA silencing. Frontiers in Agronomy 5:1235168. https://doi.org/10.3389/fagro.2023.1235168
11. Heilsnis, B., Mahas, J.B., Conner, K., Pandey, S., Clark, W., Koebernick, J., Srinivasan, R., Martin, K.M., and Jacobson, A.L. (2023) Characterizing the vector competence of Aphis gossypii, Myzus persicae and Aphis craccivora (Hemiptera:Aphididae) to transmit cotton leafroll dwarf virus to cotton in the United States. J. of Economic Ent. 116:719-725. https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toad080
12. Alviar, K.B., Rotenberg, D., Martin, K.M., and Whitfield, A.E. (2022) The physical interactome between Peregrinus maidis proteins and the maize mosaic virus glycoprotein provides insights into the cellular biology of a rhabdovirus in the insect vector.  Virology 577: 163-173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2022.10.002   (This is also available as a Prepreint but was revised significantly in response to reviewer comments.)
13. Kanakala, S., Xavier, C.A.D., Martin, K.M., Tran, H.H., Redinbaugh, M.G., and Whitfield, A.E. (2022) Rescue of the first alphanucleorhabdovirus entirely from cloned complementary DNA: An efficient vector for systemic expression of foreign genes in maize and insect vectors. Mol. Plant Path. 00., 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1111/mpp.13273
14. Teh, H.W. Martin, K. and Whitfield, A.E. (2021) Design and Validation of plasmid vectors for characterizing protein-protein interactions in Spodoptera frugiperda insect cells. Phytofrontiers. Ja. 0.0. https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/abs/10.1094/PHYTOFR-09-21-0059-TA.
15. Dietzgen, R.G., Bejerman, N.E., Goodin, M.M., Higgins, C.M., Huot, O.B., Kondo, H., Martin, K.M. and Whitfield, A.E. (2020) Diversity and epidemiology of plant rhabdoviruses. Virus research, 281: 197942. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2020.197942  
16. Badillo-Vargas, I., Chen, Y., Martin, K.M., Rotenberg, D., and Whitfield, A.E. (2019) Discovery of novel thrips vector proteins that bind to the viral attachment protein of the plant bunyavirus, tomato spotted wilt virus. JVI. 00699-19. https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.00699-19
17. Martin, K.M. and Whitfield, A.E. (2019) Complete genome sequence of Maize mosaic virus.  Microbiol Resour Announc.   8: e00637-19. https://doi.org/10.1128/MRA.00637-19
18. Whitfield, A. E., Huot, O. B., Martin, K.M., Kondo, H., and Dietzgen, R. G. (2018) Plant Rhabdoviruses- their origins and vector interactions.  Curr. Opin Virol. 33:198-207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coviro.2018.11.002
19. Martin, K. and Whitfield A.E. (2018) Cellular localization and interactions of viral proteins of a nucleorhabdovirus are conserved between insect and plant cells. Virology. 523: 6-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2018.06.019
20. Majee, M., Kumar, S., Kathare, P.K., Wu, S., Gingerich, D., Nayak, N.R., Salaita, L., Dinkins, R., Martin, K., Goodin, M.G., Dirk, L.M.A., Lloyd, T.D., Zhu, L., Chappell, J., Hunt, A.G., Vierstra, R., Huq, E. and Downie, A. B. (2018) KELCH F-BOX protein positively influences seed germination by targeting PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR1. PNAS. 115(17): E4120-E4129. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1711919115
21. Martin, K.M., Barandoc-Alviar, K., Schneweis, D.J., Stewart, C.L., Rotenberg, D. and Whitfield, A.E. (2017) Transcriptomic response of the insect vector, Peregrinus maidis, to Maize mosaic rhabdovirus and identification of conserved responses to propagative viruses in hopper vectors.  Virology. 509: 71-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2017.05.019
22. Martin, K.M., Singh, J., Hill, J.H., Whitham, S.A. and Cannon, S.B. (2016) Dynamic Transcriptome Profiling of Bean common mosaic virus (BCMV) Infection in Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). BMC Gen. 17(1) 613.  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-016-2976-8
23. Martin, K.M., Hill, J.H. and Cannon, S. (2014) Occurrence and Characterization of Bean common mosaic virus Strain NL1 in Iowa.  Plant Dis. 98 (11) 1593. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-07-14-0673-PDN
24. Dietzgen, R., Martin, K., Anderson, G. and Goodin, M.M. (2012) In planta localization and interactions of Impatiens necrotic spot tospovirus proteins. J. Gen. Virol. 93: 2490-2495. https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.042515-0
25. Martin, K., Dietzgen, R., Wang, R., Goodin, M.M. (2012) Lettuce necrotic yellows cytorhabdovirus protein localization and interaction map, and comparison with nucleorhabdoviruses.  J. Gen. Virol. 93: 906-14. https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.038034-0
26. Min, B.E., Martin, K., Wang, R., Tafelmeyer, P., Bridges, M. and Goodin, M.M. (2010) A host-factor interaction and localization map for a plant-adapted rhabdovirus implicates cytoplasm-tethered transcription activators in cell-to-cell movement.  MPMI. 23: 1420-1432. https://doi.org/10.1094/MPMI-04-10-0097
27. Bandyopadhyay, A., Kopperud, K., Anderson, G., Martin, K. and Goodin, M.M. (2010) An integrated protein localization and interaction map for Potato yellow dwarf virus, type species of the genus Nucleorhabdovirus.  Virology. 20:61-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2010.03.013
28.  Martin, K., Kopperud, K., Chakrabarty, R., Banerjee, R., Brooks, R. and Goodin, M.M. (2009) Transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana fluorescent marker lines provides enhanced definition of protein localization, movement and interactions in planta. Plant J. 59:150-162. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-313X.2009.03850.x
29.  Idris, A.M., Mills-Lujan, K., Martin, K. and Brown, J.K.  (2008) Melon chlorotic leaf curl virus: Characterization and differential reassortment with closest relatives reveal adaptive virulence in the Squash leaf curl virus clade and host shifting by the host-restricted Bean calico mosaic virus. J. Virol. 82: 1959-67. https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.01992-07
30. Goodin, MM, Chakrabarty, R., Yelton, S., Martin, K., Clark, A. and Brooks, R. (2007) Membrane and protein dynamics in live plant nuclei infected with Sonchus Yellow Net virus, a plant-adapted rhabdovirus.  J. Gen. Virol. 88: 1810-20. https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.82698-0
31. Agarie, S., Shimoda, T., Shimizu, Y., Baumann, K., Sunagawa, H., Kondo, A., Ueno, O., Nakahara, T., Nose, A., Cushman, J.C. (2007) Salt tolerance, salt accumulation, and ionic homeostasis in an epidermal bladder-cell-less mutant of the common ice plant, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum.  J. Exp. Bot. 58: 1957-67. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erm057

1. Whitham, S. A., Eggenberger, A. L., Zhang, C., Chowda-Reddy, R. V., Martin, K. M., Hill, J. H. (2015). Recent advances in planta transient expression and silencing systems for soybean using viral vectors. In Recent Advances in Gene Expression and Enabling Technologies in Crop Plants. Edited by Azhakanandam, K., Silverstone, A., Daniell, H., Davey, M. Springer.

1. Shehata, A.H.A., Mayfied, M.A., Sikora, E.J., and Martin, K.M. (2024) Characterization of Soybean Vein Necrosis Virus (SVNV) Proteins: Sequence Analysis of Field Strains and Comparison of Localization Patterns in Differing Cell Types. BioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.11.26.625476 .
2. Martin, K.M., Chen, Y., Mayfield, M.A., Montero-Astua, M., and Whitfield, A.E. (2023) Visualizing tomato spotted wilt virus protein localization: Cross-kingdom comparisons of protein-protein interactions. BioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.11.27.568851
3. Barandoc-Alviar, K., Rotenberg, D., Martin, K.M. and Whitfield A.E. (2022) Identification of interacting proteins of maize mosaic virus glycoprotein in its vector, Peregrinus maidis. BioRxiv 2022.02.01.478665; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.01.478665

1. Waters, C., Shehata, A.H.A., and Martin, K.M. (2025) Localizing and Comparing the Nucleocapsid (N) of Four Orthotospoviruses in Nicotiana benthamiana. Highlight.
2. Rios, A.C., Shehata, A.H.A., Strayer-Scherer, A., and Martin, K.M. (2024) Localizing the Movement Protein (NSm) of Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus in Nicotiana benthamiana. Highlight.
3. Livingston, R., and Martin, K.M. (2023) Analyzing the Infection Efficiency of CLRDV in G. hirsutum and N. benthamiana by Agroinoculation.  Highlight. 136-138.
4. Mueller, N. and Martin, K.M. (2023) The optimization of Aphis gossypii rearing and RNA extraction methods. Highlight. 160-163.
5. McEachin, L.G., Jacobson, A.L., Strayer-Scherer, A., Graham, S.H., Martin, K.M., Cooke, C., Kaur, L., Campbell, H.L., Miller, H.B., and Parker, C. (2023) Monitoring TSWV in Alabama Peanut fields., Highlight. 154-156.