Malia Gehan, Ph.D.

Education

Ph.D. in Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 2012

B.A. in Biology, Willamette University, Salem, OR, 2006

Contact Information

mgehan@danforthcenter.org

Professional Experience

2024-present  Associate Member & Principal Investigator; Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

2024-present  Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Missouri, Saint Louis

2023-present  Taylor Geospatial Fellow

2023-present  Adjunct Associate Professor, Washington University in Saint Louis

2018-present  Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Missouri, Columbia

2016-2023  Assistant Member & Principal Investigator; Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

2015-2016  Research Scientist; Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

2012-2015  National Science Foundation Plant Genome Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow; Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Current Research Interests

The geographical distribution of food and bioenergy crops is limited by several factors including temperature, soil salinity, and water availability. To tackle the daunting challenge of producing more food and fuel with fewer inputs a variety of strategies to improve and sustain crop yields are necessary. Increasing crop tolerance to temperature stress to expand the geographical range and season in which they grow is one strategy to improve crops. Many plant species can increase their freezing or heat tolerance with prior exposure to moderate stress conditions through a process called acclimation. Within a plant species, there is natural variation in both basal temperature stress tolerance, as well as the degree to which stress tolerance increases under acclimation. While some processes of temperature stress acclimation are well studied, there is still much to understand about both acclimation and the mechanisms that underlie natural variation in basal and acclimated temperature stress tolerance. Our research aims to elucidate mechanisms of variation in basal and acclimated temperature stress tolerance with the long-term goal of improving crop temperature stress. A major hurdle in advancing crop stress tolerance is our ability to assess basal and acclimated stress non-destructively. Therefore, our group is also focused on developing new hardware (Tovar et al., 2018) and software tools (Gehan et al., 2017; Fahlgren et al., 2015) for non-destructive phenotyping. For example, we aim to use a state-of-the-art hyperspectral imaging platform in the Gehan Lab along with analysis tools we develop in our PlantCV image analysis software suite (Gehan et al., 2017; Fahlgren et al., 2015) to identify spectral signatures of early stress response. This goal not only can improve how we conduct basic research, but has potential applications for field-wide sensing of stress. The research goals of our group can be summarized by: 1) The development of biologically relevant resources for high-throughput phenotyping; and 2) The elucidation of mechanisms of abiotic stress response and natural variation in stress response that are applicable to the improvement of crop species.

Teaching Activities

2024 Biology 5702: Current Approaches in Plant and Microbial Research. WashU. 

2023 Biology 5702: Current Approaches in Plant and Microbial Research. WashU. 

2022 Biology 5702: Current Approaches in Plant and Microbial Research. WashU. 

2021 Biology 5702: Current Approaches in Plant and Microbial Research. WashU.

2020 Guest Lecture/Workshop on Phenomics. University of Missouri, Columbia 

2019 Guest Lecture/ Hands-on Workshop on Phenomics. UMSL.

2018 Guest Lecture, Iowa State University, Joshua Peschel (Engineering). 

2017 Biology 4025: Current Approaches in Plant and Microbial Research. WashU.

2016 Biology 4025: Current Approaches in Plant and Microbial Research. WashU.

2015 Biology 4025: Current Approaches in Plant and Microbial Research. WashU.

2014 Biology 4025: Current Approaches in Plant and Microbial Research. WashU.

Outreach

2024 Plant Tech Jam Organizer. Public event at Danforth Center showcasing plant science.

2023 Plant Tech Jam Organizer. Public event at Danforth Center showcasing plant science.

2022 PlantCV Plant Imaging Workshop. NAPPN Annual Conference, Athens, Georgia.

2021 HT-Phenotyping with Raspberry Pi Computers. Phenome Force Digital Workshop

2021 High-Throughput Phenotyping with PlantCV. KAUST Digital Workshop

2021 Introduction to Bioinformatics and Phenotyping. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center REU Program, St. Louis, MO (virtual). 

2021 Plants in Space Panelist

2021 PlantCV Plant Imaging Workshop. NAPPN Annual Conference (Virtual).

2020 Democratizing HT-Phenotyping with PlantCV. Phenome Force Digital Workshop

2020 Raspberry Pi Jam Organizer: outreach event attended by the community

2020 Phenome Plant Imaging Workshop Organizer and Instructor. Tucson, Arizona.

2019 Introduction to Bioinformatics and Phenotyping. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center REU Program, St. Louis, MO.

2019 Danforth Center Conversation Series Panelist

2019 Raspberry Pi Jam Organizer: outreach event attended by the community

2019 Phenome Plant Imaging Workshop Organizer and Instructor. Tucson, Arizona.

2018 Raspberry Pi Educational Booth for ASPB

2018 Introduction to Bioinformatics and Phenotyping. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center REU Program, St. Louis, MO.

2018 St. Louis Women on the Rise Ruth Oniang’o, Role: Moderator

2018 Raspberry Pi Jam Organizer: outreach event attended by the community

2018 Phenome Plant Imaging Workshop Organizer and Instructor. Tucson, Arizona.

2017 PlantCV Phenotyping Workshop, Shanghai, China.

2017 EPSCoR Imaging Workshop (Presenter)

2017 Introduction to Bioinformatics and Phenotyping. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center REU Program, St. Louis, MO.

2017 Phenotyping with Raspberry Pi Workshop for Teachers. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (three day workshop).

2017 Capturing Plants in Action Workshop with the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (three day workshop).

2017 Raspberry Pi Jam Organizer: outreach event attended by the community

2016 Introduction to Bioinformatics and Phenotyping. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center REU Program, St. Louis, MO.

2016 PlantCV Phenotyping Workshop Phenodays, Berlin, Germany.

2016 People Behind the Science Podcast: https://www.peoplebehindthescience.com/dr-malia-gehan/

2016 Capturing Plants in Action Workshop with the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (three day workshop). 

2016 Raspberry Pi Jam Organizer: outreach event attended by the community

2015 Introduction to Bioinformatics and Phenotyping. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center REU Program, St. Louis, MO.

2015 Capturing Plants in Action Workshop with the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (three day workshop).

2015 Missouri EPSCoR Computer Science Institute for Women. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO (three day workshop).

2015 Introduction to Raspberry Pi Computers: High-School Teacher’s Workshop. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO (three day workshop). 

2015 Raspberry Pi Jam Organizer: outreach event attended by the community

2014 Introduction to Bioinformatics and Phenotyping. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center REU Program, St. Louis, MO.

Research Community Service

2024 North American Plant Phenotyping Network Annual Meeting Organizing Committee

2023 North American Plant Phenotyping Network Annual Meeting Organizing Committee

2022 Chair of the North American Plant Phenotyping Network Executive Board 

2022 Chair of the North American Plant Phenotyping Annual Meeting Logistics Committee

2021 Chair of the North American Plant Phenotyping Annual Meeting Program Committee

2021 North American Plant Phenotyping Network Early Career Award

2021 Elected Co-Chair of the North American Plant Phenotyping Network Board

2020 Elected to the board of North American Plant Phenotyping Network 

2017 North American Plant Phenotyping Network Steering Committee (Ad hoc board)

Publications

1. Ludwig E, Sumner J, Polydore S, Berry J, Ficor T, Agnew E, Haine K, Greenham K, Fahlgren N, Mocker TC , Gehan MA*(2023) “Natural variation in Brachypodium distachyon responses to combined abiotic stresses.” Plant J. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tpj.16387.
2. Panda, K; Mohanasundaram, B; Gutierrez, J; McLain, L; Castillo, E; Sheng, H; Casto, A; Gratacos, G; Chakrabarti, A; Fahlgren, N; Pandey, S; Gehan, M; Slotkin, R. K, “The plant response to high CO2 levels is heritable and orchestrated by DNA methylation” (2023) New Phytologist. 
3. NAPPN CONFERENCE PAPER: Schuhl H, Peery JD, Gutierrez J, Gehan MA, Fahlgren N.  “Simplifying PlantCV workflows with multiple objects.” Authorea. November 04, 2022. 10.22541/au.166758437.76129704/v1. 
4. Castillo SE, Tovar JC, Shamin A, Gutierrez J, Pearson P, Gehan M.A.* (2022) “A Protocol For Chenopodium Quinoa Pollen Germination.” Plant Methods 18, 65. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13007-022-00900-3. 
5. Beyene G, Chauhan DR, Villmer J, Husic N, Wang N, Gebre E, Girma D, Chanyalew S, Assefa K, Tabor G, Gehan MA, McGrone M, Yang M, Lenderts B, Schwartz C, Gao H, Gordon-Kamm W, Taylor NJ, MacKenzie DJ. (2022) “CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Tetra-allelic Mutation of the “Green Revolution” SEMIDWARF-1 (SD-1) Gene Confers Lodging Resistance in Tef (Eragrostis tef).” Plant Biotechnol J. 2022;n/a. doi:10.1111/pbi.13842. 
6. Tovar JC, Berry JC, Quillatupa C, Castillo SE, Acosta-Gamboa L, Fahlgren N, Gehan, M.A.* (2022) “Heat stress changes mineral nutrient concentrations in Chenopodium quinoa seed.” Plant Direct. 6: e384. doi:10.1002/pld3.384. 
7. NAPPN CONFERENCE PAPER: Casto A, Schuhl H, Schneider D, Wheeler J, Gehan M, Fahlgren N. (2021). “Analyzing chlorophyll fluorescence images in PlantCV.” Earth and Space Science Open Archive. DOI: 10.1002/essoar.10508322.2. 
8. NAPPN CONFERENCE PAPER: Gutierrez Ortega JA, Castillo SE, Gehan M, Fahlgren N. (2021). “Segmentation of overlapping plants in multi-plant image time series.” Earth and Space Science Open Archive. DOI: 10.1002/essoar.10508337.2. 
9. Bird, Kevin A., Niederhuth, C.E., Ou, S., Gehan, M.A., Pires, J.C., Xiong, Z., VanBuren, R., and Edger, P.P. (2021). “Replaying the Evolutionary Tape to Investigate Subgenome Dominance in Allopolyploid Brassica Napus.” The New Phytologist 230 (1): 354–71. doi:10.1111/nph.17137. 
10. Tovar, J.C., Quillatupa, C., Callen, S.T., Castillo, S.E., Pearson, P., Shamin, A., Schuhl, H., Fahlgren, N., and Gehan, M.A.* (2020). “Heating Quinoa Shoots Results in Yield Loss by Inhibiting Fruit Production and Delaying Maturity.” The Plant Journal 102 (5): 1058–73. doi:10.1111/tpj.14699. 
11. Enders, T. A., St. Dennis, S., Oakland, J., Callen, S.T., Gehan, M.A., Miller, N.D., Spalding, E.P., Springer, N.M., Hirsch, C.D. (2019). Classifying Cold‐stress Responses of Inbred Maize Seedlings Using RGB Imaging. Plant Direct. https://doi.org/10.1002/pld3.104   
12. Tovar, J., Hoyer, J.S., Lin, A., Tielking, A., Callen, S., Castillo, E., Miller, M., Tessman, M., Fahlgren, N., Carrington, J., Nusinow,DA, and Gehan, M.A.*. (2018). Raspberry Pi Powered Imaging for Plant Phenotyping. Applications in Plant Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1002/aps3.1031 
13. Feldman, M.J., Ellsworth, P.Z., Fahlgren, N., Gehan, M.A., Cousins, A.B., and Baxter, I. (2017). Trait components of whole plant water use efficiency are defined by unique, environmentally responsive genetic signatures in the model C4 grass Setaria. Plant Direct doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/234708. 
14. Gehan, MA*, Fahlgren, N*, Abbasi, A, Berry, JC, Callen, ST, Chavez, L, Doust, A, Feldman, MJ, Gilbert, K, Hodge, J, Hoyer, JS, Lin, A, Liu, S, Lizarraga, C, Lorence, A, Miller M, Platon, E, Tessman, M, Sax, T. (2017) PlantCV v2.0: Image analysis software for high-throughput plant phenotyping. PeerJ.https://peerj.com/articles/4088/. 
15. Beyene, G., Solomon, F., Chauhan, R., Gaitan-Solis, E.,; Narayanan, N., Gehan, J., Siritunga, D., Stevens, R., Jifon, J., Van Eck, J., Linsler, E., Gehan, M., Ilyas, M., Fregene, M., Anderson, R., Sayre, R., Taylor, N., Cahoon, E. (2017) Biofortification of Cassava with Provitamin A Enhances Shelf-Life but Reduces Dry Matter Content of Storage Roots by Altering Carbon Partitioning into Starch. Plant Biotechnol. J. 16, 1186–1200 (2018). 
16. Huang, H., Gehan, M., Huss, S.E., Alvarez, S., Lizarraga, C., Gruebbling, E.L., Grier, J., Naldrett, M.J., Bindbeutel, R., Evans, B.S., et al. (2017). Cross-Species Complementation Reveals Conserved Functions For EARLY FLOWERING 3 Between Monocots And Dicots. Plant Direct. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pld3.18/full. 
17. Greenham, K. Guadagno, C.R., Gehan, M.A., Mockler, T.C., Weinig, C., Ewers, B.E., McClung, C.R. (2017). Temporal Network Analysis Identifies Early Physiological and Transcriptomic Indicators of Mild Drought in Brassica rapa. eLife. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.29655 
18. Gehan, M.A.*, Park, S., Gilmour, S., An, C., Lee, C.M., and Thomashow, M.F. (2015).  Natural variation in the C-Repeat Binding Factor (CBF) cold response pathway correlates with local adaptation of Arabidopsis ecotypes. The Plant Journal. doi: 10.1111/tpj.13027. 
19. Fahlgren, N. *, Feldman, M. *, Gehan, M.A.*, Wilson, M., Shyu, C., Bryant, D., Hill, S.T., McEntee, C.J., Warnasooriya, S., Kumar, I., Ficor, T., Turnipseed, S., Gilbert, K.B., Brutnell, T., Carrington, J.C., Mockler, T., and Baxter, I. (2015). A Versatile Phenotyping System and Analytics Platform Reveals Diverse Temporal Responses to Water Availability in Setaria. Molecular Plant. doi:10.1016/j.molp.2015.06.005. 
20. Dong, M.A.*, Farre, E.M., and Thomashow, M.F. (2011) CIRCADIAN CLOCK-ASSOCIATED 1 and LATE ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL regulate expression of the C-REPEAT BINDING FACTOR (CBF) pathway in Arabidopsis Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108: 7241-7246.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3084081/ 
21. Dong, M. A.*, Bufford, J., Oono, Y., Church, K., Dau, M., Michels, K., Haughton, M., and Tallman, G. (2007) Heat Suppresses Activation of an Auxin-Responsive Promoter in Cultured Guard Cell Protoplasts of Tree Tobacco Plant Physiol 145:367-377.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2048722/ 

PERSPECTIVES & REVIEWS (*Indicates First or Corresponding Author)

1. Murphy, K., Ludwig E., Gutierrez Ortega JA, Gehan MA*(2024) “Deep Learning in Plant Phenotyping.”Annual Reviews in Plant Biology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-arplant-070523-042828.
2. Casto, Anna L., Murphy, Katie, Gehan, M.A.*(2021). “Coping with Cold: Sorghum Cold Stress from Germination to Maturity.” Crop Science. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20609 
3. Casto, Anna L., Schuhl, H. , Tovar, J.C., Wang, Q., Bart, R.S., Fahlgren, N., and Gehan, M.A*. (2021). “Picturing the Future of Food.” The Plant Phenome Journal. Wiley. doi:10.1002/ppj2.20014. 
4. Carroll, A. A., Clarke, J.,Fahlgren, N., Gehan, M.A., Lawrence-Dill, C.J., Lorence, A. (2019) NAPPN: Who We Are, Where We Are Going, and Why You Should Join Us! The Plant Phenome Journal. doi:10.2135/tppj2018.08.0006 
5. International Arabidopsis Informatics Consortium. (2019). Arabidopsis Bioinformatics Resources: The Current State, Challenges, and Priorities for the Future. Plant Direct. doi:10.1002/pld3.109. 
6. Gehan, M.A.*, and Kellogg, E.A*. (2017). High-throughput phenotyping. Am. J. Bot. doi:10.3732/ajb.1700044. *-Corresponding Authors. 
7. Bucksch, A.; Atta-Boateng, A.; Azihou, A.F.; Balduzzi, M.; Battogtokh, D.; Baumgartner, A.; Binder, B.; Braybrook, S.; Chang, C.; Coneva, V.; DeWitt, T.; Fletcher, A.; Gehan, M.A.; Martinez, D.H.D.; Hong, L.; Iyer-Pascuzzi, A.; Klein, L.; Leiboff, S.; Li, M.; Lynch, J.; Maizel, A.; Maloof, J.; Markelz, R.J.C.; Martinez, C.; Miller, L.; Mio, W.; Palubicki, W.; Poorter, H.; Pradal, C.; Price, C.; Puttonen, E.; Reese, J.; Rellan-Alvarez, R.; Spalding, E.; Sparks, E.; Topp, C.; Williams, J.; Chitwood, D. (2017). Morphological plant modeling: Unleashing geometric and topological potential within the plant sciences.  Front. Plant Sci. 8, 900. 
8. Fahlgren, N.*, Gehan, M.A.*, Baxter, I (2015). Lights, camera, action: high-throughput plant phenotyping is ready for a close-up. Current opinion in plant biology 24 (2015): 93-99. *-These authors contributed equally. 
9. Gehan, M.A.*, Greenham, K.*, Mockler, T.C., McClung, C.R. (2015) Transcriptional Networks-crops, clocks, and abiotic stress. Current opinion in plant biology 24 (2015): 39-46. *-These authors contributed equally.