Ashlee McCaskill, Ph.D.

Ashlee McCaskill

Professor/ Environmental Leadership Center Director

Director of the Environmental Leadership Center

Phone706-864-1954

Office locationHealth and Natural Sciences, 409, Dahlonega

Area(s) of Expertise: Plant Biology, Molecular Biology, Mycology (Advising Area of Expertise: Biology, Pre-Dentistry)

Courses Taught

  • BIOL 1101/L - Biology-A Human Perspective/Lab
  • BIOL 1107K - Principles of Biology I
  • BIOL 3010K - Mycology
  • BIOL 3321K - General Botany
  • BIOL 4310K - Plant Taxonomy
  • BIOL 4311 - Botany Field Study
  • BIOL 4340K - Plant Physiology

Education

  • Ph.D., Plant Molecular Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 2007
  • B.S., Botany, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 1995

Research/Special Interests

Dr. McCaskill's thesis research focused on the analysis of symplastic phloem loading, using molecular genetic and traditional plant physiology tools. Using RNA interference to silence genes purported to be involved in phloem loading, she was able to support the validity of the Polymer Trap Model of symplastic phloem loading (McCaskill and Turgeon, 2007). 

She has two service projects. The first is the UNG Native Woodland Garden on the UNG Dahlonega campus. This is an educational resource for both the university and community at large. Her other service project is the collection and identification of fleshy fungi in the North Georgia Mountains, which are added to the UNG Fungal Herbarium.

Her current research projects include investigating the effects of imidacloprid (an insecticide used to treat hemlock trees for wooly adelgid infestation) on fungal growth and a molecular biology-based project investigating programmed cell death in phloem tissue.

Finally, she is the advisor for the student naturalist society (we’re still working on an official name). This is an organization of people that like to tramp through the woods, wade in creeks and look under rocks.

She is also an active member of the Southern Section of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ss-aspb.org).

Publications

Jones, S, M Davis, A McCaskill and F Corotto. Spadix Function in the Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum. Georgia Journal of Science, in press

Marshall, T, M Davis, A McCaskill and F Corotto. Spadix Function in Pinellia pedatisecta. Aroideana, in press

McCaskill, AR and R Turgeon.  (2007)  Phloem loading in Verbascum phoeniceum L. depends on the synthesis of raffinose family oligosaccharides.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104:  19619-19624.

McCaskill, AR and JJ Giovannoni.  (2002)  Use of molecular markers for fruit crop improvement.   In Molecular Techniques in Crop Improvement  (S. Mohan Jain, DS Brar, BS Ahloowalia, eds)  Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands, p283-297.

Personal Information

  • Northgeorgiafungi on Instagram
  • UNG Native Woodland Garden on Facebook