Kevin Hockett

Huck Early Career Chair; Associate Professor of Microbial Ecology

Kevin Hockett

Research Summary

Biological Control, Biology and Ecology of Plant-Microbe and Plant-Environment Interactions, Microbial Ecology and Population Biology Faculty

Huck Affiliations

Links

Most Recent Publications

Manipulating button mushroom casing affects the disease dynamics of blotch and green mold disease

Eoin O'Connor, Fabricio Vieira, I Di Tomassi, Rachel Richardson, Kevin L. Hockett, Carolee T. Bull, John A. Pecchia, 2024, Mycological Research on p. 2266-2273

Rarity of Pseudomonas agarici on Edible Mushrooms Associated with Susceptibility to Biological Competition

Mahsa Moallem, Mozhde Hamidizade, S. Taghavi, Milad Aeini, Hamid Abachi, Shahrad Haghighi, Ardavan Soleimani, Kevin L. Hockett, Carolee Theresa Bull, Ebrahim Osdaghi, 2024, Plant Disease on p. 2778-2787

Naïve Bayes Classifiers and accompanying dataset for Pseudomonas syringae isolate characterization

Chad Fautt, Estelle Couradeau, Kevin Hockett, 2024, Scientific data on p. 8

Manipulating Agaricus bisporus developmental patterns by passaging microbial communities in complex substrates

Fabricio Rocha Vieira, Isako Di Tomassi, Isako Di Tomassi, Eoin O'Connor, Carolee T. Bull, John A. Pecchia, Kevin Hockett, 2023, Microbiology spectrum on p. 22 (unformatted)

Passaging Phyllosphere Microbial Communities Develop Suppression Towards Bacterial Speck Disease in Tomato

Hanareia Ehau-Taumaunu, Kevin L. Hockett, 2023, Phytobiomes Journal on p. 233-243

Evaluation of the taxonomic accuracy and pathogenicity prediction power of 16 primer sets amplifying single copy marker genes in the Pseudomonas syringae species complex

Chad Fautt, Kevin Hockett, Estelle Couradeau, 2023, Molecular Plant Pathology on p. 989-998

Aerosolized Hydrogen Peroxide Decontamination of N95 Respirators, with Fit-Testing and Viral Inactivation, Demonstrates Feasibility for Reuse during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Thomas Derr, Melissa James, Chad Kuny, Devanshi Patel, Prem Kendell, Prem Kandel, Cassandra Field, Matthew Beckman, Kevin L. Hockett, Mark Bates, Troy Sutton, Moriah L. Szpara, 2022, mSphere on p. e00303-22

Transcriptional Profiles of a Foliar Fungal Endophyte (Pestalotiopsis, Ascomycota) and Its Bacterial Symbiont (Luteibacter, Gammaproteobacteria) Reveal Sulfur Exchange and Growth Regulation during Early Phases of Symbiotic Interaction

Justin P. Shaffer, Morgan E. Carter, Joseph E. Spraker, Meara Clark, Brian A. Smith, Kevin L. Hockett, David A. Baltrus, A. Elizabeth Arnold, 2022, mSystems

Prophylactic Application of Tailocins Prevents Infection by Pseudomonas syringae

David A. Baltrus, Meara Clark, Kevin L. Hockett, Madison Mollico, Caitlin Smith, Savannah Weaver, 2022, Phytopathology on p. 561-566

Genome Mining Shows Ubiquitous Presence and Extensive Diversity of Toxin-Antitoxin Systems in Pseudomonas syringae

Prem P. Kandel, Marina Naumova, Chad Fautt, Ravikumar R. Patel, Lindsay R. Triplett, Kevin L. Hockett, 2022, Frontiers in Microbiology

Most-Cited Papers

The Inherent Conflicts in Developing Soil Microbial Inoculants

Laura M. Kaminsky, Ryan V. Trexler, Rondy J. Malik, Kevin L. Hockett, Terrence H. Bell, 2019, Trends in Biotechnology on p. 140-151

Use of the soft-agar overlay technique to screen for bacterially produced inhibitory compounds

Kevin L. Hockett, David A. Baltrus, 2017, Journal of Visualized Experiments

Isolation of endohyphal bacteria from foliar Ascomycota and In Vitro establishment of their symbiotic associations

Kayla R. Arendt, Kevin L. Hockett, Sarah J. Araldi-Brondolo, David A. Baltrus, A. Elizabeth Arnold, 2016, Applied and Environmental Microbiology on p. 2943-2949

Independent co-option of a tailed bacteriophage into a killing complex in Pseudomonas

Kevin L. Hockett, Tanya Renner, David A. Baltrus, 2015, mBio on p. 11

100 years since Tolaas: Bacterial blotch of mushrooms in the 21<sup>st</sup> century

Ebrahim Osdaghi, Samuel Martins, Laura Ramos-Sepulveda, Fabrício Rocha Vieira, Fabrício Rocha Vieira, John A. Pecchia, David Beyer, Terrence H. Bell, Yinong Yang, Kevin L. Hockett, Carolee T. Bull, 2019, Plant Disease on p. 2714-2732

Manipulating Wild and Tamed Phytobiomes: Challenges and Opportunities

Alyssa Collins, Terrence H Bell, Kevin Hockett, P Esker, Ricardo Alcala-Briseno, B Gugino, Ricardo Alcalá-Briseño, Mary Barbercheck, K Peter, Gwyn Beattie, Mary Ann Bruns, John Carlson, Taejung Chung, A Collins, Bryan Emmett, Paul Esker, Karen Garrett, Leland Glenna, Beth K. Gugino, María Del Mar Jiménez-Gasco, M del Mar Jimenez Gasco, Maria del Mar Jimenez Gasco, Linda Kinkel, Jasna Kovac, Kurt Kowalski, Kurt Kowalski, Johan Leveau, J Myrick, Gretchen Kuldau, K Peter, Johan Leveau, Matthew Michalska-Smith, Maria Salazar, Jessica Myrick, Ashley Shade, Kari Peter, Nejc Stopnisek, Xiaoqing Tan, Maria fernanda Vivanco Salazar, Maria Salazar, Ashley Shade, Amy Welty, Nejc Stopinsek, Nejc Stopnisek, Kyle Wickings, Etienne Yergeau, Xiaoqing Tan, Amy Welty, Kyle Wickings, Etienne Wickings, Etienne Yergeau, 2019, Phytobiomes Journal on p. 3-21

Bacterial brown pit, a new disease of edible mushrooms caused by mycetocola sp.

Mozhde Hamidizade, S. Mohsen Taghavi, Samuel J. Martins, Rachel A. Herschlag, Kevin L. Hockett, Carolee T. Bull, Ebrahim Osdaghi, 2020, Plant Disease on p. 1445-1454

Transcriptional Profiles of a Foliar Fungal Endophyte (Pestalotiopsis, Ascomycota) and Its Bacterial Symbiont (Luteibacter, Gammaproteobacteria) Reveal Sulfur Exchange and Growth Regulation during Early Phases of Symbiotic Interaction

Justin P. Shaffer, Morgan E. Carter, Joseph E. Spraker, Meara Clark, Brian A. Smith, Kevin L. Hockett, David A. Baltrus, A. Elizabeth Arnold, 2022, mSystems

Factoring Ecological, Societal, and Economic Considerations into Inoculant Development

Terrence H Bell, Laura Kaminsky, Beth K Gugino, John E Carlson, Rondy Malik, Kevin Hockett, Ryan Trexler, 2019, Trends in Biotechnology on p. 572-573

Localized recombination drives diversification of killing spectra for phage-derived syringacins

David A. Baltrus, Meara Clark, Caitlin Smith, Kevin L. Hockett, 2019, ISME Journal on p. 237-249

News Articles Featuring Kevin Hockett

Jan 24, 2025

Harnessing mushroom microbiomes for better crop development

Microorganisms collected from the material in which button mushrooms are grown may benefit the development of future fungi crops, according to a study led by researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences and published in the journal Fungal Biology.

Full Article

Aug 28, 2024

Research teams receive $1.1 million to study microbiomes in agriculture

Two Penn State-led research teams have received funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture for projects investigating the ways microbiomes — the microorganisms in a particular environment, such as in soil or a living organism — can affect disease dynamics in agriculture.

Full Article

Dec 22, 2022

2022 Top 10 Most Popular Microbiome Center News Articles

The stories that made the year in 2022 for the Penn State Microbiome Center

Full Article

Jul 11, 2022

Above-ground microbial communities that quell plant diseases can be developed

Microbial communities naturally living on the leaves and stems of tomato plants can be manipulated to suppress diseases that reduce productivity, according to Penn State researchers, offering hope that growers someday can apply these mixtures of bacteria and fungi to protect plants and improve harvests.

Full Article

Jun 03, 2020

Huck graduate students among NSF award recipients

Five graduate students in Huck programs or involved with Huck centers, advised by faculty members in the College of Agricultural Sciences, were recipients or honorable mentions of National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.

Full Article

Apr 22, 2020

New decontamination protocol permits reuse of N95 respirators

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a shortage of personal protective equipment, including “N95” respirators, needed by frontline healthcare providers. A new protocol using aerosolized hydrogen peroxide to decontaminate N95 respirators could allow them to be safely reused in some hospital settings, where the disinfectant is already being used for other decontamination purposes.

Full Article

May 31, 2019

NIFA awards grant for microbial stress tolerance research

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) recently awarded Kevin Hockett $453,000 to assist in research focusing on how microbes tolerate distinct stresses.

Full Article