Education

B.S., Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1994

Ph.D., Plant Biology, University of Minnesota, 2001

Research Interests

My research interests focus on using biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics and genomics to understand the developmental and biochemical pathways that affect grain and bioenergy/forage quality in sorghum and other grasses.

Major Project Activities

• Elucidating mechanisms controlling lignin concentration and composition in sorghum cell walls through the brown midrib (bmr) mutants
• Investigating the enzymes in starch biosynthesis in sorghum grain
• Investigating the sorghum monolignol synthetic pathway and its regulation
• Understand how changes in cell wall composition impact abiotic and biotic stresses
• Elucidating mechanisms controlling phytic acid (phytate) concentration in sorghum grain

Publications

Google Scholar publication list

• Sattler, S. E., A. J. Saathoff, E. J. Haas, N. A. Palmer, D. L. Funnell-Harris, G. Sarath and J. F. Pedersen. 2009. A nonsense mutation in a cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase gene is responsible for the sorghum brown midrib6 phenotype. Plant Physiology 150: 584-595.
• Sattler, S. E., J. Singh, E. J. Haas, L. Guo, G. Sarath and J. F. Pedersen. 2009. Two distinct waxy alleles impact the granule-bound starch synthase in sorghum. Molecular Breeding 24: 349-359.
• Sattler, S. E., A. Saballos, Z. Xin, D. L. Funnell-Harris, W. Vermerris and J. F. Pedersen. 2014. Characterization of Novel Sorghum brown midrib Mutants from an EMS-Mutagenized Population. G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics 4: 2115-2124. 10.1534/g3.114.014001
• Scully, E. D., T. Gries, G. Sarath, N. A. Palmer, L. Baird, M. J. Serapiglia, B. S. Dien, A. A. Boateng, Z. Ge, D. L. Funnell-Harris, P. Twigg, T. E. Clemente and S. E. Sattler. 2016. Overexpression of SbMyb60 impacts phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and alters secondary cell wall composition in Sorghum bicolor. The Plant Journal 85: 378-395. 10.1111/tpj.13112
• Tetreault, H. M., S. Grover, E. D. Scully, T. Gries, N. A. Palmer, G. Sarath, J. Louis and S. E. Sattler. 2019. Global Responses of Resistant and Susceptible Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) to Sugarcane Aphid (Melanaphis sacchari). Frontiers in Plant Science 10: 19. 10.3389/fpls.2019.00145