- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's a name coined by futurist Herman Kahn in a 1967 essay describing a theoretical United States megalopolis extending from the metropolitan area of Boston to that of Washington, D.C.," according to Wikipedia.
Fast forward to the next seminar hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Research entomologist Vince D'Amico of the USDA's Forest Service Philadelphia Field Station will speak on "Monitoring and Ecological Research in the Forests of the BosWash Megalopolis" at 4:10 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 9 in an in-person and virtual seminar hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
The seminar will take place in 122 Briggs Hall. The Zoom link is https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/99515291076
BosWash Megalopolis is the heavily populated area extending from Boston to Washington and including New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
"The temperate deciduous forest biome covers about 5 percent of the Earth's surface, but is home to 25 percent of the human population," D'Amico says in his abstract. "Once a huge tract of forested land, this area now consists of many thousands of small, heterogenous forests. Research in the FRAME (FoRests Among Managed Ecosystems) program is conducted over a network of permanent forest sites in the BosWash Megalopolis of the U.S. East Coast, to answer ecological questions at many trophic levels. I will discuss the results of some of this research."
FRAME researchers target temperate deciduous forests in the Anthropocene age, a current geological age viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.
From the website: "Our current work includes experimental and observational studies of soil and key species to understand interactions between plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates. Other research is focused on monitoring, manipulations aimed directly at site improvement, and technology transfer for better management of urban forest fragments. As of 2022, there are 60 FRAME sites in MA, PA, DE, MD and NC."
D'Amico, a 25-year research entomologist with USDA, has served on the adjunct faculty of the University of Delaware since 2001. His expertise includes ecosystems ecology, urban ecology an invasion ecology. D'Amico received his bachelor's degree in biology in 1989, and his doctorate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The Wednesday seminars are coordinated by nematologist Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. For technical issues, contact ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
"Scientists now understand how certain animals can feed on picturesque, orange monarch butterflies, which are filled from head to abdomen with milkweed plant toxins.
"In high enough concentrations, milkweed can kill a horse, or a human. To be able to eat this plant, monarchs evolved a set of unusual cellular mutations. New UC Riverside research shows the animals that prey on monarchs also evolved these same mutations.
"A Current Biology journal article, published Nov. 22, 2021, describes the research that revealed these mutations in four types of monarch predators — a bird, a mouse, a parasitic wasp, and a worm." --EurekAlert.
The leading author of that research article, evolutionary biologist Simon "Niels" Groen, an assistant professor at UC Riverside, will discuss "Plant Toxins and the Evolution of Host-Parasite Interactions" when he presents a seminar to the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology at 4:10 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 2 in 122 Briggs Hall.
He will speak in person. The lecture also will be broadcast simultaneously on Zoom. The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/99515291076.
"Plants interact with incredibly diverse groups of animals including plant-feeding insects and nematodes as well as their natural enemies," Groen says in this abstract. "These interactions are influenced by toxic defensive chemicals that plants make. In my talk, I will focus on how plants evolved variation in production of these defensive chemicals and how animal parasites in turn evolved mechanisms enabling them to handle such toxins."
Groen, who joined the UC Riverside faculty in July 2021 following his postdoctoral research position (2014 to 2021) in the Noah Whiteman laboratory, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, focuses his research on "understanding molecular mechanisms of adaptation in the context of species interactions and fluctuating environmental conditions."
A native of the Netherlands, he received his bachelor's degree and masters degree in biology from Wageningen University, Netherlands, and his doctorate in plant sciences from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Groen served as a visiting researcher from 2007 to 2008 in the Department of Multi-Trophic Interactions, Netherlands Institute of Ecology, and as a visiting researcher from 2008 to 2012 in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University.
"Growing up in The Netherlands, I became fascinated with plants and their responses to ever-changing environmental conditions while working as a 'ziekzoeker' in tulip fields outside of school hours," he writes in an author profile on the American Society of Plant Biologists website. The site featured him as the first author of “Evolutionary Systems Biology Reveals Patterns of Rice Adaptation to Drought-Prone Agro-Ecosystems," published Nov. 15, 2021 in the journal Plant Cell.
"A 'ziekzoeker' looks for diseased plants and I searched in particular for variegated white and red tulips--the ones you'd recognize from a golden-age Dutch still life painting," Groen related. "I learned how these tulips are infected with an aphid-transmitted virus and during my PhD in the group of John Carr at the University of Cambridge, I would further investigate the molecular mechanisms of how virus infections would change plant interactions with aphids and pollinators. I was gripped by the role that plant defensive chemicals play in shaping species interactions and I continued to study these as a postdoc with Noah Whiteman at the University of Arizona and the University of California, Berkeley.'
On the author page, he chronicled his previous work on the interactions between milkweeds and the monarch butterfly "and found out how the monarch evolved resistance to the cardenolide toxins that milkweeds make. While this work mostly revolved around a single gene of large effect, typically several or many genes are involved in organisms' evolutionary responses. As a Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation fellow in the group of Michael Purugganan at New York University, I learned about the latest developments in evolutionary genomics and systems biology while investigating patterns of natural selection on gene expression in rice populations that we grew under wet and dry field conditions with our collaborators at the International Rice Research Institute in The Philippines."
"The current paper (Plant Cell) is a culmination of this research," Groen related. "We found that under field drought rice plants do not just respond to changes in water availability, but also to concomitant changes in abundance of soil microbes that they interact with. As assistant professor in the Department of Nematology at the University of California, Riverside, I will continue to study rice and milkweed as well as plants from the nightshade family and look at the complex evolutionary tug-of-war between these plants and parasitic nematodes. Combining laboratory and field experiments, we will zoom in on the central role that plant chemicals play by using approaches from evolutionary and systems biology like the ones we describe in our paper."
Nematologist Shahid Siddique, assistant professor in the Department of Entomology and Nematology, coordinates the winter quarter seminars. He may be reached at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu for any technical issues involving the Zoom connection.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The UC Davis Department of Nematology's winter quarter seminars will take place on Wednesdays at 4:10 p.m., beginning Jan. 5 and continuing through March 9, announced seminar coordinator and nematologist Shahid Siddique, assistant professor.
Both in-person and virtual seminars will be broadcast via Zoom at https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/99515291076. The in-person seminars will be in 122 Briggs Hall.
First on tap is agroecologist Randa Jabbour of the University of Wyoming, who will present a virtual presentation at 4:10 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 5 on "Interdisciplinary Collaborations in Pest Management Research--My Alfalfa Weevil Stories." UC Extension agricultural entomologist Ian Grettenberger, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology will host the seminar.
"Alfalfa weevil was first found in the Western United States in the early 1900s and continues to be a particularly problematic pest in the Western United States," Jabbour says in her abstract. "I will share current research to improve sustainability of alfalfa weevil management, much of which centers on timing –both harvest timing and pesticide spray timing. I will talk about my favorite things: biological control, interdisciplinarity, farmer perspectives, and new ideas from grad students."
Jabbour holds a bachelor of science degree (2003) from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a doctorate from Pennsylvania State University, where she focused on the biological pest control of insects. She served as a postdoctoral scholar from 2009 to 2010 at Washington State University, where "I studied the effects of pathogen diversity on host mortality of the Colorado potato beetle, gaining perspective in both biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research and the practical realities of 'big ag' potato fields." She completed a second post-doctoral position at the University of Maine, where she engaged in "balanced teaching and research responsibilities."
Jabbour's research at the University of Maine, in collaboration with social scientists and her supervisor Eric Gallandt, characterized New England organic farmer weed management philosophies, she wrote on her website. "This project was a great opportunity for me to incorporate the human dimension of pest management into my ecological research. I also collaborated with MS student Sonja Birthisel to quantify sources of variation of weed seed predation rates in a diverse Maine agricultural landscape. I particularly appreciate learning from the extensive experience of farmers, and I am passionate about supporting local food systems. I enjoy exploring the dramatic landscapes of the West, and feel as if I have just barely begun traveling around the big wondrous expanse that is my new home in Wyoming-- lots of ground to cover! In my spare time, I enjoy hiking, road trips, cooking, yoga, trying to be a runner again, and reading all sorts of things."
For the full schedule, see this page. For seminar technical issues, Siddique may be reached at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Nematologist Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, not only excels at research, teaching and public service but he serves as the coordinator of the department's weekly seminars for the 2021-22 academic year. And he's the host for many of the speakers as well.
Siddique, who holds a doctorate in agriculture and biotechnology from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria, joined the UC Davis faculty in March 2019 (see news story), after serving as a research group leader for several years at the University of Bonn, Germany.
The fall quarter seminars just ended, and the winter quarter seminars will begin Jan. 5 and continue through March 9. They take place on Wednesdays at 4:10 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall, located off Kleiber Hall Drive. The topics range from alfalfa weevil to the yellow-fever mosquito.
"Both in-person and virtual seminars will be broadcast via Zoom at https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/
The schedule:
Randa Jabbour, associate professor, agroecology, University of Wyoming
Virtual seminar
Title: "Interdisciplinary Collaborations in Pest Management Research--My Alfalfa Weevil Stories"
Host: Ian Grettenberger, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Jan. 12, 2022
Sylvia Fischer, Mosquito Study Group, Department of Ecology, Genetics and Evolution, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Virtual seminar
Title: "Recent Expansion of Aedes aegypti Distribution: Are the Populations Adapting to Colder Climate Regions?"
Host: Erin "Taylor" Kelly, doctoral student in the Geoffrey Attardo lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Jan. 19, 2022
Megan Meuti, assistant professor, Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University
Virtual seminar
Title: "How Do Mosquitoes Correctly Interpret Environmental Signals into Complex Seasonal Responses?"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Jan. 26, 2022
Tobin Hammer, postdoctoral researcher, University of Texas, Austin (he will start as an assistant professor in UC Irvine's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department in January 2022)
In-person seminar
Title: "Diversity and Dynamism in Social Bee Microbiomes"
Host: Rachel Vannette, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Feb. 2, 2022
Simon Niels Groen, assistant professor, Department of Nematology, UC Riverside
In-person seminar
Title: "Plant Toxins and the Evolution of Host-Parasite Interactions"
Host: Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Feb. 9, 2022
Vince D'Amico, research entomologist, Communities and Landscapes of the Urban Northwest, U.S. Department of Agriculture
In-person seminar
Title: "Monitoring and Ecological Research in the Forests of the BosWash Megalopolis"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Feb. 16, 2022
Michelle Heck, adjunct associate professor and research molecular biologist, Boyce Thompson Institute, Ithaca, N.Y.
Virtual seminar
Title: Topic to be announced (Her program uses a combination of molecular, genetic, and proteomics approaches to understand how insects transmit plant pathogens and how pathogens manipulate host plants to ensure replication and transmission. A second area of research is the development of new pest management tools to enhance cultural control and to provide new management strategies for insect vector-borne diseases in plants)
Host: Tiffany Lowe-Power, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Plant Pathology
Feb. 23, 2022
Adam Steinbrenner, assistant professor, Department of Biology, University of Washington
In-person seminar
Title: "Plant Immune Recognition of Insect Herbivores"
Host: Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
March 2, 2022
Erica Henry, postdoctoral scholar, conservation biology, North Carolina State University
In-person seminar
Title: "Insect Conservation in an Uncertain Future"
Host: Emily Meineke, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
March 9, 2022
Melissa Mitchum, professor, plant nematology, University of Georgia
Virtual seminar
Title: "The Tricks Phytonematodes Use to Modulate Plant Development"
Host: Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
For any Zoom technical issues, Siddique may be reached at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Coomer, who delivered her video presentation on “Trade-Offs Between Virulence and Breaking Resistance in Root-Knot Nematodes,” was selected one of the nine finalists in a global graduate student competition sponsored by the International Federation of Nematologists (IFN). The final round will take place later this month.
Coomer joins only one other graduate student from the United States in the finals: Bhupendra Bhatta of the University of Idaho, Moscow. The others are from universities in England, Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Kenya, Belgium and South Africa.
IFN hosts the competition "to cultivate student academic and research communication skills, and to enhance overall awareness of nematodes and the science of nematology."
The awards will be announced before January 2022. The first-, second-, and third-place winners will be awarded busaries and plaques at the 7th International Congress of Nematology, set May 1-6 in Antibes, France.
For the competition, the participants were required to present only a single static slide, and not use any props or sound-effects. Judges scored them on the quality of their research presentation, ability to communicate research to non-specialists, and the 3MT slide. Each was to use lay language.
In her presentation, Coomer began with: “Root-knot nematodes, specifically the MIG-group, consisting of Meloidogyne incognita, javanica, and arenaria, are the most damaging of the plant parasitic nematodes causing severe yield loss in over 2,000 different plant species including tomatoes. The Mi-gene, which is a resistance gene in tomato, has been used in commercial farming and has been praised for its effectiveness towards the MIG group. This gene has been cloned but the mechanisms of how it's resistance works is still unknown.”
“We do know that with the presence of the MI gene, plants are more durable and will restrict infection and reproduction, by inducing an immune response within the plant,” Coomer pointed. “Although this resistance gene has been reliable for many decades, resistance breaking strains of root-knot nematodes have emerged threatening the tomato industry.”
Coomer related that her research “compares two strains of the root-knot nematode M. javanica. One strain is the wildtype, which has been isolated from fields, we will refer to it as VW4. This nematode can infect tomato plants, but when the MI gene is present, the nematode is blocked from successfully infecting. The other strain is a naturally mutated version of VW4. This strain breaks the resistance provided by the MI gene and therefore infects plants that contain the MI gene. I have labeled this strain as VW5. With the help of research like mine we can stay ahead of the resistance breaking strains and prevent major crop loss in the future.”
“Sequencing the entire genome of VW5 when compared to VW4, we can see that there is a large deletion in its genome, but we have yet to find out what genes were deleted and how important they are when it comes to infecting other plants,” she continued. “My research is focusing on what happens when we infect the resistance breaking strain, VW5 on plants not containing the MI gene.”
In detailing her research, she said “My infection assays have been designed as displayed by the flow chart. Tomato and cucumber were used since neither variety contained the MI gene. 500 J2s were inoculated and at 34 days post inoculation, roots were harvested, and eggs were collected. After staining, galls were dissected, and nematode stage development was recorded for juveniles and females; comparisons between the two roots were made. As displayed by the graph and image, consistently, we see a reduction in the number of eggs produced in plants infected with VW5 than with VW4. The image also shows significant reduction in galls for VW5s as well. Two main objectives remain for this project: How does VW5 break MI resistance and why is VW5 less fit on plants that do not contain the MI gene. With the help of further infection assays and genomic data regarding gene presence and transcription analysis we hope to shed light on this process, identify candidate genes in action, and overall identify how the mechanism of the MI gene works.”
Coomer, a doctoral student in plant pathology with an emphasis on nematology, is working on her dissertation, "Plant Parasitic Nematode Effectors and Their Role in the Plant Defense Immune System," advised by Siddique.
Coomer, originally from the St. Louis, Mo., area, received two bachelor degrees--one in biology and the other in chemistry--in May 2020 from Concordia University, Seward, Neb., where she won the Outstanding Graduate Student in Biology Award. She served as a biology lab assistant and taught courses in general biology and microbiology.
As a biological science aide/intern, Coomer did undergraduate research in the Sorghum Unit of USDA's Agricultural Research Service. Lincoln, Neb. Her work included collecting, prepping and analyzing DNA, RNA and proteins to identify genes that contribute to an under- and over-expression of lignin in sorghum plants.
