- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The 10th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum program is going virtual this year through a variety of live webinars and recorded presentations scheduled throughout the month of February. The science-based event traditionally takes place only on one day--the Saturday of Presidents' Weekend, when campus visitors can meet scientists and see and discuss their work.
This year, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, plans changed, noted spokesperson Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology. The biodiversity event will feature 12 museums or collections going virtual:
- Anthropology Museum
- Arboretum and Public Garden
- Bohart Museum of Entomology
- Botanical Conservatory
- California Raptor Center
- Center for Plant Diversity
- Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven
- Nematode Collection
- Marine Invertebrate Collection
- Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology
- Paleontology Collection
- Phaff Yeast Culture Collection
For the schedule, access the live talks and demonstrations and pre-recorded talks and activities on the UC Davis Biodiversity program website.
Here's a handy list of the live talks and demonstrations, by dates:
Tuesday, Feb 9, 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m.
Live Talk: All About Bees and Gardens
Christine Casey, manager of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's half-acre bee garden, the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, located on Bee Biology Road, will discuss what's blooming the garden, and what bees are active. Participants can then ask questions about their own bee gardens. This event will repeat on Tuesday, Feb. 9 and Tuesday, Feb. 23. A summary of the talk and the answers provided will be posted on Feb. 26. Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2 to 3 p.m.
Live Talk: All About Social Behavior in Bees (especially orchid bees!)
UC Davis postdoctoral researcher Nick Saleh will discuss and answer questions about social behavior in bees especially orchid bees. He is interested in the behavior of all bees, but focuses his work on orchid bees, a group of tropical bees which form social groups of just two or three individuals. He also will discuss other social behaviors of bees. He holds a bachelor's degree in biological sciences from Cornell University, and a doctorate from UC Davis, where he works with associate professor Santiago Ramirez.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
Thursday, Feb 11, 1 to 2 p.m.
Live Talk: All About Plants at the Botanical Conservatory
Ernesto Sandoval, director of the Botanical Conservatory, will give a virtual tour through photos and talk about the living plants in their green houses, from the cacao tree to the stinky corpse flower that blooms for just 24-36 hours.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
Saturday, Feb. 13, 10 a.m. to noon
Live Demonstration, Museum Bird Preparation
Irene Engilis, collections manager of the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, and a team of students and staff will demonstrate how to prepare a dead bird as a scientifically valuable museum specimen. They will answer questions about the process and how they study birds both in the museum and in the wild. This includes a prerecorded presentation from 10 to 10:20, followed by a 20-minute pre-recorded presentation, and then a live question and answer session.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
Saturday, Feb. 13, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Live Talk: Phaff Yeast Collection Presentation
A 20-minute pre-recorded presentation on the Phaff Yeast Collection is set from 10 to 10:20, followed by a live question-and-answer session. Emeritus Professor Marc-André Lachance, recently retired from Western University in Ontario, Canada and a UC Davis alumnus, will discuss his global yeast collecting expeditions.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
Saturday, Feb. 13, 11 a.m. to noon
Live Talk: All About Ants
Rising entomologists Jill Oberski and Ziv Lieberman, doctoral students of major professor Phil Ward, will host a question-and-answer session "all about the world of ants," followed by a 15-minute talk by doctoral candidate Zach Griebenow about his ant evolution research. Griebenow will answer questions following his presentation. There also will be an ant talk on Feb. 20 from 11 a.m. to noon with their major professor Phil Ward. Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
Saturday, Feb. 13, noon to 2 p.m.
Live Demonstration: Museum Mammal Preparation
Irene Engilis, collections manager of the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, and a team of students and staff will show how to prepare a dead mammal as a scientifically valuable museum specimen. They will answer questions about the process and how they study mammals, both in the museum and in the wild.
Saturday, Feb. 13, 1 to 2 p.m
Live Talk: Raptor Diversity
Julie Cotton, education director of the California Raptor Center, located on Old Davis Road, will answer questions and discuss birds of prey, wildlife rehabilitation and the diversity of raptors.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
Saturday, Feb. 13, 2 to 4 p.m.
Live Talks: Anthropology and Ask an Anthropologist
- Faculty and staff from the Department of Anthropology will present a series of talks. Questions are encouraged throughout the event, and there will also be a special time at the end to "Ask An Anthropologist."
- 2 to 2:15: "Animal Ecology in Precontact California"--Jelmer Eerkens
- 2:15 to 2:30: "Gorillas, Poop, and Nematodes--Neetha Iyer
- 2:30 to 2:45: "Reconstructing Human Evolution: A 3-D Jigsaw Puzzle--Mayowa Adegboyega,
- 2:45 to 3 p.m: "Paleolithic Stone Tool Technology at Nihewan Basin, P.R. China"--Corey Johnson
- 3 to 3:15 p.m. "Zoonotic Disease and Andean Camelid Domestication"--Kathy Morucci https://www.youtube.com/watch/Q4076iRb9tk
- 3:15 to 3:30: Netting Dovekies in NW Greenland--Erika Ebel
- 3:30 to 3:45, "Spirits of the Animals: Precontact and Contemporary Inuit Art"-- Christyann Darwent
- 3:45-4:00 p.m. Ask an Anthropologist
Monday, Feb. 15, noon to 1 p.m.
Live Talk: All About Heliconius Butterflies
UC Davis postdoctoral fellow Kathy Darragh will deliver her second live talk, answering questions about the Heliconius tropical butterflies. She earlier presented a talk on Feb. 7. Click here for the presentation in Spanish. She holds a bachelor's degree in zoology and a doctorate from the University of Cambridge (England). During her Ph.D. she studied in the lab of Chris Jiggins, investigating the pheromones of Heliconius butterflies, focusing on chemical ecology, behavior and genetics.
Thursday, Feb. 18, 1 to 2 p.m.
Live Talk: 'Murder Hornets' with Lynn Kimsey
Professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, will discuss Giant Asian hornets (Vespa mandarinia), recently discovered in Canada and Washington State. The news media has nicknamed them "murder hornets."
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
Saturday, Feb. 20, 11 a.m. to noon
Live Talk, Questions and Answers: All About Ants, Part II
Entomology professor Phil Ward will host a fun and lively question-and-answer session, "All About Ants," based on his many years collecting and studying ants from around the world.
Tuesday, Feb. 23, 12:15 to 12:45
Live Talk: All About Bees and Gardens
This will be a live question-and-answer session with Christine Casey, manager of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. She will discuss what's blooming in the Davis garden and what bees are active.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html
For the pre-recorded presentations and activities, check this site.
To help support the Biodiversity Museum Day, contributions are being accepted through a month-long crowdfunding campaign program at https://crowdfund.ucdavis.edu/project/24310
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It will not be a day--it will be a month, the month of February.
It will not be a walk-around event--it will be virtual.
Traditionally billed as a “free, educational event for the community where visitors get to meet and talk with UC Davis scientists "and see amazing objects and organisms from the world around us,” it's a science-based event showcasing the diversity of life, according to Biodiversity Museum Day coordinator Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology.
Over the last nine years, it took place the Saturday of Presidents' Day weekend. Last year more than 4000 attended.
Information on the event is being posted on the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day website as plans unfold. The 12 museums or collections participating in the virtual program this year via Zoom webinars, Facebook programs and YouTube will be:
- Anthropology Museum
- Arboretum and Public Garden
- Bohart Museum of Entomology
- Botanical Conservatory
- California Raptor Center
- Center for Plant Diversity
- Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven
- Nematode Collection
- Marine Invertebrate Collection
- Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology
- Paleontology Collection
- Phaff Yeast Culture Collection
The live talks and demonstrations and pre-recorded talks and activities are being posted on the Biodiversity Museum Day/Month website.
Live talks will encompass such topics as heliconius butterflies, bees and gardens, orchid bees, plants in the Botanical Conservatory, Asian giant hornets (aka murder hornets), ants, yeasts, mammal specimen preparations and raptors.
Pre-recorded programs will cover bee diversity, millipedes, herbariums and marine life, as well as how to make a bee condo and how to prepare insects (spread the wings of butterflies and moths) for display, among other subjects.
All participating museums and collections have active education and outreach programs, Yang said, but the collections are not always accessible to the public. More information is pending on the website at http://biodiversitymuseumday.edu, and on social media, including Facebook and Twitter, @BioDivDay.
The UC Biodiversity Museum Day/Month program is participating in Crowdfund UC Davis "where alumni, students, parents and friends can make donations to support innovative projects that propel student engagement, new research discoveries, and efforts to expand UC Davis impact on California and the world." The funding program will continue through the end of February.
To donate, click here:
https://crowdfund.ucdavis.edu/project/24310
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
His seminar, titled "Gaps in Molecular Plant Nematology," is from 4:10 to 5 p.m. (Link to the form to join the Zoom meeting.)
"What has molecular plant nematology done for me?" asks DiGennaro, who will present a collection of short stories describing the need for, and benefits of, a symbiosis-centered approach in understanding plant-nematode interactions at the molecular level.
"Dr. DiGennaro does great work on plant-nematode interactions," said seminar host Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
DiGennaro, interested in the molecular basis of nematode parasitism in plants, primarily researches the root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne spp.); specifically, he is concerned with nematode-derived signaling molecules and subsequent host responses. His lab utilizes an array of genomic, genetic and biochemical tools to understand the fundamental mechanisms behind nematode host range, parasitism, and plant responses.
"The goal of our research is to develop novel avenues for safe and sustainable nematode control strategies," he says.
DiGennaro received his bachelor of science degree in biochemstry in 2007 from the State University of New York at Geneseo, and his doctorate in functional genomics, with a minor in plant pathology, from North Carolina State University (NCSU) in 2013. At NCSU, he studied the molecular basis for nematode parasitism in plants. He served as a postdoctoral researcher with the Plant Nematode Genomics Group at both NCSU and at UC Berkeley before joining the University of Florida, Gainsville, in July 2016.
Coordinating the seminars is Cooperative Extension specialist Ian Grettenberger, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. For any technical issues, he can be contacted at imgrettenberger@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
“Most current control methods rely on chemical nematicides, but their use is increasingly limited due to environmental concerns,” wrote Siddique and colleague Clarissa Hiltl of the University of Bonn, Germany, in a newly published News and Views column, “New Allies to Fight Worms,” in the scientific journal Nature Plants.
In commenting on Washington State University (WSU) research published in the same edition, they wrote that the proposed alternative pest management strategy--naturally occurring molecules or plant elicitor peptides (Peps)—shows promise: “Engineering a naturally occurring rhizobacterium to deliver Peps to the plant root system offers a new opportunity in integrated pest management.”
It's better to build up the host plant's immune system rather than directly target the pathogen with chemical nematicides which “are highly toxic and have negative effects on the ecosystem,” declared Siddique, an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
“Plant-parasitic nematodes are among the world's most destructive plant pathogens, causing estimated annual losses of $8 billion to U.S. growers and of nearly $78 billion worldwide,” he said.
The root-knot nematode Meloidogyne chitwoodi is a noted pest of potato production in the Pacific Northwest. Idaho leads the nation in commercial potato production, followed by Washington. Oregon ranks fourth. California, which ranks eighth, grows potatoes year around due to its unique geography and climate.
In their article, Siddique and Hiltl analyzed research published by WSU Department of Pathology scientists Lei Zhang and Cynthia Gleason who demonstrated the effective use of Peps to combat root-knot nematodes in potato (Solanum tuberosum). The WSU scientists engineered a bacteria, Bacillus subtillis, to secrete the plant-defense elicitor peptide StPep1. Pre-treatment of potato roots “substantially reduced root galling, indicating that a bacterial secretion of a plant elicitor is an effective strategy for plant protection,” the Zhang-Gleason team wrote. (See article.)
Earlier scientists discovered that Peps could effectively manage nematodes in soybeans. Unlike the seed-grown soybeans, however, potatoes grow from small cubes of potatoes known as seed potatoes.
“Besides chemical nematicides, methods of nematode management include the use of crop rotation, microbial biocontrol agents, cover crops, trap crops, soil solarization, fumigation and resistant plant varieties,” wrote Siddique and Hiltl. “However, several of these strategies are not effective or available for all crops. Nematicides are highly toxic, and their use is strictly limited due to environmental concerns. Resistant plants are often ineffective or unavailable. Microbial biocontrol agents have produced inconsistent results. In this context, the current work provides a new opportunity to manage plant-parasitic nematodes by combining two progressive strategies: the use of plant elicitors to enhance crop resistance to pathogens and the use of B. subtilis to deliver.”
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's somewhat like that when plant-parasitic nematodes (microscopic round worms) play “chemical hide and seek” with their plant host, says plant pathologist Shahid Masood Siddique, an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
“The success of plant-parasitic nematodes depends on their ability to locate a suitable host in the soil,” says Siddique, corresponding author of the newly published Spotlight article, “Chemical Hide and Seek: Nematode's Journey to Its Plant Host,” in the journal Molecular Plant.
Nematodes can be deadly to plants, not only because of the direct damage they cause (they extract water and nutrients from their hosts such as wheat, soybeans, sugar beets, citrus, coconut, corn, peanuts, potato, rice, cotton and bananas) but the role of some species as virus vectors.
“Plant-parasitic nematodes are among the most destructive agricultural pests, causing more than $100 billion in losses per year in the United States,” Siddique said, noting that nematodes are especially damaging to potato, soybean and wheat crops.
Although the success of nematodes depends on their ability to locate a suitable host in the soil, what attracts them to their host “has largely remained unknown,” wrote the four-member UC Davis team of Siddique, Natalie Hamada, Henok Zemene Yimer and Valerie Williams. “Recent studies have revealed that host-seeking by nematodes is a complex process that involves multiple stages in the interaction.”
“Most damage is caused by a small group of root-infecting sedentary endoparasitic nematodes including cyst nematodes and root-knot nematodes (RKNs),” the team of UC Davis researchers wrote in their abstract. “Second stage juveniles (J2s) of plant-parasitic nematodes hatch from eggs into the soil and localize to the roots of host plants. The success of these non-feeding J2s depends on their ability to locate and infect a suitable host.”
For eight decades, scientists have researched the attraction of plant-parasitic nematodes to the host root, ever since the pioneering Maurice Blood Linford (1901-1960) of the University of Illinois, Urbana, Ill., observed in 1939 that the larvae of root-knot nematodes congregate in the cell elongation region behind the root cap.
“Both volatile and soluble components in the rhizosphere have been shown to influence nematode movement,” the UC Davis researchers wrote. “Methyl salicylate, a volatile chemical root signal, has been demonstrated to be a strong root attractant for RKN towards several Solanaceous plants (nightshade family). The non-volatile tomato root exudate quercetin was shown to elicit concentration dependent attraction or repulsion effect against Meloidogyne incognita to host root. Three recent studies have revealed that the recognition of and response to hosts by infective juveniles is a complex process that involves multiple stages in the interaction.”
Siddique focuses his research on basic as well as applied aspects of interaction between parasitic nematodes and their host plants. “The long-term object of our research is not only to enhance our understanding of molecular aspects of plant–nematode interaction but also to use this knowledge to provide new resources for reducing the impact of nematodes on crop plants in California.”