- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
She will speak at 4:10 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall. Her seminar also will be virtual. The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672.
"Parasites often manipulate their hosts' behavior and physiology, resulting in detrimental effects on host fitness," Worthington says in her abstract. "The horsehair worm (Paragordius varius) is a long-lived parasite that infects arthropods, including the sand field cricket, Gryllus firmus. This parasite lives inside its host for upwards of 28 days and can grow as long as 30 cm, presenting a significant challenge for its host's own growth, survival, and reproduction."
"Here, we tested the ability of infected male crickets to invest in immunity, somatic growth, and reproductive structures," she noted. "We also compared courtship behaviors, calling abilities, and mating success rates between infected and healthy males to identify how host reproductive fitness is affected by this large, long-lived parasite. Our results demonstrate surprisingly few physiological trade-offs, yet preliminary research suggests a reproductive burden on infected males, where even when host male crickets are able to survive horsehair worm infection, they will likely suffer from significantly reduced lifetime reproductive fitness."
Seminar host is doctoral candidate Lindsey Mack of the laboratory of medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo. "Dr. Worthington was my undergraduate research advisor," said Mack, adding. "She studies reproduction/immune trade-offs in crickets. Currently, her work focuses on the reproductive costs of high parasitic loads in field crickets, but she has experience with stalk=eyed flies, rhinoceros beetles, horsehair worms, and many other organisms. Generally, she is interested in wild sexually selected morphologies and behaviors."
"Additionally, she teaches at a religiously affiliated, primarily undergraduate institution (Creighton is a private Jesuit research university) and would be a great person to talk to about this type of career," Mack said. A pre-seminar coffee takes place from 3:30 to 4:10 p.m. in 158 Briggs.
Worthington, who joined Creighton's Department of Biology in the fall of 2016, holds a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of South Dakota (USD), and also received her master's degree at USD, studying the anti-predator behaviors of stalk-eyed flies and managing a long-term project dedicated to conserving the federally endangered Hine's Emerald dragonfly.
Worthington completed her doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology at Iowa State University, researching mating behavior in field crickets. She then transitioned into a postdoctoral fellowship at Washington State University where she worked on the development of sexually selected weapons in rhinoceros beetles and the hormonal mechanisms mediating wing polymorphism in crickets.
"Broadly, I am fascinated by bizarre morphologies and behaviors that are the result of sexual selection," Worthington says on her website. "Specifically, I am interested in the functional and physiological costs of these traits. I focus on trade-offs between reproduction and immunity, but also investigate topics such as sperm competition, the benefits of polyandry, and the molecular/hormonal mechanisms responsible for life-history tradeoffs. I have worked with a diverse array of invertebrate taxa (stalk-eyed flies, jumping spiders, dragonflies, crayfish, snails, and rhinoceros beetles), but currently focus my research on Gryllus firmus crickets. One particular interest is how individuals respond to long-term parasitic infections by the horsehair worm Paragordius varius, and how this infection impacts life-long fitness in its host."
The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's winter seminars are held on Wednesdays at 4:10 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall. All are virtual. Urban landscape entomologist Emily Meineke, assistant professor, coordinates the seminars. (See schedule.) She may be reached at ekmeineke@ucdavis.edu for technical issues.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The event begins at 5:45 with pizza and continues until 7 p.m.
Presenting their work are:
- Jasen Liu of the Santiago Ramírez lab, a member of the Graduate Group in Population Biology, who will discuss “Evolution of Floral Volatile Composite Across a Specialized Pollination System”
- Ashley Grupenhoff of the Hugh Safford lab, a member of the Graduate Group in Ecology, whose topic is “Plant Community Response to Increased Fire Frequency in Northern California Chaparral”
- Reed Kenny of the Dan Potter lab, a member of the Graduate Group in Ecology, who will cover "A Phylogenetic Analysis of the Placement of Juncus Sections Caespitosi and Graminifolii"
Jasen Liu. "Jasen went to UC Santa Barbara for his undergraduate studies, where he worked in the Mazer and Hodges labs studying mating system evolution and variation in floral pigmentation, both within and across species. He is fascinated by floral evolution, particularly through the lens of plant-pollinator interactions, and joined the Ramirez lab in 2019 through the Population Biology graduate group. Jasen is interested in investigating macroevolutionary patterns of scent production in euglossine-pollinated plants, in addition to the role of microevolutionary processes on generating reproductive isolation."
Ashley Grupenhoff. "Ashley's research is aimed at examining the consequences of altered disturbance regimes on species composition and ecosystem function. She is particularly interested in the effects of prescribed fire in shaping plant species, populations, and communities and is currently working with CalFire to implement a long-term monitoring program of prescribed fire in California. Before coming to Davis, she has conducted fieldwork across multiple taxa in Ecuador, American Samoa, and the western United States. Ashley obtained her BS in Biology at Virginia Commonwealth University."
Reed Kenny. "I am broadly interested in plant evolution and biodiversity. My past work has focused on plant taxonomy and floristics. My current interests are in the systematics of the genus Juncus. My ongoing projects include using molecular systematics to confirm the non-monophyly of the genus, resolve subgeneric relationships and study biogeographic patterns in the genus."
The Davis Botanical Society awards research grants to graduate and undergraduate students at UC Davis to help defray the expenses of independent study or other research projects. The student projects are field-oriented and related to plant taxonomy or plant evolutionary biology and ecology. A previous recipient was Shawn Christensen of the Rachel Vannette lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
The Davis Botanical Society is the support organization for the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity and Botanical Conservatory. Membership includes subscription to the semi-annual newsletter, Lasthenia, as well as invitations to talks, field trips, and other events.
For more information, contact the Center for Plant Diversity Herbarium at (530) 752-1091 or Teri Barry, collections manager, at tcbarry@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The Shahid Siddique laboratory was out in force on Saturday, Feb. 18 during the 12th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day.
The nematologists set up their display in the Katherine Esau Science Hall, formerly the Sciences Lab Building, and drew nearly 1000 visitors, the most ever.
“BioDiv Day went really well,” said Siddique, an assistant professor of nematology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. “A lot of people took interest in getting information about dog heartworms and root-knot nematodes infecting tomatoes. Some people said that nematodes were their favorite stop for BioDiv Day. We had 906 visitors in total and a vast majority of them were kids with family.”
Participating with Siddique were his graduate students Alison Coomer, Veronica Casey, Pallavi Shakya, and Ching-Jung Lin, and professor emeritus Valerie Williamson of Plant Pathology.
The Siddique lab focuses 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," Siddique says, "but also to use this knowledge to provide new resources for reducing the impact of nematodes on crop plants in California."
- Celery infected with root-knot nematodes
- Anisakis nematodes from a Minke whale stomach
- Heart of a dog infected with heartworms (Dirofilaria immitis)
- Parasitic nematodes (Baylisascaris transfuga) isolated from the stomach of a bear
- White-tailed deer eye infected with parasitic nematodes (Thelazia spp.)
- Sugar beet infected with root-knot nematodes
- Dog ascaris (Toxocara canis) cause of visceral larva migrans
- Common parasitic worms of human (Ascaris lumbricoides) cause of Ascaris isolated from human intestine
- Dog intestine infected with whipworms
- Horse stomach parasite community including 1) Parascaris 2) Tapeworms 3) Botfly larvae
- Yam infected with root-knot nematode
- Tomato root infected with root-knot nematode
- Adult raccoon roundworms
- Filarial nematodes (Onchocerca volvulus) cause of Onchocerciasis river blindness
- Zoonotic hookworms (Ancylostoma caninum)
- Ascaris lumbricoides (common parasitic worms of human)
- Tree swallow infected with Diplotriaena nematode
- Sugar beet infected with cyst nematode (Heterodera schachtii)
- Grape roots infected with Root-knot nematodes
- Mormon crickets infected with horsehair worms (Gordius robustus)
- Peach roots infected with root-knot nematodes
- Anisakis nematodes from fish intestine
- Hysterotahylaciun nematodes isolated from fish
- Pinworms isolated from human intestine
- Whipworms isolated from human Intestine
- Anisakis nematodes isolated from seals
- Adult dog heartworms
BioDiv Day, founded by the Bohart Museum, is traditionally held on Presidents' Day weekend. Some 3000 attended this year's event, estimated chair Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator of the Bohart Museum. The "Super Science Day" is free and family friendly. Yang is encouraging donations to help pay expenses; access the UC Davis crowdfunding page.
The Esau Science Hall is newly named for UC Davis professor emeritus Katherine Esau, 1898-1997. Internationally known as one of the most influential plant biologists and professors in history, Esau is lauded for her pioneering work on plant anatomy and structure that laid the foundation for much of today's research in the field. She won the National Medal of Science awarded by then president George Bush.
Esau was born in Ukraine. Her family fled to Berlin after World War I and then emigrated to the United States. She joined the UC Davis faculty after receiving her doctorate in 1931. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1957, only the sixth woman to receive that honor. Following her retirement, she relocated to UC Santa Barbara in 1965. According to Wikipedia, she continued research well into her 90s, publishing a total of 162 articles and five books.
Esau died June 4, 1997 at age 99 in Santa Barbara. A New York Times article quoted Peter Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden: "She absolutely dominated the field of plant anatomy and morphology for several decades. She set the stage for all kinds of modern advances in plant physiology and molecular biology."
In 1982, at age 84, Esau delivered her final UC Davis lecture, covering plasmodesmata. In 1988, she donated $648,000 to UC Davis to establish an endowment to fund plant research fellowships in perpetuity. As of 2020, the endowment's market value has increased by almost six times its original amount, standing at $3.7 million, according to a UC Davis news story.
/span>- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Nayduch, based in Manhattan, Kansas, will speak at 4:10 p.m., Wednesday, March 1 in 122 Briggs Hall. Her lecture also will be virtual. The Zoom link:
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672
"Dana is doing very cool work with house flies and looking at how bacteria in the fly are trading antibiotic resistance genes amongst themselves," said the seminar host, medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. "It's an interesting and scary system as antibiotic resistance is so high due to antibiotic usage in livestock rearing."
"House flies (Musca domestica L.) are ubiquitous, cosmopolitan pests inhabiting urban, rural and agricultural environments throughout the world. In these habitats acquire microbes from septic substrates that are used for feeding and reproduction. Flies subsequently harbor and disseminate these microorganisms which may pose a risk to human and animal health," Nayduch says in her abstract. "Our research characterizes and analyzes microbial communities of house flies using culture-based and molecular approaches in order to better understand their roles in the transmission of important bacterial disease agents and/or antimicrobial resistance. Because the microbial communities within house flies represent a snapshot of the microbes found in their local habitat, we also gain valuable insight into existing and emerging microbial threats to humanand animal health through our surveys which can help in predicting and preventing disease."
A pre-seminar will take place from 3:30 to 4:10 in 158 Briggs.
Nayduch, an authority on fly-microbe interactions, joined USDA in August of 2011. She is a member of the USDA-ARS Arthropod-Borne Animal Diseases Research Unit, researching molecular and microbiological studies of Culicoides midges and house flies. She works with several laboratories on comparative transcriptomic and microbiomic studies of Muscid flies.
Nayduch received her bachelor's degree in animal science from Rutgers University and her doctorate in zoology from Clemson University, where she studied house flies as vectors for pathogens. She served as a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University School of Public Health, working on molecular-genetic studies of tsetse flies. She then joined Georgia Southern University (GSU) as an assistant professor of biology in 2004, advancing to associate professor in 2009. At GSU she received NIH-R15 funding to study house fly-microbe molecular interactions.
Nayduch, active in the Entomological Society of America (ESA), is the vice president-elect of the Medical, Urban and Veterinary Entomology (MUVE) Section. A peer reviewer for the Journal of Medical Entomology and an editorial board member and subject editor for Annals for ESA, she organized and edited the first special collection for Annals: “Filth Fly-Microbe Interactions."
The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's winter seminars are held on Wednesdays at 4:10 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall. All are virtual. A pre-seminar coffee is held from 3:30 to 4:10 p.m. in 158 Briggs. Urban landscape entomologist Emily Meineke, assistant professor, coordinates the seminars. (See schedule.) She may be reached at ekmeineke@ucdavis.edu for technical issues.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
EicOsis, based in Davis, is a leader in the clinical development of soluble epoxide hydrolase inhibitors (sEH), an innovative approach to treating chronic inflammation and pain. Hammock's pioneering work on the sEH inhibitors spans 50 years.
“Dr. McReynolds will lead EicOsis through the commercialization of its new therapeutic solution for chronic conditions that affects tens of millions of people, including those with neuropathic pain but also osteoarthritis, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease,” said Glenn Croston, chief operating officer. “Dr. McReynolds has deep experience advancing drugs through preclinical and clinical development, including EicOsis' leading drug EC5026. In addition, she has published extensively on the science of sEH as an important new drug target.”
McReynolds, who received her doctorate in pharmacology/toxicology from UC Davis in 2021, studying with Hammock, said “it's been an amazing opportunity being involved with EicOsis as an early preclinical stage company and seeing the transition of our lead candidate to clinical
“The scientific validation of our approach supports a truly disruptive product that could provide a safe, non-addictive, and effective treatment for pain and neurodegeneration, and I look forward to leading the company as we obtain clinical validation,” she said. “We have an experienced and dedicated team that has a long history of working together, and I am excited to continue working together in this exciting next stage.”
EicOsis has “completed the human phase 1a safety trials with no adverse effects," said Hammock, who holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“As co-founder, Cindy has played a key role building EicOsis into a leader in therapeutics targeting sEH,” Hammock said. "Cindy's scientific insight, drive, and commitment ideally positions her to take EicOsis to the next level and builds on the vast body of science validating our approach. I know Cindy will continue to deliver great results for EicOsis and for a great many patients."
Hammock, in his role as CSO, “will continue to deliver cutting edge progress in translating soluble epoxide hydrolase inhibitors into clinical results,” Croston announced. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors, Hammock co-founded and built the company to translate these findings into "a revolutionary new solution for chronic inflammation and pain."
“We'd like to thank Bruce for his incredible leadership in the field and as CEO of EicOsis," said Chris Somerville, board member of EicOsis Human Health. "We're looking forward to his continued scientific leadership and to his continued support in Cindy's new role."
McReynolds, who has researched the biological activity of lipid mediators for the past 12 years, said her current efforts “focus on understanding the roles of lipid mediators in inflammation especially relating to pain and degenerative disease. My research focuses on developing tools for use in in vitro and in vivo knockout studies to understand their role in inflammation with a focus on mechanism of pharmacokinetics.”
Always aiming for a scientific career, McReynolds received a bachelor's degree (1999) in animal science from UC Davis and a master's degree (2001) in animal science from Washington State University (WSU). Her career advanced from senior research associate, Celera (formerly Axys) in South San Francisco to senior associate scientist of Miikana, Fremont, to project coordinator of Arete Therapeutics, South San Francisco, to UC Davis researcher.
At UC Davis, she served as the scientific program manager (2010-2017) for the Center for Integrative Toxicology, and as a graduate student researcher. She won a UC Davis Staff Assembly Citation of Excellence in Research in 2021. She earlier received the UC Davis 1999 Outstanding Senior Award, and several awards fromWSU: the 2000 Dr.Erb Outstanding Graduate Student Award; the 2001 Teaching Assistant of the Year, and the 2001 Outstanding Graduate Student. While a graduate student, she was supported by a National Institutes of Health Chemical Biology Training Grant.
Sarjeet Gill, now a UC Riverside distinguished emeritus professor, and Hammock co-discovered sEH in 1969 in mice when they were researching insect developmental biology and green insecticides in the UC Berkeley lab of John Casida (1929-2018). Both hold doctorates from UC Berkeley.
Hammock explained that the enzyme is a key regulatory enzyme involved in the metabolism of fatty acids. It regulates a new class of natural chemical mediators, which in turn regulates inflammation, blood pressure, pain and other key biologies. Hammock's 50-year research has led to the discovery that many regulatory molecules are controlled as much by degradation as biosynthesis. "The epoxy fatty acids rapidly degraded by the sEH," Hammock said, "control blood pressure, fibrosis, immunity, tissue growth, depression, pain, and inflammation, to name a few processes."
Approximately 50 million Americans (20 percent of the population) suffer from chronic pain, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The annual economic toll is $560 billion, encompassing direct medical expenses, lost productivity, and disability claims. Pain research is now one of the top priorities of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
EicOsis (pronounced eye-co-sis), derives its name from eicosanoid, “the major backbone of chemical mediators in the arachidonate cascade,” said McReynolds. “It symbolizes the epoxide group in chemistry, which is key to the anti-inflammatory chemical mediators and where the biochemical target called soluble epoxide hydrolase works.”
EicOsis won the “Sacramento Region Innovator of the Year” award in the medical health/biopharmaceutical category in 2019.
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