- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Filipa Rijo-Ferreira, a UC Berkeley School of Public Health (BPH) assistant professor who specializes in parasitology and circadian rhythms, will present a UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar at 4:10 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 19 on "Circadian Rhythms in Parasitic Diseases" in 122 Briggs Hall.
Her seminar also will be virtual. The Zoom link is https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672. Host is molecular geneticist and physiologist Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
"Malaria's main symptom is the periodic fevers experienced by patients, fevers that ‘come and go' at certain times of the day and are a consequence of synchronized parasite rhythms," Rijo-Ferreira says in her abstract. "In humans, circadian clocks regulate multiple aspects of physiology, including sleep-wake cycles, metabolism, and immune defense. Circadian biology leads to body rhythms experienced by the pathogens that infect humans. In addition to sensing host rhythms, we recently discovered that parasites which cause devastating health burdens such as malaria and sleeping sickness diseases also have their own intrinsic clocks. The clocks of parasites regulate core biological functions from metabolism to the cell cycle, and the discovery of the existence of their clocks serves as an opportunity to access the molecular mechanisms regulating their rhythmic biology."
Rijo-Ferreira, trained in infectious diseases and neuroscience, joined the UC Berkeley faculty in January 2022. A native of Lisbon, Portugal, she holds a bachelor's degree in molecular and cellular biology from Nova University of Lisbon, and her master's degree in 2009 in molecular genetics and biomedicine from Imperial College, London. She received her doctorate in 2016 at the University of Porto, Portugal, where she completed her studies in basic and applied biology, molecular parasitology, and neuroscience. Postdoctoral training followed at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas.
"Our lab is interested in parasitic infections and we study them under the lenses of time of day," she wrote on her lab website. "Our rhythmic world has been a driving force for organisms to evolve a molecular clock to anticipate such daily rhythms. Similarly, our own circadian biology leads to physiological rhythms that parasites experience.We study the single-celled parasites Plasmodium spp. that causes malaria, and Trypanosoma brucei that causes sleeping sickness. We employ technical approaches spanning from next-generation sequencing, to cellular and behavioral assays to investigate the interactions of these parasites with their hosts.Our work seeks to understand how circadian rhythms modulate host-parasite-vector interactions and identify opportunities in their rhythmic biology to treat parasitic infections
In an interview with BPH staff writer Eliza Partika, published in February 2022, she commented: "I am fascinated about our day and night cycles and how organisms evolved to anticipate them. I find it incredible that parasites, such as the ones that cause malaria, show a coordinated rhythmic pattern themselves, which underlies periodic fevers in infected individuals. Our research is aimed at understanding how this phenomenon is regulated molecularly, and how we can disrupt these rhythmic patterns to offset the infection."
"At BPH, we aim to set up a framework where we can explore the relationships between parasites, hosts, and the mosquitoes that serve as the vector of disease transmission, based on the time of day," Rijo-Ferreira related. "We hypothesize that the circadian rhythms of these three organisms need to be aligned in order for the parasite to cause an efficient infection. In fact, when rhythms are misaligned, there is a reduction in parasite levels. Thus, identifying the molecular players from host, parasite, and mosquito is essential to understanding this phenomenon and creating alternative strategies to manage deadly infections like malaria and sleeping sickness."
Rijo-Ferreira said she seeks to "bring to the attention the circadian aspect of infectious diseases and bring awareness of the potential benefits of time of day vaccination and drug treatment."
Emily Meineke, assistant professor of urban landscape entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, coordinates the department's seminars for the 2022-23 academic year. All 11 seminars will take place both person and virtually at 4:10 p.m. on Wednesdays in Room 122 of Briggs Hall except for the Nov. 9th and Dec. 7th seminars, which will be virtual only, she said. (See list of seminars)
For further information on the seminars or to resolve any technical difficulties with Zoom, contact Meineke at ekmeineke@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Their work, “Insect Herbivory Within Modern Forests Is Greater than Fossil Localities,” appears in the Oct. 10th edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The first-of-its-kind study compares insect herbivore damage of modern-era plants with that of fossilized leaves dating as far back as 67 million years ago.
“Our work bridges the gap between those who use fossils to study plant-insect interactions over deep time and those who study such interactions in a modern context with fresh leaf material,” said lead researcher and ecologist Lauren Azevedo-Schmidt, formerly of the Department of Biology, University of Wyoming and now a postdoctoral research associate with the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine. “The difference in insect damage between the modern era and the fossilized record is striking.”
No stranger to UC Davis, Currano presented a UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar, hosted by Meineke, on "Ancient Bug-Bitten Leaves Reveal the Impacts of Climate and Plant Nutrients on Insect Herbivores" on April 28, 2021.
“Plants and insects are the most diverse lineages on earth, but their interactions in the face of climate and other global changes are poorly understood…despite insect declines, insect damage to plants is elevated in the modern era compared with other time periods represented in the fossil record,” they wrote. “Plants today are experiencing unprecedented levels of insect herbivory, with unknown consequences for plant fitness and evolution.”
The scientists presented estimates for damage frequencies and diversities on fossil leaves from the Late Cretaceous (66.8 million years ago) through the Pleistocene (2.06 million years ago) and compared these estimates with recent (post-1955) leaves collected via paleobotanical methods from three modern ecosystems, including Harvest Forest, a 3000-acre ecological research area in managed by Harvard University and located in Petersham, Mass. The site, in operation since 1907, is one of North America's oldest managed forests.
Other ecosystems: the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) of Chesapeake Bay, a 2,650-acre campus spanning forests, wetlands, marshes and 15 miles of protected shoreline, and the 3953-acre La Selva Research Station, Costa Rica, a private forest reserve.
The scientists advocate more research to determine the precise causes of increased insect damage to plants, but related that a “warming climate, urbanization and introduction of invasive species likely have had a major impact.”
“We hypothesize that humans have influenced (insect) damage frequencies and diversities within modern forests, with the most human impact occurring after the Industrial Revolution,” the researchers wrote. “Consistent with this hypothesis, herbarium specimens from the early 2000s were 23 percent more likely to have insect damage than specimens collected in the early 1900s, a pattern that has been linked to climate warming.”
“This research suggests that the strength of human influence on plant-insect interactions is not controlled by climate change alone but, rather, the way in which humans interact with the terrestrial landscape,” the researchers concluded.
Meineke, who joined the UC Davis faculty in 2020, served as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University Herbaria from 2016 to 2019, including a National Science Foundation-sponsored fellowship there in 2017. She holds a doctorate in entomology from North Carolina State University (2016), Raleigh, where she wrote her dissertation on “Understanding the Consequences of Urban Warming for Street Trees and Their Pests.”
Meineke helped spearhead the newly created Harvard Museum of Natural History's “In Search of Thoreau's Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss," hailed as an examination of the natural world and climate change at the intersections of science, art and history. The exhibit opened to the public May 14, 2022.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
His seminar, set for 4:10 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall, will focus on Diabrotica (cornroot worms). It will be both in-person and via Zoom. The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/
Host is molecular geneticist and physiologist Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology.
"Although they are largely studied because of their economic significance, agricultural pests can be useful model systems to study fundamental biology," Miller says in his abstract. "The beetle genus Diabrotica ("corn rootworms") includes species with generalist and specialist feeding habits that overlap on a common host plant, maize. This makes the genus an excellent system to study the adaptations of insect herbivores with differing host ranges to a common set of plant defenses. A long-standing area of interest in my lab is the adaptations of generalist and specialist Diabrotica species to the maize defensive compound DIMBOA."
Research in the Miller lab focuses on the population genetics and evolution of herbivorous insects. "We mostly study species that are pests of agriculture," he says on his website. "Key areas of interest include: adaptation by insect pests to the technologies intended to control them, including genetically-modified crops and pesticides; the interactions of specialist and generalist herbivores to plant defenses; dispersal and movement of insects and the genes they carry."
Miller holds a bachelor's degree and a doctorate from the University of Birmingham. His most recent publication:
- Rault LC, Siegfried BD, Gassmann AJ, Wang H, Brewer GJ, Miller NJ( 2018). Investigation of Cry3Bb1 resistance and intoxication in western corn rootworm by RNA sequencing. J Appl Entomol. 2018. 1–16. DOI: 10.1111/jen.12502
Emily Meineke, assistant professor of urban landscape entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, coordinates the department's seminars for the 2022-23 academic year. All 11 seminars will take place both person and virtually at 4:10 p.m. on Wednesdays in Room 122 of Briggs Hall except for the Nov. 9th and Dec. 7th seminars, which will be virtual only, she said. (See list of seminars)
For further information on the seminars or technical difficulties with Zoom, contact Meineke at ekmeineke@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
All 11 seminars will take place both in-person and virtually at 4:10 p.m. on Wednesdays in Room 122 of Briggs Hall except for the Nov. 9th and Dec. 7th seminars, which will be virtual only, she said.
The list of speakers:
Wednesday, Sept. 21
Nicholas Miller, assistant professor, Department of Biology, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago
Title: "Adaptation in the Cornfield, Research in the Classroom"
Research in the Miller lab focuses on the population genetics and evolution of herbivorous insects. "We mostly study species that are pests of agriculture," he says on his website. "Key areas of interest include: adaptation by insect pests to the technologies intended to control them, including genetically-modified crops and pesticides; the interactions of specialist and generalist herbivores to plant defenses; dispersal and movement of insects and the genes they carry."
Host: Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, Sept. 28 (Exit Seminar)
Nissa Coit, master's degree candidate studying honey bees
Elina Niño Bee Laboratory, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Title: "Effects of Ethyl Oleate Pheromone on Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Overwintering Physiology” (Exit seminar)
Wednesday, Oct. 5 (Exit Seminar)
Olivia Winokur, doctoral candidate studying how the environment and mosquito behavior affect transmission dynamics of mosquito-borne viruses
Title: "Temperature Drives Transmission of Mosquito-Borne Pathogens: Improving Entomological estimates for Aedes aegypti-borne Virus Transmission Risk."
Christopher Barker lab, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine, UC Davis
Wednesday, Oct. 12
Julian Dupuis, assistant professor, Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky
Title: “Developing Genomics-Based Molecular Diagnostic Tools for Recurrently Invading Tephritid Pests"
Host: Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, Oct. 19
Filipa Rijo-Ferreira, assistant professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley
Title: "Circadian Rhythms in Parasitic Diseases"
Host: Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, Oct. 26
Yao Cai, doctoral candidate
Joanna Chiu laboratory, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Title: Exit Seminar: "How Do Flies Tell the Time of Day?"
Host: Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, Nov. 2
Wanhe Li, assistant professor, Department of Biology, Texas A&M
Title: “How Time Flies During Lock-down?--Mechanisms Underlying Chronic Social Isolation-Induced Sleep Loss in Drosophila”
Host: Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, Nov. 9 (virtual only)
Xoaquín Moreira, Biological Mission of Galicia (CSIC)
Title: “Insularity Effects on Plant-Herbivore Interactions: Searching for Biotic and Abiotic Explanatory Variables to Promote Insular Biodiversity Conservation”
Host: Richard "Rick" Karban, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology
Wednesday, Nov. 16
Cynthia Gleason, assistant professor, Department of Plant Pathology, Washington State University
Title: “How Do We Help Potato Growers Combat the Root-Knot Nematode Meloidogyne chitwoodi?”
Host: Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, Nov. 30 (postponed as of Nov. 28; to be presented at a later date)
Quinn McFrederick, assistant professor Department of Entomology, UC Riverside
Title: To be announced
He specializes in insect-symbiont interactions, particularly the study of wild bees.
Host: Rachel Vannette, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, Dec. 7 (virtual only)
Mônica Ulyssea, Universidade de São Paulo Museu de Zoologia
Topic: Ants (title pending)
Expertise in myrmecology, taxonomy, phylogeny, systematics, curatorial practices, and science dissemination
Host: Jill Oberski, doctoral candidate, Phil Ward laboratory, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Meineke, the coordinator of the departmental seminars, joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology in March 2020, during the COVID 19 pandemic. She studies how climate change and urban development affect insects, plants, and how they interact with one another. Before accepting her UC Davis appointment, Meineke served as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard University Herbaria, where she studied how urbanization and climate change have affected plant-insect relationships worldwide over the past 100-plus years. A native of Greenville, N.C., Emily received her bachelor of science degree in environmental science, with a minor in biology, in 2008 from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and then went on to obtain her doctorate in entomology in 2016 from North Carolina State University. Advised by Steven Frank and co-advisor Robert Dunn, she completed her dissertation on "Understanding the Consequences of Urban Warming for Street Trees and Their Insect Pests." (See feature story)
For further information on the seminars or technical difficulties with Zoom, contact the coordinator at ekmeineke@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Emily Meineke, assistant professor of urban landscape entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, helped launch the project in 2017 when she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard University Herbaria.
The exhibit in Cambridge, Mass., is “an immersive multidisciplinary experience that marries art and science through a modern artistic interpretation of Henry David Thoreau's preserved plants,” said Bethany Carland-Adams, a public relations specialist with Harvard Museums of Science and Culture (HMSC).
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), naturalist, author and philosopher and a 1837 graduate of Harvard University, is best known for his book Walden. Removing himself from social life, he settled into a cabin by Walden Pond, Concord, Mass., from July 1845 to September 1847 to immerse himself in nature.
The 648 plant specimens that Thoreau donated to the museum form the foundation of the exhibit. "He was prolific in his practice of collecting botanical samples and plants are important indicators of how our world is responding to climate change," Carland-Adams said in a press release.
Meineke, who joined the UC Davis faculty in 2020, served as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University Herbaria from 2016 to 2019, including a National Science Foundation-sponsored fellowship there in 2017. She holds a doctorate in entomology from North Carolina State University (2016), Raleigh, where she wrote her dissertation on “Understanding the Consequences of Urban Warming for Street Trees and Their Pests.”
“Ultimately, we landed on using visual media and portraits to highlight the decline of local plants," Meineke said. "Those art works are now central to the exhibit, as are Thoreau's actual specimens provided by Harvard and descriptions of the discoveries made possible by his work as a naturalist.”
The exhibit includes Meineke's work on insect herbivore-plant interactions over the period of recent climate change as one type of research made possible by Thoreau's plant collections.
“The digitization of the specimens, and others in the Herbaria collection, are now allowing broader access to scholars and citizen scientists, in turn welcoming new domains of scholarship,” Carland-Adams noted. "The exhibition invites visitors to experience emotionally resonant connections to the profound loss of natural diversity caused by human-induced climate change. The exhibition urges us to ask, 'What do Thoreau's findings tell us about what plants are winning, and what plants are losing, in the face of climate change today?'"
Charles Davis, curator of vascular plants at Harvard University Herbaria, teamed with Marsha Gordon, a North Carolina State University professor, and Meineke to frame plans for the exhibit, collaborating with artists Leah Sobsey and Robin Vuchnich, both university faculty members, to shape the vision.
Vuchnich, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University, leveraged the digitized specimens to craft an immersive experience in the gallery theater. It includes animations of the herbarium images and soundscapes recorded at Walden Pond.
Sobsey, an associate professor of photography and director of the Gatewood Gallery at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, focused on cyanotype, a 19th-century photographic process that relies on UV light to create a distinctive Prussian blue tone. Sobsey utilized all 648 digitized Thoreau specimens, and created a wallpaper comprised of original cyanotypes and digital imagery, relating a story of the survival and decline of plant specimens.
In the news release, HMSC executive director Brenda Tindal emphasized the significance of Thoreau's observations and his indelible impact on society..."Thoreau's clarion call compels us to intentionally lean into our surroundings and learn from nature—and by extension, the global community to which we all belong.”
Visitors will gain "a deeper understanding of how different plant species respond to environmental factors, within and between species," Carland-Adams shared. "For instance, some plants are sensitive to temperature, while others show less or no sensitivity. This type of data drives the exhibition's animations and directly impacts our daily lives in the context of agriculture and food production."
The Thoreau exhibit may also become a traveling exhibit.
The HMSC mission "is to foster curiosity and a spirit of discovery in visitors of all ages by enhancing public understanding of and appreciation for the natural world, science, and human cultures," according to its website. "HMSC works in concert with Harvard faculty, museum curators, and students, as well as with members of the extended Harvard community, to provide interdisciplinary exhibitions, events and lectures, and educational programs for students, teachers, and the public. HMSC draws primarily upon the extensive collections of the member museums and the research of their faculty and curators."
Resources:
- Harvard Museum of Natural History Website
- Press Release
- Podcast: Listen to the HMSC Connects! featuring host Jennifer Berglund, entomologist Emily Meineke, and artists Robin Vuchnich and Leah Sobsey. (Read the transcript)
