John Caprio

John Caprio (Department of Biological Sciences) and Joseph Ricapito (Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures) were honored as the Distinguished Research Masters for 2002 at a ceremony held at 2:30 p.m., Wednesday, 29 May at the Lod Cook Conference Center.  Family and friends of both honorees as well as many high-ranking administrators (Kevin Smith, Daniel Fogel, and Harold Silverman) attended.  The Office of Research provided a lavish spread after the program.  Caprio recounted several major events in his research career, including the discovery of "Gotta Bite," an amino acid modified food for ictalurid catfish and fish with similar feeding behavior.  Caprio has described his taste bud-covered research organism as a "swimming tongue," an appellation picked up by Steven Hand in his introduction of Caprio. [Abstract from the LSU intellectual Properties web site: The snapping and biting response of Ictalurid catfish, and fish with similar feeding habits, are released by the use of the free amino acids: L-proline, L-alanine, and L-arginine, and mixtures thereof, at concentrations above those normally found around the fish's normal, or natural food.]

The swimming tongue

• Spotlight on Pat Cox: (borrowed heavily from IN VIVO, the University of Tennessee Division of Biology Newsletter in which Cox was featured, February-March 2002)

Patricia Cox is the Core Biology Coordinator for the Division of Biology and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Botany at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.  She earned her B.S. and M.S. in Biology from Northeast Louisiana University (University of  Louisiana at Monroe) and her Ph.D. in Department of Botany from Louisiana State University where she worked with Lowell Urbatsch.  She has co-authored three lab manuals and a study guide for a non-major’s biology textbook.  Previously, an instructor for the general biology program at Tennessee, she is concerned about the quality of undergraduate biology education.  Her research interests are in the systematics of Rudbeckia and related composites.  In addition to her work on Rudbeckia, she is also interested in Liatris of the southeast and field pteridology. Currently, she teaches a field pteridology course and is co-chair of the Plant Twig for the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory for the GSMNP where she is concentrating on re-evaluating the pteridophyte flora in the park.  Cox has served the Association of Southeastern Biologists previously as an Executive Committee Member and co-program chair for the 1995 ASB meetings hosted by the University of Tennessee.  She also has been an active member of The Southern Appalachian Botanical Society (SABS) where she has served as Member-at-large, Editor for Castanea and currently serves as the SABS Representative to the Great Smoky Mountain Wildflower Pilgrimage for which she is one of the coordinators.  Cox was the 1995 recipient of the Richard and Minnie Windler Award for the best systematics paper published in Castanea: “A taxonomic Revision of Rudbeckia subg. Macrocline (Asteraceae: Heliantheae: Rudbeckiinae).” On  a personal note, Cox is a mother of four and a raging Lady Vol Basketball fan.

• It is rumor ed (from a conversation with his mother-in-law) that  Steven Brewer , former student of Bill Platt, has been awarded tenure at the University of Mississippi. Congratulations to him!

 
• Susan Pell reported on her new job at the New York Botanical Garden:  Her official title  is laboratory manager of the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics Studies at the New York Botanical Garden.  She trains all new users of the lab (including visitors and new graduate students as well as some current staff), orders supplies for the lab, maintains the lab, introduces new molecular systematics techniques, and conducts research for Tim Motley and Ken Cameron.  She is involved in two research projects at  the garden: one involves Anacardiaceae (cashew and poison ivy's family) (genera Abrahamia, Protorhus, and Heeria) working with John Mitchell at NYBG  and Armand Randrianasolo from the Missouri Botanical Garden.  The other is a large cycad project that is just getting started working directly with Dennis Stevenson (Pell's boss) and Ken Hill from Australia; the collaborative project involves all the major cycad molecular  systematics research labs in the world.

• And another job!  Aravind Somanchi was hired in a tenure-track position in the Department of Biological Sciences at Auburn University, Auburn, AL.  Aravind received his PhD in Plant Biology in 1998 working on the CO₂ concentrating mechanism of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii with Jim Moroney.  For the past three years he has been a postdoctoral investigator at Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla California, working with Stephen Mayfield on the light regulation of translation of chloroplast mRNAs.  Frost Rollins, a recent LSU Plant Biology graduate (Spring 2001), attended Somanchi's seminar. Rollins is in a graduate program in landscape architecture at Auburn.

• T. Vinton Holmes Endowment for Research in Ornithology Grant in the field of ornithology: Robert Moyle
• William H. Gates Memorial Fund to a graduate student for outstanding teaching in the Introductory Zoology Laboratory (BIOL 1509): Daniel Ortiz-Barrientos
• Simon Chang/Ezzat Younathan Outstanding Biochemistry Teaching Assistant to a biochemistry student: Jeremy Myers
• C. W. Edgerton Endowment Fund Award honors research accomplishments by a graduating PhD student in plant biology: Ning Zhang

• Scott Crousillac, Biological Sciences, Gleason lab: Expression of TRP Channel Subunits in the Developing and Adult Chicken Retina.
• Thomas Devitt, Biological Sciences, McGuire lab: The Genetic Consequences of Habitat Fragmentation on the Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) in the Longleaf Pine Ecosystem.
• Loren Henagan (undergraduate), Biological Sciences, Noor lab: A test of the balanced inversion model of speciation.
• Carrie Yoder, Biological Sciences, Platt lab: Community recovery following multiple disturbances of  fire and flooding.

• Vesna Karaman was accepted into the six  week course in Tropical Plant Systematics described on the OTS website as: A relatively new course emphasizes a strong theoretical/conceptual foundation in phylogenetic systematics while at the same time taking advantage of the unique field opportunities and spectacular examples of bio- diversity. Las Cruces Biological Station is the course's home base. On-site access is provided here to the eight hectare Wilson Botanical Garden and the 160-hectare forest reserve. Within easy reach are extensive mid-elevation fragments of premontane rain forest, the vast La Amistad National Park that extends to the high paramos, and the Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula with its tidal and mangrove swamps and "Amazonian" lowland rain forest.  This course was designed for the hard-core graduate student in plant systematics, but biologists in related disciplines (e.g., anthropology, ethnobotany) may find the training invaluable.
• Meghan Radtke was accepted for the eight-week field course,  Tropical Biology: An Ecological Approach.  The OTS website description of the course follows:  This, the so-called Fundamentals course, is intended for graduate students in the biological sciences. It is an intensive field course that emphasizes theory and methods of tropical ecology, with a particular focus emphasis on natural ecosystems. Six or more contrasting sites throughout Costa Rica are visited, ranging from sea level to the paramo and from wet tropical rain forest to seasonally dry deciduous forest. Offered continuously since 1964, this is the oldest and best known of OTS courses.

•        The Atlantic lowlands hosts the La Selva Biological Station, dedicated to rain forest research
•        The southern Pacific slopes are the home of the Las Cruces Biological Station, perfect for study of fragmented premontane rain forests.
•       The Pacific lowlands harbors the Palo Verde Field Station, ideal for study of deciduous dry forest and freshwater marsh

Honors College
Outstanding junior —Christina Jia Sheng Chen

R. Greg Hussey College Achievement Award for  leadership, service, and scholarly activities
Brian Harrell (Zoology) won one of the two awards named in honor of Dean Emeritus Greg Hussey who retired in 2000 after serving as a faculty member for 38 years and as Assistant Dean for 29 years.

Biological Sciences Departmental Awards
Each of these student's accomplishments include a long record of excellent academic performance, participation in laboratory or classroom teaching and research, and community and University service and leadership.
•Biological Sciences Undergraduate Research Award—Lisa Ann Bertucci
•Robert Amborski Award for the Outstanding Senior in Microbiology—Erin Marie Weeden
•M.D. Socolofsky Scholarship for Excellence in Microbiology—Chris Nicole Davis
•Charles S. McCleskey Memorial Endowed Scholarship for Excellence in Microbiology (3 winners)—Jennifer Eileen McCain, Jessica Reneé Gautreaux, and Joseph Chris Bruno, Jr.
• Outstanding Senior in Biochemistry —Jennifer Eileen McCain (see blue box below of honors students)
•Outstanding Senior in Zoology —Sara Kathryn Bordelon

Uchenna Nweze, a senior microbiology major in our department, has been selected to participate in The University of Wisconsin-Madison Molecular and Environmental Toxicology Summer Research Program for undergraduates. The program provides a monthly stipend and summer housing costs.

Pamela Weisenhorn, a senior biology major, has accepted an NSF-funded summer REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) position at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York.  Weisenhorn will conduct research on Hudson River wetland ecosystems under the supervision of Stuart Findlay.  The REU at the Institute for Ecosystem Studies is a particularly competitive program with applicants from all over the country.  The award covers lodging and has a $3000 summer stipend. This is Weisenhorn's second summer REU appointment. Last summer she participated in an REU project at the Savannah River Ecology Lab.  During the year Weisenhorn did research with Loretta Battaglia and currently she is completing a manuscript from that work that should be submitted before she leaves for Millbrook.

Four students in the College of Basic Sciences students  will earn upper division honors at May 2002 commencement are all from the Department of Biological Sciences: David Story (Biochemistry) Thesis advisor: Jackie Stephens.  David J. Story  worked with Jackie Stephens on  signaling proteins in type II diabetes.  He will start in the MD/ PhD degree program at LSU New  Orleans in Fall 2002. Jennifer McCain (Biochemistry) Thesis advisor: Pat Dimario.  McCain's honor's thesis described the transformation of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to express the nucleolar protein, Nopp140, as a green fluorescent protein tagged fusion.    McCain will graduate from LSU with majors in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Microbiology. She recently was accepted to LSU's Paul M. Hebert Law Center. Amy Noles (Microbiology) Thesis advisor: Sue Bartlett.  Noles modified a promoter for expression of a chloramphenicol cassette in Deinococcus radiodurans.  She also prepared vectors for homologous recombination into the beta and gamma carbonic anhydrase genes in D. radiodurans.  In addition, she made expression vectors for both of the CA genes.  Ebony Spikes (Biochemistry) Thesis advisor: Meredith Blackwell. Spikes cultured a large number of yeasts isolated from the gut of mushroom-feeding beetles.  The results of the study eventually will help to determine the relationship between the presumed endosymbiotic yeasts and their beetle hosts.

• Undergraduate research at LSU

So you want to be a....

Microbiologists snow down on Salt Lake City Microbiologists from the LSU Department of Biological Sciences attended the 102nd General Meeting of the American Society of Microbiology in Salt Lake City, Utah (May 19th-23rd). Fred Rainey attended the Council of ASM on which he presents Division R (Systematics and Evolutionary Microbiology).  The American Society of Microbiologists is the largest biological society with a membership of over 43,000.  The microbiologists from Biological Sciences LSU presented six posters in various poster sessions at the meeting: Diaz, M.A. , D.P. Bourgeois, and R.J. Siebling. Prevalence of integrons and gene cassettes in environmental isolates from Louisiana. Rash, B.A., and F.A. Rainey. Detection of potentially ubiquitous taxa using culture-independent techniques.  Special congratulations to Brian Rash from the Rainey Lab, who was awarded an ASM Student Travel Award for this poster presentation. Srinivasan,V.R. ,  J. Sansalone, and Y.H. Young.  A fast-rate anaerobic reactor ? Studies on a continuous process for the biodegradation of municipal waste sludge. Henk, M.C. , R.E. Bridges, J. Enticknap, M.C. Clements, F.A. Rainey. Collection of air-water biofilms for correlative microscopy and molecular biology characterization. Grau, B.L. , and R.J. Siebling. Evidence for a super-integron in Vibrio vulnificus. Diaz, M.A. , D.P. Bourgeois, and R.J. Siebling. Integrons and gene cassettes in environmental isolates of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. Rainey, F.A. , N. Ward, M.S. daCosta. Using the Genome Sequence of Deinococcus radiodurans to mine gene sequences from related taxa for phylogenetic analyses at various taxonomic levels.  ...and a final note on the ASM meeting: Ron Siebeling, along with arch rebel V.R. Srinivasan and the customary vanful of students, has safely returned from the 33rd CONSECUTIVE Siebeling-mobile drive to the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. Siebeling provided transportation for approximately 200 students and others, who presented at least 100 papers and posters over the 33 years!  An afternoon field trip was made to the Red Butte Garden, the Botanical Garden and Arboretum of the University of Utah. During the visit snow fell, which for some Louisiana natives was a new and exciting experience. Photographs, Frederick Rainey.

• Donze, D., and R. T. Kamakaka. 2002.  Braking the Silence: How Heterochromatic Gene Repression is stopped in its tracks. Bioessays  24:344-349.
• Mendonca, S., G.P. Johnson, A.D. French, and R.A. Laine. 2002. Conformational Analysis of Native and Permethylated Disaccharides.  Journal of  Physical  Chemistry A 106: 4115-4124.
• Zhang, N., and M. Blackwell. 2002. Molecular phylogeny of Melanospora corda and similar pyrenomycetous fungi. Mycological Research 106: 148-155.
• Williamson, G. B., and K. Ickes.  2002.  Mast fruiting and ENSO cycles - Does the cue betray the cause?  Oikos 97: 459-461.

• David Donze and colleagues Giorgio Dieci (University of Parma, Italy) and Takehiko Kobayashi (National Institute for Basic Biology, Japan) have been awarded a Human Fronteirs Science Program, Young Investigator's Grant to study "Functions of the RNA Polymerase III Transcription System in Genome Organization and Dynamics" The grant for $250,000/year with Donze's share of $80,000/year will run from July 2002 until June 2005.
• Craig M. Hart  was funded for a project: Structural and Functional Analysis of Chromatin Domain Insulators. Year 1: $64,758     Year 2: $58,258     Total: $123,016
• Mike Taylor  was awarded $9955 from NSF's DEB Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Program for his proposal  "Covariation of opsin proteins and coloration in a Caribbean goby species complex". Taylor works with Michael Hellberg, who is as always very proud of him.
• Kyle Harms is a co-PI on a $500,000 four-way collaborative grant recently funded by NSF: Effects of  soil-borne resources on the structure and dynamics of lowland tropical forests." Jim Dalling (U. Illinois) is PI and  Joe Yavitt (Cornell) and Bob Stallard (USGS) are the other PIs.   A quote from Kyle about the award: "My cut is only about $30,000, but it's a start"!
• Jim Cronin on receiving word of  funding by the NSF Ecology program:  Landscape heterogeneity, patch connectivity, and host-parasitoid population dynamics (DEB-0211359). $351,558.  Funding period: 1 Sept. 2002 to 31Aug. 2005.
• Meredith Blackwell was awarded $7,000 from NSF (International Programs) for an Ascomycete workshop preceeding the IV Congreso Latinamerico de Micologia in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.
• Mohamed Noor received word of funding from NSF Population Biology for a collaborative project entitled "Genetics of sexual isolation in Drosophila mojavensis" (DEB 0211007).  LSU will receive $269,000 from this award for  the period of September 1, 2002, through August 31, 2005.  His collaborator is Bill Etges at the University of Arkansas, who will receive $212,000 from NSF for this project.
• Lowell Urbatsch will receive NIH support.  This interesting interdisciplinary study that brings together food scientists and plant geneticists and systematists is described below:

Lowell Urbatsch  is part of a very large study focusing on the  phylogeny and population genetics of  plants used in herbal remedies.   He will receive NIH funds for the study of natural populations of purple cone flowers, of which the genus Echinacea is a member.  Echinacea has been touted by many advocates of herbal remedies on the web, such as the Eclectic Institute Inc.: "Strong immune stimulating properties; useful in colds, flu, sore throat, infections, skin eruptions, allergies, viral disease and immune deficiency. "  This same group has a motto of "Consistency Without Chemicals," and it is exactly this aspect of the use of herbal remedies that Urbatsch will study, because the amounts of bioactive compounds are almost certainly under genetic control that varies widly within populations.

Title:  Center for Dietary Supplements Research, -Botanicals.  National Institute of Health.     D. Birt, P.I., Iowa State University.  $25 Million.  LSU share $30,372.00.
Diane Birt, PI, is Chair Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. Urbatsch will be interacting most often with Co PI Jonathan Wendel, Professor of Biological Sciences, Iowa State University. Wendel's research interests coincide with those of Urbatsch, and they include molecular evolution, genome evolution, and phylogenetics of higher plants, and he is presently using molecular and genetic tools to explore the manner in which DNA sequences and genomes change over evolutionary time, especially gene and genome evolution in polyploids, with a special focus on the cotton genus

The specific aims of the study will be to i) determine the phylogenetic relationships among species within Echinacea and allied genera, and ii) determine the levels and patterns of genetic diversity in wild and cultivated populations of Echinacea purpurea, E. angustifolia, and E. pallida.

 Echinacea (and also Hypericum, St. John's Wort, which is included in the larger study) extracts are popular health-remedies. However, genetic diversity in these species and natural abundance of the putatively bioactive chemicals have not been systematically addressed.  The general hypotheses being tested in this project are: 1) Echinacea and Hypericum species contain wide natural variation in levels of bioactive compounds, and 2) The natural abundance of the Echinacea and Hypericum bioactive chemical(s) is broadly affected by environmental and developmental cues.  We will identify accessions and developmental and environmental cues that positively affect accumulation of beneficial bioactive compounds and negatively affect the accumulation of potentially undesired toxic compounds.  We will determine patterns of genetic diversity in Echinacea and Hypericum and how this diversity is related to accumulation of bioactive constituents.  We also will define the relationship between accumulation of bioactive constituents and developmental and environmental cues.  Variation in the accumulation and distribution of bioactive components will be assessed systematically throughout plant development.  This project plays a critical role in the Dietary Botanicals Center, identifying natural genetic, developmental, and environmental variation in the levels and patterns of accumulation of key bioactive constituents, and in determining strategies for optimizing the accumulation of beneficial compounds and minimizing toxicity.  An additional result of the project will be a genetic "fingerprint" technology to facilitate identification of plant material of unknown provenance.  The following specific aims will be addressed: Both Echinacea and Hypericum contain a great deal of natural genetic diversity, and only a small portion of this diversity has been evaluated for potential health effects in humans.  In this portion of the project we detail a research plan that will elucidate the "family tree" of each genus and its close relatives.  In addition, we describe approaches to clarify the levels and patterns of genetic diversity within the particular species that have been touted for their putative health benefits.  As a result of these experiments, we will characterize and quantify the portion and proportion of naturally occurring diversity that are utilized in commercial extracts.  This comparative framework will provide the critical context for other objectives in this proposal and for future experiments.  These include the design of sampling strategies for maximizing genetic diversity, the development of "core" collections for experimental use, and a means for rational assessment of the natural relationships of materials used commercially or for scientific experiments.  The data generated also provide the essential framework for developing PCR-based tools for "forensic" objectives, such as determining the identity of unknown plant materials as well as their geographic origin.

A substantial amount of the funds will be for the clinical testing bioactive compounds at the University of Iowa Medical School.

	On Saturday 27 April after Friday's successful herbarium grand opening symposium , a group of biologists went out into the field to the northeast of Baton Rouge.  Shown in the photograph (left to right) are Kurt Neubig, Peter Stevens (University of Missouri, St. Louis, and Missouri Botanical Garden), Tom Wendt (University of Texas), Meredith Blackwell, Vickie Funk (Smithsonian Institution), Kyle Harms, Diane Ferguson, Vesna Karaman, Wes Colgan (Louisiana Tech), Milan Vavrek  (Louisiana Tech), Heddy Cibula (Picayune, Mississippi),  Niholas Simpson (graduate student. Louisiana Tech), Bill Cibula (Picayune, Mississippi), and Lowell Urbatsch, who organized everything so beautifully. Not shown is the photographer, LSU undergraduate, Christine Tran.
	Sarracenia psittacina (Parrot Pitcher Plant) photographed at Talisheek Longleaf/Slash Pine Restoration Preserve, by Lowell Urbatsch
	When we were getting ready for the herbarium opening, we looked for a photograph of Charles Schexnayder, first chair of the Department of Botany, which came in a bit late pictures all four chairs of that defunct department. It is included here as a nostalgic reminder of the 25th anniversary of the department. Pictured (left to right) David Longstreth, Russ Chapman, Thomas Moore, and Schexnayder.