Nhu H. Nguyen -- Gone to Berkeley
Nhu
began his
LSU
career
Fall
2001, and started working in the lab in the spring semester
(2002).
Nhu had already been collecting and raising insects for several years,
so he had valuable skills to contribute to the lab from the
beginning.
His interests in this area are reflected in his personal web site (see an example
to the right). He has learned to do all
the culture and molecular techniques, including cloning used in the
study,
and he identifies insects too. He has been invaluable in the lab
and in two expeditions to Panama. Major Biological Sciences; BS
December 2005. Nhu is in graduate school at the University of
California, Berkeley. He is an NSF Predoctoral Fellow.
Refereed
publications:
- Suh, S. -O., Nguyen, N. H., and Blackwell, M.
2008. Yeasts isolated from plant-associated beetles and other insects:
seven novel Candida species
near Candida albicans. FEMS Yeast Research 8:88–102.
- Nguyen, N. H., S.-O. Suh, and M.
Blackwell. Five novel Candida
species and the yeasts associated with neuropterous insects. Mycologia in press.
- Suh, S.-O., N. H.
Nguyen, and
M. Blackwell. 2006. A yeast clade near Candida kruisii uncovered: nine
novel Candida species
associated with basidioma-feeding beetles. Mycological Research 110:1379-1394.
- Nguyen,
N. H.,
S.-O. Suh,
C. J. Marshall, and M. Blackwell. 2006. Morphological and ecological
similarities: wood-boring beetles associated with novel
xylose-fermenting yeasts, Spathaspora
passalidarum gen. nov., sp. nov. and Candida jeffriesii sp. nov. Mycological Research 110:1232-1241.
- Nguyen, N. H.,
S.-O. Suh,
C. K. Erbil, and M. Blackwell. 2006. Metschnikowia
noctiluminum sp. nov., Metschnikowia
corniflorae
sp. nov., and Candida chrysomelidarum
sp.
nov., isolated from green lacewings and beetles. Mycological Research 110:346-356.
- Nardi, J. B., C.
M.
Bee, L.
A. Miller, N. H. Nguyen, S.-O.
Suh, and M. Blackwell. 2006. Communities
of
Microbes
that Inhabit the Changing Hind Gut Landscape of a Subsocial Beetle. Arthropod
Structure and Development 35:57-68.
- Suh, S.-O., N. H.
Nguyen, and
M. Blackwell. 2005. Nine new Candida species near Candida
membranifaciens
isolated from insects. Mycological Research 109:261-265.
- Suh, S.-O., M. M.
White, N.
H. Nguyen, and M. Blackwell. 2004. The identification of Enteroramus
dimorphus: a xylose-fermenting yeast attached to the gut of
beetles. Mycologia
96:756-760.
Book chapter:
- Nguyen, N. H.,
S.-O.Suh and M. Blackwell. Spathaspora Nguyen,
Suh & Blackwell. In: The Yeasts: A
taxonomic guide. Eds. C. Kurtzman, J.
Fell, and T. Boekhout. Elsevier, Amsterdam. In press.
Other publication:
- Nguyen, N. H. 2007. Featured
Research: Yeasty Guts of Beetles. ATBI
Quarterly. 8:7.
Presentation:
- Nguyen, N.
H., S.-O.
Suh, and M. Blackwell. 2003. Effect of starvation of
basidiocarp-feeding
beetles on suspected yeast endosymbionts. British Mycological Society
--
Mycological Society of America Joint Meeting, Asilomar, California,
July
2003. Abstract. Yeasts were routinely isolated from the gut of
basidiocarp-feeding
beetles in this study. An experiment was performed to determine the
effect
of beetle starvation on the gut yeasts. Two species of tenebrionid
beetles
(Neomida bicornis and an unidentified species) were collected
from Fomitella
supina and Inonotus ludovicianus, respectively and kept in
sterile
Petri plates with sterile water but no food until they were dissected
over
a period of eleven days. The beetles were dissected at two-day
intervals
and the gut contents, plated on acidified YM agar. After three days of
incubation at 25C the colonies were counted and each morphologically
distinct
colony was identified by LSU rDNA sequence. One yeast type predominated
in the cultures and was the only yeast present after several days. The
number of gut yeasts isolated decreased dramatically to none after nine
days for (Neomida bicornis and eleven for the unidentified
tenebrionid.
Failure to isolate yeasts from controls indicated that the yeasts
probably
were restricted to the beetle gut.
Awards:
- Charles
S. McCleskey
Memorial Endowed Scholarship for Excellence in Microbiology (Fall 2003)
- Biological
Sciences
Undergraduate Research Award (Spring 2005) (see Nhu pictured below with
Terry Bricker, Chairperson, Biological Sciences, and Kevin Carman,
Dean,
College of Basic Sciences (Spring 2005)
