dan

Daniel A. Henk, PhD (left) in chair and Laboulbeniopsis termitatius (right) on a termite antenna tip. Daniel began graduate studies at Duke University in the fall of 1999 in the laboratory of Rytas Vilgalys. Daniel was supported by an NSF-REU supplement and Howard Hughes Medical Institute funding while at LSU. He was named an NSF Predoctoral Fellow in Spring 2001. His thesis was on the ecology, population biology, and systematics of Septobasidium, an insect-associated basidiomycete. Daniel is currently on a postdoc at Imperial College, London, where he is looking over the shoulder of Alexander Fleming.

Phylogenetic relationships of fungi associated with subterranean termites

BS. Plant Biology , LSU (Spring 1999)
PhD, Mycology, Duke University (May 2005)
Postdoctoral associate, USDA, Beltsville (2005- )

LSU poster presentations:

D. A. Henk, Kevin Jones, Meredith Blackwell. 1998. The enigmatic and minute fungus Laboulbeniopsis termitarius: an evolutionary story. Summer Undergraduate Research Forum, LSU, August 1998 -- Honorable Mention Award.
D. A. Henk, K. G. Jones*, A. Weir** and M. Blackwell. 1999. Phylogenetic position of the termite ectoparasitic fungi Termitaria snyderi and Laboulbeniopsis termitarius. [Termitaria snyderi and Laboulbeniopsis termitarius are widely distributed termite ectoparasites with non-mycelial thalli. Their phylogenetic position has been enigmatic because of the reduced thalli and absence of characters for analysis. Sporodochial conidiomata mark T. snyderi; and its relationship to species of Kathistes could not have been predicted without the use of molecular characters derived from nuclear encoded rRNA and ß-tubulin genes. Gäumann placed L. termitarius in his “Laboulbeniales Imperfecti”; analysis of nuc-ssu rDNA characters includes it within the Laboulbeniales, a group of obligate parasites of arthropods with thalli of determinate growth that develop directly from ascospores. Abstract for the XVI International Botanical Congress, St. Louis MO, August 1999.]

LSU papers:

Henk, D. A., A. Weir, and M. Blackwell. 2003. Laboulbeniopsis, an ectoparasite of termites newly recognized as a member of the Laboulbeniomycetes. Mycologia 95:561-564.
Blackwell, M., D. Henk, and K.G. Jones. 2003. Extreme morphological divergence: phylogenetic position of a termite ectoparasite. Mycologia 95:987-992.