Ashleigh B. Smythe
Scholar-in-Residence
Hamilton College
Xiphinema americanum collaboration published
In February, 2014 my collaboration with the laboratories of Inga Zasada (USDA-ARS, Corvallis, Oregon) and Dee Denver (Oregon State U.) was published in PLoSOne: Using Mitogenomic and Nuclear Ribosomal Sequence Data to Investigate the Phylogeny of the Xiphinema americanum Species Complex.
Ontologies Workshop at NESCent
I spent the week of July 29- August 2, 2013 at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center attending the Ontologies for Evolutionary Biology workshop. Ontologies are controlled, relational vocabularies that can be used to organize biological data so it can be easily searched and linked to other data. I am interested in extending what's already been done for the C. elegans anatomy ontology to include the diversity of other nematodes.
American Society of Parasitologists meeting
In late June, 2013 I attended the American Society of Parasitologists meeting in Quebec City, Canada. I presented some research done collaboratively with one of my undergraduate students, Kristin Forgrave '12, and colleagues at U. Mass. Lowell and U. New Hampshire : "Ecology, Taxonomy, and Evolution of the Chaetogaster limnaei (Oligochaeta, Annelida) Species Complex." I also managed to finally get a picture with both my graduate school mentors, Bill Font (masters) and Steve Nadler (Ph.D.) - two people who have made a huge and positive impact on my life.
Smythe lab students present their research
In April, 2013 I took my three senior research students to present their research to the Helminthological Society of Washington meeting at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. HelmSoc is the oldest parasitology research society in America. Rebecca Knipp '13 gave a talk titled "Oxyurid nematodes from the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa)", Ethan Ayres '13 presented "Helminth parasites of the American mink (Neovison vison) from central New York state" and Matt Combs '13 presented "Testing the Hygiene Hypothesis: Heligmosomoides bakeri as potential preventative for multiple low dose streptozotocin induced insulitis in mice." They all did a super job on their talks, and Matt even won the best student paper competition!
Scenes from Parasitology, Spring 2013
Scenes from Invertebrate Biology Class, fall 2012!
Field Work in Tobago
I spent two weeks in late summer of 2012 collecting marine nematodes on the island of Tobago (Republic of Trinidad and Tobago). I joined three other meiofauna researchers: Rick Hochberg and his student Sarah Atherton of U. Massachusetts, Lowell, and Julian Smith of Winthrop University. Rick's NSF grant to study gastrotrichs provided the funding for the trip, and luckily Rick invited Julian and me along to study our own animals that also live in the sand - nematodes for me and flatworms for Julian. More pictures coming soon!
Summer Student Research
This summer (2012), three Hamilton College students have been hard at work in my lab for a few weeks now: Rebecca Knipp '13, Doug Santoro '14 and Ethan Ayres '13. Ethan has been focusing on helminth parasites of mink, provided by local trappers. Rebecca and Doug have been working to collect and identify predatory soil nematodes of the order Mononchida. Doug is also doing some work on soil nematodes from invasive garlic mustard habitats, and Rebecca is getting started on a project involving nematodes from the Madagascar hissing cockroach.
Field work in Panama
I recently returned from 2 weeks collecting marine nematodes on the Pacific coast of Panama in December, 2011. I joined 9 other researchers studying meiofauna, tiny animals found in sediment. Working out of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Naos Laboratory in Panama City, we collected in nearby coastal habitats as well as islands offshore, including Las Perlas archipelago and Isla Taboga. This was the third collecting trip for this meiofauna team, led by John Norenburg of the Smithsonian's NMNH, and our long run goal is to compare the diversity we find in Pacific Panama to that of the Caribbean side and our site in Belize, Carrie Bow Cay. The classic biogeographic trans-isthmus comparison has never been made with meiofauna, and we think these understudied little animals are a great way to explore patterns of diversity and evolution.
Summer Student Field Parasitology Research
Five Hamilton students have been hard at work in the lab for the past few weeks, studying the ecology of a variety of parasites. Kristin Forgrave has been working on a project, now joint with Rick Hochberg at U. Mass. Lowell, to understand the relationship between the ectoparasitic and endoparasitic forms of the oligochaete Chaetogaster limnaei, associates of physid snails. Chris Kline and JJ Liebow have been exploring larval trematodes in physid snails, using DNA to identify taxa that we find as adults in muskrats. Jackie Specht and Abby Koppa are working to understand the ecological distribution of a new species of nematode found in the branchial chamber of crayfish. Jackie, Chris, and Kristin will continue their research this fall as senior thesis projects.
Society of Nematologists Meeting
In mid July, 2011 I attended the 50th Anniversary Meeting of the Society of Nematologists in Corvallis, Oregon. I was kindly invited to speak in a symposium titled “Freshwater and Marine Nematodes”. My talk was titled “Molecular Phylogeny of Enoplia: Implications for Classification and Stoma Evolution.” This project seeks to understand the evolutionary relationships and morphological evolution of a group of marine nematodes, the Enoplia. Enoplid nematodes are evolutionarily important as they may represent the earliest lineage of all nematodes, and understanding their evolution improves our understanding of the entire phylum, including important human, animal and plant parasites. Enoplids also display a wide variety of morphological features of the mouth region, including adaptations for predatory, algal, and bacterial feeding, and my work aims to understand the evolution of these morphologies.
International Congress on Invertebrate Morphology
June 20th through the 23rd, 2011, I attended the 2nd International Congresss on Invertebrate Morphology at Harvard University. I gave an invited talk in a symposium titled "Meiofauna - Comparative Morphology and Evolution." There were about 250 invertebrate zoologists in attendance, mostly from Europe and North America, all with interests in the evolution and morphology of a variety of inverts, from worms to snails to crustaceans and on and on. It was a great chance to talk to loads of interesting and smart folks about invertebrate animals, the latest techniques, etc. - very fun.
Field work on Bay of Fundy
In mid June, 2011 I joined fellow meiobenthologists Fernando Pardos, Kevin Kocot, and Chris Laumer for a few days of sampling meiofauna animals in the Bay of Fundy region in "downeast" Maine. The large tides of the Bay of Fundy allow sampling of rarely-exposed sediment, and I was able to collect a number of nematode taxa for phylogenetic work. Kevin and I also enjoyed a mud flat adventure finding lots of hemichordates (acorn worms, Saccoglossus kowalevskii) as well as a single priapulid (penis worm, Priapulus caudatus) after several hours of digging in the mud.
Beaver necropsy
Parasitology student Ethan Ayres found a road kill beaver near his hometown of Cooperstown, NY in late May, 2011. He asked if he could examine it for parasites, "just for fun." Yeah, that's my kind of fun! He found a great trichostrongyl nematode, Travassosius americanus, in the stomach and several specimens of a big trematode, Stichorchis subtriquetrus in the cecum. Parasite pictures coming soon.
