bio-news

Utah’s fir trees at risk from balsam woolly adelgid

June 20, 2024

Utah's fir trees at risk from
balsam woolly adelgid

June 20, 2024
Above: A drone photograph in Farmington Canyon shows the several level of infestation of balsam woolly adelgid infesting subalpine fir.
PHOTO CREDIT: MICKEY CAMPBEL

A nonnative tree-killing insect is invading northern Utah, attacking subalpine fir and potentially triggering yet another die-off of the region’s long-stressed conifer forests.

Introduced from Europe into the Pacific Northwest about a century ago, the balsam woolly adelgid (BWA), or Adelges piceae, was first detected in Utah in 2017 and has been spreading around the Wasatch Mountains, visibly affecting many of the popular recreation canyons outside Salt Lake City.

New research from the University of Utah, conducted in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, has documented the current extent of the adelgid infestation and created a model for predicting its severity around the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest.

The study documented a clear relationship between the infestation’s severity and temperature, according to lead author Mickey Campbell, a research assistant professor in the Department of Geography (soon to be merged with the Environmental Studies program and renamed the School of Environment, Society, and Sustainability.)

PHOTO CREDIT: MICKEY CAMPBELL The crowns of infested fir trees exhibit crown deformities.

“We took that climate-to-severity relationship along with a series of climate projections and we were able to map current and future exposure to BWA damage at a high spatial resolution,” Campbell said. “The idea [is], in 2040, 2060, 2080 and 2100, based on these different climate projections, determining how exposed these areas are to the potentially damaging effects of BWA. And indeed, we find that for an insect that prefers warmer areas, a warming climate is going to provide it with more opportunity to cause damage.”

The role of climate change

The study appears this month in the journal Forest Ecology and Management. Co-authors include U Biology Professor William Anderegg, director of the Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy. [The center hosts its annual Climate Summit on May 14-15, where Anderegg will give opening remarks.]

According to Anderegg, the new study suggests climate change is playing a role in Utah’s adelgid infestation.

“The main pieces of evidence are how strongly temperature is related to the spread and severity of BWA,” said Anderegg, a specialist in forest ecology. “That tells us at the very least as temperatures go up, we should be concerned about more spread and higher severity infestation.” Covering the Wasatch, Uinta, Bear River and a few lesser mountain ranges in northern Utah, this national forest is among the nation’s busiest for recreation. It features five major ski areas that border several others and sees more visits than all of Utah’s national parks combined.

Read the full article by Brian Maffly at @TheU.

Hear the Interview of Dr. Mickey Campbell ( Lead Author and research assistant professor in the Department of Geography) with Ross Chambless on the spread of balsam woolly adelgid in Utah on The Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy page.

Bacteriophages: Nature’s bacterial killers

June 18, 2024

Bacteriophages : Nature's bacterial killers

June 14, 2024
Above: Talia Karasov

Bacteriophages, viruses that attack and destroy bacteria, are everywhere in the natural world where they play a vital role in regulating microbe populations in ways that are not yet well understood.

New research led by the University of Utah and University College London (UCL) has found that plant bacterial pathogens are able to repurpose elements of their own bacteriophages, or phages, to wipe out competing microbes. These surprise findings suggest such phage-derived elements could someday be harnessed as an alternative to antibiotics, according to Talia Karasov, an assistant professor in the U’s School of Biological Sciences.

This result was hardly what she expected to find when she embarked on this research with an international team of scientists. Microbial pathogens are all around, but only a fraction of the time do they sicken humans, other animals or plants, according to Karasov, whose primary research interest is in interactions between plants and microbial pathogens. The Karasov lab is seeking to understand the factors that lead to sickness and epidemics versus keeping the pathogens in check.

“We see that no single lineage of bacteria can dominate. We wondered whether the phages, the pathogens of our bacterial pathogens, could prevent single lineages from spreading – maybe phages were killing some strains and not others. That’s where our study started, but that’s not where it ended up,” Karasov said. “We looked in the genomes of plant bacterial pathogens to see which phages were infecting them. But it wasn’t the phage we found that was interesting. The bacteria had taken a phage and repurposed it for warfare with other bacteria, now using it to kill competing bacteria.”

A thale cress specimen collected in 1866 in Germany and preserved in a herbarium in Tubingen. Credit: Burbano lab, University College London.

Mining herbarium specimens for their microbial DNA

Burbano has pioneered the use of herbarium specimens to explore the evolution of plants and their microbial pathogens. His lab sequences the genomes of both host plants and those of the microbes associated with the plant at the time of collection more than a century ago.

For the phage research, Burbano analyzed historical specimens of Arabidopsis thaliana, a plant from the mustard family commonly called thale cress, collected in southwestern Germany, comparing them and the microbes they harbored to plants growing today in the same part of Germany. Lead author Talia Backman wonders if tailocins could help solve the impending crisis in antibiotic resistance seen in harmful bacteria that infect humans.

“We as a society are in dire need of new antibiotics, and tailocins have potential as new antimicrobial treatments,” said Backman, a graduate student in the Karasov lab. “While tailocins have been found previously in other bacterial genomes, and have been studied in lab settings, their impact and evolution in wild bacterial populations was not known. The fact that we found that these wild plant pathogens all have tailocins and these tailocins are evolving to kill neighboring bacteria shows how significant they may be in nature.”

Discover the full story behind bacteriophages and their antibiotic potential by Brian Maffly at @The U. More on this story at earth.com.

Championing Representation & Advocacy in Healthcare

June 12, 2024

Championing Representation & Advocacy in Healthcare

June 12, 2024
Above: Kimberly Gamarra

Kimberly Gamarra, a graduate of the University of Utah’s School of Biological Sciences, was recently accepted to the U’s Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine. While Gamarra has been successful in her pursuit of her goals to work in the medical field,  her journey has been fraught with challenges.

 

Participating in the English as a Second Language (ESL) Express Registration event at SLCC as a peer mentor leader.

Gamarra’s exciting educational milestone boils down to personal triumph, mentorship, and resilience. Navigating her family’s adopted home of the U.S., she began her undergraduate studies early during high school, completing concurrent enrollment classes through Salt Lake Community College before finishing her degree at the U.

In the university setting Gamarra found guidance and community through the Refugees Exploring the Foundations of Undergraduate Education In Science (REFUGES) Bridge Program (REFUGES), designed to support students with tools for college and career readiness. Founded by physics faculty member Tino Nyawelo, the program proved to be a pivotal support system for Gamarra. “From the start, I've always wanted to do medicine," she reflects. “That was my goal. And so having Tino’s program, there was a huge help in acclimating to the new campus and getting to know faculty, staff, and other students. And it really helped me network really well from the start, and feel more comfortable.” Through the program, she not only found her footing in the academic landscape but also discovered her capacity for leadership and mentorship, being able to give back as a science and mathematics tutor.

Gamarra is quick to open up about her upbringing and how her family’s challenges during her childhood impacted her present journey: “My parents are immigrants from Peru and their transition to the U.S, especially navigating healthcare, was a challenge. I suffered from a brain tumor as a child, so a big motivation for them moving to the U.S. was to make sure I received the best treatment possible. This whole process opened my eyes to the strengths and struggles of our current healthcare system, and ways I can help make it better.” 

Drawing from her family's experiences, Gamarra is prepared to think beyond traditional healthcare expectations by providing care for her future patients on more than just a physical level, emphasizing the importance of equity, inclusion, and community on health and well-being. She has been involved in several projects that provide guidance to Latinx families about free health-related resources and volunteers her time as a Spanish and English translator. Her interactions with patients, families and mentors are what fueled her determination to continue pursuing medicine. She is particularly interested in helping foster a greater sense of trust between physicians and their patients, which she sees as key to success. 

At the Mitaka Picture Book initiative in Japan, reading Spanish to Japanese children and their families.

Transcending cultural and linguistic barriers

With an interest in global health and social justice, Gamarra envisions a career that transcends borders and barriers. In her final year at the U, she attended the Oxford Consortium for Human Rights based in the UK, where she drew a strong parallel between health and human rights. With her group she presented on climate refugees and the barriers to accessing healthcare, as well as discussing health from a cultural point of view considering the existence of traditional medicine. Upon returning to Utah, she helped create the podcast RadioNatura, opening up these discussions to a global audience. This commitment to removing cultural and linguistic barriers defines Gamarra's vision for her future in medicine. 

With a degree in biology and a minor in pediatric clinical research, Gamarra will begin medical school this August with an interest in pediatrics. She hopes to expand on her expertise and knowledge: “Presenting different studies that doctors in the University of Utah health community are doing really opened my eyes to the vulnerability of children,” she states. “I see the field of pediatrics as a promising one because I can have a long-term impact and build strong relationships with families, providing comprehensive care that considers the well-being of both the child and the family unit.” 

‘Doing More’ is a subjective term

Though Gamarra has experienced many ups and downs on her path, she has always remained focused on her goals. “I would be lying if I said this whole journey was smooth,” she admits. “It was actually extremely rocky. There were times I doubted myself because there was always a thought in my mind that I could be doing more. But I realized that ‘more’ is subjective. It is less about accumulating experiences and more about the reflections and growth that comes out of those experiences.” While Gamarra admits that she once admired people with busy calendars, she no longer glamorizes it: “Being ‘busy’ without time to self-reflect is not the path I want to take in my life.”

As she prepares to embark on the next chapter of her life — medical school — Gamarra carries with her the support of those who helped her along the way. “I just focus on the people that were there for me, and I think that because of the REFUGES Program, Tino is a wonderful person that was there for me. He was someone that saw me through this journey, and that is still with me through this next journey, which I value a lot.” 

In Kimberly Gamarra, the U’s School of Medicine has found more than just a future doctor, but an individual who will undoubtedly create change and strengthen communities wherever she goes.

By Julia St. Andre

Finding new ant species in a SLC backyard

June 5, 2024

Utah’s ant man found a new species in his backyard

June 5, 2024
Above: John "Jack" Longino, in the tropics

University of Utah professor Jack Longino’s research mainly takes him to Central America, but on the weekend he collects and examines the diverse ant species around him.

Jack Longino likes to spend his weekends close to the ground. He often wears a vest that holds fifteen tiny vials filled with alcohol and a backpack with about 100 more.

“People look at me and they think I’ve got a bullet belt,” he said.

Longino uses the vials to carefully collect and preserve ants. “I end up with thousands of tiny little bottles of alcohol with dead ants in them,” he said.

He has traveled and documented ants extensively in Central America, but Longino is “interested in ant diversity anywhere I am.”

Luckily, ants are just about everywhere and each zone — from the marshes of the Great Salt Lake to high elevation Alta to the West Desert — has its own set of species.

In 2018 Longino was hanging out in the backyard of his Salt Lake City home when he noticed an unusual group of ants normally found in tropical habitats. Very few of that particular species were recorded in the Western U.S. At first he assumed they had come from Southern Arizona, perhaps hitched a ride on potting soil.

Read the full article by reporter Sofia Jeremias in the Salt Lake Tribune. (Pay wall)

A Tale of Two Worms: Advancing Epigenetics

June 4, 2024

A Tale of Two Worms : Advancing Epigenetics

June 4, 2024
Above: Immunofluorescence in round worm. Credit: Audrey Brown

Why an important epigenetic gene is missing in some species of roundworm.


by Audrey Brown
Graduate Student, School of Biological Sciences

Have you ever wondered how a cell knows whether it’s supposed to be skin or muscle? Or philosophized about “nature vs. nurture,” that is, how contributions from both genetics and the environment influence physical phenotypes? Epigenetics, a relatively new field in biology, helps explain the mechanistic basis for this phenomenon—and is the field I have chosen to dedicate my doctoral studies at the University of Utah.

Audrey Brown

I sometimes find the easiest way to describe epigenetics is using a metaphor. Imagine that the DNA within a cell is an instruction manual. It contains all the instructions necessary for cellular functions — but this manual can also be modified. Epigenetic modifications (“epi” meaning “on top of”) are like “sticky-notes,” a set of additional instructions on top of the manual. These notes contain directions like “make more of this gene here” or “turn this gene off completely.” In reality, these notes take the form of chemical tags added to the DNA itself or to proteins associated with the DNA. Scientists like myself and my colleagues in Michael Werner’s lab at the School of Biological Sciences are trying to understand what type of information each of these modifications encodes, and how the set of modifications is changed by external environmental factors.

I recently co-authored a paper in Genetics addressing this last point. For this study, we created and compared lists of all the epigenetic genes present in these two worms. For the most part they contained a similar repertoire of epigenetic genes, yet we found one striking difference: P. pacificus is missing an epigenetic protein complex called PRC2. This was a surprising result since PRC2 is one of the most conserved epigenetic protein complexes, and is essential for various cellular functions, including cell differentiation and gene repression. So how is P. pacificus able to survive without it? We found one clue with the help of Ofer Rog’s lab at the U. We were able to detect the enzymatic output of the PRC2 complex (i.e. the specific “sticky-note” it writes), which led us to conclude that a different, yet unknown enzyme has taken over the function of PRC2 in P. pacificus.

Read more of Audrey Brown's article about these advancements in epigenetics in @The U.

Shared Landscapes: Wolves and Humans in Rural Turkey

June 3, 2024

Shared Landscapes
Wolves and Humans in Rural Turkey

May 30, 2024
Above: Photo of the wolf captured by Çağan Şekercioğlu on eastern Turkey’s Kars-Ardahan plateau. Photo Credit: Çağan Şekercioğlu

Utah biologists track gray wolves with GPS collars and camera traps as their numbers rebound into populated parts of northeast Turkey.

After 14 years of gathering and analyzing field data, an international research team led by University of Utah biologist Çağan Şekercioğlu has released the first and only study of gray wolf movements and ecology in Turkey. Using GPS collars and camera traps, researchers tracked seasonal variations of wolves’ range sizes in the highlands of Turkey’s rural northeastern corner, where people are widely present during the summer but mostly absent in the winter when the area is completely snowbound. The team was surprised to discover human presence had no effect on wolf movements.

“Even though human activity changes drastically, wolves are not taking advantage of that by increasing their home range size or changing their home range size between the seasons when humans are there and when they’re not there,” said J. David Blount, lead author of the study published this month in the journal Wildlife Biology. “Theoretically they have a lot of different needs during these times that should be fluctuating, especially with the dispersing wolves.”

Çağan Şekercioğlu (center)

“Wolves are very adjustable, which leads to many exciting behavioral adaptations,” said Blount, a graduate student in Şekercioğlu’s lab. “However, studies are pretty context-dependent.”

Since the mid-1990s, wolves have been making a comeback following re-introductions in the Yellowstone region, Arizona and, most recently, western Colorado. The wolf situation in eastern Turkey is completely different, according to Şekercioğlu, a professor of biology. While wolves have been a problem for livestock operations, shepherds and ranchers have learned to live with the apex predator with the help of Anatolian sheepdogs, which protect cattle and sheep without harming the wolves.

The study area covered 550 square kilometers surrounding Sarıkamış, a town of 15,500.  Over 14 research seasons, running from mid-May to mid-August, the research team captured 46 wolves and fitted them with GPS collars, which recorded a location every five hours and are designed to fall off after two years. The cameras yielded 26,000 photos of wildlife and countless others that recorded animals other than wildlife.

According to the study, as wolves resettle areas near towns, understanding how wolves adjust their temporal and spatial patterns in human-dominated landscapes can contribute to their conservation. An ornithologist who studies tropical songbirds, Şekercioğlu began eying wolves when he moved from Stanford University in 2010 and used startup funds provided by the University of Utah to initiate the project, also supported by grants from Fondation Segré, the Sigrid Rausing Trust and the Whitley Fund.

Read the full story by Brian Maffly, @The U.

SRI Stories: Parker Guzman

May 29, 2024

SRI Stories: Of Bees & Pigeons

May 29, 2024

“We were given the opportunity to ask novel questions,” Parker Guzman says of the Science Research Initiative (SRI) in the College of Science, “as well as the methods and process of experiments. That’s lacking in undergraduate research a lot of the time.”

Parker worked in the Briggs/Steffen SRI stream, which focuses on pollination biology. The lab, in which students actively participate in field research and molecular protocols, studies native bees and their molecular structure in order to better understand the plants they pollinate and how to help native bees in the environment.

Parker is majoring in biology, with an emphasis in ecology and evolution with a minor in integrative human biology.

“After I leave the U,” Parker says, “I want to work in the field and then apply for a PhD program in ecology and evolution. I could see myself staying in academia, I enjoy teaching or doing research.”

In 2023, Parker won the Department of Chemistry’s Kodak Educational Service Fellow Award for mentorship. He works as a teaching assistant for organic chemistry classes.

“A professional hero of mine is Hank Green,” Parker says. “He’s an author and science communicator and has done a lot of work on platforms like YouTube to make science more accessible.”

Parker is the president of the undergraduate chapter of SACNAS at the U, a club that promotes and supports diversity in STEM. SACNAS often attends conferences, such as the one in Portland, Oregon last year. Parker also organized a smaller, local conference at the U in April, where around one hundred people participated. SACNAS won the Recognized Student Organization award for belonging from the University of Utah.

Along with SACNAS, Guzman works in the Clayton/Bush lab in the School of Biological Sciences. He became interested in their research after attending a lecture on parasitology. Focusing on host-parasite coadaptation and diversification, the Clayton/Bush lab works with birds, using captive birds as well as field work to research these mechanisms.

Guzman’s research within the Clayton/Bush lab is on the relationship between molt and preening behavior in captive pigeons.

“Molt is a huge but necessary energy investment for pigeons,” explains Parker. “So we expect them to downregulate other behaviors. But preening may not be downregulated due to the role it plays in maintaining plumage health.”

“Despite what most people think,” adds Parker Guzman, “pigeons are one of the smartest animals in the world.”

 

by CJ SIebeneck

Establishing a “Wildfire Resilience Collective”

May 13, 2024

Establishing a Wildfire Resilience Collective

May 13, 2024

By Hannah Meier, PhD Student, School of Biological Sciences

Photo above, from left to right]: Tegan Lengyel, PhD (Anderegg lab), Elizabeth Williams, Hannah Meier (DYCE and Reimer lab), Rebecca Senft (Aprecido lab), Annie Carlile, (Bowling lab).

In January, my teammates and I dedicated 24 hours of our weekend to immerse ourselves in the pressing issues of wildland fire resilience in the West. Joining the Wilkes Center Climate Solutions Hackathon offered a valuable break from the routine grind of a first-year PhD student in biology.

Hannah Meier

Our team’s final project, establishing the Wildfire Resilience Collective ended up winning first place. However, the true highlight was the collaborative effort among students from various majors, urging us to tackle the issue from diverse perspectives and glean insights from each other.

Our team consists of PhD students from the Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology in the School of Biological Sciences, and one undergraduate, a pre-med student studying Biomedical Engineering. The education and interests of each team member provide a wealth of foundational knowledge, but, most importantly, we share a common goal of utilizing our research to inform policymakers and stakeholders in shaping land use decisions, which motivated our participation in the Wilkes hackathon.

But what exactly is a hackathon? While often associated with coding challenges, its essence lies in rapidly developing solutions within a condensed time frame. Our team’s focus was far removed from coding. We aimed to grasp the impact of wildfires on community resilience and the mechanisms behind fostering such resilience.

Central to our discussions were inquiries into the meaning of resilience, both in ecological and communal contexts. We landed on a definition of resilience as a community’s or ecosystem’s ability to absorb changes while maintaining established relationships, both within and across organisms.

 

Read the rest of the story at the Wilkes Center. 

Humans of the U: Erik Smith

May 1, 2024

Humans of the U: Erik Smith

May 1, 2024
Above: Erik Smith, BS'23 in biology

 

Last spring, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology and a minor in chemistry. Now I am a student in the Master of Business Creation program.

 

I started skiing when I was around three years old. My family had a tradition of going skiing together once a year. When I was in middle school, I started getting a season pass each year. Around this time, I also began snowboarding, which I have been doing ever since.

During my senior year of college, I applied to dental school and I made it all the way through interviews. From there, I just had to wait. I didn’t hear anything for about two months. It was a rough time because I just had no idea if I was going to get into school. While I was waiting, I used my downtime to go snowboarding. I wanted to try making my own wax, so I decided to do it for fun.

The wax ended up gaining some traction with others. At the time, I was a TA in a biochemistry lab. Over the course of a few months, I used all the resources I had to create the wax. Some professors in the College of Science and Department of Biochemistry helped me access some more, and I decided to go for it and create my business, Board Budder.

 

Read the rest of Erik's story in his own words in @ The U. 

From Ecology To Impact Investing: Nalini Nadkarni

April 29, 2024

From Ecology To Impact Investing

April 24, 2024
Above: Nalini Nadkarni. Credit: Niki Chan Wylie

Harnessed and helmeted, ecologist Nalini Nadkarni has ascended the towering strangler figs of the Costa Rican rainforest to observe the many plants, animals, and microbes that live in the upper canopy. She has done the same in the temperate forests of Washington state. As a forest canopy researcher, this has been her work for four decades. She has published more than 150 scientific papers and articles and was named a National Geographic Explorer at Large in 2023. But that is not where her efforts stop.

 

 

Reaching far beyond the scientific community, she has created science education programs for people who are incarcerated, programming for churches and synagogues, and worked with Mattel to create a set of Explorer Barbies to inspire girls to study nature. These efforts speak to Nadkarni’s desire to broaden her reach beyond academia to ensure trees do not go overlooked. That, despite their silent and sedentary nature, people would recognize the multiple ways trees enrich our lives and life on our planet.

It is with this same spirit of creating connections that Nadkarni became a Sorenson Impact Institute Senior Fellow in Residence. She said she sees a great deal of common ground and potential for complementary efforts between ecology and social impact investment. As the Institute’s newest fellow, she will bring her expertise, experiences, and contacts in ecology, conservation biology, and the environment to the Institute to create new pathways to connect ecological actions and programs with the power and mission of impact investment.

Read more about Nadkarni’s career and her vision for her work with the Sorenson Impact Institute at Forbes.