(Press-News.org) MANHATTAN, KAN. -- A Kansas State University professor's research and the upcoming Ecological Genomics Symposium continue to make the university a leader in the emerging field of ecological genomics.
Ecological genomics is an integrated field that focuses on how organisms, ecosystems and communities respond to environmental change. It uses genomic technologies, such as gene sequencing and expression analysis, on a wider scale to ask and research ecological questions, said Michael Herman, associate professor of biology.
"We're working hard to advance this field," Herman said. "Our long-term goal is to be able to use genomic approaches to better understand ecological interactions."
Herman works on ecological genomics research with nematodes, which are abundant animals that strongly respond to environmental disturbances. He has focused on how nitrogen addition to the soil affects nematodes.
Herman's research team spent time observing nematodes in the field, and then moved to the lab where the researchers set up a procedure that exposed a model nematode to bacteria from prairie soils and then identified expressed genes. Now Herman and his research team plan to take what they have learned and apply it to native nematodes in the soil. Herman hopes to understand how nematodes choose what habitat to live in -- whether their choice is because they grow faster or defend themselves better, or for other reasons.
Herman recently traveled to Maine to give a lecture at a seven-day course at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory. The event focused on environmental genomics, particularly with research involving Daphnia pulex, a common water flea species.
While environmental genomic focuses more on human-induced changes, such as pollution and toxic chemicals, Herman said ecological genomics focuses on interactions between organisms.
K-State has already positioned itself as a leader in ecological genomics with the formation of the Ecological Genomics Institute, a multidisciplinary initiative that involves faculty from three colleges and six departments, including biology, plant pathology, entomology, statistics, agronomy, and computing and information sciences.
The institute has become the only place in the world to house a homegrown central organization of faculty interested in ecological genomics. It is such research initiatives that could help K-State become a top 50 public research university by 2025. Herman and Loretta Johnson, associate professor of biology, serve as the institute's co-directors.
In addition to Herman's research, other areas of research in the Ecological Genomics Institute include hybrid speciation, transposons and genome evolution in wild sunflowers; genomics of plant virus-vector specificity and transmission; and ecotypic differentiation and genetic variation in the prairie grass Andropogon. As researchers have sequenced more genomes, they are trying to determine what different genes do. Researchers want to use the environment to characterize the genomes.
"We can make good observations and propose good hypotheses about what might be going on. We think we can use the organism's genes to ask, 'What do you care about?'" Herman said. "We think there is a lot to be gained by doing that, and it might be able to allow us to predict what happens when humans go and change the environment. If we understand that on a genetic level, that might allow us to look at the larger picture."
To promote the field the Ecological Genomics Institute hosts and organizes the Ecological Genomics Symposium every year in Kansas City. What began as a local meeting of researchers and scientists eight years ago has grown to an international meeting and one of the premier meetings in the field of ecological genomics. This year's symposium will be Nov. 5-7 at the Marriott Hotel in Downtown Kansas City.
INFORMATION:
For more information about the Ecological Genomics Symposium, including hotel accommodations, transportation and registration information, visit http://ecogen.ksu.edu/symp2010.
END
All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) are associated with a significant and increasing number of hospitalizations for children in the U.S., according to a new report by the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Over a nine- year period (1997-2006) hospitalizations for ATV injuries increased 150 percent among youth younger than 18 years, with important demographic variations. Rates increased the most dramatically in the South and Midwest, and among teens ages 15 to 17. While males between 15 to 17 have the highest rate of ATV ...
MINNEAPOLIS/ST.PAUL (Oct. 12, 2010) – Children's health insurance coverage still varies significantly at both the state and national levels, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health (SPH). In particular, researchers found gaps in coverage that vary across states by age, race/ethnicity and income.
Even states with relatively low rates of uninsured children have gaps in coverage for some groups of children, according to researchers. Conversely, some states demonstrating high rates of uninsurance have relatively low gaps or disparity ...
COLUMBIA, Mo. – A University of Missouri researcher believes his latest work moves scientists closer to a cure for cystic fibrosis, one of the world's most common fatal genetic diseases.
The Journal of Biological Chemistry has published findings by Tzyh-Chang Hwang, a professor in the School of Medicine's Department of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology and the Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center. The publication has been recognized as the "paper of the week" for the journal, meaning Hwang's work is considered to be in the top 1 percent of papers reviewed annually ...
When it comes to gambling, many people rely on game theory, a branch of applied mathematics that attempts to measure the choices of others to inform their own decisions. It's used in economics, politics, medicine -- and, of course, Las Vegas. But recent findings from a Tel Aviv University researcher suggest that we may put ourselves on the winning side if we look to bacteria instead.
According to Prof. Eshel Ben-Jacob of Tel Aviv University's School of Physics and Astronomy, current game theory can't account for bacteria's natural decision-making abilities -- it's just ...
As the population ages, health care epidemiologist Padma Kaul and cardiologist Paul Armstrong, researchers in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta, want health-care professionals to talk to their patients about their options on places to die, whether it be at home, in hospital or a palliative care facility like hospice.
The researchers found, in their recent study, that the majority of heart failure patients pass away in an acute care hospital and the cost is more than double for those who died elsewhere.
This is the first study to examine ...
Last March, the U.S. Congress heard testimony about a scientific study in the journal Safety Science. A military analyst worried that the paper presented a model of how an attack on a small, unimportant part of the U.S. power grid might, like dominoes, bring the whole grid down.
Members of Congress were, of course, concerned. Then, a similar paper came out in the journal Nature the next month that presented a model of how a cascade of failing interconnected networks led to a blackout that covered Italy in 2003.
These two papers are part of a growing reliance on a particular ...
A pregnant woman's immune response to viral infections may induce subtle neurological changes in the unborn child that can lead to an increased risk for neurodevelopmental disorders including schizophrenia and autism. Research published in the online journal mBio® provides new insights into how this may happen and suggests potential strategies for reducing this risk.
"Infection during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of damage to the developing nervous system. Given that many agents have been implicated, we decided to focus on mechanisms by which the maternal ...
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Research led by a Michigan State University psychologist is playing a key role in the effort to change the way mental health clinicians classify personality disorders.
The study by Christopher Hopwood and colleagues calls for a more scientific and practical method of categorizing personality disorders – a proposal that ultimately could improve treatment, Hopwood said.
"We're proposing a different way of thinking about personality and personality disorders," said Hopwood, MSU assistant professor of psychology and an experienced clinician. "There's ...
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Bocas del Toro Research Station and Galeta Point Marine Laboratory are reporting an anomalous sea temperature rise and a major coral bleaching event in the western Caribbean. Although the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, issued an advisory in July announcing above-average sea surface temperatures in the wider Caribbean region, there had been no clear indication of increased sea temperatures in Panama and the western Caribbean until late August-early September.
Scientists and local dive operators first ...
WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2010 — Key articles in a special print edition of the American Chemical Society journal, Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T), one of the world's premier environmental journals, are now available online. The articles will appear Jan. 1, 2011 in an ES&T issue on environmental policy.
The topics range from the mysterious disorder decimating honey bee colonies to ways to capture and store carbon and mitigate greenhouse effect. Those marked "Feature" are written in a less technical style and suitable for general readers, including students and non-scientists. ...
