12 minute read
Discoveries
FINDING THE ROOT OF THE FAMILY TREE
Biological science researcher explores biodiversity among microscopic lifeforms
By Susan Lassetter, Photo by Logan Kirkland & Submitted
In a world of vast and wondrous sights, Matthew Brown finds fascination all around—in the cracks of sidewalks, scummy pond water or the soil around a barn. An associate professor in Mississippi State University’s Department of Biological Sciences, he’s made a career out of identifying the microscopic life that surrounds us.
Through the Brown Laboratory of Social and Evolutionary Protistology, he and other Mississippi State scientists, faculty and students are exploring the highly diverse group of eukaryotic organisms known as protists.
“We’re looking to understand biodiversity," Brown explained. "We want to understand what is present in the environment around us and, the thing is, a lot of that biodiversity has yet to be discovered.”
Eukaryotes are organisms whose cells contain a true nucleus. This includes all plants, animals and fungi, as well as the lesserknown protists. Many of these protists exist as single-celled organisms.
“There are lots of organisms that are really closely related to animals, really closely related to plants and really closely related to fungi that are all unicellular eukaryotes,” he explained. “My lab is focused on seeing how these organisms are all related to one another.”
These evolutionary ties are known as the tree of life, or the family tree, of all eukaryotic organisms.
“If you think of it like a tree, the parts that have been really well studied—the plants, animals and fungi—are just the tips of the branches,” Brown explained. “Most of the actual diversity is in the unicellular organisms that make up the trunk and roots. And that hasn’t been studied nearly as thoroughly.”
To fill that gap, Brown and his fellow researchers have perfected ways to study these protists without the need of culturing— collecting them directly from the environment rather than growing them in a laboratory for study. A recent National Science Foundation grant of $1.1 million is supporting Brown’s efforts to study Amoebozoa, a vastly diverse type of eukaryotic protist.
“Amoeboid microbes are fascinating both ecologically and evolutionarily, but they are severely under-studied and poorly sampled,” Brown said. “They are important players in nearly all ecosystems, but very little is known about the true biodiversity of amoeboids that exist in nature.”
The goal of the NSF-funded project is to examine the diversity in a broad variety of habitats from land to sea. This will provide a better understanding of how these organisms reside in the environment, how they evolved and what their developmental processes are.
Brown said the group has already identified organisms previously unknown to science, including one collected from the sidewalk in front of the Colvard Student Union that will likely bear an MSU-themed name in the future.
“By identifying and studying these organisms, we are actively figuring out what the diversity of life is on our planet,” Brown said.
While Brown said his lab primarily focuses on promoting the scientific understanding of the natural world, there are opportunities for this expanded understanding of microbial life to be applied to other fields. For instance, a more thorough grasp of the biodiversity of soil and how those organisms interact could help agricultural researchers improve soil quality and crop yields.
“How can you improve or manage the biodiversity of soil if you don’t know what its biodiversity is in the first place?” Brown asked.
“We are identifying organisms that are not known to science, and we’re finding new things that could be of scientific and human importance,” he continued. “There are a lot of pushes for maintaining biodiversity in animals, and we recognize the loss if, say, a bird goes extinct. But what if the same thing is happening to microbial taxa? And what impact is it having on life on Earth? Well, we won’t know until we know what exists.” n
Matthew Brown, an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, specializes in the evolutionary history of single-celled eukaryotes called protists. He heads the Evolutionary Protistology Laboratory in Harned Hall, home of MSU's Department of Biological Sciences.
One Health
Veterinary medicine professor helps lead worldwide efforts to battle disease spread
Story by James Carskadon, Photo by Megan Bean
When Dr. Margaret Khaitsa thinks globally, she sees that the health of humans is closely intertwined with the health of animals and the environment. A professor of veterinary epidemiology, the Uganda native has been learning about the One Health concept since she was in veterinary school at Makerere University.
One Health is an approach to public health that emphasizes the connections between the health of people, animals and the environment. The idea of connecting humans’ shared health is not new, but it has taken on a new importance as urbanization, climate change, international trade and biodiversity
loss all change human interaction with different ecosystems. Approximately 75% of infectious diseases originate in animals, a statistic that takes on heightened meaning as the world battles new diseases such as COVID-19.
Khaitsa is now part of a distinguished group of experts working on recommendations for implementing One Health practices at an international level with the goal of reducing the risk of zoonotic pandemics. In May 2021, Khaitsa was named to the Global One Health High-Level Expert Panel, a group of 26 experts that is advising the World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Environment Program and the World Organization for Animal Health. Chosen from a pool of more than 700 applicants, Khaitsa is the only representative of a U.S. university on the panel.
“I’m passionate about international work, and this topic fits well with my research area and interest in leadership,” she said. “I was really hoping in my later years to be working at this level, so it’s really a dream come true."
Khaitsa is no stranger to international collaboration in areas of One Health. After all, diseases can spread across government borders in the same way they spread across different species. For more than 15 years, she has been involved in international One Health workforce development initiatives, working on federally funded projects to bolster
transboundary disease management capabilities in Africa and the United States. She also leads a study abroad program in Uganda that incorporates One Health principles. At MSU, she teaches case studies in Global One Health for veterinary medicine students during their clinical population medicine rotation.
One aspect that Khaitsa said is key to improving global health is breaking down silos in medicine and other sciences. When she was in veterinary school, she took some core science classes with students in the doctor of medicine program, helping to facilitate collaboration and discussion across disciplines. In education and in practice, especially at the global level, collaboration plays a key role in mitigating zoonotic diseases, she said.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated the need for this
“The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated the need for this kind of approach. . . So a big part of the One Health concept is making sure there is collaboration between disciplines to address these unique challenges.” ~ Dr. Margaret Khaitsa
kind of approach,” Khaitsa said. “You need behavioral scientists to work with people about wearing masks. You have all this science behind the vaccine, but if people are hesitant to take the vaccine, it’s not going to control the outbreak as fast. Politics plays a big role as well. So a big part of the One Health concept is making sure there is collaboration between disciplines to address these unique challenges.”
With the expert panel’s work getting underway this past summer, Khaitsa is part of a working group focused on using early detection, surveillance and rapid data sharing to prevent emerging zoonotic diseases. The group is tasked with defining One Health surveillance, surveying existing monitoring systems, and developing a framework for implementing best practices. The panel’s other working groups are tackling topics such as conditions that cause spillover diseases between animals and humans, as well as compiling current research focused on preventing new zoonotic diseases.
Khaitsa is serving a two-year term on the panel before rotating off. She also continues her ongoing projects, which include leading a team that facilitates scientific exchanges and implements new standards for the safe trade of agricultural products across the eight Regional Economic Communities of the African Union.
After being selected as one of the winners of a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award, Khaitsa is spending this academic year at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. In Nairobi, she teaches epidemiology and conducts applied research on empowerment of female poultry farmers in Kenya. Continuing her work of growing female leaders in East Africa, she leads an academy focused on women in leadership. She also uses the travel opportunity to develop new partnerships, including expanding MSU’s collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Nairobi is home to FAO’s Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases.
“We are exploring opportunities for student and faculty exchange programs,” Khaitsa said. “The scientists there are interested in some of Mississippi State’s work, including the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish and our antimicrobial resistance research, for example. Those are opportunities we're exploring, and we are looking for ways students and faculty can engage as well.”
As her work with the expert panel moves forward, Khaitsa said she is excited about seeing their work implemented at the international level as the group directly advises some of the world’s most influential organizations.
“Typically, when we have a bigger outbreak like COVID-19, avian flu or Ebola, that’s when we have more resources,” Khaitsa said. “So we expect to have some resources to go along with action plans that will elevate One Health at the global level and institutionalize it. It’s exciting to be a part of that.” n
The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish at Mississippi State University awarded $1.15 million in grants, expanding its portfolio of research in addressing global food security challenges through reliable and inclusive provisions of fish. As part of the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future program and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Fish Innovation Lab works to reduce poverty and improve nutrition, food security and livelihoods in developing countries by supporting research on sustainable aquaculture and fisheries systems.
The Tennessee Valley Authority and a Mississippi State flight research laboratory have agreed to collaborate on expanding the company’s use of unmanned aircraft systems for inspections in order to improve safety and lower costs. The partnership between TVA, which supplies electricity to nearly 10 million people across seven southeastern states, and Mississippi State’s Raspet Flight Research Laboratory draws from the flight lab’s expertise in evaluating unmanned aircraft systems, known as UAS, and its associated technologies.
Research on public procurement in the wake of COVID-19 is the focus of a Mississippi State University faculty member’s paper now featured in a recent edition of the Journal of Emergency Management. Sawsan Abutabenjeh, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, co-authored the article as part of a multi-university collaboration investigating how the government’s pandemic response to assembling and allocating resources was impacted by emergency conditions, existing systemic problems and value conflicts.
Mississippi State University—in collaboration with two other U.S. universities and more than 30 industrial partners—is leading a $2.2 million National Science Foundationfunded initiative to explore the use of insects as food and feed in agriculture as a response to overpopulation, climate change and a shrinking food supply. The Center for Environmental Sustainability through Insect Farming—led at MSU by Heather R. Jordan, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences—is funded by the NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center to partner with business to advance the use of insects as a food source for animals and people. Vicky Montiel-Palma, an assistant professor of chemistry, received a three-year $411,200 grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Chemistry Chemical Catalysis Program to investigate catalysts that add silicon to hydrocarbons to form non-toxic building blocks for chemical synthesis.
Meilun Zhou, a 2020 computer engineering graduate now employed with the university’s Geosystems Research Institute, has received a prestigious Department of Defense Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation Scholarship.
Ryan A. Folk, an assistant professor of biological sciences and herbarium curator at MSU, is using a $432,781 three-year National Science Foundation grant to automate the data collection process by using a combination of unique object identifiers, QR codes and citizen scientists, or non-biologists, recruited to help with data acquisition.
Bin Liu, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, has earned a National Institutes of Health research award to explore possible therapies for calcium-dependent diseases. The three-year award worth more than $400,000 is part of the NIH R15 program to support faculty research, expose students to research and strengthen the research environment of educational institutions.
Kun Wang, an assistant professor with joint MSU appointments in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Department of Chemistry, is the recipient of $750,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Early Career Research Program. He is one of 51 university-employed scientists from the U.S. to receive DOE early career awards for “mission-critical” research.
Bruno da Silva, an assistant research professor in Mississippi State’s Department of Forestry and scientist with the MSU Forest and Wildlife Research Center, is leading a team in creating a precision tool to help increase profits for timber producers and wood-mill consumers. The team is studying timber supply modeling as part of a $100,000 grant awarded by International Paper, one of the world’s leading producers of fiber-based packaging, pulp and paper.
Jean MohammadiAragh, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has earned a Faculty Early Career Development award from the National Science Foundation. She is receiving nearly $1 million to develop better ways of teaching programming and other computing skills to undergraduate students across the country.
Steve Demarais, a professor in the College of Forest Resources, has received the Caesar Kleberg Award for Excellence in Applied Wildlife Research from the Wildlife Society. This Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Foundation award, endowed in 2007, distinguishes wildlife researchers whose body of work translates to real-world application of conservation and management.
Janice Chambers, a Mississippi State William L. Giles Distinguished Professor with a long history of chemical antidote research is leading a newly funded $3.3 million project aimed at identifying better therapeutic medical countermeasures to protect the brain against chemical threats. The director of MSU’s Center for Environmental Health Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine is receiving the new U01 grant, which is the university’s third award through the National Institutes of Health CounterACT program.
