Meredith Blackwell

Boyd Professor

Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 1973.

Mycology

mblackwell@lsu.edu

Mycology at LSU (Blackwell lab web page provides much more information)

Meredith Blackwell's Extended CV


RESEARCH INTERESTS

Fungi associated with arthropods: phylogeny and evolution; life history studies.
Our interest in fungi focuses on their associations with arthropods and the way in which the associations evolved. The problems associated with spore dispersal of fungi to limited targets, such as dung piles or single mushrooms, has led to a broader investigation of spore dispersal by arthropods. Our current funded research involves a search for endosymbiotic yeasts in the gut of beetles. Symbionts play important roles in the ecology and evolution of their hosts. To investigate potential symbiotic associations we sampled yeasts from a largely unexplored habitat, the gut of beetles. About 650 isolates were obtained from the gut of primarily basidiocarp-feeding (mycophagous) and other beetles in 27 families from the southeastern USA and Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Yeasts were characterized by their LSU rDNA sequences and about 100 additional morphological and metabolic traits. These isolates represent almost 200 undescribed taxa, about 30% more than the 700 previously known yeast species. Several highly specific beetle--gut yeast associations have been discovered, the basis of which is not yet understood fully. Bayesian analysis estimates that resampling of the same habitats will greatly increase the numbers of species from the gut habitats. Such a discovery would be equal to about half the currently known species from all habitats of the Earth.

In addition our recent focus on wood-ingesting beetles has revealed an association between xylose-fermenting yeasts and insects that use wood as a nutritional resource. Furthermore, gene cloning and imaging studies have lead to the discovery of a community of gut organisms that includes parabasalids, other protists, and bacteria, as well as the xylose-fermenting yeasts. Enzymes for degradation of wood are localized in gut compartments, and we hypothesize that gut enzymes may be derived from microbes in order to degrade plant cell walls. Xylose is a major component of hemicellulose. You can read more about our successful quest for new insect gut yeasts on our lab web site site at the "beetlebellyeast" link.

We use a variety of techniques to study insect-associated fungi, including field and cultural studies, electron microscopy, and nucleic acid methodologies. These studies also have resulting in the enlargement of fungal collections in the LSU Herbarium that are unique to the Gulf Coastal Plain, especially wood-rotting basidiomycetes and as well as fungi associated with arthropods. Current inhabitants of the lab include Sung-Oui Suh, a postdoctoral associate who has expertise with yeasts and molecular techniques; and many undergraduate students who are essential to the smooth functioning of the lab undergraduates.

Find a complete list of publications at http://lsb380.plbio.lsu.edu/labpersonnel/MBpaperspublished

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Books

F. E. Vega and M. Blackwell, Eds. 2005. Insect-Fungal Associations: Ecology and Evolution. Oxford University Press, NY. 333p. Japanese translation licensed to Kyoritsu Shuppan Co. Ltd. (May 2005).

Refereed Publications
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    		•  Nguyen, N. H., S.-O. Suh, C. J. Marshall, and M. Blackwell. Morphological and ecological similarities: wood-boring beetles associated with novel xylose-fermenting yeasts, Spathaspora passalidarum gen. nov., sp. nov. and Candida jeffriesii sp. nov. Mycological Research. In press.
     
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    		•  Nardi, J. B., C. M. Bee, L. A. Miller, N. H. Nguyen, S.-O. Suh, and M. Blackwell. 2006. Communities of microbes that inhabit the changing hind gut landscape of a subsocial beetle. Arthropod Structure and Development 35:57-68.
     
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    		•  Blackwell, M., S.-O. Suh, and J. B Nardi. 2006. Fungi in the Hidden Environment: The gut of beetles. In: British Mycological Symposia: Fungi in the Environment. Ed. Geoffrey Gadd. Cambridge University Press, UK.
     
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    		•  Weir, A., and M. Blackwell. 2005. Phylogeny of arthropod ectoparasitic ascomycetes. p. 119-145. In: Insect-Fungal Associations: Ecology and Evolution. Eds. F. E. Vega and Meredith Blackwell. Oxford University Press, UK.
     
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    		•  Suh, S.-O., J. V. McHugh, D. Pollock, and M. Blackwell. 2005. The beetle gut: a hyperdiverse source of novel yeasts. Mycological Research 109:261-265.
     
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    		•  Suh, S.-O., and M. Blackwell. 2005. Four new yeasts in the Candida mesenterica clade associated with basidiocarp-feeding beetles. Mycologia 97: 167-177.
     
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    		•  Suh, S.-O., N. H. Nguyen, and M. Blackwell. 2005. Nine new Candida species near Candida membranifaciens isolated from insects. Mycological Research 109:1045-1056.
     
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    		•  Munkacsi, A. B., J. J. Pan, P. Villesen, U. G. Mueller, M. Blackwell, and D. J. McLaughlin. 2004. Convergent coevolution in the domestication of coral mushrooms by fungus-growing ants. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences 271:1777-1782.
     
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    		•  Suh, S.-O., J. V McHugh, and M. Blackwell. 2004. Expansion of the Candida tanzawaensis yeast clade: 16 novel Candida species from basidiocarp-feeding beetles. International Journal of Systematics and Evolutionary Microbiology 54: 2409-2429.
     
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    		•  Zhang, N., S.-O. Suh, and M. Blackwell. 2003. Microorganisms in the gut of beetles: Evidence from molecular cloning. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 84: 226-233.


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