Daniel Lee Nickrent

Last updated

Daniel Lee Nickrent
Daniel Nickrent image002.jpg
Born (1956-02-20) 20 February 1956 (age 68)
Citizenship United States of America
Alma mater Southern Illinois University
Old Dominion University (M.S.)
Miami University (PhD)
Known for
  • Plant Molecular Systematics and Evolution
  • Parasitic plants
  • Botany of the Philippines
Scientific career
Institutions Old Dominion University
University of Illinois
Illinois Natural History Survey
Southern Illinois University
Thesis A systematic and evolutionary study of selected taxa in the genus Arceuthobium (Viscaceae)  (1984)
Doctoral advisor W. Hardy Eshbaugh
Sheldon Guttman
Doctoral students Romina Vidal-Russell
Author abbrev. (botany) Nickrent
Website nickrentlab.siu.edu

Daniel Lee Nickrent is an American botanist, working in plant evolutionary biology, including the subdisciplines of genomics, phylogenetics, systematics, population genetics, and taxonomy. A major focus has been parasitic flowering plants, particularly of the sandalwood order (Santalales). His interest in photographic documentation and photographic databases has led to several photographic databases including Parasitic Plant Connection, [1] Phytoimages, [2] Plant Checklist for the Rocky Mountain National Park, [3] and Plant Checklist for the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge. [4] [5]

Contents

Nickrent has over 9400 citations (as of 15 October 2019) according to Google Scholar. [6] He is Research Faculty and Professor Emeritus of Plant Molecular Systematics and Evolution at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) (As of July 2019).

The standard author abbreviation Nickrent is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name. [7]

Education

After completing one year towards his undergraduate degree at Illinois State University, Nickrent's interest in plants began during his participation in an NSF-sponsored research project where he worked on the flora of the Great Dismal Swamp under the direction of Lytton Musselman at Old Dominion University. This work resulted in his first publication. [8] In 1977 he received a bachelor's degree in Botany from Southern Illinois University. He earned a master's degree from Old Dominion University with work on the parasite witchweed Striga , and earned a PhD from Miami University in 1984 ("A systematic and evolutionary study of selected taxa in the genus Arceuthobium (Viscaceae)"). [9] [10]

Career

From 1984 to 1990, Nickrent was assistant professor and Director of the University of Illinois Herbarium (ILL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. [10] [11]

From 1990 to 1994, Nickrent was assistant professor in the faculty of Plant Biology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale. [10] [11] During this period, his laboratory methodology changed from working with rRNA to DNA using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which made sequencing genes easier. This resulted in the discovery of increased rates of gene evolution in parasitic plants [12] and the publication of one of the earliest species-level molecular phylogenies using nuclear ITS [13] on the dwarf mistletoes, Arceuthobium .

From 1994 to 2003, as an associate professor in the Department of Plant Biology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, [11] [10] Nickrent's research program expanded to examine many groups of parasitic plants, including those that lack photosynthesis (holoparasites). In 2004, he again collaborated with Musselman to produce an article on parasitic plants hosted by the American Phytopathological Society. [14]

From 2003 to 2014, Nickrent was a full professor at the university, becoming an emeritus professor (SIUC) from 2014 onwards. [11] [10] His work on Rafflesia in the Philippines was supported by a grant from the National Geographic Society in 2008, [15] the start of a continuing collaboration with Julie Barcelona and Pieter Pelser. His work in the Philippines, funded by NSF-DEB in 2018, is a collaborative project with Botanical Research Institute of Texas and other national and international institutions. [16] Other grants have also been awarded to Nickrent as principal investigator to allow continuing work on other aspects of Santalales and parasitic plants. [17] [18] [19] [20]

The Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (Santalales) [21] notes that in 2008, Der & Nickrent found Santalaceae to be polyphyletic with some genera being outside the family, but eight well supported clades within. [22] While in 2019, Nickrent and others further improved resolution within the family, using nuclear and chloroplast genes, while trying to understand its complex morphology. [23]

Since 1986, Nickrent has served as an associate professional scientist with the Illinois Natural History Survey. [24]

Honors

Eponymous species

Taxa named

Nickrent has authored some 47 taxa, [27] including:

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<i>Rafflesia</i> Genus of flowering plants

Rafflesia, or stinking corpse lily, is a genus of parasitic flowering plants in the family Rafflesiaceae. The species have enormous flowers, the buds rising from the ground or directly from the lower stems of their host plants; one species has the largest flower in the world. Plants of the World Online lists up to 41 species from this genus, all of them are found throughout Southeast Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santalales</span> Order of flowering plants

The Santalales are an order of flowering plants with a cosmopolitan distribution, but heavily concentrated in tropical and subtropical regions. It derives its name from its type genus Santalum (sandalwood). Mistletoe is the common name for a number of parasitic plants within the order.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mistletoe</span> Common name for various parasitic plants that grow on trees and shrubs

Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viscaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Viscaceae is a taxonomic family name of flowering plants. In this circumscription, the family includes the several genera of mistletoes. This family name is currently being studied and under review as in past decades, several systems of plant taxonomy recognized this family, notably the 1981 Cronquist system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loranthaceae</span> Family of mistletoes

Loranthaceae, commonly known as the showy mistletoes, is a family of flowering plants. It consists of about 75 genera and 1,000 species of woody plants, many of them hemiparasites. The three terrestrial species are Nuytsia floribunda, Atkinsonia ligustrina, and Gaiadendron punctatum Loranthaceae are primarily xylem parasites, but their haustoria may sometimes tap the phloem, while Tristerix aphyllus is almost holoparasitic. For a more complete description of the Australian Loranthaceae, see Flora of Australia online., for the Malesian Loranthaceae see Flora of Malesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santalaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

The Santalaceae, sandalwoods, are a widely distributed family of flowering plants which, like other members of Santalales, are partially parasitic on other plants. Its flowers are bisexual or, by abortion, unisexual. Modern treatments of the Santalaceae include the family Viscaceae (mistletoes), previously considered distinct.

<i>Arceuthobium</i> Genus of mistletoes

The genus Arceuthobium, commonly called dwarf mistletoes, is a genus of 26 species of parasitic plants that parasitize members of Pinaceae and Cupressaceae in North America, Central America, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Of the 42 species that have been recognized, 39 and 21 of these are endemic to North America and the United States, respectively. They all have very reduced shoots and leaves with the bulk of the plant living under the host's bark. Recently the number of species within the genus has been reduced to 26 as a result of more detailed genetic analysis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafflesiaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

The Rafflesiaceae are a family of rare parasitic plants comprising 36 species in 3 genera found in the tropical forests of east and southeast Asia, including Rafflesia arnoldii, which has the largest flowers of all plants. The plants are endoparasites of vines in the genus Tetrastigma (Vitaceae) and lack stems, leaves, roots, and any photosynthetic tissue. They rely entirely on their host plants for both water and nutrients, and only then emerge as flowers from the roots or lower stems of the host plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pieter B. Pelser</span> New Zealand botanist

Pieter B. Pelser is a lecturer in Plant Systematics and the curator of the herbarium at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. One research interest is the evolutionary history of the tribe Senecioneae, one of the largest tribes in the largest family of flowering plants. He wrote the most recent attempt to define and delimit this tribe and its problematic founding species Senecio. He also studies insects that eat these plants (Longitarsus) which contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids and what makes them choose which plants they eat.

Rafflesia philippensis is a parasitic plant species of the Rafflesiaceae family that was named by Francisco Manuel Blanco in his Flora de Filipinas in 1845. The species is known only from a mountain located between the provinces of Laguna and Quezon, Luzon where it was first discovered. Its plant host is Tetrastigma pisicarpum. This species went unnoticed since its first description by Blanco but was rediscovered in 2003 by members of the Tanggol Kalikasan, a local environment conservation group in Quezon province who first saw and photographed the open flower of this species. It was brought to the attention of Manuel S. Enverga University (MSEUF), who formed a team composed of students and faculty to document the newly discovered Rafflesia species.

Rafflesia baletei is a parasitic plant species of the genus Rafflesia. It is endemic to the Philippines.

Rafflesia leonardi is a parasitic plant species of the genus Rafflesia. It is endemic to the Philippines. Rafflesia banaoana is considered to be a synonym by some sources, but is recognized as a separate species by others. R. leonardi is the fourth Rafflesia species found in Luzon and the eighth from the Philippines. It is called ngaratngat by the local Agta tribesmen.

<i>Rafflesia schadenbergiana</i> Species of flowering plant

Rafflesia schadenbergiana is a parasitic plant species of the genus Rafflesia. Known as "bó-o" to the Bagobo tribe and "kolon busaw" to the Higaonon tribe of Bukidnon, it has the largest flower among the Rafflesia species found in the Philippines with a diameter ranging from 52 to 80 centimeters. It has also the second largest flower in the genus after R. arnoldii.

Rafflesia aurantia is a member of the genus Rafflesia. It is a parasitic flowering plant endemic to Luzon Island, Philippines in the Quirino Protected Landscape. See original publication and a review of Philippine Rafflesia.

Arceuthobium microcarpum, called the "western spruce dwarf mistletoe," is a parasitic plant known only from Arizona and New Mexico. It is found mostly on spruce trees but also occasionally on Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine. The specific epithet "microcarpum" means "small fruited," in reference to the berries, which are only 3.5 mm long.

Julie F. Barcelona is a Filipina botanist and taxonomist working as Research Associate at University of Canterbury. She is mostly known for her research on the Philippine members of the genus Rafflesia.

Lepeostegeres cebuensis is a species of mistletoe recently described which is found on Cebu Island, Philippines. Currently this is treated as an unplaced name by Plants of the world online.

<i>Amylotheca</i> Genus of mistletoes

Amylotheca is a genus of hemi-parasitic aerial shrubs in the family Loranthaceae, found in Borneo, Malaysia, New Caledonia, New Guinea, Australia, Sumatra, Thailand, Vanuatu, and Philippines

Romina Vidal-Russell is an Argentinean botanist who works in the areas of phytogeography, phylogeny, and parasitic plants, and on which she has written extensively. Her papers on the phylogeny of parasitic plants are cited on the APG website, and elsewhere and her collaborations are international. She currently works at the National University of Comahue in Argentina. She earned a Ph.D. at SIUC with Daniel L. Nickrent as supervisor.

Amyema nickrentii is an epiphytic, flowering, hemiparasitic plant of the family Loranthaceae native to the Philippines. It was found in coastal forest in the Aurora Province and "differs from all other described Amyema species in having a whorled leaf arrangement with mostly nine flat linear leaves per node".

References

  1. "The Parasitic Plant Connection". parasiticplants.siu.edu. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  2. "Phytoimages". phytoimages.siu.edu. Archived from the original on 26 March 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  3. "Plant checklist for the Rocky Mountain National Park". nickrentlab.siu.edu. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  4. "Plant checklist for the Crab orchard national wildlife refuge". nickrentlab.siu.edu. Archived from the original on 30 December 2018. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  5. "Professor Daniel Lee Nickrent". Loop. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  6. Google Scholar: Daniel L. Nickrent Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  7. International Plant Names Index.  Nickrent.
  8. Musselman, L. J., D. L. Nickrent, & G. F. Levy. (1977) A contribution towards a vascular flora of the Great Dismal Swamp. Rhodora 79:240–268.
  9. Nickrent, D. L. (1984) A systematic and evolutionary study of selected taxa in the genus Arceuthobium (Viscaceae). Dissertation, Miami University Department of Botany, Oxford, OH. 256 pp.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 "Dan Nickrent (Plant Biology at SIUC) (CV from the Nickrent Laboratory at SIUC)". nickrentlab.siu.edu. Archived from the original on 7 April 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Daniel Lee Nickrent | Doctor of Philosophy | Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL | SIU | Department of Plant Biology". ResearchGate. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  12. Nickrent, D.L.; Starr, E.M. (1994). "High rates of nucleotide substitution in nuclear small-subunit (18S) rDNA from holoparasitic flowering plants". Journal of Molecular Evolution. 39 (1): 62–70. Bibcode:1994JMolE..39...62N. doi:10.1007/BF00178250. ISSN   0022-2844. PMID   8064875. S2CID   41286613.
  13. Nickrent, Daniel L.; Schuette, Kevin P.; Starr, Ellen M. (1994). "A molecular phylogeny of Arceuthobium (Viscaceae) based on nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer sequences". American Journal of Botany. 81 (9): 1149–1160. doi:10.1002/j.1537-2197.1994.tb15609.x. ISSN   0002-9122.
  14. Nickrent, D.L., & Musselman, L.J. (2004). "Introduction to parasitic flowering plants." The Plant health instructor, 13, 300–315.
  15. "Grant 2009–2019". Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  16. "Collaborative Research: Plant discovery in the southern Philippines – Dimensions". app.dimensions.ai. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  17. "Phylogeny and Biogeography of the Gondwanan Mistletoe Family Loranthaceae – Dimensions". app.dimensions.ai. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  18. "Characterization of Plastid Genomes in Holoparasitic Plants – Dimensions". app.dimensions.ai. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  19. "Molecular Phylogenetic Studies of Parasitic Plants – Dimensions". app.dimensions.ai. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  20. ORCID. "Daniel Nickrent (0000-0001-8519-0517)". orcid.org. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  21. Stevens, P.f. (2001 onwards). "Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 14, July 2017 (and more or less continuously updated since)". mobot.org. Retrieved 3 December 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  22. Der, Joshua P.; Nickrent, Daniel L. (2008). "A Molecular Phylogeny of Santalaceae (Santalales)". Systematic Botany. 33 (1): 107–116. doi:10.1600/036364408783887438. ISSN   0363-6445. S2CID   85999681. pdf
  23. Nickrent, D.L.; Anderson, F.; Kuijt, J. (2019). "Inflorescence evolution in Santalales: integrating morphological characters and molecular phylogenetics". American Journal of Botany. 106 (3): 402–414. doi: 10.1002/ajb2.1250 . ISSN   0002-9122. PMID   30856677. pdf Archived 10 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine
  24. "Daniel L. Nickrent: Curriculum Vitae". nickrentlab.siu.edu. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  25. Pelser, Pieter B.; Barcelona, Julie F. (2013). "Discovery through photography: Amyema nickrentii, a new species of Loranthaceae from Aurora Province, Philippines". Phytotaxa. 125 (1): 47. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.125.1.7. ISSN   1179-3163. S2CID   83621288.
  26. Kuijt, Job (2011). "Thirteen New Species of Neotropical Viscaceae (Dendrophthora and Phoradendron)". Novon: A Journal for Botanical Nomenclature. 21 (4): 444–462. doi:10.3417/2010105. ISSN   1055-3177. S2CID   86202804.
  27. International Plant Name Index: Daniel L. Nickrent. Retrieved 14 July 2019