Yesterday, the evolutionist Charles Darwin turned 198 and balloons, streamers and finger food decorated celebrations across the country in recognition of his achievements.
The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), located in Durham, held a “Darwin Day Symposium” where it invited speakers from their three supporting universities to discuss their research.
“NESCent is a national center that is charged with promoting evolutionary research, particularly the newest questions and interdisciplinary work,” Kathleen Smith, Director of NESCent, said. “We are having the symposium in celebration of Darwin — to commemorate where we are today.”
NESCent is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and a collaboration between NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke universities. The speakers included Greg Wray and David Goldstein from Duke, Corbin Jones from UNC and Ralph Dean from NCSU.
Dean, professor and director of the Center for Integrated Fungal Genomics, spoke on his research on fungi pathogens, specifically the rice blast pathogen — what he called the most destructive disease on the planet.
The evolution of fungi can be researched through comparing genomes of pathogen and non-pathogen fungi.
“There are several levels we can look at the data,” Dean said. “Macro-level, [where you] look at all pathogens and all non-pathogens, an intermediate level where you look at a pathogen and non-pathogen that are related and look at the differences, and the micro-level where you look at the aflatoxin and how genes move around.”
On the micro-level, when genes re-group and the fungus adapts new traits it becomes a new species — and another step in the evolutionary process. Dean’s research is trying to understand what the differences are in the pathogens’ genomes and how those differences fit into the evolutionary sequence.
Currently, Dean and his colleges discovered that 10 percent of the elements in a pathogen’s genome are not randomly distributed, but clustered — and that it must be for a purpose. That exact purpose is unknown.
Dean emphasized the amount of data missing for his research — only 25 fungi genomes are mapped out of the 1.5 million, and he is using 11 for his research. These genomes also have a great amount of diversity in their DNA — an average of greater than 50 percent, which is the difference between a man and a fish, according to Dean.
And much of the information missing is the intermediate level, which tells where on its pathway fungi evolved to its current pathogen or non-pathogen state.
“It is like looking at an apple and an orange and trying to figure out why one is red and the other is not,” Dean said.
But even with basic and rudimentary data, Dean and his colleagues can form important insight, such as host recognition and the enzyme breakdown of the host. These insights will enable the prediction on how fungi pathogens evolve — and the consequences of new cultivators and how pathogens overcome resistance.
“We like to call this project ‘On the trail of a cereal killer,'” Dean said.
Dean’s research fits into Darwin Day because it incorporates how evolution effects all parts of life, and how studying a fungi that attacks rice may lead to a solution that will protect the world’s rice fields and keep people from going hungry.
“There are hundred of places that have these celebrations,” Joel Kingsolver, director of science and synthesis at NESCent, said. “It is a nice time for people who study evolution to tell others about their research and how it affects their lives.”
