ASM 2011 Conference: New Orleans

I have arrived in lovely New Orleans! For the next couple of days, I'll be spending my time at the general meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in lovely New Orleans. I'm here at what will likely be my last ASM conference with the Slonczewski Lab from Kenyon College, where we are presenting our recent work on multi-drug efflux pumps, pH homeostasis, and fluorescence microscopy. It's really a great education for the undergraduates that my PI, Dr. Joan Slonczewski, brings along to the meeting.

The opening session was this evening and, I think, much better than the previous two years. Each of the three lectures was intriguing, accessible, and well-prepared. I was reassured that I will be heading off to graduate school in the right direction - evolution and ecology - by the fact that I found the lecture by Dr. Nicole Dubilier on symbiotic relationships between sulfur-oxidizing bacteria and marine invertebrates most enjoyable. Similarly, last year in San Diego at ASM 2010, I thought the best opening lecture was that by Dr. Nancy Moran, who spoke about her work on the relationship between endosymbiotic bacteria and leafhoppers that I wrote about last year.

The second lecture by Dr. Liping Zhao was equally fascinating. He discussed what eating well does for us physically via our microbial gut flora. This work has been in the news somewhat, but I found the thorough lecture perfect for tying together all the disparate pieces of the story. His work shows that for morbidly obese people, a change in diet from a high fat, low fiber diet to a more sensible one allows the microbiome in the gut to shift from an abundance of pathogenic organisms that can cause longterm disease to beneficial and benign organisms. For some reason, the attendees at the reception after the lectures seemed much more restrained around the over-abundance of food in the exhibit hall...

The last lecture, which I found the most difficult to follow from the detail and fast pace, was on environmental stressors that can trigger heritable changes in the organisms studied, mostly yeast. We're not talking Lamarckian giraffe's neck scale of environmentally acquired traits, but the analogy was striking.

That's all for now, but I may check in at least once more during the meeting if I'm not too exhausted in the evenings. Tomorrow we dine at the Court of Two Sisters, which sounds exciting.

Honey Run Waterfall

Topographical map of Ohio with Knox County
outlined. Adapted from the Ohio Department
of Natural Resources (link).

Knox County, Ohio has the advantage of straddling a geological transition zone between the glaciated and unglaciated Allegheny Plateau. The county seat, Mount Vernon, lies in the valley in the western part of the county, on the leading edge of the Wisconsin glacier (the most recent glacial period). The glacier entered the county from the West and pushed toward the East. Of course glaciation ebbs and flows. While Mount Vernon abuts the firm boundary of Wisconsin-glaciated features, the glacier had pushed eastward as to the edge of the county at some points, leaving only the extreme northeast unglaciated. My copy of the 1961 State of Ohio Department of Natural Resources' report on the geology of Knox County (by Samuel I. Root, Joaquin Rodriguez, and Jane L. Forsyth) shows the boundary near Mount Vernon to be a differentiation between the recent Wisconsin glaciation and the distant Illinois glaciation that pushed further East than the Wisconsin.

Of course lower elevation river valleys conduct glacial activity and the prominent Kokosing River flows eastward through the county. East of Mount Vernon is the little unincorporated community of Millwood and the Honey Run Waterfall area, owned by the Knox County Park District. It's a fantastic park with hiking trails and the only waterfall in Knox County. Honey Run empties directly into the Kokosing River in an area with excellent examples of blackhand sandstone, perhaps better known from the Hocking Hills area of Ohio. Surrounding the Honey Run park are ground moraines and terminal moraines of Illinois glaciation derivation. The blackhand sandstone formations in and along the Kokosing River appear to be Wisconsin rock terraces. This unique area in Knox County also provides local nature enthusiasts with a drastically different flora to study. Here we find a disjunct boreal habitat more often found in Canada today. There are large hemlocks that dominate the view of the waterfall, teetering precariously on sandstone cliffs. I always love going to this park for that not-of-this-state feeling with its aberrant geology and flora. It just doesn't feel like Ohio, or at least how I think Ohio should feel - you know, plains full of corn, wheat, and soy. It's true that's how much of Western Ohio appears, but here? Here is a little slice of Canada (or at least its typical boreal habitat) in the middle of Knox County.

And if you've never been to Ohio, I bet you always thought it was completely flat. Surprise!

Honey Run Waterfall in February.

The Kokosing River at Honey Run, looking West. Notice the Blackhand
sandstone on either side of the river. Taken in October.

The sandstone is really easy to write in. Antique graffiti.

Cladonia furcata, I think - a grey reindeer lichen.

8th International Carnivorous Plant Society Conference (1/2)

Hortus Botanicus, Leiden, the Netherlands

In the beginning of August, I and approximately 120 other participants traveled to Leiden, the Netherlands, for the 8th International Carnivorous Plant Society (ICPS) conference held at the amazing Hortus Botanicus. The conference was hosted by the Dutch carnivorous plant society, Carnivora, and they did a fantastic job organizing the lectures, associated carnivorous plant exhibit, and all the extras. This will serve as my trip report for this meeting.


I arrived jet-lagged on 5 August, flights courtesy of my generous brother-in-law who shared his excess frequent flier miles. (Thanks, Doug!) I hadn't been to Europe in 9 years and I've never been outside the historic splendor of Italy, so this was a real treat to spend a little less than a week really getting to know Leiden. I was immediately awe-struck by the impressive Dutch rail system and how easy, clean, and fast it was. It puts the US Amtrak system to shame (but really, what doesn't?). Leiden is just a single stop from the Amsterdam area airport Schiphol; what a beautiful city! I learned a few lessons while here: Nearly every Leiden resident is willing to help you with directions and are used to it since their city is a confusing network of small alleys interrupted by canals. Nearly every resident speaks excellent English and are more than willing to try it out on a native English speaker. And, at every opportunity, go for a walk. This city is extremely walkable and gorgeous, filled with history and beautiful architecture. This is the city where Rembrandt was born in 1606, where one of Barack Obama's ancestors, Thomas Blossom, lived as an English immigrant on his way to America with a group of Pilgrims (the Dutch are very proud of that connection to Obama and had a very prominent plaque in the square where the Pilgrims once lived), and where Anna Cornelia Carbentus, Vincent van Gogh's mother, is buried. The central city is compact, ringed by a many-pointed star-shaped canal built for defense purposes and dotted with impressive public parks. Who can resist such European charm?

One of the many amazing displays in the
Wintergarden at Hortus Botanicus, part
of the public exhibition complementing
the ICPS conference. Bravo!

Putting my awe aside and getting over the jet-lag-induced migraine, I ambled down the road the next morning, avoiding the plentiful bicycle commuters and entered the gates of the Hortus Botanicus, the oldest botanical garden in the Netherlands. Hortus Botanicus Leiden was first begun as a project for university students of medicine in the late 16th century; the very first prefect of the gardens was the famous Carolus Clusius, whose bust greets you as you enter the gardens. The weather was perfect and mild, especially inviting to someone escaping the heat of the Midwest United States in normally sweltering August. I was awash in a multicultural group, understanding very little (ok, perhaps nothing) of the many languages being spoken over my head. It was awesome and a bit intimidating. After checking in, it was just about time for the first of many lecture sessions.


The first lecture session included a talk by Australia's Allen Lowrie on Australian Drosera (sundews), a discussion by Gert Hoogenstrijd on his trips through Venezuela to the Table Mountains where many rare carnivorous plants are found, a report by François Mey on his incredible efforts to study the Nepenthes flora of Indochina, and lastly a thorough trip-report style lecture by Andreas Fleischmann on the Drosera and Roridula of South Africa. Truly a cosmopolitan collection of speakers and topics! I really do commend the organizers on working very hard to include something for everyone.

Allen's lecture captivated me the most, but the take-home message from all lectures seemed to be that there is so much more work to do in terms of systematic study of species, specimens, and species complexes to tease out the real evolutionary relationships and taxonomies. This was true for Allen's Drosera and Gert's Heliamphora and certainly the Nepenthes of Indochina have their own systematic issues when it comes to the circumscription of species, subspecies, and varieties. Such topics are best left to the experts and it was great to see such expertise on display.

Sarracenia flava var. cuprea in the impressive

Wintergarden canopy walk above the main collection.

The Drosera fascinate me most of all, so I suppose this is why I found Allen's lecture the most compelling. My notes are scattered since he spoke quickly, but there were many gems within his lecture, including the fact that there's an Australian Drosera in the petiolaris complex that survives under water for one and a half months among tadpoles and that there are so many truly distinct species to split from existing species complexes. The breadth of his knowledge on the topic comes from decades of field work that allows him to accurately distinguish minute differences among populations. My notes from Gert's lecture are sparse, but one interesting note is that the South American endemic species Utricularia quelchii is likely pollinated by hummingbirds. A common characteristic all these lectures shared was the splendid and impressive photos displayed during each one. I can hardly imagine what previous generations of botanists did without digital cameras!

I'll stop here and post the remaining trip report, including two more days of lectures, later.