Host-specific associations affect the microbiome of Philornis downsi, an introduced parasite to the Galápagos Islands.
By: Ben-Yosef, Michael, Zaada, Doron S. Y., Dudaniec, Rachael Y., Pasternak, Zohar, Jurkevitch, Edouard., Smith, Renee J., Causton, Charlotte E., Lincango, M. Piedad, Tobe, Shanan S., Mitchell, James G., Kleindorfer, Sonia and Yuval, Boaz (2017) Molecular Ecology: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.14219/full | Find with Google Scholar »
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Dear all,
A quick reminder that next week (Tuesday) is the launch of the Department’s Diversity & Inclusion strategy and logo – all welcome and encouraged of course to come along, bring a plate of something delicious, be included and celebrate our diversity.
See you there,
Michelle
Save the Date
This coming week 17th – 21st July
Mon 17th: REP Event – ‘NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer Event: Mary O’Kane’; 1-4pm; The Australian Hearing Hub, Level 1 Theatre, 16 University Avenue, Macquarie University.
Tue 18th: Diversity and Inclusion Launch Lunch; 12:00 – 1:00pm, E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
Wed 19th: E8C Digital Teaching Lab Induction; 9am – 11:30am; E8C-106.
Wed 19th: Department Morning Tea; 10:30am – 11:00am; The Hill.
Wed 19th: No Seminar this week.
Thu 20th: Writing Workshop; 2:30-4:30pm, E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
Fri 21st: F7B Digital Teaching Lab Induction; 9:30am – 11:30am; F7B-108.
Following week 24th – 28th July
Mon 24th: E8A Digital Teaching Lab Induction; 9am to 12 noon; E8A-120.
Tue 25 & Wed 26th: REP Outlook Conference 2017
Tue 25th: R Users Group; 3:00pm – 5:00pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
Wed 26th: Department Morning Tea; 10:30am – 11:00am; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
Wed 26th: No Seminar this week.
Wed 26th: Faculty of Science & Engineering Town Hall Meeting; 1:30pm – 2:30pm; Y3A T1.
Thu 27th: Writing Workshop; 2:30-4:30pm, E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
Coming up
Every Thursday for the next few months: Writing Workshop; 2:30-4:00pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
August 19th: Open Day
Sept 19th: ECR Showcase; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
Nov 13-14: Department retreat for academic staff; venue TBD.
Department seminar schedule
August 2nd: Professor Rick Shine, The University of Sydney; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
August 9th: Dr Katherine Moseby, The University of Adelaide; 1pm – 2pm; E8A-280 (Biology Tea Room).
General News and Announcements
Grant Success
Congratulations to:
- Rachael Gallagher and her team (Linda Beaumont, Michelle Leishman, Vanessa Adams) for securing a NSW Office of Environment & Heritage tender ‘Saving our Species – Review of Species Allocated to the Keep Watch Management Stream.’
- Michelle Leishman and her team (Tori Graham, Vanessa Adams, Nola Hancock, Lesley Hughes, Linda Beaumont, Anthony Manea) for securing a tender from the Nursery & Garden Industry for development of a Plant Sure Decision Support Tool
- Ross Peacock for being awarded an Australia Government Community Heritage and Icons Grant. Ross will develop and test a case study in world heritage reserve management effectiveness monitoring using citizen science volunteers.
Faculty of Science & Engineering Town Hall Meeting
This Faculty Town Hall meeting will update the Faculty on how we are responding to the changing research landscape. DVC-Research Sakkie Pretorius and Exec Dean Barbara Messerle will be speaking.
Wednesday 26 July 1.30-2.30pm Y3A T1.
Diversity & Inclusion Lunch Launch – July 18th, 11:30-1pm, E8A Tearoom
Bring a plate from your country/culture to celebrate the launch of the Diversity and Inclusion initiative in Biology. To help us manage the food, could you please let us know what you are bringing by filling out the spreadsheet in google docs:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dIsYysBl1f8Yr8PChZxvHFI8ilVsUvyFxeP63VLe8GE/edit?usp=sharing
MQ Biologists did us proud at the Genetics Society of AustralAsia meeting Dunedin
The annual Genetics Society of AustralAsia meeting was held last week in chilly but beautiful Dunedin, and members of the Department featured prominently, receiving two major awards from the Society. Jemma Geoghegan received the Alan Wilton Award to recognise outstanding contributions to the field of genetics research by Australasian scientists early in their career. She gave an excellent and beautifully presented talk on her work on predicting pandemics, which impressed many people. I think a number were a bit jealous that we had snapped her up.
The major award of the Society is the MJD White Medal which was established to recognise outstanding contributions to the field of genetics research by Australasian scientists. The recipient was Richard Frankham for his lifetime contribution to the field of population and conservation genetics. Dick gave a fascinating talk that took us through some of the landmarks of his career with reference to the work of a number of past and present members of the Department, in particular David Briscoe, co-author of the classic textbook by Frankham, Ballou and Briscoe Introduction to Conservation Genetics. Dick discussed, as he has recently with us, how his work in conservation genetics is having significant impacts on how endangered species are managed. This was a particularly timely address in a country dealing with many conservation genetics issues and was very well received.
(report from Jenny Donald)
DEPARTMENTAL SEMINAR SERIES
No seminar this week.
Access to BioCyc Database Collection
The BioCyc collection of Pathway/Genome Databases (PGDBs) provides a reference on the genomes and metabolic pathways of thousands of sequenced organisms. BioCyc PGDBs are generated by software that predict the metabolic pathways of completely sequenced organisms, predict which genes code for missing enzymes in metabolic pathways, and predict operons. BioCyc also integrates information from other bioinformatics databases, such as protein feature and Gene Ontology information from UniProt. The BioCyc website provides a suite of software tools for database searching and visualization, for omics data analysis, and for comparative genomics and comparative pathway questions.
Did You Participate in an Outreach Activity Recently for the Department?
Don’t for get to fill in the super-quick form here – – ACCESS OUTREACH FORM HERE
Ally Network Morning Tea – July 18th, 10-11am Level 4, C5C
The Workplace Equity & Diversity unit would like to extend their thanks to the members of the Macquarie Ally network for being visible supporters of LGBTIQ inclusion on campus. Ally members and supporters are most welcome.
NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer Lecture: Mary O’Kane
July 17, 2017
1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
The Australian Hearing Hub
Level 1 Theatre, 16 University Avenue
Macquarie University, New South Wales 2109
The MQ Research Enrichment Program and the Faculty of Science and Engineering are delighted to host Professor Mary O’Kane AC, Chief Scientist and Engineer for the NSW Government at Macquarie University.
Under the theme “the science communication problem”, Professor O’Kane will present a lecture entitled “What government needs from university researchers” and explain how her office deals with highly-politicized issues.
Following the talk, you are invited to join focus group sessions with Professor O’Kane and members of her office which will run from 2:00pm – 4:00pm. The aim of these focus groups is to identify upcoming issues that might be at risk of developing the “science communication problem”, meaning topics that become politicized to an extent where the public decides what to believe in order to remain aligned with their social circle, rather than on a basis of evidence or scientific authority. The focus groups will also scope ways to better communicate these topics to the public. The last 30 minutes will involve reporting back, looking forward and closing. Everyone is welcome to attend the focus groups, but they are not in any way obligatory.
For more information and registration: https://www.cvent.com/c/express/91d71bdc-1c92-4364-aee1-422c72628cb6
About the Speaker
Professor Mary O’Kane AC is NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer. She is also active on many Boards, being currently Chair at CRC for Spatial Information, Space Environment Management CRC and Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania, and director of New Zealand Antarctic Research Institute, Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre and Business Events Sydney.
Among previous activities she has served as Vice-Chancellor and Rector of University of Adelaide (1996-2001), on the Finkel Review, the Commonwealth’s Review of the National Innovation System, the Australian Research Council, the Cooperative Research Centres Committee, and the Boards of FH Faulding & Co Ltd and of CSIRO. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and an Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia. In 2014 she was awarded the Pearcey Medal for lifetime achievement in ICT.
REP ‘Outlook Conference’ 2017 (25 and 26th July)
The Research Enrichment Program’s annual Outlook Conference – this year run with the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship in their new building in Ultimo – brings together leading thinkers in diverse disciplines, spanning molecules to landscapes, across deep time frames, and from scientific, historical and social viewpoints. Our objective is to immerse participants in the advancing fronts of research in adjacent, and more distant disciplines.
The 2017 meeting is called What Matters, and Why. Invited speakers will present ideas on why their discipline matters, and how research fronts in these disciplines inform diverse areas of human enquiry. These talks will not recount personal research findings, but will be future-scoping exercises. Our goal is to identify promising areas for high level trans-disciplinary collaboration, for novel commercial or industrial applications, and to expose researchers at all career stages to different ways of thinking.
The two day meeting will consist of seminars by invited speakers, followed by afternoon discussion and brain-storming sessions. A key feature of the conference is the opportunity to meet and interact with research leaders across the breadth of human enquiry.
Click here to register for ‘REP Outlook.’
PhD Scholarship Available: Sensory ecology of a resilient ancient deceiver, the Splachnaceae dung mosses (University of Auckland, New Zealand)
The extraordinary Splachnaceae mosses often grow on animal carcasses and dung, and use bright colours and rotten odours to lure flies into acting as spore dispersers. Splachnaceae are generally hosted by the remains of native mammals – in Australia, they grow on dung from wombats, wallabies and Tasmanian Devils. Splachnaceae have also been found with preserved mammal remains, e.g. giant Irish deer and Canadian caribou. In New Zealand/Aotearoa, the biota is bird dominated with no native land mammals – the Splachnaceae mosses are now hosted by introduced mammals like deer and dogs. Could Aotearoa Splachnaceae’s original hosts be extinct moa or other herbivorous birds like takahē or putakitaki? Or seal or seabird colonies? We aim to use behavioural ecology, chemical ecology, spectral modelling, paleoecology and ancient DNA to discover how these mosses mimic the scents and odours of dung to deceive spore-dispersing flies and dung beetles, and how they switch between bird, mammal, native, and introduced hosts. More broadly, we’ll explore how networks can respond to introduced species and megafaunal extinctions.
This exciting and unique project will be supervised by behavioural ecologist Dr Anne Gaskett (Auckland Uni) and paleoecologist Dr Jamie Wood (Landcare/Manaaki Whenua) and involves considerable fieldwork in New Zealand (and optionally, Australia) and lab techniques including spectral modelling of insect colour vision, GC-MS of moss odours and ancient DNA analyses. More info and essential criteria are here: http://wp.me/P8qVXL-4U
Short-term Research Assistant Position to Work on Ornamental Plant Decision Support Tools
We have a casual position available that would suit an HDR student or recent graduate (~160 hours/ 4 weeks full-time). The role is to conduct a literature search of ornamental plant decision support tools and collect data to be used in evaluating the tool’s ability to produce transparent, reproducible assessments of the environmental weed risk of ornamental plants.
Brief position description
- Search for decision support tools evaluating weed risk of ornamental plants using search engine (e.g. Google Scholar)
- Collate data from online tools into a database
- Liaise with project team on progress
- Complete the work by 31 August (possible opportunity for more work for the right candidate)
Required skills
- Experience in conducting literature searches and reviews
- Strong data analysis and management skills
- Sound analytical, research and project management skills
- Demonstrated oral and written communication skills
- Background in plant biology, knowledge of weeds desirable
- Skilled in Microsoft Excel, coding skills desirable
If you know anyone who would be interested and suitable for this work, please contact Tori Graham <victoria.graham@mq.edu.au> for more information.
Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science?
This article is The Guardian is a long read but pretty interesting!
BLUE Documentary Film Screening and Q&A
A crisis is unfolding. Marine debris pollution and overfishing have put immense strain on our oceans. By 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Join us for an preview screening of BLUE prior to its national cinema release. Meet those who are defending ocean habitats and engage with our panel to learn how we can all play a positive role in turning the tide.
Stay for a Q&A with panelists:
Lucas Handley Marine biologist, ocean guardian and free diver
Sarah Beard BLUE Impact Producer
Libby Hall Taronga Wildlife Hospital
Belinda Fairbrother Taronga Community Conservation
Warm winter beverages, canapés and cinema snacks will be served.
DATE: Tuesday 25th July
TIME: 5:30pm – 8.00pm (film commences at 6:00pm)
VENUE: Taronga’s Centenary Theatre, Taronga Zoo, Mosman (enter via main Zoo entrance)
RSVP: By Friday 21 July to Pauline Georges at <pgeorges@zoo.nsw.gov.au> or 9932 4251
Rated PG. We advise there is confronting content in the film, including shark finning and dead marine life. If you would like more information please phone Pauline Georges on 9932 4251.
New Publications
Double stranded RNA is processed differently in two oyster species.
By: Masood M., Herberstein M. E., Raftos D.A., Nair S.V., 2017. Developmental and Comparaitve Immunology. 76 Nov. 2017, 285–291 | Find with Google Scholar »In the Media
Rob Harcourt provided comment to Over Sixty
Professor Rob Harcourt of the Department of Biological Sciences provided comment to Over Sixty in relation to footage captured of bronze whaler sharks circling unsuspecting surfers off the coast of Western Australia.
Rob Harcourt was interviewed on Channel 9 news
Professor Rob Harcourt from the Department of Biological Sciences was interviewed on Channel 9 news regarding an incident where two sharks were seen stalking a group of children off the coast of Red Bluff. See page 8 of the report.