Biology News Spring/Summer2010

Please download the current(Second) Biology Newsletter (PDF, file size: 231.93KB) here.

The First Biology Newletter (PDF, file size: 237.3KB) is also available.

From April 6th to April 12th 2010 Biology 2nd year undergraduate students attended a fieldcourse at the Millport Marine Biology Station on the Isle of Cumbrae, Scotland.

This involved taking transects on the rocky shore at White bay, a stickleback survey at Farland Point and Kames bay, and a benthic survey from the Actinia trawler in the Hunterstone Channel.

The course was led by Dr. Dave Skingsley and Dr. Paul Mitchell.

Dr. Dave Skingsley is a founder of a new natural history group for this region - Cheshire Active Naturalsists due to be publicly launched in March 2010.

Cheshire Active Naturalists is a new society to cater for adults who wish to advance their skills in a variety of natural history-related taxon groups.

It is run by a group of passionate naturalists who wish to use their skills to benefit other naturalists which in turn benefits wildlife and wildlife recording in the county.

Dr. Dave Skingsley has had a second photo published on the front cover of Bulletin.

The photo can be seen on the December 2009 issue of the Amateur Entomologists' Society Bulletin journal.

The Bulletin of the Amateur Entomologists' Society is the Society's high-quality, house journal.

It is published in February, April, June, August, October and December each year. The journal contains articles written by members on all aspects of entomology.

For several years a small research group (of Dr Arthur Callaghan, Ian Hopkins, the late Steve Waters and Dr Rob Manning) at Staffordshire University has studied the biology of fungi of the genera Condiobolus and Basidiobolus. These are close allies of the important group (Entomophthorales) researched world-wide as potential control agents of agricultural pest insects and mites. Strains of the test fungi used in my work are from a small plantation of hybrid larch at Keele, in an area repeatedly sampled as a model habitat (Smith & Callaghan 1987; Hopkins unpublished; Callaghan unpublished.).

For the mainly saprotrophic Conidiobolus spp., there are very few reports on the interactions of our fungi with invertebrates of soil and litter (living or dead) and on the subsequent outcomes of such interactions. My research directly addresses questions on trophic (feeding) abilities of these fungi and on the behaviour of their spores (conidia). For example, in laboratory studies, I have quantitatively compared the ability of Conidiobolus spp. (and Basidiobolus ranarum) to colonise groups of leaf litter arthropod cadavers (mostly mites and collembola) and plant fragments (Manning et al., 2007).  Also, I have used novel methods to disclose the ability of a number of Conidiobolus spp. to kill arthropods of the mesofauna (Manning & Callaghan, 2008). The overall aim was to get at least a preliminary indication of the type of trophic interactions occurring between the selected Conidiobolus spp. and a range of freshly extracted arthropods from the surface and subsurface larch litter.

Ongoing work is aimed at understanding the effect of arthropod cadavers, or other substrates, on conidium germination. In leaf litter, cadavers may be a nutrient-rich substrate for species of Conidiobolus and Basidiobolus, with the potential to act as triggers for localised vegetative sprouting of conidia prior to any subsequent fungal colonisation. The effects of substances leaking from arthropod (mite and collembolan) cadavers, diffusing into a surrounding water agar medium and initiating spore germination is being explored in laboratory experiments.

Following on from preliminary studies (RM thesis), future work will examine the variation of the germination of conidia on the external surfaces of invertebrates to disclose possible specific animal targets.

Congratulations to Cassie!

For the second year running a student from Biological Sciences has been succcesful in submitting and having published a paper based on their final year project in the Oxford University Press journal Bioscience Horizons. Cassie Gregson graduated in 2008 and was nominated to submit to the journal by the department. Cassie's paper was reviewed and chosen for publication in this years volume of the Journal and can be found at: http://biohorizons.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/2/2/134.

The journal was launched in 2008 as a means for final year students to submit their final year projects for publication as a scientific paper. Successful students have a citable piece of research to start them on their postgraduate career.
Cassie was a part-time student who did her research whilst working full-time, at AstraZeneca in bioinformatics research, and graduated with a first class Honours degree in Biomedical Sciences. She also received the best undergraduate Biology dissertation prize. She still works for the same company where she hopes to develop her career further within the bioinformatics field. 
  
This is the second student of Sue Bird we have had published in this journal so we have a presence in both volumes 1 and 2. 

Foundation Degree in Biomedical Science – the Employer Perspective

The Associate Practitioner role is a new and very important role in pathology. Many of our Associate Practitioners have worked in the laboratory as Medical Laboratory Assistants prior to becoming an Associate Practitioner so they have laboratory experience but often limited formal qualifications. Working closely with Staffordshire University to develop the curriculum means that the foundation degree offers exactly what the students and the workplace needs. The strong focus on Work Based Learning leads to students gaining credit for structured evidence collected whilst in the laboratory.
The students studying for the University Certificate are kept in a small group with modules specifically aimed at improving their learning skills. This gives the students confidence in their ability and the confidence to give feedback on the course content. In the second and third years the students spend some time with students on the BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science course which helps both the full time students and those on the foundation degree as they can share knowledge and the foundation degree students can pass on their laboratory experience.
Regular communication between Staffordshire University and the University Hospital of North Staffordshire provides feedback on the student’s progress and any issues raised by laboratory or student have been promptly and professionally dealt with by the University. Laboratory based mentors spend time each week with the students to discuss current modules and any issues. There has been a very positive impact on the whole laboratory since the introduction of the foundation degree for the Associate Practitioner.

Katie Berger
Quality Manager, Training Officer and Health & Safety Co-ordinator
Pathology Directorate.
University Hospital of North Staffordshire.

Dr Angela Priestman has just completed her first year of research characterising different populations of the screwworm fly Cochliomyia hominivorax. This fly is a significant pest species of the new world tropics but has been introduced into the old world via the trade in animals. The fly lays its eggs in open wounds on cattle (for example) and the resulting larvae consume the tissues causing much harm. Dr Priestman’s work, which is funded by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) aims to compare wild populations of new world screwworm fly with those bred in fly factories and sterilised before release into the wild. Sterilised release male flies should mate normally with wild female flies and, of course, no offspring are produced. This has the effect of reducing fly numbers in a given locality.

The first year of Dr Priestman's studies have focused on establishing the technique, with the assistance of Pete Martin (Experimental Officer), in the Analytical Suite of the Faculty of Sciences. Angela and Pete have submitted their progress report and await confirmation of the second year of funding.