Daniel Lee Nickrent

Daniel Lee Nickrent
Born (1956-02-20) 20 February 1956 (age 68)
CitizenshipUnited States of America
Alma materSouthern 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
InstitutionsOld Dominion University
University of Illinois
Illinois Natural History Survey
Southern Illinois University
ThesisA systematic and evolutionary study of selected taxa in the genus Arceuthobium (Viscaceae) (1984)
Doctoral advisorW. Hardy Eshbaugh
Sheldon Guttman
Doctoral studentsRomina Vidal-Russell
Author abbrev. (botany)Nickrent
Websitenickrentlab.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]

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

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. ^ a b c d e "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. ^ a b c d "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