Raymond St. Leger Explained

Raymond St. Leger
Caption:Raymond St. Leger
Birth Date:April 1, 1957
Birth Place:London, England
Nationality: England
Field:Entomology Mycology Biotechnology
Work Institution:Cornell University
University of Maryland
Alma Mater:Exeter University
University of Bath
Doctoral Advisor:Professors Keith Charnley and Richard Cooper[1]

Raymond J. St. Leger (born 1957, in London, England) is an American mycologist, entomologist, molecular biologist and biotechnologist who currently holds the rank of Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Entomology (https://entomology.umd.edu/) at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Research and career

St. Leger went to the United States to begin his career at the Boyce Thompson Institute at the invitation of Donald W. Roberts. According to Google Scholar, he has since then published more than 150 scientific papers and book chapters on fungal pathogens of plants, animals and insects, and on the reactions of hosts to infection. St. Leger has principally used entomopathogenic fungus (fungi that act as parasites of insects),[2] as models for understanding how pathogens in general respond to stress,[3] changing environments,[4] initiate host invasion,[5] [6] colonize tissues,[7] and counter host immune responses.[8] These investigations have also addressed the mechanisms by which new pathogens emerge with different host ranges [9] [10] [11] and genetic variation between individuals in host defenses.[12] Other interests include fungal and insect behavior and evolution,[13] molecular biology and genomics of fungi,[14] and mutualistic associations between microbes and plants that can be exploited to benefit agriculture.[15] [16]

St. Leger is also known for developing transgenic technologies, including altering insect pathogens so that they carry genes encoding spider and scorpion toxins.[17] [18] [19] [20] A field trial in Burkina Faso has shown that these engineered pathogens have the potential to control insect borne diseases such as malaria.[21] St. Leger has tested an array of "alternative engineering strategies to be consistent with the highly exploratory approach required for optimizing a pathogens biocontrol potential".[22] For example, engineering a mosquito pathogenic fungus to carry a gene for a human anti-malarial antibody so that the fungus targets the malarial parasite in the mosquito reduces the possibility of mosquitoes evolving resistance to the fungus.[23]

St. Leger has been a consultant on biotechnology to many private and public concerns, including the NIH, the USDA, the NSF, the US State Department and the Organization of American States. St. Leger has also served on many national and international policy-making committees including the Bill Gates funded National Academies Committee to study technologies to benefit Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia (2009).[24]

St. Leger is an advocate of online open education and since 2013 has co-taught with Dr. Tammatha O’Brien (https://tammatha.weebly.com/) a MOOC on the Coursera platform called Genes and the Human Condition [25] that has had more than 200,000 active learners.

Education

St. Leger received his Bachelor of Science in biology from Exeter University, England in 1978, a Master of Science in entomology in 1980 from Birkbeck College, London University, and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1985 from the University of Bath, England.

Awards and honors

St. Leger has received several awards for his research, he was elected a fellow of the AAAS (2012), the American Academy of Microbiology (2013), the Royal Entomological Society of London (FRES) (2011), the Entomological Society of America[26] (2019) and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB). He received the American Society for Microbiology Promega Biotechnology Research Award (2017) and was the inaugural recipient of the Tai Fung-Lan Award for International Cooperation from The Mycological Society of China (2016). St. Leger received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater of Exeter University in 2018 [27] and the Newcomb Cleveland Prize for the most impactful paper published in the journal Science in 2019.[28] St. Leger gave the Founders lecture at the 2009 Society of Invertebrate Pathology Meeting honoring his friend and frequent collaborator Donald W. Roberts.[29]

Selected bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. SIP Newsletter . 42 . 2 . . June 2009.
  2. Lovett . B . St. Leger. R.J. The Insect Pathogens . The Fungal Kingdom. 2017. 10.1128/9781555819583. 9781683670827 . 2017 . 5 . 28256192 . Heitman . Joseph . Howlett . Barbara J . Crous . Pedro W . Stukenbrock . Eva H . James . Timothy Y . Gow . Neil A. R .
  3. Fang. W . St. Leger. R.J. RNA binding proteins mediate the ability of a fungus to adapt to the cold . Environmental Microbiology . 12. 2010. 810–820. 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2009.02127.x. 20050869 . 2010 .
  4. Wang. S . O’Brien. T. Pava-Ripoll. M. St. Leger. R.J . Local adaptation of an introduced transgenic insect fungal pathogen due to new beneficial mutations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108. 2011. 20449–20454. 10.1073/pnas.1113824108. 22143757 . 3251136 . 2011PNAS..10820449W . 2011 . free .
  5. Wang. C . St. Leger. R.J. Metarhizium anisopliae perilipin homolog MPL1 regulates lipid metabolism, appressorial turgor pressure and virulence . Journal of Biological Chemistry. 282. 2007. 21110–21115. 10.1074/jbc.M609592200. 17526497 . 2007 . free.
  6. Guo. N . Zhang. Q. Chen . X . Zhang . X . Xu. C. St. Leger . R.J. Fang . W. Alternative transcription start site selection in Mr-OPY2 controls lifestyle transitions in the fungus Metarhizium robertsii. . Nature Communications . 8 . 1 . 1565 . 10.1038/s41467-017-01756-1. 29146899 . 5691130 . 2017NatCo...8.1565G . 2017 .
  7. Wang. C. Hu. G. . St. Leger . R.J . Differential gene expression by Metarhizium anisopliae growing in root exudate and host (Manduca sexta) cuticle or hemolymph reveals mechanisms of physiological adaptation . Fungal Genetics and Biology . 42. 2005. 704–718. 10.1016/j.fgb.2005.04.006 . 15914043. 2005.
  8. Wang. C . St. Leger. R.J. A collagenous protective coat enables Metarhizium anisopliae to evade insect immune responses . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103. 2006. 2647–6652. 10.1073/pnas.0601951103 . 16614065 . 1458935 . 2006PNAS..103.6647W . 2006 . free .
  9. Wang. S . Fang. W. Wang. C. St. Leger. R.J. Insertion of an esterase gene into a specific locust pathogen (Metarhizium acridum) enables it to infect caterpillars . PLOS Pathogens . 7. 2011 . e1002097 . 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002097 . 21731492 . 3121873 . 2011 . free .
  10. Hu. X . Zheng. P. Shang . Y. Su. Y . Zhang. X. Zhan . X. St. Leger. R.J. . Wang. C. Trajectory and genomic determinants of fungal-pathogen speciation and host adaptation . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111. 2014. 16796–16801. 10.1073/pnas.1412662111. 25368161 . 4250126 . 2014PNAS..11116796H . 2014 . free .
  11. Zhang. Q . Chen. X. Quo . N . Meng. Y . St. Leger. R.J. Fang . Weiguo. Horizontal gene transfer allowed the emergence of broad host range entomopathogens. . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116 . 2019. 7982–7989. 10.1073/pnas.1816430116 . 30948646 . 6475382 . 2019 . free .
  12. Wang. J.B. . Lu. H.L. . St. Leger . R.J . The genetic basis for variation in resistance to infection in the Drosophila melanogaster genetic reference panel . PLOS Pathogens . 13. 2017. e1006260 . 10.1371/journal.ppat.1006260. 28257468 . 5352145 . 2017 . free .
  13. Hu. G. . St. Leger . R.J . A phylogenomic approach to reconstructing the diversification of serine proteases in fungi . Journal of Evolutionary Biology . 17. 2004. 1204–1214. 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2004.00786.x. 15525405 . 2004 . free.
  14. Gao. Q . Ying. S.H. Zhang . Y . Xiao. G . Shang. Y. Duan . Z. Hu . X . Xue-Qin . X . Zhou . G . Peng . G . Luo . Z . Huang . W . Wang . B . Fang . W . Wang . S . Zhong . Y . Ma . L . St. Leger. R.J. . Zhao . G. . Pei . Y . Feng . M.G. . Xia . Y . Wang. C. Genome Sequencing and Comparative Transcriptomics of the Model Entomopathogenic Fungi Metarhizium anisopliae and M. acridum . PLOS Genetics . 7. 2011. e1001264 . 10.1371/journal.pgen.1001264 . 21253567 . 3017113 . 2011 . free .
  15. Liao . X . O'Brien . T. Fang . W . St. Leger . R.J. The plant beneficial effects of Metarhizium species correlate with their association with roots . Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology . 98. 2014. 7089–7096. 21350178. 10.1007/s00253-014-5788-2. 4153607 . 2014 .
  16. Liao. X . Lovett. B. Fang . W . St. Leger. R.J. . Metarhizium robertsii produces indole-3-acetic acid, which promotes root growth in Arabidopsis and enhances virulence to insects. . Microbiology . 163. 2017. 980–991. 10.1099/mic.0.000494. 28708056 . 2017 . free.
  17. Fang . W . Lu . H . King . G.F. St. Leger. R.J . Construction of a hypervirulent and specific mycoinsecticide for locust control . Scientific Reports . 4. 2014. 7345 . 10.1038/srep07345. 25475694 . 4256560 . 2015 .
  18. News: Gallagher . James . GM fungus rapidly kills 99% of malaria mosquitoes, study suggests . BBC News . 31 May 2019 . 31 May 2019.
  19. Web site: Saey . Tina . A fungus weaponized with a spider toxin can kill malaria mosquitoes. 31 May 2019.
  20. Web site: Bonner . Walt . Genetically-altered fungus murders mosquitoes with spider venom . foxnews.com . Fox News . 13 June 2019. 2019-06-10 .
  21. Lovett. B. Bilgo. E. Millogo. S.A. Ouattarra. A.K. Sare. I. Gnambani. E.J. Dabire. R.K. Diabate. A. St.Leger. R.J.. Transgenic Metarhizium rapidly kills mosquitoes in a malaria-endemic region of Burkina Faso. Science. 364. 2019. 894–897. 21350178. 10.1126/science.aaw8737. 2019Sci...364..894L . 2019 . 4153607. free.
  22. Lovett. B . Bilgo. E. Diabate. A. St. Leger. R.J.. A review of progress toward field application of transgenic mosquitocidal entomopathogenic fungi. Pest Management Science . 75. 9. 2316–2324. 10.1002/ps.5385. 20050869 . 2019 . 73507848 .
  23. Fang. W . Vega-Rodriguez . J . Ghosh . A.K. Jacobs-Lorena . M. Khang . A. St. Leger . R.J.. Development of transgenic fungi that kill human malaria parasites in mosquitoes. Science. 331. 2011. 1074–1077. 21350178. 10.1126/science.1199115. 4153607 . 2011Sci...331.1074F . 2011 .
  24. National Research Council. Emerging Technologies to Benefit Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. . The National Academies Press . 10.17226/12455 . 978-0-309-12494-2 . 2009 .
  25. Web site: St. Leger. R.J. O'Brien. T . Genes and the Human Condition (from behavior to Biotechnology) . Coursera. 7 February 2020.
  26. Web site: ESA. Dr. Raymond J. St. Leger, ESA fellow. 7 February 2020.
  27. Web site: Exeter University. Professor Raymond J. St. Leger (DSc). Exeter.ac.uk . 7 February 2020.
  28. Web site: Cutlip . Kimbra . UMD-led Study Named Most Impactful Paper Published in the Journal Science in 2019 . umdrightnow.umd.edu . 7 February 2020. 2020-01-24 .
  29. St. Leger . Raymond J. . Raymond St. Leger . Society for Invertebrate Pathology 2009 Founders' Lecture . . Society for Invertebrate Pathology (Academic Press) . 105 . 3 . 2010 . 0022-2011 . 10.1016/j.jip.2010.09.021 . 211–219 . 29215470 . 20970532.

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