David McK. Bird

Professor

• B.Sc. (Hons), University of Adelaide, Australia
• Ph.D. (Biochemistry), University of Adelaide, Australia

Biography

David Bird was born in the “Riverland” wine-producing district of Australia in 1958 and grew up in Adelaide, South Australia. He received a BS in Biochemistry and Microbiology and was awarded 1st Class Hons for a thesis employing RFLPs to establish a molecular phylogeny of vertebrates (The Vertebrate Histone Gene Cluster). In 1984, he completed a PhD in Biochemistry for sequencing human connective tissue disease genes (Isolation of Human Collagen Genes) and that same year accepted a Post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Don Riddle at the University of Missouri-Columbia. At UM-C, Bird utilized genomic approaches of contig assembly and shotgun sequencing to localize genetically characterized genes in the model nematode C. elegans and was amongst the first investigators to establish a relationship between cuticle proteins and nematode morphology. Bird joined the Department of Nematology at the University of California-Riverside in 1987 as Assistant Professor and in 1995 moved to North Carolina State University, where he is currently Professor of Plant Pathology and co-Director of the Center for the Biology of Nematode Parasitism. He also holds an International Fellowship at Rothamsted Research, UK and is Adjunct Professor of Agricultural Biotechnology at Murdoch University, Australia, and a Research Associate of the Centre of Excellence for Integrated Legume Research, University of Queensland, Australia. His recent publications document research on free-living and parasitic nematodes and their hosts. In 1996, Bird was named the Stoll-Stunkard Memorial Lecturer by the American Society of Parasitologists.

Since 1987, Bird has been awarded more than $9m in extramural research funds from agencies including the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Agriculture, and he has published numerous papers and chapters. Bird is a founder of the NCSU Genome Research Laboratory and serves as an Advisory Board Member for the Bioinformatics Research Center. He was a founding member of the Interdepartmental Genomic Sciences graduate program (http://genomics.ncsu.edu/) and currently serves as its Director of Graduate Programs. Bird also serves on the Science Advisory Board of Divergence Inc., a biotechnology company based in St. Louis, MO, and is the current Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Nematology (https://pngg.org/jon_style/).

Research Interests

Bird has broad research interests that include: nematode biology and development; genome organization and evolution; structure-function relationships; host-parasite interactions; evolution of parasitism; host responses and resistance/susceptibility to pathogens; plant development. Over the years, his research has gradually shifted from studies of vertebrates, to invertebrates, then to plants, particularly the model legumes Lotus japonicus and Medicago truncatula. His current program emphasizes cellular, genetic and genomic approaches to understand the molecular basis of nematode-plant interactions.

Nematodes are a nearly ubiquitous life form. Numerically they account for up to 80% of all animals, and they occupy all ecological niches. It is likely that all vascular plants serve as hosts for at least one parasitic nematode species. Bird’s group is particularly interested in the root-knot (Meloidogyne spp.) and cyst (Heterodera and Globodera spp.) nematodes, because not only do they cause the vast majority of the annual $US100bn in crop damage inflicted by nematodes, but they also have the most intimate and complex interactions with their hosts. Understanding the basis for the host-parasite interaction is a major goal of the group. Given the striking morphological conservation of nematodes, mechanisms for parasitism might also be conserved cross-phylum. Indeed, plant and animal parasitic nematodes face similar challenges to successful reproduction in their respective hosts and may predict universal paradigms for parasitism. To begin to address such questions, Bird’s group (together with national and international collaborators) has obtained large numbers of ESTs from Meloidogyne and related species, and he is one of the leaders of the M. hapla sequencing consortium. Remarkably, initial examination of these datasets points to a large and diverse genespace for distinct species. Understanding how the genetic complement of nematodes is implemented to produce the biology necessary for parasitic ecology will be a major aspect of Bird’s future research.

Recent Publications

• Schaff, J. E., Mbeunkui, F., Blackburn, K., Bird, D. McK., and M. B. Goshe. 2008. SILIP: A novel stable isotope labeling method for in planta quantitative proteomic analysis. The Plant Journal, in press.

• Opperman, C. H., Bird, D. McK., Williamson, V. M., Rohksar, D. S., Burke, M., Cohn, J., Cromer, J., Diener, S., Gajan, J., Graham, S., Houfek, T. D., Q. Li, Mitros, T., Schaff, J. E., Schaffer, R., Scholl, E., Sosinski, B. R., Thomas, V. P., and E. Windham. 2008. Sequence and genetic map of Meloidogyne hapla: A compact nematode genome for plant parasitism. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), in press.

• Elling, A. E., Mitreva, M., Recknor, J., Gai, X., Martin, J., Maier, T. R., McDermott, J. P., Hewezi, T., Bird, D. McK., Davis, E. L., Hussey, R. S., McCarter, J. P., and T. J. Baum. 2007. Divergent evolution of arrested development in the dauer stage of Caenorhabditis elegans and the infective stage of Heterodera glycines. Genome Biology, 8(10): 211.1-211.19.

• Schaff, J. E., Scholl, E. H., Nielsen, D. M., Smith, C. P. and D. McK. Bird. 2007. Comprehensive transcriptome profiling in tomato reveals a role for glycosyltransferase in Mi-mediated nematode resistance. Plant Physiology, 144: 1079-1092.

• Snyder, D. W., Opperman, C. H. and D. McK. Bird. 2006. A method for generating Meloidogyne incognita males. Journal of Nematology, 38: 192-194.

• Waterman, J. T., Bird, D. McK. and C. H. Opperman. 2006. A rapid method for isolating Pasteuria penetrans endospores. Journal of Nematology, 38: 165-167.

• Bird, D. McK., Blaxter, M. L., McCarter, J. P., Mitreva, M., Sternberg, P. W. and W. K.Thomas. 2005. A white paper on nematode comparative genomics. Journal of Nematology, 37: 408-416.

• McCarter, J. P., Bird, D. McK., and M. Mitreva. 2005. Nematode gene sequences: Update for December 2005. Journal of Nematology, 37: 417-421.

• Vanholme, B., Mitreva, M., van Criekinge, W., Logghe, M., Bird, D. McK., McCarter, J. P. and G. Gheysen. 2006. Detection of putative secreted proteins in the plant parasitic nematode Heterodera schachtii. Parasitology Research, 98: 1-11.

Other Significant Publications

• Charles, L., Carbone, I., Davies, K. G., Bird, D. McK., Burke, M., Kerry, B. R. and C. H. Opperman. 2005. Phylogenetic analysis of Pasteuria penetrans using multiple genetic loci, Journal of Bacteriology, 187: 5700-5708.

• Mitreva, M., Blaxter, M. L., Bird, D. McK. and J. P. McCarter. 2005. Comparative Genomics in Nematodes. Trends Genet., 21: 573-581.

• Scholl, E. H. and D. McK. Bird. 2005.Resolving tylenchid evolutionary relationships through multiple gene analysis derived from EST data . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 36: 536-545.

• Weerasinghe, R. R., Bird, D. McK. and N. S. Allen. 2005. Root-knot nematodes and bacterial Nod factors elicit common signal transduction events in Lotus japonicus root hair cells. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 102: 3147-3152.

• Bird, D. McK. Model systems in agriculture: Lessons from a worm. 2005. Annals of Applied Biology, 146: 147-154

• Bird, D. McK. 2004. High Society (of Nematologists): Report of the forty-third annual meeting of the Society of Nematologists, Estes Park, CO, August 7-11, 2004. Genome Biology, 5: 353.1–353.3.

• Mitreva, M. D., Elling, A. A., Dante, M., Kloek, A. P., Kalyanaraman, A., Aluru, S., Clifton, S. W., Bird, D. McK., Baum, T. J. and J. P. McCarter. 2004. A survey of SL1-spliced transcripts from the root-lesion nematode Pratylenchus penetrans. Molecular and General Genomics, 272: 138-148.

• Bird, D. McK. 2004. Signaling between nematodes and plants. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 7: 372-376.

• Lohar, D. P., Schaff, J. E., Laskey, J. G., Kieber, J. J., Bilyeu, K. D. and D. McK. Bird. 2004. Cytokinins play opposite roles in lateral root formation, and nematode and rhizobial symbioses. The Plant Journal, 38: 203-214.

• Lohar, D. P. and D. McK. Bird. 2003. Lotus japonicus: A new model to study root-parasitic nematodes Plant and Cell Physiology, 44: 1176-1184.

• Bird, D. McK., Opperman, C. H. and K. G. Davies. 2003. Interactions between bacteria and plant-parasitic nematodes: Now and then. International Journal for Parasitology 33: 1269-1276.

• Bird, D. McK. and I. Kaloshian. 2003. Are roots special?: Nematodes have their say. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology 62: 115-123.

• Scholl, E. H., Thorne, J. L., McCarter, J. P. and D. McK. Bird. 2003. Horizontally transferred genes in plant-parasitic nematodes: A high-throughput genomic approach. Genome Biology, 4: R39.1-R39.12.

• McCarter, J. P., Mitreva, M. D., Martin, J., Dante, M., Wylie, T., Rao, U., Pape, D., Bowers, Y., Theising, B., Murphy, C., Kloek, A. P., Chiapelli, B., Clifton, S. W., Bird, D. McK. and R. Waterston. 2003. Analysis and functional classification of transcripts from the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita. Genome Biology, 4: R26.1-R26.19.

• Hirsch, A. M., Bauer, W. D., Bird, D. McK., Cullimore, J., Tyler, B. and J. I. Yoder. 2003. Molecular signals and receptors—controlling rhizosphere interactions between plants and other organisms. Ecology 84: 858-868.

• McCarter, J. P., Clifton, S. W., Bird, D. McK. and R. Waterston. 2002. Nematode gene sequences; Update for June 2002. Journal of Nematology 34: 71-74.

• Koltai, H., Dhandaydham, M., Opperman, C., Thomas, J. and D. McK. Bird. 2001. Overlapping plant signal transduction pathways induced by a parasitic-nematode and a rhizobial endosymbiont. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 14: 1168-1177.

• Bird, D. McK. and A. F. Bird. 2001. Plant parasitic nematodes. Chapter 8 in: Parasitic Nematodes: Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and Immunology, M. W. Kennedy and W. Harnett (Eds), pp139-166. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK.

• McCarter, J. A., Abad, P., Jones. J. and D. McK. Bird. 2000. Rapid gene discovery in plant parasitic nematodes via Expressed Sequence Tags. Nematology 2: 719-731.

• Bird, D. McK. and H. Koltai. 2000. Plant parasitic nematodes: Habitats, hormones and horizontally-acquired genes. Journal of Plant Growth Regulation 19: 183-194.

• Koltai, H. and D. McK. Bird. 2000. High throughput cellular localization of specific plant mRNAs by liquid-phase in situ RT-PCR of tissue sections. Plant Physiology 123: 1203-1212.

• Koltai, H. and D. McK. Bird. 2000. Epistatic repression of PHANTASTICA and class 1 KNOTTED genes is uncoupled in tomato. The Plant Journal 22: 455-459.

• Bird, D. McK., Opperman, C. H., Jones, S. J. M. and D. L. Baillie. 1999. The Caenorhabditis elegans genome: A guide in the post genomics age. Annual Review of Phytopathology 37: 247-265.

• Blaxter, M. and D. McK. Bird. Parasitic nematodes. 1997. In: C. elegans II, D. L. Riddle, T. Blumenthal, B. Meyer and J. Priess (Eds). pp 851-878. Cold Spring Harbor Press, Cold Spring Harbor, NY.

• Opperman, C. H. and D. McK. Bird. 1998. The soybean cyst nematode, Heterodera glycines: a genetic model system for the study of plant-parasitic nematodes. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 1: 342-346.

• Bird, D. McK. and C. H. Opperman. 1998. Caenorhabditis elegans: A Genetic Guide to Parasitic Nematode Biology. Journal of Nematology 30: 299-308.

• Bird, D. McK. 1996. Manipulation of host gene expression by root-knot nematodes. Journal of Parasitology 82: 881-888.

• Bird, D. McK. and D. L. Riddle. 1994. A genetic nomenclature for parasitic nematodes. Journal of Nematology 26: 138-143.

• Wilson, M. A., Bird, D. McK. and E. van der Knaap. 1994. A comprehensive subtractive cDNA cloning approach to identify nematode-induced transcript in tomato. Phytopathology 84: 299-303.

• Bird, D. McK. and M. A. Wilson. 1994. DNA sequence and expression analysis of root-knot nematode elicited giant cell transcripts. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions 7: 419-424.

• Bird, D. McK. and D. L. Riddle. 1989. Molecular cloning and sequencing of ama-1, the gene encoding the largest subunit of Caenorhabditis elegans RNA polymerase II. Molecular and Cellular Biology 9: 4119-4130.

• von Mende, N., Bird, D. McK., Albert, P. S. and D. L. Riddle. 1988. dpy-13: A nematode collagen gene that affects body shape. Cell 55: 567-576.

Patents

• Bird, D. McK. and M. A. Wilson. Nematode-induced genes in tomato. US Patent #: 5,612,471, 1997.

• Bird, D. McK. and M. A. Wilson. Nematode-induced genes in tomato. US Patent #: 6,093,810, 2000.

Contact Information

Dr. D. McK. Bird
North Carolina State University
Department of Plant Pathology
Suite 1400 Partners Building II
Centennial Campus
Campus Box 7253
Raleigh, NC

email: