Daniel Lee Nickrent is an American botanist, working in plant

evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes ( natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life ...

, including the subdisciplines of genomics,

phylogenetics In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups ...

, systematics,

population genetics Population genetics is a subfield of genetics that deals with genetic differences within and between populations, and is a part of evolutionary biology. Studies in this branch of biology examine such phenomena as Adaptation (biology), adaptation, ...

, and

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

. A major focus has been parasitic flowering plants, particularly of the sandalwood order (

Santalales The Santalales are an order of flowering plants with a cosmopolitan distribution, but heavily concentrated in tropical and subtropical regions. It derives its name from its type genus ''Santalum'' (sandalwood). Mistletoe is the common name for a ...

). His interest in photographic documentation and photographic databases has led to several photographic databases including Parasitic Plant Connection, Phytoimages, Plant Checklist for the Rocky Mountain National Park, and Plant Checklist for the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge. Nickrent has over 9400 citations (as of 15 October 2019) according to

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes ...

. He is Research Faculty and Professor Emeritus of Plant Molecular Systematics and Evolution at

Southern Illinois University Carbondale Southern Illinois University (SIU or SIUC) is a public research university in Carbondale, Illinois. Founded in 1869, SIU is the oldest and flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University system. The university enrolls students from all 50 st ...

(SIUC) ().

Education

After completing one year towards his undergraduate degree at

Illinois State University Illinois State University (ISU) is a public university in Normal, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Illinois State Normal University, it is the oldest public university in Illinois. The university emphasizes teaching and is recognized as one of th ...

, 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 The Great Dismal Swamp is a large swamp in the Coastal Plain Region of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, between Norfolk, Virginia, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina. It is located in parts of the southern Virginia indepe ...

under the direction of Lytton Musselman at

Old Dominion University Old Dominion University (Old Dominion or ODU) is a public research university in Norfolk, Virginia. It was established in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary and is now one of the largest universities in Virginia w ...

. This work resulted in his first publication.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. In 1977 he received a bachelor's degree in Botany from

Southern Illinois University Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois. Board of trustees The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of Tr ...

. He earned a master's degree from Old Dominion University with work on the parasite witchweed ''

Striga ''Striga'', commonly known as witchweed, is a genus of parasitic plants that occur naturally in parts of Africa, Asia, and Australia. It is currently classified in the family Orobanchaceae, although older classifications place it in the Scrophul ...

'', and earned a PhD from

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the ...

in 1984 ("A systematic and evolutionary study of selected taxa in the genus ''Arceuthobium'' (Viscaceae)").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.

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 The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

. From 1990 to 1994, Nickrent was assistant professor in the faculty of Plant Biology,

. During this period, his laboratory methodology changed from working with rRNA to DNA using the

polymerase chain reaction The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method widely used to rapidly make millions to billions of copies (complete or partial) of a specific DNA sample, allowing scientists to take a very small sample of DNA and amplify it (or a part of it) ...

(PCR) which made sequencing genes easier. This resulted in the discovery of increased rates of gene evolution in parasitic plants and the publication of one of the earliest species-level molecular phylogenies using nuclear ITS on the dwarf mistletoes, '' Arceuthobium''. From 1994 to 2003, as an associate professor in the Department of Plant Biology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 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 The American Phytopathological Society (APS) is an international scientific organization devoted to the study of plant diseases (phytopathology). APS promotes the advancement of modern concepts in the science of plant pathology and in plant healt ...

.Nickrent, D.L., & Musselman, L.J. (2004). "Introduction to parasitic flowering plants." ''The Plant health instructor'', 13, 300–315. From 2003 to 2014, Nickrent was a full professor at the university, becoming an emeritus professor (SIUC) from 2014 onwards. His work on ''

Rafflesia ''Rafflesia'' () is a genus of parasitic flowering plants in the family Rafflesiaceae. The species have enormous flowers, the buds rising from the ground or directly from the lower stems of their host plants; one species has the largest flowers i ...

'' in the Philippines was supported by a grant from the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, an ...

in 2008,Grant 2009–2019
/ref> 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. Other grants have also been awarded to Nickrent as principal investigator to allow continuing work on other aspects of

and parasitic plants. The Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (Santalales) notes that in 2008, Der & Nickrent found Santalaceae to be polyphyletic with some genera being outside the family, but eight well supported clades within.pdf
/ref> While in 2019, Nickrent and others further improved resolution within the family, using nuclear and chloroplast genes, while trying to understand its complex morphology.pdf
/ref> Since 1986, Nickrent has served as an associate professional scientist with the

Illinois Natural History Survey The Illinois Natural History Survey (abbreviated as INHS), located on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in Champaign, Illinois, is an active research institution with over 200 staff members, and it maintains one of th ...

Honors

Eponymous species

* '' Amyema nickrentii''

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

& Pelser – 2013, Phytotaxa 125(1) 47. * '' Phoradendron nickrentianum'' Kuijt – 2011, Novon 21(4) 456.

Taxa named

Nickrent has authored some 47 taxa,International Plant Name Index: Daniel L. Nickrent.
Retrieved 14 July 2019 including: *'' Thesium nautimontanum'' M.A.García, Nickrent & Mucina
PhytoKeys 109: 44 (2018).
*'' Lepeostegeres cebuensis''

, Nickrent & Pelser
Phytotaxa 266(1): 48 (2016).
*'' Lacomucinaea lineata'' ( L.f.) Nickrent & M.A.García
Phytotaxa 224(2): 180 (2015).
*'' Arceuthobium littorum'' Hawksw., Wiens & Nickrent
Novon 2: 206 (1992).
*'' Rafflesia verrucosa'' Balete, Pelser, Nickrent &

Phytotaxa 10: 50 (49–55; figs. 2A-F, 3A-F) (2010).
*'' Staufferia'' Z.S.Rogers, Nickrent & Malécot
Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 95(2): 394–395) (2008).
*''

Pilgerina ''Pilgerina'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Santalaceae. It only contains one known species, ''Pilgerina madagascariensis''. It is native to Madagascar, where it is known as ''sakaimboalavo''. Description ''Pil ...

'' Z.S.Rogers, Nickrent & Malécot
Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 95(2): 398–399) (2008).
* Cervantesiaceae Nickrent & Der
Taxon 59(2): 551 (2010)
* Nanodeaceae Nickrent & Der
Taxon 59(2): 552 (2010).

Selected publications

* * . * Amico G.C., Nickrent, D.L. & Vidal-Russell, R.. 2018. "Macroscale analysis of mistletoe host ranges in the Andean-Patagonian forest". ''Plant Biology'
pdf
. * * * * *Pyšek, P., Pergl, J., Essl, F., Lenzner, B., Dawson, W., Kreft, H., Weigelt, P., Winter, M., Kartesz, J., Nishino, M., Antonova, L. A., Baptiste, M. P., Barcelona, J. F., Cabezas, F. J., Cárdenas, D., Cárdenas-Toro, J., Castaño, N., Chacón, E., Chatelain, C., Dullinger, S., Ebel, A. L., Figueiredo, E., Fuentes, N., Genovesi, P., Groom, Q. J., Henderson, L., Inderjit, Kupriyanov, A., Masciadri, S., Maurel, N., Meerman, J., Morozova, O., Moser, D., Nickrent, D., Nowak, P. M., Pagad, S., Patzelt, A., Pelser, P. B., Seebens, H., Shu, W.-S., Thomas, J., Velayos, M., Weber, E., Wieringa, J. J., Kleunen, M. v. 2017
Naturalized and invasive alien flora of the world: species diversity, taxonomic and phylogenetic patterns, geographic distribution and global hotspots of plant invasion. Preslia 89: 203–274.
*Nickrent, D. L. & L. J. Musselman. (2017
Parasitic plants. Chapter 17, pp. 277–288 in Plant Pathology: Concepts and Laboratory Exercises, 3rd. Ed.
Ownley, B. H. and R. N. Trigiano (eds.). CRC Press, Boca Raton. *Nickrent, D. L. 2016. Ximeniaceae
Schoepfiaceae, Comandraceae, Thesiaceae, Cervantesiaceae, Santalaceae, Viscaceae. Pp. 404–440 in: Flora North America, Volume 12, Flora North America Editorial Committee (eds.), Oxford University Press, New York.Flora of North America online: Volume 12
*Pelser, P. B., D. L. Nickrent, & J. F. Barcelona. 2016
Untangling a vine and its parasite: Host specificity of Philippine ''Rafflesia'' (Rafflesiaceae). ''Taxon'' 65(4):739–758.For Supplemental data.
*Pelser, P.B., D. L. Nickrent, A. R. T. Reintar, & J. F. Barcelona. (2016
''Lepeostegeres cebuensis'' (Loranthaceae), a new mistletoe species from Cebu, Philippines. Phytotaxa 266(1):48–52.
*Pearse, I. S., G. Spyreas, D. Nickrent, P. Anders, A. Epstein, & M. Greenwood. (2015) Illinois Plants (www.inhs.illinois.edu/data/plantdb) is here: A new online resource for botanists and plant enthusiasts in Illinois
Natural History Survey Reports No. 413 (10): 19–20.3.
* *Kleunen, M.v., Dawson, W., Essl, F., Pergl, J., Winter, M., Weber, E., Kreft, H., Weigelt, P., Kartesz, J., Nishino, M., Antonov, L., Barcelona, J., Cabezas, F., Cardenas, D., Cardenas-Toro, J., Castaño, N., Chacón, E., Chatelain, C., Ebel, A., Figueiredo, E., Fuentes, N., Groom, Q., Henderson, L., Inderjit, Kupriyanov, A., Masciadri, S., Meerman, J., Morozova, O., Moser, D., Nickrent, D., Patzelt, A., Pelser, P., Baptiste, M., Poopath, M., Schulze, M., Seebens, H., Shu, W.-S., Thomas, J., Velayos, M., Wieringa, J., & Pyšek, P. 2015
Global exchange and accumulation of non-native plants. ''Nature'' 525:100–104.
*
pdf
* Sipes S. D., K. E. Huff Hartz, H. Amin, A. Anterola, and D. L. Nickrent. 2014
Floral scent and pollinators of the holoparasite ''Pilostyles thurberi'' (Apodanthaceae). Journal of Pollination Ecology 12: 31–39.
* *Barcelona J. F., D. L. Nickrent, J. V. LaFrankie, J. R. C. Callado and P. B. Pelser. 2013
Co's digital flora of the Philippines: plant identification and conservation through cybertaxonomy. Philippine Journal of Science 142: 57–67.
* * * Nickrent, D.L. 2012
Justification for subspecies in ''Arceuthobium campylopodum'' (Viscaceae). ''Phytoneuron'' 51: 1–11.
* *Judd, W.S., Nickrent, D.L., Robertson, K.R., Abbott, J.R., Carlsward, B.S., Schuster, T.M., Campbell, C.S., Neubig, K.M., Zona, S., Donoghue, M.J. & Kellogg, E.A. (2011
Photo Gallery of Vascular Plants
Sinauer Associates * Barcelona, J.F., E.S. Fernando, D.L. Nickrent, D.S. Balete, and P.B. Pelser. 2011
An amended description of ''Rafflesia leonardi'' and a revised key to Philippine ''Rafflesia'' (Rafflesiaceae). Phytotaxa 24: 11–18.
* Nickrent, D. L. 2011
(Including Mistletoes).
Encyclopedia of Life Science. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.: Chichester *Balete D. S., P. B. Pelser, D. L. Nickrent, and J. F. Barcelona. 2010
"''Rafflesia verrucosa'' (Rafflesiaceae), a new species of small-flowered Rafflesia from Mindanao, Philippines." ''Phytotaxa'' 10: 49–57.
*Ulloa, C.U., D.L. Nickrent, C. Whitefoord, and D.L. Kelly. 2010
Hondurodendron, a new monotypic genus of Aptandraceae from Honduras. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 97: 457–467.Correction (2011)
* *Nickrent, D. L. 1987
Systematics and population biology of two sibling species of ''Arceuthobium'' (dwarf mistletoes, Viscaceae). Pp. 597-611 In: Proceedings of the 4th. International Symposium on Parasitic Flowering Plants, Phillipps University, Marburg, West Germany, August 2–7, 1987. Eds. H. C. Weber, W. Forstreuter.
*Nickrent, D. L. 1986
Genetic polymorphism in the morphologically reduced dwarf mistletoes (''Arceuthobium'', Viscaceae): an electrophoretic study. ''American Journal of Botany'' 73:1492–1502.
*Nickrent, D. L., S. I. Guttman, and W. H. Eshbaugh. 1984. Biosystematic and evolutionary relationships among selected taxa of Arceuthobium. pp. 20–35 In: Proceedings of the Symposium on the Biology of Dwarf Mistletoes, Aug. 8, 1984, Technical Coordinators F. Hawksworth and R. Scharpf.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nickrent, Daniel Lee American taxonomists 1956 births 21st-century American botanists 20th-century American botanists Living people