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W. Wallace Martin, Ph.D.
Education:
Visiting Professor of Biology, Duke University, 2005-2006 NSF Research Fellow in Medical Mycology, MCV-VCU, 1972 Postdoctoral Fellow, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1970-71 Ph.D. in Botany, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1970 B.A. in Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1966
E-mail: wmartin@rmc.edu
Office: Copley 128
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Courses
BIOL 124 Great Discoveries in Medicine
BIOL 182 Biology of Plants
BIOL 202 Plant Taxonomy
BIOL 203 Fungi, Algae & Allies
Research Interests
My field is mycology which is a sub-discipline of microbiology and it deals with the study of Fungi. I am particularly interested in members of the lower flagellated Fungi that are parasites of medically and ecologically important insects. Specifically, my research involves all aspects of the new fungal phylum Blastocladiomycota which includes saprophytic fungi as well as parasitic species important in the natural control of mosquitos, midges, and blackflies. My colleagues and I have recently completed the first rDNA molecular phylogeny of the phylum and this work has revealed many unexpected relationships as well as a number of new species. Current research in my laboratory seeks to describe new species and to understand the biological significance of entomopathic species of Catenaria, Coelomomyces, and Coelomycidium. Research techniques include traditional light microscopy to study parasite morphology and life histories, electron microscopy to study zoospore ultrastructure, and rDNA analysis to further resolve phylogenetic relationships and to study parasite ecology and phylogeography.
Selected Papers & Publications
Gleason FH, Marano AV, Johnson P, Martin, WW. 2010. Blastocladian parasites of invertebrates. Fungal Biology Reviews (for the British Mycological Society). In Press.
Martin, WW. 2009. Blastocladiomycota: Habitat and Life Cycles. Invited presentation in Symposium: Teaching with basal fungal lineages. Mycological Society of America Annual Meeting, July 2009. Snowbird, Utah.
Martin WW, James T, Vilgalys R, Longcore J. 2008. A Preliminary molecular phylogeny of the Blastocladiomycota, a new phylum of flagellated fungi. ABSTRACT, Mycological Society of America Annual Meeting, August 2008, Pennsylvania State University.
Wallace, Catherine and Martin, WW. 2007. Laboratory infections with Catenaria, a fungal parasite of midge eggs. ABSTRACT, presented at the Sigma Xi Research Symposium, April 2007, St. Josephs University, Philadelphia.
Martin, WW. 2000. Two new species of Couchia parasitic in midge eggs. Mycologia, 92(6):1149-1154.
Martin, WW (ed.). Directory of Research in Biological Sciences at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (4th ed.), Council on Undergraduate Research, 1997.
Martin, WW. 1991. Egg parasitism by zoosporic fungi in a littoral chironomid community. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 10(4):455-462.
Martin, W. W. 1987. Zoosporic parasites of aquatic insects: collection, identification, and culture. In Zoosporic Fungi in Teaching and Research, p. 137-142. Ed. M.S. Fuller and A.Jaworski. Southeastern Publ. Corp., Athens,Georgia.
Martin, W.W. 1984. The dynamics of aquatic fungi parasitic in a stream population of the midge, Chironomus attenuatus. Jour. Invert. Pathology 44:36-45.