Photo courtesy of J. Eisenback.
from Nematology Newsletter, September 2012
12/01/2020
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| Richard Hussey (R) receives a plaque commemorating his selection as
an Honorary Member of the Society from SON President Brent Sipes (L) at
the annual meeting in Savannah, GA (August 15, 2012). Photo courtesy of J. Eisenback. |
Dr. Richard Hussey was raised on a family farm in Ohio. He
first became interested in plant pathology and rootknot nematodes while earning
a B.S. degree in Botany from Miami University of Ohio. A graduate program at the
University of Maryland under the mentorship of Lorin Krusberg resulted in not
only a Ph.D., but a lifelong fascination with nematodes and their interactions
with plants. His subsequent postdoctoral position at North Carolina State
University represented a seminal moment in his career where he had the
opportunity to work with some of the “greats” in nematology during the genesis
of the International Meloidogyne Project.
A balance of basic and applied nematology research remained
a theme of Dr. Hussey’s research program throughout his career as he moved to a
faculty position at the University of Georgia (UGA). His early research program
at UGA included field studies on soil compaction in conventional cotton
plantations and the contribution of root-knot and lance nematodes to cotton
disease. Dr. Hussey relished opportunities for collaboration. His alliance with
a renowned soybean breeder at UGA lasted over 30 years and produced 23 soybean
cultivars and germplasms with resistance to multiple species of phytoparasitic
nematodes.
Amazingly, Dr. Hussey’s demonstrated excellence and
productivity in applied nematology are matched by his pioneering research in the
cellular and molecular basis of nematode parasitism of plants. He tapped the
expertise of a world-class electron microscopist in his department to produce
high-quality micrographs that clearly illustrated the formation of crystalline
feeding tubes in giant-cells by root-knot nematodes, including a previously
undocumented cellular endomembrane system associated only with active root-knot
nematode feeding tubes.
The question of “what makes a nematode a parasite of plants”
and how they induce the formation of complex feeding cells in host hosts has
been at the core of Dr. Hussey’s research program for over 20 years. He adopted
and expanded upon the earlier work of scientists that suggested that the
secretory cells in the esophagus of tylenchid nematodes produced proteins that
are secreted from the nematode stylet to promote successful parasitism of plant
roots. He teamed with scientists at Wageningen University, North Carolina State
University, and Iowa State University to make the ground-breaking discovery of
the first phytoparasitic nematode “parasitism genes” that encoded esophageal
gland secretory proteins. These parasitism genes encoded the first endogenous
endoglucanases (cellulases) discovered in animals and also provided some of the
first evidence of horizontal gene transfer from prokaryotes to eukaryotes.
A subsequent and unique effort to microaspirate the contents of
the esophageal gland cells of parasitic nematode stages discovered almost 40
different expressed parasitism genes in root-knot and about 60 expressed
parasitism genes in cyst nematodes. Bold experiments to silence nematode
parasitism genes in transgenic plants that express double-stranded RNA
complimentary
to the nematode genes have led to RNA interference (RNAi)-based
plant resistance. The RNAi discoveries not only highlighted the essential nature
of specific nematode parasitism genes, they also represented a potential novel,
durable, and broad-spectrum means to develop nematode-resistant crop plants.
Dr. Hussey has an impressive record of 159 refereed
publications plus 42 book chapters and reviews along with several million
dollars in federal and commodity funding for his research program. Likewise his
selection as a Distinguished Research Professor at UGA, Fellow of SON, and
Fellow and Ruth Allen Award winner from the American Phytopathological Society
further highlight his stature as a scientist among his peers.