Student who worked with Field Museum scientists is lead author of new research affecting world's rain forests

Posted: 02/21/2012

Before graduating from Roosevelt University last year, biology major Garret Sweetwood was able to conduct research about spores on rain-forest lichens (pictured above) at Chicago’s Field Museum, earning him distinction as lead author of a groundbreaking scientific research article published in February in the internationally-renowned Cambridge Journals’ The Lichenologist.

Sweetwood (pictured below) received top billing among four co-authors who studied spores growing on rain-forest lichen. The research provides an understanding for the first time of the evolution and ecology of these organisms, vital information that may be useful for the health and conservation of the world’s dwindling rain forests.

“I’m delighted that Garret accomplished this,” said Evelyn T. Stone College of Professional Studies Professor Julian C. Kerbis Peterhans, who paired students, including Sweetwood with mentor researchers in his Museum Studies: Biology 380 class. “It is quite a big deal for an undergraduate student to be published in this kind of journal and to be the lead author is just remarkable,” he said.

During the course, Sweetwood volunteered in the Field Museum’s botany department with Robert Lűcking, adjunct curator and collections manager in the Botany Department at the Field Museum.

“Garret (Sweetwood) did the main part of the work for this paper, which was to prepare the specimens and to take photographs of them at their various stages of development,” Lűcking said. “I had no idea what would come out of this project, and all of the work that he did exceeded my expectations.”

Lűcking is one of the co-authors of the paper entitled: “Ascospore ontogeny and discharge in megalosporous Trypetheliaceae and Graphidaceeaeos (Ascomycota: Dothideomycetes and Lecanoromycetes) suggest phylogenetic relationships and ecological constraints.”

The research presents revolutionary findings on how spores in tropical lichens develop, from a common basic form into wildly different shapes, colors and sizes. Other co-authors of the research are: Matthew Nelsen, PhD student at the University of Chicago, and Dr. Andre Aptroot from the Netherlands, internationally reknowned specialist in this group of lichens.

They conclude in the article that the tropical lichens, originating from Florida, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia and Brazil, evolved from a very common ancestor. In contrast, their different, mature spores are adaptations to dispersal in the rain forest – for while rain water basically washes spores toward the ground, tiny animals such as ants mistake the spores for food bodies (which are produced by many plants to attract ant symbioses) and carry them away.

Since graduating, Sweetwood, 26, of Woodstock, Ill., has landed a full-time job as a microbial lab technician for Sage Products, a medical supply company in Cary, Ill.

“The museum course I took at Roosevelt was the best class I’ve ever had,” said Sweetwood, who learned to use sophisticated equipment at the Field Museum in order to prepare specimens and to take workable images of the specimens for study. Sweetwood took between 400 and 500 photos using a microscope that had precise digital photo capabilities.

“I got a chance to go behind the scenes at the Field Museum and to learn about its phenomenal work as a research institution,” said Sweetwood, who was surprised, and very grateful, to be included as lead author of the groundbreaking new article.

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