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John D. Castello
Professor
332 Illick Hall
SUNY-ESF
1 Forestry Drive
Syracuse, NY 13210
Telephone: (315) 470-6789
Email: jdcastel@syr.edu
TOP
Research
General research interests concern virus diseases of forest and shade trees, and viral ecology. Recent research has focused on three specific areas: (1) the detection and identification of viruses in polar ice, (2) the ecology and impact of tomato mosaic tobamovirus (ToMV )infection of red spruce in high-elevation montane ecosystems, and (3) the identification and characterization of a tenuivirus detected in black spruce tees in New York, USA. Selected publications are presented below.
Castello, J.D., and Rogers, S.O. (Eds.) 2005. Life in Ancient Ice. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. (http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/8004.html)
Rogers, S.O., Starmer, W.T., and Castello, J.D. 2004. Recycling of pathogenic microbes through survival in ice. Medical Hypotheses 63: 773-777.
Smith, A.N., Skilling, D.E., Castello, J.D., and Rogers, S.O. 2004. Ice as a reservoir for pathogenic human viruses: specifically, caliciviruses, influenza viruses, and enteroviruses. Medical Hypotheses 63:560-566.
Rogers, S.O., Theraisnathan, V., Ma, L.J., Zhao, Y., Zhang., G., Shin, S.G., Castello, J.D., and Starmer, W.T. 2004. Comparisons of protocols to decontaminate environmental ice samples for biological and molecular examinations. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70: 2540-2544.
Castello, J.D., Rogers, S.O., Bachand, G.D., Fillhart, R.C., Murray, J.S., Weidemann, K., Bachand, M., and Almond, M.A. 2000. Detection and partial characterization of tenuiviruses from black spruce. Plant Dis. 84: 143-147.
Bachand, G.D., and Castello, J.D.ã 2001. Immunolocalization of tomato mosaic tobamovirus in roots of red spruce seedlings. J. Phytopathology 149: 415-419.
Kopp, R.F., Castello, J.D., and Abrahamson, L.P. 1999. Viruses in Salix grown for bioenergy. Eur. J, For. Pathol. 29: 117-122.
Castello, J.D., Rogers, S.O., Starmer, W.T., Catranis, C.M., Ma, L., Bachand, G.D., Zhao, Y., and Smith, J.E. 1999. Detection of tomato mosaic tobamovirus RNA in ancient glacial ice. Polar Biology 22: 207-212.
Bachand, G.D. and Castello, J.D. 1998. Seasonal pattern of tomato mosaic virus infection and concentration in red spruce seedlings. Appl. Environ. Microbiol.64: 1436-1441.
Fillhart, R.C., Bachand, G.D., and Castello, J.D. 1998. Detection of infectious tobamoviruses in forest soils. Appl. Environ. Microbiol.64: 1430-1435.
Jacobi, V., Bachand, G.D., Hamelin, R.C., and Castello, J.D. 1998. Development of a multiplex immunocapture RT-PCR assay for detection and differentiation of tomato and tobacco mosaic tobamoviruses. J. Virol. Methods.74:167-178.
Fillhart, R.C., Bachand, G.D., and Castello, J.D. 1997. Airborne transmission of tomato mosaic tobamovirus and its occurrence in red spruce in the northeastern United States. Can. J. For. Res. 27:1176-1181.
Castello, J.D., Lakshman, D.K., Tavantzis, S.M., Rogers, S.O., Bachand, G.D., Jagels, R., Carlisle, J., and Liu, Y. 1995. Detection of infectious tomato mosaic virus in fog and clouds. Phytopathology 85:1409-1412.
Castello, J.D., Leopold, D.J., Smallidge, P.J. 1995. Pathogens, patterns, and processes in forest ecosystems. BioScience 45:16-24.
Castello, J.D., Wargo, P.M., Jacobi, V., Bachand, G.D., Tobi, D., and Rogers, M. 1995. Tomato mosaic virus infection of red spruce on Whiteface Mt., New York: Prevalence and potential impact. Can. J. For. Res. 25:1340-1345.
Abstract of Most Recent Publication
Viable microorganisms (e.g. fungi, bacteria, Archaea and viruses) are distributed by wind over great distances, including globally. Microbes may settle out of the atmosphere or may be incorporated into fog, rain, sleet, hail, or snow. These organisms fall into lakes, streams, oceans, or onto the land or glaciers. When they become incorporated into environmental ice (e.g. glaciers, ice sheets, and snow), those that survive freezing and thawing may persist for years, centuries, millennia, or longer. Once they melt from the ice, they may enter contemporary populations. This mixing of ancient and modern genotypes (i.e. temporal gene flow, or what we term “genome recycling”) may lead to a change of allele proportions in the population, which may have effects on mutation rates, fitness, survival, pathogenicity and other characteristics of the organisms. Pathogenic microbes that survive freezing and thawing (e.g. influenza viruses, polioviruses, caliciviruses and tobamoviruses) can remain in these icy reservoirs long enough to avoid resistance mechanisms of the hosts, thereby conveying a selective advantage to these pathogens over those that cannot survive in ice. Ice is an abiotic reservoir of microbes that has been ignored in surveillance activities for human diseases.
Awards
Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship to University of Bonn, January through June 1987.
J. William Fulbright Foundation Senior Scholar Award to Hort Research, Palmerston North, New Zealand, August through December, 2000.
Teaching
Courses taught include:
- Introductory Environmental Microbiology (EFB 303, 4 credit hours, team taught with Dr. J.P. Nakas)
- Forest and Shade Tree Pathology (EFB 340, 3 credit hours) Lecture outline presented below.
- Plant Virology (EFB 443/643, 3 credit hours)
- Forest Health (EFB 445, 3 credit hours-summer session at Cranberry Lake Biological Station. Team taught with Dr. S.A. Teale).
EFB 340 Forest and Shade Tree Pathology
| Lecture | Topic |
| 1 | course introduction, forest health, disease |
| 2 | Fungi |
| 3 | Fungi continued |
| 4 | Wood anatomy |
| 5 | Wood decay |
| 6 | Wood decay |
| 7 | Wood decay & stains |
| 8 | Root diseases |
| 9 | Root diseases continued |
| 10 | Mycorrhizae |
| 11 | Nursery diseases |
| 12 | Foliage diseases |
| 13 | Foliage diseases continued |
| 14 | EXAM 1 |
| 15 | Rusts |
| 16 | Rusts continued |
| 17 | Cankers |
| 18 | Cankers continued |
| 19 | Wilts |
| 20 | Wilts continued |
| 21 | Mistletoes |
| 22 | Phytoplasma and other bacteria |
| 23 | Viruses |
| 24 | EXAM 2 |
| 25 | Decline diseases |
| 26 | Abiotic diseases |
| 27 | Hazard trees |
| 28 | Forest health monitoring |
| 29 | Review |
