David Bass

Research Interests

I work on the biodiversity, phylogeny, and ecology of protists (single-celled eukaryotes), principally the protozoan phylum Cercozoa, but also other protozoa and fungi. I use molecular techniques to describe environmental microbial biodiversity, and to look for patterns relating this to other biotic and abiotic variables, and to biogeographical structures. I am involved in developing the use of novel and extremely high throughput 454 sequencing technology for ecological and genomic studies of protists. This includes several 454 sequencing projects in freshwater and marine environments, the latter partly as a member of a large EU-funded consortium of microbiologists and molecular biologists (BioMarks and TaraOceans projects). However, my research emphasizes the importance of combining large-scale molecular approaches with organismal, microcosm, and individual culture-based work to gain a good understanding of how microbes interact with their biotic and abiotic environments. A key element of my work is the discovery of new taxa, which I describe taxonomically and through molecular phylogenies. I am developing fluorescent microscopy techniques using strain-specific probes to visualize microbes in order to learn more about their morphology and ecological dynamics, particularly cell morphologies that have been neglected by classical microscopical studies, and to investigate the incidence and evolution of parasitism in several protozoan groups.

Other Interests

I currently hold the post of Researcher in Systematic Biology at the Natural History Museum, London. I am a member of the Systematics Association Council and will be co-coordinating the Young Systematists’ Forum meetings in 2009/10.

Contacts

Selected Publications

• Bass D, Howe AT, Mylnikov AP, Vickerman K, Chao EE-Y, Edwards Smallbone J, Snell J, Cabral Jr C, Cavalier-Smith T (2009) Phylogeny and classification of Cercomonadida: Cercomonas, Eocercomonas, Paracercomonas, and Cavernomonas gen. n. Protist, in press
• Bass D, Chao E-Y, Nikolaev S, Yabuki A, Ishida K-I, Berney C, Pakzad U, Wylezich C, Cavalier-Smith T (2008) Phylogeny of novel naked filose and reticulose Cercozoa: Granofilosea cl. n. and Proteomyxidea revised. Protist 160: 75-109
• Bass D, Howe AT, Barton H, Brown N, Demidova M, Michelle H, Li L, Sanders H, Watkinson SC, Willcock S, Richards TA (2007) Yeast forms dominate fungal diversity in the deep oceans. Proc Roy Soc B 274: 3069-3077
• Bass D, Richards TA, Matthai L, Marsh V, Cavalier-Smith T 2007 DNA evidence for global dispersal and probable endemicity of protozoa. BMC Evol Biol 7:162
• Bass D, Cavalier-Smith T (2004) Phylum-specific environmental DNA analysis reveals remarkably high global biodiversity of Cercozoa (Protozoa). Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 54:2393-2404.