The paper presents a chromosome-level genome and caste transcriptomes for Belonogaster juncea, revealing genomic diversity and caste-specific gene expression differences.

bioRxiv · Oct 18, 2026 · PreprintGenomics

Recurrent Duplication of the REST-NOA1 Locus Reveals a Hotspot of Regulatory Evolution Across Even-Toed Ungulates

Rick E. Masonbrink, Sharu Paul Sharma, Viswanathan Satheesh, Aleksandra Elzbieta Badaczewska-Dawid, Sivanandan Chudalayandi, David P. Alt, Paola Boggiatto, Ellie J. Putz, Andrew Josef Severin, Steven C. Olsen

The paper identifies recurrent duplication of the REST-NOA1 locus in ungulates and shows how structural divergence and regulatory changes contribute to immune system evolution.

bioRxiv · Jun 26, 2026 · PreprintBioinformatics

The Soybean Cyst Nematode Effector Cysteine Protease 1 (CPR1) Targets a Mitochondrial Soybean Branched-Chain Amino Acid Aminotransferase (GmBCAT1) for Degradation

Alexandra Margets, Jessica Foster, Anil Kumar V, Tom R. Maier, Rick E. Masonbrink, Joffrey Mejias, Thomas J. Baum, Roger W. Innes

This study identifies CPR1, a conserved soybean cyst nematode effector protease, which targets GmBCAT1 for degradation, enhancing nematode susceptibility.

Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions · Aug 19, 2024Peer-reviewedPlant Biology

The genome and lifestage-specific transcriptomes of a plant-parasitic nematode and its host reveal susceptibility genes involved in trans-kingdom synthesis of vitamin B.

Shahid Siddique, Zoran S. Radaković, Clarissa Hiltl, Clément Pellegrin, Thomas J. Baum, Helen L. Beasley, Andrew F. Bent, Oliver Chitambo, Divykriti Chopra, Étienne Danchin, Éric Grenier, Samer S. Habash, M. Shamim Hasan, Johannes Helder, Tarek Hewezi, , Sebastian Eves‐van den Akker

The paper identifies susceptibility genes involved in trans-kingdom vitamin B synthesis between a plant-parasitic nematode and its host, revealing a horizontal gene transfer critical for parasitism.

Nature Communications · Oct 19, 2022Peer-reviewedGenetics

A pseudomolecule assembly of the Rocky Mountain elk genome reveals putative immune system gene loss near chromosomal fissions

Rick E. Masonbrink, David P. Alt, Darrell O. Bayles, Paola Mercedes Boggiatto, William H. Edwards, Fred M. Tatum, Jeffrey T. Williams, Jennifer H. Wilson‐Welder, Aleksey V. Zimin, Andrew Josef Severin, Steven C. Olsen

The paper assembles the Rocky Mountain elk genome and identifies nine putative immune system gene losses compared to cattle.

bioRxiv · Sep 30, 2020 · PreprintGenomics

Shared Data Science Infrastructure for Genomics Data

Hamid Bagheri, Usha K. Muppirala, Rick E. Masonbrink, Andrew Josef Severin, Hridesh Rajan

The paper introduces BoaG, a data science infrastructure for genomic research, demonstrating its ability to efficiently explore RefSeq data and reveal species-specific assembly quality variations.

BMC Bioinformatics · Aug 22, 2019Peer-reviewedBioinformatics

The genome of the soybean cyst nematode (Heterodera glycines) reveals complex patterns of duplications involved in the evolution of parasitism genes

Rick E. Masonbrink, Tom R. Maier, Usha K. Muppirala, Arun Somwarpet Seetharam, Étienne Lord, Parijat S. Juvale, Jeremy Schmutz, Nathan T. Johnson, Dmitry Korkin, Melissa Goellner Mitchum, Benjamin Mimee, Sebastian Eves‐van den Akker, Matthew E. Hudson, Andrew Josef Severin, Thomas J. Baum

The paper assembles and annotates the genome of the soybean cyst nematode, revealing duplications and horizontal gene transfer events in effector genes involved in parasitism.

BMC Genomics · Feb 7, 2019Peer-reviewedGenomics