This evening it occurred to me that I hadn't updated this site in a while. I've never been good about it (to the horror of my readers, all of which are undoubtedly web crawlers), but it was wild to see over three years had passed since I lasted posted.
This reflects, at least in part, my uncertainty of what I really get out of posting on this blog-website thing. Back in 2015, scientists like myself embarking on a PhD were being told that we needed to constantly be promoting our science and creating 'our own brand'. I guess I never really bought in to this idea as being that important for advancing a scientific career, but I did create this blog (which clearly I've never put much time into). I did manage to avoid all the other social media stuff. Can't say I regret it !
So why am I back? Why not forgot this page or just delete it? I'm not sure. For some sort of posterity? Hubris? Perhaps as a collections-based scientist I just have a hard time letting go to something that might be useful in the future. Anyway.
Lots has happened over three years career and life-wise. I've finished a postdoc and moved onto a research scientist position - for now a promotion in terms of pay and responsibility, if not necessarily prestige and job security. I've published a modest pile of papers and other academic and technical documents (a list appears below), largely transitioned from fish parasitologist to nematologist, and even traveled internationally to deliver molecular laboratory training to biosecurity workers in south east Asia. Its been a good run and I hope I can keep on hanging on. The life stuff I'll keep to myself.
Papers and other stuff published since I last posted (most available free online, just go to my google scholar page through the 'publications' link at the top of the blog):
Peer-Reviewed Technical Reports
2024. Subcommittee on Plant Health Diagnostics (May 2024) National Diagnostic Protocol for Pine wood nematode (Bursaphelenchus xylophilus) NDP51 V1. (Eds. Subcommittee on Plant Health Diagnostics) Authors: Hodda M, Porazinska D, Wainer J, Huston D.C.; Reviewers: Nobbs J, Zhao Z.Q, Wainer J. ISBN 978-0-6481144-7-5.
2024. Subcommittee on Plant Health Diagnostics (October 2024). National Diagnostic Protocol for Cyst Nematodes (The genus Heterodera)– NDP 53 V1 (Eds. Subcommittee on Plant Health Diagnostics) Authors: Daniel C. Huston, Manda Khudhir, Mike Hodda; Reviewers Akshita Jain, Dylan Corner, Katherine Linsell, Monica Kehoe, Samantha Bond, Sarah Collins, and Stefan Harasymow. ISBN 978-0-6481144-9-9 CC BY 3.0.
Book Chapters in Edited Volumes
2024. Huston, D.C. Haplosplanchnata (Suborder): Two Hosts with Half the Guts. Chapter 39 in S.L. Gardner and S.A. Gardner, eds. Concepts in Animal Parasitology. Zea Books, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. doi:10.32873/unl.dc.ciap039.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
2025. Huston, D.C., Cutmore, S.C., & Cribb, T.H. Digenean life cycle truncation has enabled the opportunistic exploitation of herbivorous fishes. Journal of Helminthology, 99, e28. DOI: 10.1017/S0022149X25000069
2025. Jain, A., Huston, D.C., Kaur, J., Trollip, C., Wainer, J., Hodda, M., Linsell, K., Riley, I.T., Toktay, H., Olowu, E.A., Edwards, J., Rodoni, B., and Sawbridge, T. Insights from draft genomes of Heterodera species isolated from field soil samples. BMC Genomics, 26:158. DOI: 10.1186/s12864-025-11351-0.
2024. Huston, D.C., Khudhir, M., and Hodda, M. Turbiditylenchus corticeus n. gen., n. sp. (Rhabditida: Anguinidae) from the bark of Eucalyptus macrorhyncha from the Australian Capital Territory. Nematology, 26: 1163–1177. DOI:10.1163/15685411-bja10363
2024. Huston, D.C., Cutmore, S.C., Cribb, T.H., Sasal, P., and Yong R.Q-Y. Taxonomy and systematics of Emprostiotrema Cianferoni and Ceccolini, 2021 (Digenea: Emprostiotrematidae), parasites of rabbitfish (Siganidae) from the Indo-West Pacific marine region. Parasitology 1–15. DOI:10.1017/S0031182024001252
2024. Bond, S.J., Huston, D.C., Patel, S., Hodda, M., Yadav, S., and Bellgard, S.E. Scientific data and background behind the first detection of Meloidogyne enterolobii in Australia. Australasian Plant Disease Notes, 19: 16. DOI: 10.1007/s13314-024-00539-0
2024. Huston, D.C., Khudhir, M., Lewis, J., Collins, S., Jain, A., and Hodda, M. DNA barcoding of Australian cereal cyst nematode populations with comments on likely origin and taxonomy (Tylenchoidea: Heterodera). Phytoparasitica, 52: 14.
2024. Pérez-Ponce de León, G., Solórzano-García, B., Huston, D.C., Mendoza-Garfias, B., Cabañas-Granillo J., Cutmore, S.C., Cribb, T.H. Molecular species delimitation of marine trematodes over wide geographical ranges: Schikhobalotrema spp. (Digenea: Haplosplanchnidae) in needlefishes (Belonidae) from the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Parasitology 2023:1-13.
2024. Bouguerche, C., Huston, D.C., Karlsbakk, E., Ahmed, M., Holovachov, O. Untangling the Derogenes varicus species complex in Scandinavian waters and the Arctic: description of Derogenes abba n. sp. (Trematoda, Derogenidae) from Hippoglossoides platessoides and new host records for D. varicus sensu stricto. Parasite, 30: 35.
2023. Bouguerche, C., Huston, D.C., Cribb, T.H., Karlsbakk, E., Ahmed, M., and Holovachov, O. Hidden in the fog: morphological and molecular characterisation of Derogenes varicus sensu stricto (Trematoda, Derogenidae) from Sweden and Norway, and redescription of two poorly known Derogenes species. Parasite, 30, 35.
2023. Huston, D.C., Hodda, M., Hills, A., and Collins, S. Detection of Heterodera mani in Western Australia. Australasian Plant Disease Notes, 18, 1–7.
2023. Jain, A., Wainer J., Huston, D.C., Hodda, M., Dinh, Q., Mann, R., B. Rodoni, B., and Edwards, J. First report of ryegrass cyst nematode, Heterodera mani, in Tasmania, Australia. Plant Disease, 107, 1245.
2023. Jain, A., Huston, D.C., Wainer, J., Hodda, H., Hayes, O., Whittock, S., Darling, E., Mann, R., Edwards, J., Rodoni, B., and Sawbridge, T. Geographic range extension of hop cyst nematode, Heterodera humuli, from Tasmania to the Australian mainland. Australasian Plant Disease Notes, 18, 1–8.
2022. Huston, D.C., Khudhir, M., and Hodda, M. Phylogenetic position of Ptychaphelenchus eucalypticola Hodda, 2009 within the Aphelenchoidoidea Skarbilovich, 1947 (Siddiqi, 1980) inferred from partial 18S and 28S rDNA gene sequences. Nematology, 25, 59–76.
2022. Jain, A., Wainer J., Huston, D.C., Hodda, M., Hayes, O., Whittock, S., Mann, R., B. Rodoni, B., Edwards, J., and Sawbridge, T. First report of a cyst nematode, Heterodera daverti, from Australia. Australasian Plant Disease Notes, 17, 35.
2022. Huston, D.C., Khudhir, M., and Hodda, M. Reliability and Utility of Standard Gene-Sequence Barcodes for the Identification and Differentiation of Cyst Nematodes of the Genus Heterodera. Journal of Nematology, 54, 1–24.
2022. Huston, D.C., Cutmore, S.C., and Smales, L.R. Molecular characterisation and updated description of Neoechinorhynchus aldrichettae Edmonds, 1971 (Acanthocephala: Neoechinorhynchidae), based on material from Aldrichetta forsteri (Valenciennes) collected in Tasmania, Australia. Systematic Parasitology, 99, 241–251.
2021. Huston, D.C., Cribb, T.H., and Welicky, R.L. Stable isotope signatures of an acanthocephalan and trematode from the herbivorous marine fish Kyphosus bigibbus (Perciformes: Kyphosidae). Journal of Parasitology, 107, 726–730.
2021. Huston, D.C., Cutmore, S.C., Miller, T.L., Sasal, P., Smit, N.J. and Cribb, T.H. Gorgocephalidae (Digenea: Lepocreadioidea) in the Indo-West Pacific: new species, life-cycle data and perspectives on species delineation over geographic range. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 193, 1416–1455.
