Zoology staff directory

Research interests

Molecular phylogenetics, evolution and development and systematics of the parasitic flatworms (Platyhelminthes). Primary research focus on the evolution and development of the tapeworms and the acquisition of segmentation, molecular methods for identification, diagnostics and phylogenomics.

Current activities

•  Determination of anteroposterior polarity throughout ontogeny in tapeworms by the characterization and expression pattern of posterior class Hox/paraHox homeotic genes in a model system (Hymenolepis).
  (in collaboration with J MacKenzie-Dodds, NHM)
• Molecular phylogenetics, coevolution, speciation and phylogeography of parasitic flatworms and their hosts
  (collaborators include C Agusti, Spain; I Beveridge, Australia; D Blair, Australia; JN Caira, USA; K Galactinov, Russia; D Gibson, NHM; C Healy, Canada; K Jensen, USA; R Kirk, UK; T Littlewood, NHM; J Marques, Portugal; R Overstreet, USA; L Poddubnaya, Russia; T Scholz, Czech Republic; V Tkach, USA; et al)
• Development of phylogenomic methods based on exploiting spliced leader trans-spliced ESTs in order to resolve to ancient diversifications in and among parasitic flatworms, and to better understand the evolution of SL trans-splicing
  (in collaboration with K Brehm, University of Würsburg, Germany, J Brabec and T Scholz, University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic)
  

Contracts, grants, awards

Contracts, grants, awards
Ashton Cuckler New Investigator Award, American Society of Parasitologists

Marshall-Sherfield Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission, Assoc. of Commonwealth Universities, UK)

National Science Foundation (NSF) Dissertation Improvement Grant

University of Connecticut Research Foundation Grant

Sigma Xi Grant-In-Aid of Research

American Society of Parasitologists Oustanding Oral Presentation

Southwestern Assoc. of Parasitologists Oustanding Oral Presentation

NSF Biodiversity Graduate Research Fellowship

Demi Fellowship (x 2), University of Connecticut

Ashton C. Cuckler Fellowship for Graduate Research, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

 

Employment history

1991 - 1993	University of Nebraska - Graduate Teaching Assistanship
1993 - 1995	University of Connecticut - Graduate Teaching Assistantship
1996 - 1997	University of Connecticut - National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow in Biodiversity
1998 - 1999	The Natural History Museum - Marshall-Sherfield Postdoctoral Fellow
1999 - 2005	The Natural History Museum - Wellcome Research Associate
2005 - present	The Natural History Museum - Researcher, Department of Zoology

Higher education

1991	University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA - BSc
1993	University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA - MSc
1998	University of Connecticut-Storrs, USA - PhD

Publications

*Invited paper
†Refereed book chapter

OLSON PD, LG Poddubnaya, DTJ Littlewood and T Scholz. In press. On the position of Archigetes and its bearing on the early evolution of the tapeworms. Journal of Parasitology

*OLSON PD. 2008. Review: Hox genes and parasitic flatworms: new opportunities, challenges and lessons from the free-living. Parasitology International 57:8-17.

Otranto D, S Rebhein, S Weigl, C Cantacessi, A Parisi, R Paolo Lia and PD OLSON. 2007. Morphological and molecular differentiation between Dicrocoelium dendriticum (Rudolphi, 1819) and Dicrocoelium orientalis Sudarikov and Ryjkov, 1951 (Platyhelminthes: Digenea). Acta Tropica 104:91-98.

Huys R, J Llewellyn-Hughes, S Conroy-Dalton, PD OLSON, JN Spinks and DA Johnston. 2007. Extraordinary host switching in siphonostomatoid copepods and the demise of the Monstrilloida: Integrating molecular data, ontogeny and antennulary morphology. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 43:368-378.

Poddubnaya L, DI Gibson and PD OLSON. 2007. Ultrastructure of the ovary, ovicapt and oviduct of the spathebothriidean tapeworm Didymobothrium rudolphii (Monticelli, 1890). Acta Parasitologica 52:127-134.

Marques J, MJ Santos, DI Gibson, HN Cabral and PD OLSON. 2007. Cryptic species of Didymobothrium rudolphii (Cestoda: Spathebothriidea) from the sand sole, Solea lascaris, off the Portuguese coast, with an analysis of their molecules, morphology, ultrastructure and phylogeny. Parasitology 134:1057-1072. [W/COVER ILLUSTRATION]

Aznar FJ, C Agusti, DTJ Littlewood, JA Raga and PD OLSON. 2007. Insight into the role of cetaceans in the life cycle or tetraphyllideans (Platyhelminthes: Cestoda). International Journal for Parasitology 37:243-255.

Poddubnaya L, DI Gibson and PD OLSON. 2006. Ultrastructural observations of vitellocytes of the unsegmented cestode Didymobothrium rudolphii (Monticelli, 1890): a possible application of detailed vitelline morphology for the identification of spathebothriidean species. Acta Parasitologica 51:255-263.

Literak I, F Tenora, V Letkova, M Goldova, J Torres and PD OLSON. 2006. Mesocestoides litteratus (Batsch, 1786) (Cestoda: Cyclophyllidea: Mesocestoideidae) from the red fox: morphological and 18S rDNA characterization of European isolates. Helminthologia 43:191-195.

Huys R, J Llewellyn-Hughes, PD OLSON and K Nagasawa. 2006. Small subunit rDNA and Bayesian inference reveal Pectenophilus ornatus (Copepoda incertae sedis) as highly transformed Mytilicolidae, and support assignment of Chondracanthidae and Xarifiidae to Lichomolgoidea (Cyclopoida). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 87:403-425.

*OLSON PD and VV Tkach. 2005. Advances and trends in the molecular systematics of the parasitic Platyhelminthes. Advances in Parasitology 60:165-243. [W/COVER ILLUSTRATION]

Garin YJF, M-T Galán-Puchades, A Moulignier, G Robert, F Héran, M Polivka, PD OLSON, F Lorenzo, F Derouin and DB Conn. 2005. Case Report: Human brain abscess due to a tetra-acetabulate plerocercoid metacestode (Cyclophyllidea). American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 72:513-517.

Plaisance L, DTJ Littlewood, PD OLSON and S Morand. 2005. Molecular phylogeny of gill monogeneans (Platyhelminthes, Monogenea, Dactylogyridae) and colonisation of Indo-West Pacific butterflyfish hosts (Perciformes, Chaetodontidae). Zoological Scripta 34:425-436.

Agusti C, FJ Aznar, PD OLSON, DTJ Littlewood and JA Raga. 2005. Morphological and molecular characterization of tetraphyllidean merocercoids of striped dolphins from the western Mediterranean. Parasitology 130:461-474.

Bray RA and PD OLSON. 2004. The plerocercus of Ditrachybothridium macrocephalum Rees, 1959 from two deep-sea elasmobranches, with a molecular analysis of its position within the order Diphyllidea and a checklist of the hosts of larval diphyllideans. Systematic Parasitology 59:159-167.

Literák I, PD OLSON, B Georgiev and M Pakulova. 2004. First record of metacestodes of Mesocestoides sp. in the common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) in Europe, with an 18S rDNA characterization of the isolate. Folia Parasitologica 51:45-49.

OLSON PD, K Yoder, LF Fajardo L-G, AM Marty, S van de Pas, C Olivier and DA Relman. 2003. Lethal invasive cestodiasis in immunosuppressed patients. The Journal of Infectious Diseases 187:1962-1966. [W/COVER ILLUSTRATION]

OLSON PD, TH Cribb, VV Tkach, RA Bray and DTJ Littlewood. 2003. Phylogeny and classification of the Digenea (Platyhelminthes: Trematoda). International Journal for Parasitology 33:733-755.

*Cribb THC, RA Bray, PD OLSON and DTJ Littlewood. 2003. Life cycle evolution in the Digenea: a new perspective from phylogeny. Advances in Parasitology 54:197-254.

Reyda FB and PD OLSON. 2003. Cestodes of cestodes of Peruvian freshwater stingrays. Journal of Parasitology 89:1018-1024.

Tkach VV, DTJ Littlewood, PD OLSON, JM Kinsella and Z Swiderski. 2003. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of the Microphalloidea Morozov, 1955 (Trematoda: Digenea). Systematic Parasitology 56:1-15.

Lockyer AE, PD OLSON, P Østergaard, D Rollinson, DA Johnston, SW Attwood, VR Southgate, P Horak, SD Snyder, TH Le, T Agatsuma, DP McManus, AC Carmichael, S Naem and DTJ Littlewood. 2003. A phylogeny of the Schistosomatidae based on three genes with emphasis on the interrelationships of Schistosoma Weinland, 1858. Parasitology 126:203-224.

Lockyer AE, PD OLSON and DTJ Littlewood. 2003. Utility of complete large and small subunit rRNA genes in resolving the phylogeny of the Neodermata: implications and a review of the cercomer theory. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 78:155-171.

*OLSON PD and DTJ Littlewood. 2002. Invited Review: Phylogenetics of the Monogenea-evidence from a medley of molecules. International Journal for Parasitology 32:233-244.

OLSON PD, DTJ Littlewood, D Griffiths, CR Kennedy and C Arme. 2002. Evidence for the co-existence of separate strains or species of Ligula in Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland. Journal of Helminthology 76:171-174.

OLSON PD, DTJ Littlewood, RA Bray and J Mariaux. 2001. Interrelationships and evolution of the tapeworms (Platyhelminthes: Cestoda). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 18:443-467.

OLSON PD and JN Caira. 2001. Two new species of Litobothrium Dailey, 1969 (Cestoda: Litobothriidea) from thresher sharks in the Gulf of California, Mexico, with redescriptions of two species in the genus. Systematic Parasitology 48:159-177.

†Littlewood DTJ and PD Olson. 2001. Small subunit rDNA and the phylum Platyhelminthes: signal, noise, conflict and compromise. In Interrelationships of the Platyhelminthes (DTJ Littlewood and RA Bray, Eds.), pp. 262-278. Taylor & Francis, London.

†Mariaux J and PD OLSON. 2001. Cestode phylogenetics in the molecular era. In Interrelationships of the Platyhelminthes (DTJ Littlewood and RA Bray, Eds.), pp. 127-134. Taylor & Francis, London.

*Littlewood DTJ, TH Cribb, PD OLSON and RA Bray. 2001. Platyhelminth phylogenetics-a key to understanding parasitism? Belgian Journal of Zoology 130(supplement 2):51-62.

Brickle P, PD OLSON, DTJ Littlewood, A Bishop and A Arkhipkin. 2001. Parasites of Loligo gahi from waters off the Falkland Islands, with a phylogenetically based identification of their cestode larvae. Canadian Journal of Zoology 79:2289-2296.

Scholz T, T Shimazu, PD OLSON and K Nagasawa. 2001. Caryophyllidean tapeworms (Platyhelminthes: Eucestoda) from freshwater fishes in Japan. Folia Parasitologica 48:275-288.

Littlewood DTJ, PD OLSON, MJ Telford, EA Herniou and M Riutort. 2001. Elongation factor 1-alpha sequences alone do not assist in resolving the position of the Acoela among the Metazoa. Molecular Biology and Evolution 18:437-442.

*OLSON PD. 2000. New insights into platyhelminth systematics and evolution. Parasitology Today 16:3-5.

OLSON PD and JN Caira. 1999. Evolution of the major lineages of tapeworms (Platyhelminthes: Cestoidea) inferred from 18S ribosomal DNA and elongation factor-1 . Journal of Parasitology 85:1134-1159.

OLSON PD, TR Ruhnke, J Sanney and T Hudson. 1999. Evidence for host-specific clades of tetraphyllidean tapeworms (Platyhelminthes: Eucestoda) revealed by analysis of 18S ssrDNA. International Journal for Parasitology 29:1465-1476.

Santamaria-Fries M, LF Fajardo L-G, ML Sogin, PD OLSON and DA Relman. 1996. Lethal infection by a previously unrecognized metazoan parasite. The Lancet 347:1797-1801. (featured in Discovery Magazine's '100 top science stories of 1996')

OLSON PD and BB Nickol. 1996. Comparison of Leptorhynchoides thecatus (Acanthocephala) recruitment into green sunfish and largemouth bass populations. Journal of Parasitology 82:702-706.

OLSON PD and BB Nickol. 1995. Effects of low temperature on the development of Leptorhynchoides thecatus (Acanthocephala) in Lepomis cyanellus (Centrarchidae). Helminthological Society of Washington 62:44-47.