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Sergei Anatolievich Podlipaev (1947-2004)
Dr. Sergei A. Podlipaev. August 2002, White Sea biological station of Zoological Institute RAS.
On February 24, 2004 Doctor Sergei A. Podlipaev, a prominent Russian protistologist and parasitologist, head of the Research Group of Molecular Systematics at the Zoological Institute RAS, suddenly passed away in St. Petersburg. He died of a blood-stroke at the age of 56. Podlipaev was well known for his research and original ideas on trypanosomatid systematics, phylogeny and evolution as well as on host-parasite relationships in general.
Sergei A. Podlipaev was born on December 20, 1947 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in Russia in the family of a foreman. In 1956 he went to middle
school and soon started his first biological education in a group of young naturalists, housed at that time in the famous Anichkov Palace in Nevsky Prospect. His first supervisor was Dr. Tamara G. Zhadina.
In 1966, young Sergei entered the St. Petersburg State University, and immediately came under the influence of the eminent Russian biologist Professor Dr. G.I. Poljansky and another well-known parasitologist Prof. Dr. S. Shulman. From the very beginning Sergei got interested in invertebrate zoology and demonstrated an outstanding ability for analysis, so important for a future scientist. His first student paper (in co-authorship
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In Memoriam - Sergei Anatolievich Podlipaev (1947—2004)
with his fellow students Drs. A. Naumov and L. Borkin), devoted to the problem of polymerization and oligomerization in invertebrates, has not lost its scientific value even today.
In 1971—1974, S. Podlipaev continued his training as a postgraduate student at the Research Marine Biological Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences, in Dalnye Zelentsy, Murmansk Region. His PhD thesis in parasitology, made under the supervision of Professors G.I. Poljansky and T.A. Ginetzinskaya, dealt with parthenogenetic and larval stages of trematods in the littoral molluscs of the East Murman Region. Although his dissertation was completed in 1975, he was able to defend it at the Moscow State University only in 1977 because of a long-term period of the USSR Highest Attestation Committee reorganisation. Interestingly enough, just at the time of the defence people in Moscow could definitely feel a perceptible echo of the strong earthquake in Roumania and Moldavia.
In 1975, after a short-term work at the Laboratory of Cytology of Unicellular Organisms, Institute of Cytology, USSR Academy of Sciences, S. Podlipaev became a junior research scientist and then research assistant professor at the Biological Research Institute of the St. Petersburg State University. At first Sergei’s scientific interest was mostly focused on parasitology, but later, in 1976, it was extended to include general protistological problems. In collaboration with Professor Dr. D.V. Ossipov and Drs. O.N. Borchsenius, S.I. Fokin, M.S. Rautian, and I.I. Skoblo, he carefuly investigated gram-negative bacteria infecting the nuclear apparatus of some ciliates with the use of different electron microscopic methods. Since 1979 Podlipaev’s life was bound to the Laboratory of Protozoology (headed by Professor Dr. M.V. Krylov) at the Zoological Institute RAS in St. Petersburg, where he worked first as research scientist (1979-1992), then senior scientist (1992-1999), leading scientist (19992003), and finally as principle scientist, head of the Molecular Systematics Group (2003-2004).
During the last fifteen years, Sergei Podlipaev and his colleagues initiated, developed and carried out intensive studies of insect trypanosomatids on a very large area from the Polar Circle to Central Asia, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. At that time, Sergei took part and/or organised numerous expeditions aimed at exploration of insect trypanosomatids fauna. During these expeditions, he closely collaborated with entomologists from the Zoological Institute RAS, namely Prof. Dr. V.F. Zaitsev, Drs. A. Emelyanov, I. Kerzhner, S. Reznik, M. Valkovich and M. Dolgovskaya. As a result, standardized methods of trypanosomatid detection, identification and isolation into culture were developed and/or improved and then disseminated among many researchers. Finally, an extensive laboratory
collection of trypanosomatid cultures from insects was established at the Zoological Institute. At present this collection, maintained by Dr. M. Malysheva, is being actively used as a reference tool for analysing insect and plant trypanosomatids throughout the world.
In 1990, Sergei Podlipaev published a comprehensive “Catalogue of world fauna of Trypanosomatidae (Protozoa)” in the “Proceedings of the Zoological Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences” (Leningrad. 217. 1-177), where he improved and unified the taxonomy of trypanosomatid flagellates. In the same year he described, in collaboration with his colleagues, a new trypanosomatid genus — Proteomonas (Podlipaev S.A., Frolov A.O. and Kolesnikov A.A. 1990. Proteomonas inconstans n. gen., n. sp. (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae) — a parasite of the bug Calocoris sexguttatus (Hemiptera: Miridae), Parasitologiya, St. Petersburg. 24. 339-345), which later was renamed Wallaceina in memory of Professor Dr. F.G. Wallace. Sergei was personally acquainted with Dr. Wallace and kept up an extensive correspondence with him for years. Once he was presented with several photographs taken in the early 1930s during Wallace’s stay at a German biological station at Rossitten Cape, close to Königsberg (now this is Biological station “Rybachy, which belongs to the Zoologicat Institute, RAS).
Another field of Podlipaev’s interests was comparative analysis of kinetoplast DNA from insect trypanosomatids isolated in the North-West part of Russia (Kolesnikov A.A., Maslov D.A. and Podlipaev S.A. 1990. Comparative restriction enzyme cleavage analysis of kinetoplast DNA from the lower trypano-somatids isolated in the North-West region of the USSR, Arch. Protistenkd. 138. 239-250). Besides, he was involved in studying genetic exchange in insect trypanosomatids, with special attention to the species concept in trypanosomatids.
In 2001, Sergei Podlipaev became head of the Molecular Systematics Group and together with his colleagues, Professor Dr. N.B. Ananjeva and Dr. N.I. Abramson, participated in a program for establishing a bank of animal DNA in Russia and developing molecular methods for aims of taxonomic and biodiversity investigations at the Zoological Institute RAS.
From the 1990s Sergei was actively engaged in close and fruitful co-operation with foreign colleagues. He took part in many collaborative projects with laboratories in Brazil (with Prof. E. Camargo, University of Sao Paulo), Czech Republic (with Dr. J. Lukes, Institute of Parasitology, Czech Acad. Sci., Ceské Budeovice, and Dr. J. Votypka, Karlov University, Prague), France (with Prof. M. Dollet, CIRAD, Montpellier), Germany (with Dr. K. Alexandrov, Max Plank Institute), Ireland, Israel, South Africa, United Kingdom (with Prof. K. Vickerman, University of Glasgow, and Dr. J. Stevens,
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University of Exeter), and the USA (with Prof. D. Campbel, UCLA, and Dr. D. Maslov, University of California, Riverside). There he actively participated in numerous symposia, scientific meetings and workshops as well as in several field trips for trypano-somatid collecting.
S. Podlipaev was invited as a lecturer in biology for schoolchildren in a secondary classic school № 610, St. Petersburg. At the same time he was fond of teaching future zoologists at the Biological faculty of the St. Petersburg State University, acting as a supervisor of their B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. theses.
Sergei Podlipaev authored or co-authored over 90 scientific publications of lasting value. Some of his recently published original and theoretical articles can be considered as way-opening papers. Among these of special interest are the following:
Bulat S.A., Mokrousov I. V. and Podlipaev S.A. 1999. Classification of trypanosomatids from insects and plants by the UP-PCR (universally primed PCR) technique and cross dot blot hybridization of PCR products. Europ. J. Protistol. 35, 319-326.
Podlipaev S.A. 2000. Insect trypanosomatids: the need to know more. Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz. 95, 517522.
Podlipaev S.A. and Frolov A.O. 2000. Phylogeny of trypanosomatids: molecular and morphological approaches. Parasitologiya (St. Petersburg). 34, 169-182.
Podlipaev S.A. and Naumov A.D. 2000. Colonies of trypanosomatids on agar plates: the tool for differentiation ofthe species and isolates. Protistology. 1, 113119.
Podlipaev S. 2001. The more insect trypanosomatids under study — the more diverse Trypanosomatidae appears. Intern. J. Parasitol. 31, 648-652.
Merzlyak E., Yurchenko V., Kolesnikov A., Alexandrov K., Podlipaev S. and Maslov D. 2001. Diversity and phylogeny of insect trypanosomatids based on small subunit rRNA genes: polyphyly of Leptomonas and Blastocrithidia. J. Eukaryot. Microbiol. 48, 161-169.
Dr. Podlipaev contributed much to the functioning of the Russian Society of Protozoologists. Since 1987 and up to his death, he was one of the officers of its St. Petersburg branch.
I had close contacts with Sergei particularly during our one-month long joint trip to Brazil in 1990, to the Laboratory of Professor Dr. Erney P. Camargo at the University of Sao Paulo. During this period, Sergei introduced me into a fascinating world of trypanoso-matid biodiversity. He was a really good naturalist and pedagogue, full of good humour and patience.
Sergei Podlipaev is survived by his wife, Dr. Julia I. Podlipaeva, and daughter Kira Podlipaeva. Protistologists of the whole world mourn his passing. Those who knew Sergei personally will remember him as an open-minded and sociable person. He will be long kept in our hearts.
Sergei O. Skarlato. Institute of Cytology RAS, 194064, St. Petersburg, Russia.
