Life Sciences Commons^™

Investigations Into Sensory Ecology And Gene Evolution Of The Pea Aphid (Acyrthosiphon Pisum), Swapna R. Purandare

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Organisms use environmental cues to gather information required to perform activities that are essential for their survival and reproduction, such as searching for food, avoiding danger, and finding mates. They respond to the acquired information by changing their behavior or physiology, which may result in increased fitness. Due to the fundamental importance of information in an organism’s life, it is important to understand its acquisition, processing, and the organism’s response to it. In the work presented here, we used the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum), an insect that produces multiple phenotypes, or morphs, that are genetically identical, but differ …