Entomology Commons^™

In Silico Analysis Of C-Type Lectins As Co-Infection Receptors Of Dengue And Chikungunya Viruses In Aedes Aegypti, Munawir Sazali, R. C. Hidayat Soesilohadi, Nastiti Wijayanti, Tri Wibawa, Arif Nur Muhammad Ansori

Makara Journal of Science

Aedes aegypti is a primer vector of dengue virus (DENV) and chikungunya virus (CHIKV). The susceptibility of mosquitoes to DENV and CHIKV depends on their recognition receptor of pathogens. C-type lectins (CTLs) are an important mediator of virus infection in A. aegypti. This study aims to identify potential receptors and determine the binding affinity between ligand–receptor interaction, CTLs and virus envelopes (DENV-1, 2, 3, and 4 and CHIKV) interaction based on in silico analysis. Sample sequences were obtained from GenBank (NCBI), and 10 CTLs were acquired from VectorBase. Homology modeling based on a minimum standard of 20% was processed …

A Comparison Of Three Dna Extraction Methods On 45-Year-Old Pupae Cases, Ananya Udyaver, Casey Flint, Jeffery Tomberlin, Baneshwar Singh

Undergraduate Research Posters

Blow flies are the primary colonizers of human cadavers. In many death investigations, insect evidence can help in prediction of minimum post-mortem interval (PMImin) but to do that, the first step is to identify collected insect evidence. For immature stages, morphological keys are either limited or incomplete and hence DNA based identification is used. For DNA based ID, DNA extraction is the first and the most important step, especially when collected evidence is highly degraded. The main aim of this study was to compare three DNA extraction methods (QIAgen Blood and Tissue Kit, organic, and QIAgen DNA Investigator Kit) to …

Appendage Abnormalities In Spiders Induced By An Alternating Temperature Protocol In The Context Of Recent Advances In Molecular Spider Embryology, Teresa Napiorkowska, Julita Templin, Pawel Napiorkowski, Mark A. Townley

Faculty Publications

In the literature there are numerous reports of developmental deformities in arthropods collected in their natural habitat. Since such teratogenically affected individuals are found purely by chance, the causes of their defects are unknown. Numerous potential physical, mechanical, chemical, and biological teratogens have been considered and tested in the laboratory. Thermal shocks, frequently used in teratological research on the spider Eratigena atrica, have led to deformities on both the prosoma and the opisthosoma. In the 2020/2021 breeding season, by applying alternating temperatures (14 °C and 32 °C, changed every 12 h) for the first 10 days of embryonic development, …

Development Of A Novel Fluorescent Reporter Baculovirus Vector For Testing Promoters In Lepidopterans, Daniel Howard

All Theses

Testing gene expression patterns is an important process in learning more about an organism. The standard methods of rtPCR and RNASeq provide highly detailed data on specific expression patterns, but can be resource consuming if many different samples including genes or organisms must be tested. A potential alternative for studying expression is the use of a reporter system carried by a vector system that encodes fluorescent proteins under the control of promoters of interest. Many lepidopterans (moths) are pestiferous and better understanding of gene expression levels in lepidopterans, both endogenous and exogenous including from their viruses, would be beneficial. Baculoviruses …

Light And Temperature Entrainment Of Two Circadian-Driven Behaviors In The Flesh Fly Sarcophaga Crassipalpis, Raven Ragsdale

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Circadian rhythms dictate the timing of both once-in-a-lifetime adult emergence (eclosion) and daily locomotor activity rhythms in the flesh fly S. crassipalpis. Light cycles are considered the primary environmental time cue (zeitgeber), but the life history of S. crassipalpis suggests that temperature cycles (thermocycles) may also play a key role. This work evaluates the efficacy of thermocycling as a zeitgeber in S. crassipalpis. We found that shifting both light and temperature cycles of sufficient amplitude affect the phasing of eclosion and locomotor activity, but result in different patterns. Additional experiments suggest greater thermocycle sensitivity during the late metamorphic …

Modeling Jadera Haematoloma’S Phenotypic Variation In The Context Of Its Developmental Plasticity, Michael C. Yorsz

Honors Theses

Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to integrate information from environmental cues to inform the development of its phenotype and remains understudied in biology. Models of plasticity are needed because evolution in the presence of plasticity is poorly understood. Jadera haematoloma, a hemimetabolous true bug, is an excellent animal model of plasticity, exhibiting a non-linear plastic response to juvenile nutrition that biases adult development into groups with differences in flight capability, wing shape, and fecundity. However, there is a lack of literature consensus regarding the range of developmental outcomes in the species. Some publications report the presence …

Insect Developmental Plasticity: The Role In A Changing Environment, Lindsey A. Barnes

The Cardinal Edge

Climate change has been recognized as a severe threat to biodiversity. In the rapidly growing collection of literature on the consequences of global change, researchers have recently noticed a dramatic decrease in insect populations in a wide range of habitats. Insects are extremely susceptible to climatic change, especially with regard to fluctuations in moisture and temperature. However, insects often exhibit phenotypic plasticity, where organisms will express different phenotypes when presented with a specific environmental stimulus. In developmental plasticity, environmental stimuli at the larval stage can determine adult phenotypes. This review focuses on case studies of developmental plasticity in insects, with …

Molecular Signatures Of Sexual Communication In The Phlebotomine Sand Flies, Paul V. Hickner, Nataliya Timoshevskaya, Ronald J. Nowling, Frédéric Labbé, Andrew D. Nguyen, Mary Ann Mcdowell, Carolina N. Spiegel, Zainulabeuddin Syed

Biology Faculty Publications

Phlebotomine sand flies employ an elaborate system of pheromone communication wherein males produce pheromones that attract other males to leks (thus acting as an aggregation pheromone) and females to the lekking males (sex pheromone). In addition, the type of pheromone produced varies among populations. Despite the numerous studies on sand fly chemical communication, little is known of their chemosensory genome. Chemoreceptors interact with chemicals in an organism’s environment to elicit essential behaviors such as the identification of suitable mates and food sources. Thus, they play important roles during adaptation and speciation. Major chemoreceptor gene families, odorant receptors (ORs), gustatory receptors …

The Encyclopedia Of North American Drosophilids Volume 2: Drosophilids Of The Southeast, Thomas Werner, Tessa E. Steenwinkel, John Jaenike

Open Access Books

The Encyclopedia of North American Drosophilids Volume 2: Drosophilids of the Southeast provides an introduction to the flies of the family Drosophilidae of the Southeast of the United States. The book strives to facilitate identification of most of the drosophilid species in this region and provides remarks on interesting aspects of their biology and suggestions for future research on them. The book is intended for researchers, teachers, and students wishing to discover the diversity of these flies.

Access The Encyclopedia of North American Drosophilids Volume 1: Midwest and Northeast here: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/oabooks/1/

Characterizing Erad And Antioxidant Response In Ixodes Scapularis Ise6 Cells During Borrelia Infection, Latoyia Downs

Master's Theses

Ticks are hematophagous ectoparasites that transmit a multitude of diseases to humans. Borrelia burgdorferi (BB) and Borrelia miyamotoi (BM) are both tick-borne pathogens that cause disease in humans and are transmitted by the black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis). A byproduct of blood digestion generates reactive oxygen species that are toxic and cause oxidative stress which promotes cellular damage and dysfunction. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is especially affected by oxidative stress, resulting in a buildup of improperly folded proteins in the ER lumen called ER stress. To prevent cellular damage, the tick utilizes an antioxidant system to neutralize ROS and mechanisms …

The Effects Of Internal Physiology On Polyphenic Horn Development In The Dung Beetle Onthophagus Taurus, Naomi Garrett Williamson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

An organism’s phenotype can be affected in development by alterations to gene expression based on environmental inputs. Nutrition is one such environmental input and the central regulator of development of large horn or small horn phenotypes in the dung beetle species, Onthophagus taurus. However, little is known about the nature of chemical compounds that are critical to this plastic horn development. To better understand these compounds, we are utilizing an untargeted metabolomic approach as well as a targeted gene approach. Through the metabolomic approach, it was uncovered that environmental conditions tend to have a greater impact on metabolomic composition …

A Transcriptomic Exploration Of Hawaiian Drosophilid Development And Evolution, Madeline M. Chenevert

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

One in four known species of fruit flies inhabit the Hawaiian Islands. From a small number of colonizing flies, a wide range of species evolved, some of which managed to reverse-colonize other continental environments. In order to explore the developmental pathways, which separate the Hawaiian Drosophila proper and the Scaptomyza group that contains reverse-colonized species, the transcriptomes of two better-known species in each group, Scaptomyza anomala and Drosophila grimshawi, were analyzed to find changes in gene expression between the two groups. This study describes a novel transcriptome for S. anomala studies as well as unusual changes in gene expression …

The Functional Conservation Of Frazzled In Insects, Benjamin Wadsworth

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Axons in the developing embryo receive and react to signals that direct their growth to reach target tissues at specified locations. The signal pathways that direct midline crossing of axons during embryonic development have been comprehensively examined in the past years using the Drosophila ventral nerve cord or the spinal cord as a model system. A number of these signaling mechanisms are conserved, however disparities have been found between species in general strategy or the molecular signals controlling the response of axons to guidance cues.

The Netrin-Frazzled pathway has been shown to aid in midline crossing of axons in the …

Effects Of Meiotic Drive On Developing Eye-Stalks In Stalk-Eyed Flies, Christopher Lepore, Olivia Smith, Heather Wood, Josephine Reinhardt Phd

McNair Scholars Program

Teleopsis dalmanni, commonly known as Stalk-Eyed flies, are known for their sexually dimorphic eye-stalks which females use to pick mates. Within the Gombak-12 population, some individuals contain meiotic drive which is known to influence eye-stalk length and sex ratios. Our goal was to identify genes in developing eye tissue that play a role in causing meiotic drive. To identify these candidate genes, we determined the sex and meiotic drive status of individuals by dissecting 3rd instar larvae for their carcasses. After finding that Qiagen Puregene and Qiagen DNEasy columns DNA extraction techniques worked best—determined by using gel electrophoresis—we prepared …

From Spinning Silk To Spreading Saliva: Mouthpart Remodeling In Manduca Sexta (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae), Istvan Miko, Sarthok Rasique Rahman, Anne C. Jones, Mark A. Townley, Brandon Gominho, Sulav Paudel, S David Stupski, Heather M. Hines, Rudolf J. Schilder

Biological Sciences

As a model organism, the tobacco hornworm Manduca sexta (Linnaeus 1763) has contributed much to our knowledge of developmental processes in insects, and major developmental changes between different larval instars are generally well understood. Second and later instars of M. sexta do not produce silk, and their spinneret and accessory labial glands (=Lyonet’s glands), structures thought to be key players in silk production in other lepidopterans, are highly reduced. To our knowledge, mouthparts and labial gland morphology of the silk-producing first instar have never been described. In this study, we compared the mouthpart morphology and transcriptome profile of first and …

Do Enallagma Exsulans From Streams And Lakes Show Patterns Of Divergence?, Savannah Rae Graham

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Divergent selection across heterogenous environments could lead to adaptive divergence in populations resulting in potential local adaption. These populations have phenotypic differences that are fitness related and make native individuals more fit than non-native individuals. My research focuses on a species of damselfly, Enallagma exsulans, to explore local adaptation and morphological differences as a result of divergent selection or plasticity. My first study explored potential local adaptation of wild caught stream and lake E. exsulans using a reciprocal transplant design, a classic approach for this objective. The stream and lake sites chosen were on a small spatial scale allowing for …

Composition Of The Survival Motor Neuron (Smn) Complex In Drosophila Melanogaster, A. Gregory Matera, Amanda C. Raimer, Casey A. Schmidt, Jo A. Kelly, Gaith N. Droby, David Baillat, Sara Ten Have, Angus I. Lamond, Eric J. Wagner, Kelsey M. Gray

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is caused by homozygous mutations in the human survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene. SMN protein has a well-characterized role in the biogenesis of small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs), core components of the spliceosome. SMN is part of an oligomeric complex with core binding partners, collectively called Gemins. Biochemical and cell biological studies demonstrate that certain Gemins are required for proper snRNP assembly and transport. However, the precise functions of most Gemins are unknown. To gain a deeper understanding of the SMN complex in the context of metazoan evolution, we investigated its composition in Drosophila …

Double-Stranded Rna Binding Protein, Staufen, Is Required For The Initiation Of Rnai In Coleopteran Insects, June-Sun Yoon, Kanakachari Mogilicherla, Dhandapani Gurusamy, Xien Chen, Shankar C. R. R. Chereddy, Subba R. Palli

Entomology Faculty Publications

RNA interference (RNAi) is being used to develop methods to control pests and disease vectors. RNAi is robust and systemic in coleopteran insects but is quite variable in other insects. The determinants of efficient RNAi in coleopterans, as well as its potential mechanisms of resistance, are not known. RNAi screen identified a double-stranded RNA binding protein (StaufenC) as a major player in RNAi. StaufenC homologs have been identified in only coleopteran insects. Experiments in two coleopteran insects, Leptinotarsa decemlineata and Tribolium castaneum, showed the requirement of StaufenC for RNAi, especially for processing of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) to small interfering …

Diurnal And Developmental Differences In Gene Expression Between Adult Dispersing And Flightless Morphs Of The Wing Polymorphic Cricket, Gryllus Firmus: Implications For Life-History Evolution, Anthony J. Zera, Neetha Nanoth Vellichirammal, Jennifer A. Brisson

Anthony Zera Publications

The functional basis of life history adaptation is a key topic of research in life history evolution. Studies of wing polymorphism in the cricket Gryllus firmus have played a prominent role in this field. However, prior in-depth investigations of morph specialization have primarily focused on a single hormone, juvenile hormone, and a single aspect of intermediary metabolism, the fatty-acid biosynthetic component of lipid metabolism. Moreover, the role of diurnal variation in life history adaptation in G. firmus has been understudied, as is the case for organisms in general. Here, we identify genes whose expression differs consistently between the …

Self-Oligomerization Regulates Stability Of Survival Motor Neuron Protein Isoforms By Sequestering An ScfSlmb Degron, Kelsey M. Gray, Kevin A. Kaifer, David Baillat, Ying Wen, Thomas R. Bonacci, Allison D. Ebert, Amanda C. Raimer, Ashlyn M. Spring, Sara Ten Have, Jacqueline J. Glascock, Kushol Gupta, Gregory D. Van Duyne, Michael J. Emanuele, Angus I. Lamond, Eric J. Wagner, Christian L. Lorson, A. Gregory Matera

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is caused by homozygous mutations in human SMN1. Expression of a duplicate gene (SMN2) primarily results in skipping of exon 7 and production of an unstable protein isoform, SMNΔ7. Although SMN2 exon skipping is the principal contributor to SMA severity, mechanisms governing stability of survival motor neuron (SMN) isoforms are poorly understood. We used a Drosophila model system and label-free proteomics to identify the SCF^Slmb ubiquitin E3 ligase complex as a novel SMN binding partner. SCF^Slmb interacts with a phosphor degron embedded within the human and fruitfly SMN YG-box oligomerization domains. …

Creb-Binding Protein Plays Key Roles In Juvenile Hormone Action In The Red Flour Beetle, Tribolium Castaneum, Jingjing Xu, Amit Roy, Subba Reddy Palli

Entomology Faculty Publications

Juvenile hormones (JH) and ecdysteroids regulate many biological and metabolic processes. CREB-binding protein (CBP) is a transcriptional co-regulator with histone acetyltransferase (HAT) activity. Therefore, CBP is involved in activation of many transcription factors that regulate expression of genes associated with postembryonic development in insects. However, the function of CBP in JH action in insects is not well understood. Hence, we studied the role of CBP in JH action in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum and the Tribolium cell line. CBP knockdown caused a decrease in JH induction of genes, Kr-h1, 4EBP and G13402 in T. castaneum larvae, adults and …

The Encyclopedia Of North American Drosophilids Volume 1: Drosophilids Of The Midwest And Northeast, Thomas Werner, Tessa Steenwinkel, John Jaenike

Open Access Books

The Encyclopedia of North American Drosophilids: Volume 1: Drosophilids of the Midwest and Northeast provides an introduction to the flies of the family Drosophilidae of the Midwest and Northeast of the United States, as well as nearby regions in Canada. The book strives to facilitate identification of most of the drosophilid species in this region and provides remarks on interesting aspects of their biology and suggestions for future research on them. The book is intended for researchers, teachers, and students wishing to discover the diversity of these flies.

Version 3 is a major update that establishes this work as Volume …

Improving The Baculovirus Expression Vector System With Vankyrin-Enhanced Technology, Kendra H. Steele, Barbara J. Stone, Kathleen M. Franklin, Angelika Fath-Goodin, Xiufeng Zhang, Haobo Jiang, Bruce A. Webb, Christoph Geisler

Entomology Faculty Publications

The baculovirus expression vector system (BEVS) is a widely used platform for the production of recombinant eukaryotic proteins. However, the BEVS has limitations in comparison to other higher eukaryotic expression systems. First, the insect cell lines used in the BEVS cannot produce glycoproteins with complex‐type N‐glycosylation patterns. Second, protein production is limited as cells die and lyse in response to baculovirus infection. To delay cell death and lysis, we transformed several insect cell lines with an expression plasmid harboring a vankyrin gene (P‐vank‐1), which encodes an anti‐apoptotic protein. Specifically, we transformed Sf9 cells, Trichoplusia ni High Five …

Characterization Of Plant-Spider Mite Interactions And Establishment Of Tools For Spider Mite Functional Genetic Studies, Nicolas Bensoussan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae), is one of the most polyphagous herbivores feeding on cell contents of over 1100 plant species including more than 150 crops. However, despite its important pest status and a growing understanding of the molecular basis of its interactions with plant hosts, knowledge of the way mites interface with the plant while feeding and the plant damage directly inflicted by mites is lacking. Likewise, while the use of the reverse genetic tools in plants facilitated our understanding of the establishment of defense mechanisms against spider mite herbivory, such tools are lacking for …

Temporal Transcriptomic Profiling Of The Ant-Feeding Assassin Bug Acanthaspis Cincticrus Reveals A Biased Expression Of Genes Associated With Predation In Nymphs, Fei Kou, Hu Li, Shujuan Li, Huaizhu Xun, Yinqiao Zhang, Ziqiang Sun, Xuguo Zhou, Wanzhi Cai

Entomology Faculty Publications

Acanthaspis cincticrus (Stål) is an assassin bug with a specialized camouflaging behavior to ambush ants in the nymphal stages. In this study, we comprehensively sequenced all the life stages of A. cincticrus, including the eggs, five nymph instars, female and male adults using Illumina HiSeq technology. We obtained 176 million clean sequence reads. The assembled 84,055 unigenes were annotated and classified functionally based on protein databases. Among the unigenes, 29.03% were annotated by one or more databases, suggesting their well-conserved functions. Comparison of the gene expression profiles in the egg, nymph and adult stages revealed certain bias. Functional enrichment …

Variation In Dna Methylation Is Not Consistently Reflected By Sociality In Hymenoptera, Karl M. Glastad, Samuel V. Arsenault, Kim L. Vertacnik, Scott M. Geib, Sasha Kay, Bryan N. Danforth, Sandra M. Rehan, Catherine R. Linnen, Sarah D. Kocher, Brendan G. Hunt

Biology Faculty Publications

Changes in gene regulation that underlie phenotypic evolution can be encoded directly in the DNA sequence or mediated by chromatin modifications such as DNA methylation. It has been hypothesized that the evolution of eusocial division of labor is associated with enhanced gene regulatory potential, which may include expansions in DNA methylation in the genomes of Hymenoptera (bees, ants, wasps, and sawflies). Recently, this hypothesis garnered support from analyses of a commonly used metric to estimate DNA methylation in silico, CpG content. Here, we test this hypothesis using direct, nucleotide-level measures of DNA methylation across nine species of Hymenoptera. In doing …

Dichotomous Key To Pea Aphid (Acyrthosiphon Pisum) Apterous Parthenogenic Instars, Bates College Department Of Biology, Daisy Diamond, Daniel Levitis

SCARAB Data Repository

We provide a dichotomous key, with photographs and illustrations, for distinguishing between instars of the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) in the developmental pathway leading to the apterous parthenogenetic adult. Lengths of body, antenna and cauda are provided for a sample of each instar.

Capturing The Phylogeny Of Holometabola With Mitochondrial Genome Data And Bayesian Site-Heterogeneous Mixture Models, Fan Song, Hu Li, Pei Jiang, Xuguo Zhou, Jinpeng Liu, Changhai Sun, Alfried P. Vogler, Wanzhi Cai

Entomology Faculty Publications

After decades of debate, a mostly satisfactory resolution of relationships among the 11 recognized holometabolan orders of insects has been reached based on nuclear genes, resolving one of the most substantial branches of the tree-of-life, but the relationships are still not well established with mitochondrial genome data. The main reasons have been the absence of sufficient data in several orders and lack of appropriate phylogenetic methods that avoid the systematic errors from compositional and mutational biases in insect mitochondrial genomes. In this study, we assembled the richest taxon sampling of Holometabola to date (199 species in 11 orders), and analyzed …

Integrative Taxonomy Of North American Torrent Mites (Parasitengona: Torrenticolidae: Torrenticola), Jon Ray Fisher

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mites are notorious for being under-studied and incomplete knowledge of distribution, life-history, and morphology are commonplace. They typically gain attention through the relatively few pest species that plague our crops, pets, or bodies. Despite representing a successful radiation with an estimated 3–5 million species, relatively few mite lineages attract research attention from non-acarologists. However, the largest radiation of all mites—Parasitengona—has potential to bridge the gap between specialists and non-specialists. Parasitengona are the butterflies of the mite world. Obvious are the bright red mites searching for pollen on concrete, or the large, furry velvet mites coming out to mate after spring …

The Uas-Gal4 System In D. Melanogaster: An Insight Into The Influence Of Micrornas On The Developmental Pathways Of The Wing, Emily R. Wilson

Honors Theses

By examining genetic pathways in D. melanogaster, a better understanding of the homologous regulatory mechanisms in humans can be utilized to further enhance knowledge of the roles of microRNA within development. This study utilizes the UAS-Gal4 system in order to produce a mutant phenotype capable of being visually studied and analyzed, focusing on the developmental pathway of the wing in D. melanogaster. Dissections of the wandering third instar larvae yielded wing disc tissue expressing the downregulation of loquacious and CG17386.