Genetics and Genomics Commons^™

Advancing Behavioural Genomics By Considering Timescale, Clare C. Rittschof, Kimberly A. Hughes

Entomology Faculty Publications

Animal behavioural traits often covary with gene expression, pointing towards a genomic constraint on organismal responses to environmental cues. This pattern highlights a gap in our understanding of the time course of environmentally responsive gene expression, and moreover, how these dynamics are regulated. Advances in behavioural genomics explore how gene expression dynamics are correlated with behavioural traits that range from stable to highly labile. We consider the idea that certain genomic regulatory mechanisms may predict the timescale of an environmental effect on behaviour. This temporally minded approach could inform both organismal and evolutionary questions ranging from the remediation of early …

Local Admixture Of Amplified And Diversified Secreted Pathogenesis Determinants Shapes Mosaic Toxoplasma Gondii Genomes, Hernan Lorenzi, Asis Khan, Michael S. Behnke, Sivaranjani Namasivayam, Lakshmipuram S. Swapna, Michalis Hadjithomas, Svetlana Karamycheva, Deborah Pinney, Brian P. Brunk, James W. Ajioka, Daniel Ajzenberg, John C. Boothroyd, Jon P. Boyle, Marie L. Dardé, Maria A. Diaz-Miranda, Jitender P. Dubey, Heather M. Fritz, Solange M. Gennari, Brian D. Gregory, Kami Kim, Jeroen P. J. Saeij, Chunlei Su, Michael W. White, Xing-Quan Zhu, Daniel K. Howe, Benjamin M. Rosenthal, Michael E. Grigg, John Parkinson, Liang Liu, Jessica C. Kissinger

Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

Toxoplasma gondii is among the most prevalent parasites worldwide, infecting many wild and domestic animals and causing zoonotic infections in humans. T. gondii differs substantially in its broad distribution from closely related parasites that typically have narrow, specialized host ranges. To elucidate the genetic basis for these differences, we compared the genomes of 62 globally distributed T. gondii isolates to several closely related coccidian parasites. Our findings reveal that tandem amplification and diversification of secretory pathogenesis determinants is the primary feature that distinguishes the closely related genomes of these biologically diverse parasites. We further show that the unusual population structure …

Large-Scale Rnai Screen Of G Protein-Coupled Receptors Involved In Larval Growth, Molting And Metamorphosis In The Red Flour Beetle, Hua Bai, Fang Zhu, Kapil Shah, Subba R. Palli

Entomology Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: The G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) belong to the largest superfamily of integral cell membrane proteins and play crucial roles in physiological processes including behavior, development and reproduction. Because of their broad and diverse roles in cellular signaling, GPCRs are the therapeutic targets for many prescription drugs. However, there is no commercial pesticide targeting insect GPCRs. In this study, we employed functional genomics methods and used the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, as a model system to study the physiological roles of GPCRs during the larval growth, molting and metamorphosis.

RESULTS: A total of 111 non-sensory GPCRs were identified in …

A Brain-Specific Cytochrome P450 Responsible For The Majority Of Deltamethrin Resistance In The Qtc279 Strain Of Tribolium Castaneum, Fang Zhu, R. Parthasarathy, Hua Bai, Katharina Woithe, Martin Kaussmann, Ralf Nauen, Douglas A. Harrison, Subba R. Palli

Entomology Faculty Publications

Cytochrome P450-mediated detoxification is one of the most important mechanisms involved in insecticide resistance. However, the molecular basis of this mechanism and the physiological functions of P450s associated with insecticide resistance remain largely unknown. Here, we exploited the functional genomics and reverse genetic approaches to identify and characterize a P450 gene responsible for the majority of deltamethrin resistance observed in the QTC279 strain of Tribolium castaneum. We used recently completed whole-genome sequence of T. castaneum to prepare custom microarrays and identified a P450 gene, CYP6BQ9, which showed more than a 200-fold higher expression in the deltamethrin-resistant QTC279 strain when compared …