Satyendra Pothula – Exit Seminar
EPP graduate student Satyendra Pothula will present his exit seminar entitled “Resilience of nematode food webs under temperature stress associated with climate change” on Friday, April 13th, at 10am in PBB 160.
EPP graduate student Satyendra Pothula will present his exit seminar entitled “Resilience of nematode food webs under temperature stress associated with climate change” on Friday, April 13th, at 10am in PBB 160.
Abstract: In social insects, natural selection operates at the level of the colony, rather than the individual, but our understanding of how colony-level phenotypes arise and vary between species is lacking. Here, we test how colony-level phenotypes vary within the fire ants by measuring the composition of colonies of the tropical fire ant, Solenopsis geminata, over a wide range of sizes at multiple times throughout the year. Similar to the well-studied fire ant species S. invicta, we find that S. geminata colony composition varies strongly with colony size, such that as colonies grow they produce increasingly large workers as well as queens and males. However, major production increases more rapidly with colony size in S. geminata than in S. invicta,
The native North American fire ants (Solenopsis Westwood) comprise a difficult group taxonomically that has undergone multiple revisions in the past century yet remains in a state of taxonomic uncertainty. The results of our genetic study demonstrated that the recognised North American fire ant species represent evolutionarily independent entities. We also confirm the presumed sister status of the desert fire ants, S. aurea Wheeler and S. amblychila Wheeler. However, we also found tat least two genetically divergent populations within the nominal species boundaries, including a western form of S. xyloni and a distinct population of S. aurea. These results suggest that the current taxonomy does not fully capture the species‐level diversity in this group. Our study provides the molecular foundation for
Three current Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology faculty, Dr. Trigiano, Dr. A. Windham, and Dr. M. Windham, are responsible for developing dogwood trees that are resistant to two different diseases. Read the full story here.
EPP graduate student Ratnasri Mallipeddi will present her exit seminar entitled “Characterization of the cellulolytic system in Zygentoma for identification of novel enzymes with industrial application” on Friday, April 6th, at 10am in PBB 160.
EPP graduate students Nick Strange and Swati Mishra will present their proposal seminars entitled “Pollinators and terpene chemistry of the rare sunflower Helianthus verticillatus” (NS) and “Mechanism of resistance to RNA-interference in Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Colorado potato beetle)” (SM) on Friday, March 23rd, at 10am in PBB 160.
Read about collaboration studying dogwoods between the Arboretum and the University of Tennessee Knoxville’s Institute of Agriculture, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at http://cms.business-services.upenn.edu/morrisarboretum-blog/307-living-collection-collaboration-project.html
UTIA Assistant Professor Rebecca Trout Fryxell discusses the rise of the mosquito-borne viral disease La Crosse encephalitis in Appalachia. Click here to see full description.
UTIA Professor Juan Jurat-Fuentes and colleagues publish results of a study in Scientific Reports that demonstrates the mechanism of field-evolved resistance to transgenic Bt corn in fall armyworm. Click here to read the full article.
Abstract: Genome wide association studies, GWAS, are performed to determine potential associations between phenotypic (traits observed) data and genotypic (genome) data. Ipomoea batatas, sweetpotato, is a vital crop for combating both visible and invisible hunger, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Understanding the genetic diversity of the sweetpotato germplasm and the genetic architecture underlying agronomic traits is crucial to maintenance and utility of the genetic resources for the crop’s improvement. We will perform a GWAS study to determine potential genes and genomic features associated with traits of interest including disease and pest resistance traits, culinary traits, phytonutritional traits, and morphological traits. We intend to determine potential genes of interests and functional markers for breeding programs.