- (Focus Area) Innovation
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
YSP is a six-week summer residential program that introduces several dozen high-achieving high school students to original research within the fields of biological, agricultural, environmental, or the natural sciences.
The lab of nematologist Shahid Siddique, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, mentored Anderson Van Wang, a 17-year-old senior at California City High School, Kern County, and Mason Walline, now 18, and a senior at Harvard-Westlake School, Los Angeles.
Anderson worked with doctoral student Veronica Casey of the Siddique lab to investigate the effects of bacterial supernatant to plant parasitic nematodes. Walline worked with Ching-Jung Lin, a doctoral student in the Siddique lab and the lab of Professor Gitta Coaker, Department to Plant Pathology, to transiently express nematode proteins in the plant system.
Also mentoring them were Siddique and lab members Bardo Castro Esparza, a postdoctoral fellow; and Alison Blundell, a doctoral candidate.
Each scholar receives five units of University Group Study Credit. All work is graded. Not only do they engage in university-level course work, attend lectures, and work on their projects, but they experience “the climate and culture of living and learning on a university campus,” according to YSP director Megan Bettis.
Mason won second-place honors in the research competition, the "YSP Summer Slam" (Elevator Pitch or short-version), competing with some 35 other students. His topic: “Advancing Transient Nematode Peptide Expression: A Pathway to Co-Immunoprecipitation Optimization." Said Lin: "He delivered a compelling two-minute presentation with a single slide. His expertise and professionalism were evident, and he was awarded second-place among the six finalists."
Neither plans a career as a nematologist, but what an amazing program and what an amazing experience.
“Working in Dr. Shahid Siddique's lab was an absolutely amazing experience," Anderson said.
“The lab environment was very high energy and upbeat," said Mason. "I'm so glad I was a temporary part of such a strong and inclusive community.”
And they learned a lot about nematodes.
Siddique defines plant-parasitic nematodes as "destructive pests causing losses of billions of dollars annually. Economic, health, and environmental considerations make natural host plant resistance a preferred strategy for nematode control, but there are limitations to this approach. In many cases, the resistance conferred by resistance genes is partial, and some of the nematodes are able to survive. Similarly, nematode resistance genes are often effective against only one or a few species, whereas plants are exposed to several pathogens in the field. Another concern is the emergence of pathotypes that can overcome resistance. In view of all these limitations, it is important to identify additional mechanisms and tools that can be used to develop novel and sustainable approaches to the management of nematodes."
The 2025 YSP summer program is set June 22-Aug. 2, with applications opening Jan. 15. High school students can apply at https://ysp-app.ucdavis.edu/.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Wings up! Let's go!
The monarch fall migration is underway.
"Unlike most other insects in temperate climates, monarch butterflies cannot survive a long cold winter. Instead, they spend the winter in roosting spots," explains Monarch Watch. "Monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains travel to small groves of trees along the California coast. Those east of the Rocky Mountains fly farther south to the forests high in the mountains of Mexico. The monarch's migration is driven by seasonal changes. Daylength and temperature changes influence the movement of the monarch."
"In all the world, no butterflies migrate like the monarchs of North America. They travel much farther than all other tropical butterflies, up to three thousand miles. They are the only butterflies to make such a long, two-way migration every year. Amazingly, they fly in masses to the same winter roosts, often to the exact same trees. Their migration is more the type we expect from birds or whales. However, unlike birds and whales, individuals only make the round-trip once. It is their children's grandchildren that return south the following fall."
Have you seen any migratory monarchs? It's basically a "no" for our scientists at the Bohart Museum of Entomology , UC Davis.
- UC Davis distinguished professor emerita Lynn Kimsey, who directed the Bohart Museum for 34 years until she retired Feb.1: No.
- Bohart Museum associate and UC Davis School of Medicine employee Greg Kareofelas: No. "I still have not seen a monarch (but I have not been 'out and about' much this summer)
- Jeff Smith, curator of the Bohart Museum's Lepidoptera collection: Maybe. "I may have seen 1 monarch in my yard (Rocklin) yesterday (Sept. 16) as a fly-by."
It's not so rosy in the Pacific Northwest (PNW), according to Washington State University entomologist David James, who studies migratory monarchs.
On Aug. 31, he posted this on his Facebook page, "Monarchs in the Pacific Northwest": One month ago, things were looking very rosy in the PNW monarch world with an 82% increase in sightings during June and July compared to the same months in 2023. Sadly, things are now not so rosy if the number of reported sightings are a good barometer of what's happening out there (and they have been in the past few years). During August 2023 there were 172 confirmed monarch sightings in the PNW. This year there has only been 108 and most of these (80%) were in the first two weeks. The second half of August has seen very few monarchs reported in the PNW. I-Naturalist, the reporting site most used by monarch recorders, has had NO monarch sightings posted in OR, WA, ID or BC since August 12-16. This is concerning because the second half of August into September is when the third PNW-bred generation should be emerging and migrating. There is still time for sightings to pick up and hopefully they will. So please keep watching and reporting your sightings to I-Naturalist or Journey North."
One of his WSU-tagged monarchs (from citizen scientist Steve Johnson) fluttered into our garden on Sept. 6, 2016 from Ashland, Ore. (See Bug Squad)
Hoping to see another tagged monarch.
Migrating monarchs began arriving in our Vacaville pollinator garden this year on Sept. 17 for some flight fuel on their way to their overwintering spots in coastal California.
They love the Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. It's a great fall nectar source...and the colors are a perfect match...
Wings up! Let's go!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
What we've been waiting for all season...
A migratory monarch butterfly fluttered into our Vacaville garden at noon today (Tuesday, Sept. 17) and nectared on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola.
Then she treated us to a butterfly ballet.
The Danaus plexippus touched down, nectared, shot up, dropped down, and did it all over again, while male territorial longhorned bees tried to make her stay short.
But she hung around for and hour.
Wings up...and she was gone.
And then another flashed by...
It's migratory monarch season.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
But agriculturists and scientists have.
The spotted-wing drosophila (SWD), Drosophila suzukii, is an agricultural pest that is super tiny.
It's approximately 2 to 4 millimeters in length with a wingspan of 5 to 6.5 millimeters. One millimeter is approximately 0.039 inches. There are 25.4 millimeters in 1 inch. So, the adult is about the size of a grain of sand, which can measure 0.5 to 2 mm in diameter.
SWD, native to southeast Asia and first discovered in California in 2008, lays its eggs in such soft-skinned, ripening fruits as strawberries, raspberries, cherries, blueberries, peaches, nectarines, apricot and grape.
In 2008, the first year of its discovery in California, the economic loss attributed to this pest amounted to $500 million. Latest statistics from 2015 indicate a $700 million national economic loss.
Lead author of the paper, “Transcriptome Analysis of Drosophila suzukii Reveals Molecular Mechanisms Conferring Pyrethroid and Spinosad Resistance,” is Christine Tabuloc, then a doctoral candidate and now a postdoctoral researcher working under the mentorship of Professors Chiu and Zalom.
"In this work, we leveraged high throughput sequencing to identify biomarkers of insecticide resistance in D. suzukii,” Tabuloc explained. “We found that different genes are responsible for resistance to different chemicals. Specifically, we found that genes involved in metabolism are highly expressed in flies resistant to pyrethroid insecticides. We also observed evidence of two different mechanisms of resistance in 2 lines generated from a single spinosad-resistant population. We found an increased expression of metabolic genes in one line and increased expression of cuticular genes in the other.”
Tabuloc added that “our work has enabled for the detection of resistance in California populations, and we are currently doing a nationwide screening to determine whether resistance is now present in other states. Currently, we are working with the Zalom lab to use the results of our assays to try and combat resistance. There are experiments in progress trying to increase the efficacy of insecticides by blocking some of the genes involved in resistance, such that the enzymes encoded by those genes have decreased function."
A giant in the entomological world, Zalom directed the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program for 16 years. He is an Honorary Member of the Entomological Society of America (ESA), the highest ESA honor, and he served as its president in 2014.
“This work not only represents good science; it has very practical implications," Zalom said. He and Tabuloc presented results of the work at a special berry grower seminar on insecticide resistance organized by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) Farm Advisor Mark Bolda, strawberry and caneberry farm advisor in Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties, Mark Bolda in Watsonville.
"The presentations were extremely well-received," Zalom noted. "The original program was targeted for about 1.5 hours, but the meeting extended to over three hours due to the extent of questions and great discussion that followed. Growers and their consultants are hungry for new information that they find interesting and potentially useful, and this work was clearly of interest to them.”
Said Bolda: “The research was top shelf and the need, of course, is very great. Some of the information that Frank and Christine presented has been put into immediate use in the industry.”
What most people don't know is that Bolda was the first to discover the pest in North America. That was in 2008.
"He asked me to come down to look at it and the problem...we weren't able to get an actual species identification until 2009!" Zalom said.
As the pest continues to spread throughout much of the country, anxious growers are worried about its increased resistance to pesticides. The UC Davis research team is alleviating that worry.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's Friday Fly Day, when folks post images of flies.
Flies seem to the entomological equivalent of Rodney Dangerfield's "I-don't-get-no-respect" quote.
So how about a black syrphid fly, a Mexican cactus fly, Copestylum mexicanum, nectaring on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifolia?
The genus Copestylum includes more than 350 species in the new world, according to Martin Hauser, senior insect biosystematist with the Plant Pest Diagnostics Branch of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA).
The female Mexican cactus fly lays its eggs in rotting or dying cactus tissue.
This fly, about 3/4 of an inch long, is a delight to see in a patch of Mexican sunflowers mostly frequented by honey bees and Gulf Fritillaries. It's big. It's bold. And it's beautiful.
Happy Friday Fly Day! Respectfully...