- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The seminar also will be on Zoom. The Zoom link:
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/94350897170.
Kim is a professor with the Department of Plant Medicals, Andong National University, Andong, Korea, and editor-in-chief of the Archives of Insect Biochemistry and Physiology.
His abstract: "EpOMEs, produced from linoleic acid by CPP450, play a crucial role in terminating excessive and unnecessary immune responses at late infection stage in insects. Alternatively, any increase of EpOME level can enhance the virulence of insect pathogens against insect pests.
"This study tested this hypothesis using a specific inhibitor against soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) that degrades EpOMEs, yielding elevated endogenous levels of EpOME. as well as a baculovirus, Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV), to infect three different lepidopteran insects by either oral feeding or hemocoelic injection treatments.
"The viral infection quickly (within 1 h) induced the expressions of three phospholipase A2 (PLA2) genes and later (after 12 h) up-regulated the expressions of CYP and sEH genes in Spodopera exigua. As expected, the viral virulence was suppressed by the addition of arachidonic acid (a product of PLA2) but enhanced by the addition of either of EpOME regioisomers. In addition, the treatment with the sEH inhibitor (= AUDA) increased the viral virulence against three different lepidopteran insects. This enhanced effect of EpOMEs on viral virulence was further supported by using RNA interference (RNAi): a RNAi specific to CYP expression decreased the viral virulence while a RNAi against sEH expression significantly enhanced the viral virulence. In response to AcMNPV infection, S. exigua larvae exhibited an apoptosis in the midgut, fat body, and epidermis. Inhibition of apoptosis by a pan-caspase inhibitor, Z-VAD-FMK, significantly increased the viral virulence. Similarly, the addition of AUDA to the viral treatment suppressed the gene expressions of the five inducible caspases and cytochrome C to suppress the apoptosis, which led to significant increase of the viral titers in the tissues. These results indicate that EpOMEs play a role in resolving inflammation from viral infection at late stage by down-regulating antiviral apoptosis in the lepidopteran insects."
For more information, contact UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock at hammocklab-office@ucdavis.edu, Hammock holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center.
/span>- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
His seminar will be in Room 122 of Briggs Hall and also will be on Zoom. The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672. Associate professor and nematologist Shahid Siddique of the Department of Entomology and Nematology is the host.
Dillman, a professor of parasiotology and nematology, chairs the UCR Department of Nematology. He holds a bachelor's degree in microbiology from Brigham Young University (2006) and a doctorate in genetics (2013) from the California Institute of Technology.
The abstract of his UC Davis seminar:
Known as an excellent investigator and teacher, Dillman won the 2022 UC Riverside Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement; the 2021 Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Society of Nematologists, and a 2020 Outstanding Investigator Award, Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA).
His lab page details his research. Recently a guest of an episode on the podcast Something Offbeat, he discussed a scientific article on a case of Ophidascaris robertsi infection in a human brain.
Seminar coordinator is Brian Johnson, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. For Zoom technical issues, he may be reached at brnjohnson@ucdavis.edu. The list of seminars is here.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
She took the video in her Madrone tree, Arbutus menziesii, in her back yard. (See video on YouTube)
Contest coordinator Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology and director of the Bohart Museum, applauded the winner as the earliest ever recipient, and the first from Solano County.
Contest rules state that the first person to photograph a bumble bee in either Yolo or Solano and email it to the sponsor, the Bohart Museum, will receive a coffee cup designed with the endangered Franklin's bumble bee, the bee that the legendary Robbin Thorp (1933-2019), a UC Davis distinguished emeritus professor and a 30-year member of the Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty, monitored for decades.
"I've lived in Fairfield since 1970 and I retired from Kaiser Medical Center Vallejo after 33 years," Hansen said. "I'm a longtime gardener and flower-aholic! I'm very interested in soil health, pollinators and in soil microbes. I didn't plant the Madrone tree but I'm happy it provides food for pollinators most of the year. The first year we lived here, 2017, the tree was full of bees. Their buzz sounded like an airplane engine, but since then I've seen fewer and fewer bees."
"On Monday I was out back enjoying the bit of sunshine that had peaked through the clouds when I heard buzzing in my Madrone tree. I went over, looked and I saw a lot of honey bees, but then I looked up and saw the bumble bee. I ran to get my camera hoping I could catch his picture before he flew away."
Hansen retired as a cardiology technician at Vallejo's Kaiser facility, where she performed the cardiology testing for the doctors. "It was one of the most interesting and varied jobs in the facility," she said. "I learned so much during my working years. I was in charge of training new employees so I was able to pass that knowledge on."
Previous record-holders:
2023: Ria deGrassi of Davis, who photographed a B. melanopygus at 12:32, Jan. 8 on a ceanothus in her yard.
2022: Tie between Maureen Page, then a doctoral candidate in the lab of pollination ecologist Neal Williams, professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology; and Ellen Zagory of Davis, retired director of public horticulture for the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. Each photographed a bumble bee on manzanita in the Arboretum at 2:30 p.m., Jan. 1. Page photographed a B. melanopygus, while Zagory captured an image of the yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii.
2021: UC Davis postdoctoral researcher Charlie Casey Nicholson, then of the Williams lab and the Elina Lastro Niño lab, photographed a B. melanopygus at 3:10 p.m., Jan. 14 in a manzanita patch in the Arboretum.
The contest memorializes Professor Thorp, a global authority on bees and a UC Davis distinguished emeritus professor of entomology, who died June 7, 2019 at age 85. He retired in 1994 but continued working until several weeks before his death. Every year he looked forward to seeing the first bumble bee in the area.
Thorp, a tireless advocate of pollinator species protection and conservation, co-authored two books in 2014, during his retirement: Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide (Princeton University,) and California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists (Heyday). Every year he looked forward to finding or seeing the first bumble bee in the area.
Thorp co-taught The Bee Course from 2002 to 2019. An intensive nine-day workshop affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History and held annually at the Southwestern Research Station, Portal, Ariz., it draws participants from around the world, including conservation biologists, pollination ecologists, and other biologists who want to gain greater knowledge of the systematics and biology of bees.
For years, Thorp monitored Franklin's bumble bee, found only in a small range in Southern Oregon and Northern California, and now feared extinct. He last spotted it in 2006.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Seminar coordinator and associate professor Brian Johnson has announced the list of UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminars for the winter quarter, from Jan. 8 through March 11.
All seminars will be on Mondays at 4:10 p.m. in Room 122 of Briggs Hall and also will be on Zoom.The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672.
No seminar will take place on Monday, Jan. 15, which is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a university holiday.
Adler Dillman
Professor of parasitology and nematology, and chair of the Department of Nematology, UC Riverside
Title: "Nematode Parasitism of Insects with Toxic Cardenolides"
Abstract: (Partial) "Target-site insensitivity (TSI) is an important mechanism of animal resistance to toxins. TSI evolved in parallel in the monarch butterfly and other insects that specialize on milkweeds and is thought to have facilitated sequestration of cardiac glycosides (CGs) that may protect these insects from predation and parasitism....Our results suggest that a molecular evolutionary cascade of parallel substitutions across hosts and parasites, last sharing common ancestry 600 million years ago, may shape multitropic interactions across plant communities."
Biography: He holds a bachelor's degree in microbiology from Brigham Young University (2006) and a doctorate in genetics (2013) from the California Institute of Technology.
William Ja
Associate professor, Herbert Wertheim Scripps UF Institute for Biomedical Innovation and Technology in Jupiter, Florida.
Title: "Eat, Excrete, & Die: Regulation of Homeostatic Behaviors and Aging in Drosophila"
Abstract: "The Ja lab uses the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a model organism for uncovering the genetic and neuronal mechanisms that drive aging, behavior, and disease. Recently developed tools allow us to track fly feeding behavior with unparalleled resolution. These tools facilitate the identification of genes and circuits that regulate food intake at diverse time scales, including studies of: 1) meal intake; 2) daily (circadian) feeding rhythms; and 3) compensatory feeding in response to high or low quality food. Our studies of feeding behavior and nutrition also inform aging interventions, including a novel caloric restriction paradigm and an intermittent fasting regime that extends fly life through the stimulation of circadian-regulated autophagy. Overall, our fly studies shed light on basic neurobiological principles that drive animal behavior, providing insights that potentially inform the development of conserved therapeutic strategies."
Biography: Ja received his chemistry degree at UC Berkeley, working with Richard Mathies and Alex Glazer on DNA sequencing technologies. He pursued doctoral studies at the California Institute of Technology with Rich Roberts, utilizing mRNA display technology to identify modulators of G protein signaling. Ja remained at Cal Tech as a postdoctoral scholar to work with Seymour Benzer on developing longevity ‘drugs' in Drosophila. His laboratory focuses on aging and nutrition, animal behavior, and host-microbiome interactions.
Todd Johnson
Assistant professor of forest entomology, Louisiana State University
Title: "Characterizing Ecological Interactions of Arthropods in Forests under Global Change'
Abstract: "Forests cover approximately 30% of the Earth's landmass and provide important ecosystem services that include food, fuel, and timber, as well as habitat for diverse organisms. Threats posed to forests by invasive and pestiferous species are rapidly growing. Global change, an umbrella term that includes may human-mediated processes such as climate change and international trade, is altering the structure and functioning of forests. Our recently formed research group studies how natural variation impacts the outcomes of interactions between trees, herbivores, and the natural enemies of herbivores. My seminar will provide an overview of our ongoing and developing studies to better understand how variation in chemistry across the landscape shapes the fitness of woodboring insects, and how this variation can be harnessed to optimize management of forest ecosystems."
Biography: His research group studies the behavioral and chemical ecology of forest arthropods, with an emphasis on building fundamental knowledge that can further our understanding and management of natural and managed ecosystems. Johnson received his bachelor's degree in biology from Moravian College, his master's degree in entomology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to accepting his position at LSU in the fall of 2022, he was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of New Hampshire.
Orie Shafer
Professor of biology and cognitive neuroscience, City University of New York
Title: "Circadian and Homeostatic Regulation of Fly Sleep"
Abstract: "Sleep-like states are ubiquitous in the animal kingdom and are regulated by two distinct forms of regulation, circadian and homeostatic. Homeostatic mechanisms promote increases in sleep pressure during prolonged wakefulness. Circadian mechanisms determine the likelihood of sleep, increasing or decreasing its probability across the day. Though the molecular and neural mechanisms of circadian timekeeping are relatively well-understood, much less is known about the mechanistic basis of sleep homeostasis. The fly Drosophila melanogaster is a powerful model organism for the studying of sleep regulation. In this talk I will describe recent work from my lab examining how circadian timekeeping and sleep homeostasis operate in this fly and how these two regulatory processes converge to produce the proper timing and amount of sleep."
Biography: He received his doctorate in biology from the University of Washington, and served as a postdoctoral researcher at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.
Peter Piermarini
Professor and associate chair of entomology, The Ohio State University, Wooster
Title: "Discovery of Novel Chemical Tools for Controlling the Most Dangerous Animals on Earth"
Abstract: "Mosquitoes are considered the most dangerous animals on Earth due to the deadly pathogens they transmit to humans. Controlling the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases often relies on chemical tools that prevent mosquitoes from biting humans (e.g., insecticides, repellents). However, the evolution of resistance in mosquitoes to commonly used control agents with similar modes of action has generated a need to discover novel chemistries for killing and/or repelling mosquitoes. To address this need, my lab is engaged in collaborative research that is discovering synthetic small molecules to disrupt novel physiological targets in mosquitoes and screening natural products for insecticidal and repellent activity against mosquitoes. My talk will summarize examples for each of these approaches and their potential for development into novel mosquito control tools."
Biography: He received his bachelor's degree in biology from James Madison University and doctorate in zoology from the University of Florida, before completing postdoctoral training at the Yale University School of Medicine and Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine. His laboratory studies the molecular physiology and toxicology of mosquitoes with the goal of discovering and developing insecticides with novel modes of action.
Monday, Feb. 26
Professor and director of graduate programs, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University
Title: "“Advances and Innovations in the Characterization of Molecular Interactions Between
Frankliniella occidentalis and Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus.”
Biography: Dorith (pronounced Doreet) Rotenberg received three degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison: bachelor of science degree in biochemistry and her master's and doctorate in plant pathology. She is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at North Carolina State University (NCSU) and the director of Graduate Programs in Plant Pathology. She co-directs the NCSU Plant Virus Vector Interactions Lab. Her foundational research initiatives center on the long-range goal of identifying and characterizing insect vector determinants of plant virus transmission to crop plants using a combination of ecological and genomics-based tools. Her research program has provided to the international science community vector genome, transcriptome, and proteome sequence resources to dig deeply into commonly-shared questions revolving around insect evolution, development, and transmission biology.
Abstract: "Arthropod-transmitted plant pathogens cause crippling monetary losses to U.S. and global economies. Tomato spotted wilt virus (Order Bunyavirales, family Tospoviridae, genus Orthotospovirus) is one of those pathogens, and it is transmitted in a circulative-propagative manner by Frankliniella occidentalis, the principal thrips vector. The overarching goal of my research program is to contribute fundamental knowledge towards developing alternative, effective and innovative tools for diminishing vector-transmitted crop diseases. My lab has been on the forefront of generating and sharing vector ‘omics resources to enable the identification and characterization of molecular determinants of vector competence as a means to specifically disrupt the virus transmission cycle. Using a combination of proteomic, transcriptomic and functional tools developed by my team and collaborators for F. occidentalis and TSWV, we aim to drill down on gut proteins associated with thrips host response to virus activities (indirect interactions) and/or gut proteins that physically interact with the viral attachment protein (GN) (direct). My talk will cover research advances made towards identifying and functionally characterizing two promising gut-expressed proteins, and new tools to interrogate F. occidentalis genes associated with virus transmission."
Salil Bidaye
Research Group Leader, Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience
Title: "How Flies Control How They Walk by Knowing When and How to Stop"
Abstract: "Walking is a complex motor program involving coordinated and distributed activity across the brain and the spinal cord. Halting appropriately at the correct time is a critical but often overlooked component of walking control. While recent studies have delineated specific genetically defined neuronal populations in the mouse brainstem that drive different types of halting, the underlying neural circuit mechanisms responsible for overruling the competing walking-state neural activity to generate context-appropriate halting, remain unclear. Here, we elucidate two fundamental mechanisms by which Drosophila implement context-appropriate halting. The first mechanism (“walk-OFF” mechanism) relies on GABAergic neurons that inhibit specific descending walking commands in the brain, while the second mechanism (“brake” mechanism) relies on excitatory cholinergic neurons in the nerve-cord that lead to an active arrest of stepping movements. Using connectome-informed models and functional studies, we show that two neuronal types that deploy the “walk-OFF” mechanism inhibit distinct populations of walking-promotion neurons, leading to differential halting of forward-walking or steering. The “brake” neurons on the other hand, override all walking commands by simultaneously inhibiting descending walking promoting pathways and increasing the resistance at the leg-joints leading to an arrest of leg movements in the stance phase of walking. We characterized two ethologically relevant behavioral contexts in which the distinct halting mechanisms were used by the animal in a mutually exclusive manner: the “walk-OFF” pathway was engaged for halting during feeding, and the “brake” pathway was engaged for halting during grooming. To our knowledge, this represents the first mechanistic understanding of halting in fruit-flies and hence a major step in our larger goal of uncovering the fundamental principles governing walking control in animals."
Biography: Bidaye studies neuronal control of locomotion."While a graduate student in Barry Dickson's lab in the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria, as I observed fruit-flies chasing each other during courtship, I got hooked on to the intricate control that comprises insect walking. This fascination kindled by powerful fly genetic tools, has led me to persistently device new behavioral assays and neural recording techniques, aimed at elucidating the fundamental control mechanisms that underlie the exquisite locomotor control that is commonplace in all animals."
Inga Zasada
Research plant pathologist, USDA-ARS Horticultural Crops Research Laboratory, Corvallis, Ore.
Title: "How an Applied Nematologist Uses Genomic Tools to Address Plant-Parasitic Nematode Research"
Abstract: "Advancements in molecular plant pathology have created an environment in which applied, field-based research programs have the opportunity to utilize genomic tools in their programs. There are potential rewards for incorporating genomics into a research program including enhanced nematode diagnostics, population genetics of infestations, and novel biological discoveries. However, along with these rewards come many considerations including cost, tempered expectations, and the capacity to generate and analyze data. A cautionary tale of such a journey will be presented. Efforts to characterize the nematode microbiomes from a diversity of plant-parasitic nematodes, understand the population genetics of a potato cyst nematode infestation, and sequence and annotate nematodes genomes will be presented to highlight the rewards and challenges of this type of research. Underpinning all of these efforts is the need to establish and maintain productive collaborations with scientists with diverse backgrounds."
Biography: Inga Zasada is a research plant pathologist with USDA-ARS. She received her doctorate in plant pathology from UC Davis. She has spent her entire career with USDA-ARS, first in Beltsville, MD and now in Corvallis, OR. Her research program focuses on the management of plant-parasitic nematodes in raspberry, wine grapes, potatoes and other high value crops.
For Zoom technical issues, contact seminar coordinator Brian Johnson, associate professor, at brnjohnson@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Beginning Jan. 1, 2024, Shapiro will be collaborating with the Bohart Museum of Entomology, the "dropping off point," for the Pieris rapae entries. Bohart curator and collections manager Brennen Dyer will be accepting the entries.
Shapiro launched the contest in 1972 as part of his scientific research to determine the first flight of the year in the three-county area. His research involves long-term studies of butterfly life cycles and climate change.
The contest begins at 12:01 Jan. 1. The prize is either a beer or an equivalent.
Shapiro says P. rapae is emerging earlier and earlier as the regional climate has warmed. "Since 1972, the first flight of the cabbage white butterfly has varied from Jan. 1 to Feb. 22, averaging about Jan. 20."
Shapiro, who maintains a research website at http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/, says the point of the contest "is to get the earliest possible flight date for statistical purposes. The rules require that the animal be captured and brought in alive to be verified. That way no one can falsely claim to have seen one or misidentify something else as a cabbage white."
The contest rules include:
- It must be an adult (no caterpillars or pupae) and be captured outdoors.
- It must be brought in alive to the Bohart Museum of Entomology, located in Room 1124, Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus, during work hours, from 8 a.m. to noon, and from 1 to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. It must include full data (exact time, date and location of the capture) and the contact information of the collector (address, phone number and/or e-mail.) Brennen Dyer will certify that it is alive and refrigerate it. (If it's collected on a weekend or holiday, it can be kept in the refrigerator for a few days--do not freeze it, Shapiro says.)
- Shapiro is the sole judge.
Feb 8 was "the 11th latest first rapae day since 1972,” he said, detailing the 10 later finds: Feb. 26, 1972 (“which is probably too late, since I hadn't yet learned where to look for them first!”); Feb. 22, 1992 (“I fully believe that one”); Feb. 18, 1978 and 1986; Feb. 17, 1979; Feb. 16, 1975; Feb. 14, 1981; Feb. 13, 1983 and 1985; and Feb. 10, 1980. “Note that most of these are from the '80s,” he said. “There has indeed been a trend to earlier emergence, though this year is an outlier!”
Shapiro says P. rapae inhabits vacant lots, fields and gardens where its host plants, weedy mustards, grow. The male is white. The female is often slightly buffy; the "underside of the hindwing and apex of the forewing may be distinctly yellow and normally have a gray cast,” Shapiro said. “The black dots and apical spot on the upperside tend to be faint or even to disappear really early in the season.”
Shapiro, who monitors butterfly populations in the field for more than 200 days of the year, participates in his own contest. He has been defeated only four times and those were by UC Davis graduate students. Adam Porter won in 1983; Sherri Graves and Rick VanBuskirk each won in the late 1990s; and Jacob Montgomery in 2016. The first three were his own graduate students.
Shapiro nets many of the winners in mustard patches near railroad tracks in West Sacramento, Yolo County
Recent Beer-for-a-Butterfly Contest statistics:
- 2023: Art Shapiro recorded the first butterfly of the year at 11:22 a.m., Feb 8 in West Sacramento County, Yolo County. He did not collect the specimen and no one can forth with a winner.
- 2022: No official contest due to the COVID pandemic, but Shapiro recorded his first-of-the-year P. rapae at 1:25 p.m. on Jan. 19 in West Sacramento, Yolo County
- 2021: No official contest due to the COVID pandemic, but Shapiro collected his first-of-the-year at 1:55 p.m. Jan. 16 on the UC Davis campus, Yolo County
- 2020: Technically, no winner, as Shapiro did not collect the one he spotted in Winters, Yolo County at 11:16 a.m. on Jan. 30 at the Putah Creek Nature Park. "It flew back and forth across Putah Creek and then departed the area, flying out of reach above the trees," he noted. He waited around for 90 minutes to see if it would return. It did not.
- 2019: Shapiro collected the first cabbage white butterfly near the Suisun Yacht Club, Suisun City, Solano County, at 1:12 p.m., Friday, Jan. 25. "It was the earliest recorded in Suisun City in 47 seasons."
- 2018: Art Shapiro collected the winner in West Sacramento
- 2017: Jan. 19: Art Shapiro collected the winner on the UC Davis campus
- 2016: Jan. 16: Jacob Montgomery collected the winner in west Davis
- 2015: Jan. 26: Shapiro collected the winner in West Sacramento
- 2014: Jan. 14: Shapiro collected the winner in West Sacramento
- 2013: Jan. 21: Shapiro collected the winner in West Sacramento
- 2012: Jan. 8: Shapiro collected the winner in West Sacramento
- 2011: Jan. 31: Shapiro collected the winner in Suisun
- 2010: Jan. 27: Shapiro collected the winner in West Sacramento
A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Entomological Society and the California Academy of Sciences, Shapiro is the author of A Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions, illustrated by Tim Manolis and published in 2007 by the University of California Press.
Collaborating with Shapiro on butterfly research projects is Foundation Professor Matthew Forister, the Trevor J. McMinn Endowed Research Professor in Biology, University of Nevada. Forister received his doctorate from UC Davis, studying with Shapiro, his major professor.
Pest of Cole Crops. As a caterpillar, the insect is a pest of cole crops such as cabbage. UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) says the cabbageworm is active throughout the year in California. "Cabbageworm larvae chew large, irregular holes in leaves, bore into heads, and drop greenish brown fecal pellets that may contaminate the marketed product. Seedlings may be damaged, but most losses are due to damage to marketed parts of the plant," according to the UC IPM website.
The Bohart Museum of Entomology is directed by UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey. Entomologist Jeff Smith curates the Lepidoptera collection, a global collection of some 500,000 moths and butterflies.