- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
News Brief: Feb. 26, 2014
The abstract:
"Evolutionary innovation can allow a species access to a new ecological niche, potentially reducing competition with closely related species. While the vast majority of Drosophila flies feed on rotting fruit and other decaying matter, and are harmless to human activity, Drosophila suzukii, which has a morphologically modified ovipositor, is capable of colonizing live fruit that is still in the process of ripening, causing massive agricultural damage. Here, we conducted the first comparative analysis of this species and its close relatives, analysing both ovipositor structure and fruit susceptibility. We found that the ovipositor of the species most closely related to D. suzukii, Drosophila subpulchrella, has a similar number of enlarged, evolutionarily derived bristles, but a notably different overall shape. Like D. suzukii, D. subpulchrella flies are capable of puncturing the skin of raspberries and cherries, but we found no evidence that they could penetrate the thicker skin of two varieties of grapes. More distantly related species, one of which has previously been mistaken for D. suzukii, have blunt ovipositors with small bristles. While they did not penetrate fruit skin in any of the assays, they readily colonized fruit interiors where the skin was broken. Our results suggest that considering evolutionary context may be beneficial to the management of invasive species."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
DAVIS--Several faculty members from the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology will speak at the Pollinator Gardening Workshop, to be hosted by the California Center for Urban Horticulture (CCUH) on Saturday, March 15 in 1001 Giedt Hall.
The event begins at 7:30 a.m. with a check in and will end at 2 p.m. with a special plant sale for workshop participants at the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod Drive.
Faculty members speaking will include Edwin Lewis, professor and vice chair of the department, who will give the co-welcoming address with Dave Fujino, director of the California Center for Urban Horticulture; Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen, who will speak on “Honey Bee Health”; assistant professor Neal Williams, who will discuss “Habitat Enhancements to Support Bees: Agriculture to Urban Research”; and Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology who will cover “The Buzz About Bees: Attracting and Observing Bees in Your Garden.”
Other speakers will be departmental staff member Christine Casey, new manager of the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, who will relate “What's New in the Garden?”; and Ellen Zagory, director of horticulture for the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Gardens, who will cover “Plants for Pollinators.”
The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden are co-sponsoring the event.
The schedule:
7:30 Check In
Registration, coffee and a light breakfast
7:50 Welcome
Dave Fujino, California Center for Urban Horticulture, UC Davis
Edwin Lewis, professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
8 to 8:40 The Buzz about Bees: Attracting and Observing Bees in Your Garden
Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology, UC Davis
8:40 to 9:20 Habitat Enhancements to Support Bees: Agriculture to Urban Research
Neal Williams, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
9:20 to 10 Honey Bee Health
Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
10 to 10:20 Break
10:20 to 11 Plants for Pollinators
Ellen Zagory, director of horticulture, UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden
11 to 11:30 Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven Garden Update: What's New in the Garden?
Christine Casey, bee garden manager, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
11:30 Lunch
11:30-2 Open House at Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven Garden
Questions and Answers with Robbin Thorp and Christine Casey
Bee Biology Road, Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility
1 to 2 Special Plant Sale for Pollinator Workshop Attendees
Arboretum Teaching Nursery, Garrod Drive
Anne Schellman, program director of CCHU, says there's still time to register. The workshop presentations will include "the latest research about bee pollinators and how you can make your landscape more 'pollinator friendly.'"
Registration is underway at http://ccuh.ucdavis.edu/events/public/pollinator-workshop-2014. The workshop includes a light breakfast and a box lunch. Prospective attendee can register online and/or write a check. More information is available from Schellman at (530) 312-4083 or aschellman@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Garden heroes, that is. That include lady beetles, better known as ladybugs.
“Garden Heroes” will set the theme of the Bohart Museum of Entomology's open house from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, March 2. The event, free and open to the public, will be held in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge building on Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus.
“This time of year aphids are invading our gardens,” said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator at the Bohart Museum. “Garden heroes, like lady beetles, help us out.”
Other garden heroes include lacewings, bigeyed bugs, assassin bugs, damsel bugs, and soldier beetles. Family activities, including how to make a bee condo for native bees, are planned.
Another key attraction will be a return appearance of the Budding Biologist, (http://www.buddingbiologist.com/about.html), creator of ecology video games. Budding Biologist is an educational publishing company owned by Kristine Callis-Duehl, who is with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Irvine. This game is loosely based on ecological research being conducted by Louie Yang, assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. Walter Hsiao, the video game developer, will be on hand to answer questions about game design.
The Bohart Museum, directed by Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at UC Davis, houses nearly eight million specimens and is the seventh largest insect collection in North America. It is also the home of the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of insect biodiversity. Noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007) founded the museum in 1946.
The year-around gift shop (also online) offers t-shirts, jewelry, insect nets, posters and books, including the newly published children's book, “The Story of the Dogface Butterfly,” written by UC Davis doctoral candidate Fran Keller and illustrated (watercolor and ink) by Laine Bauer, a 2012 graduate of UC Davis. The 35-page book, geared toward kindergarteners through sixth graders, also includes photos by naturalist Greg Kareofelas of Davis, a volunteer at the Bohart.
The museum is located near the intersection of LaRue Road and Crocker Lane. The museum's regular public hours are from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday. Group tours can be arranged with Tabatha Yang at tabyang@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-0493. The museum is closed to the public on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and UC Davis holidays.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
His seminar is from 12:10 to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 26 in 122 Briggs. Host is assistant professor Joanna Chiu. Plans call for his seminar to be recorded for later viewing on UCTV.
"Complex manipulation of host behavior by parasites is among the most impressive examples of organic selection," Hughes says in his abstract. "This is especially true where the parasite is a microbe and the host an animal; or put another way, when the one without the brain controls the one with the brain. In this talk I provide an overview of our research on ant behavior controlled by Ophiocordyceps fungi. Building on eight years of work in seven countries on five continents, I present our work across scales from continental biogeography to single celled transcriptomics, from spatial ecology to network dynamics. At is core my work is about discovery and emphasizes the enormous lack of knowledge we still have for many complex interactions in nature."
Hughes is broadly interested in parasites and behavior; especially in situations where the host is social. He moved to Pennsylvania State in April 2011, where he is part of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics.
Hughes said he likes different approaches. Much of his work has been in the field: he has worked in 11 countries on five continents and his lab currently works in North America, South America, Australia, and Southeast Asia. His lab integrates field-based natural history with lab experiments to explore the proximate and ultimate causes of behavioral manipulation. David is also interested in the applied aspects of his work- including both global food security (PlantVillage) and engaging the public through science outreach (Epidemics online course).
Hughes received his bachelor's degree in zoology from the University of Glasgow in 1999, and his doctorate in entomology in 2003 from the University of Oxford. Among his fellowships and prizes:
- 2008-2011: Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship (Harvard & Exeter)
- 2006-2008: Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (Copenhagen)
- 2004: Varley-Gradwell Travelling Fellowship in Insect Ecology (Oxford)
- 1999-2003: Hope Studentship in Entomology (Oxford)
- 1999: Graham Kerr Prize in Zoology (Glasgow)
His work appears in many peer-reviewed journals and in the popular press. Parasite proponent Carl Zimmer wrote about his work in his Discovery Magazine blog and Susan Milius wrote a ScienceNews piece. His work also drew Scientific American coverage.
Among his publications:
Loreto RG, Hart A, Pereira TM, Freitas ML, Hughes DP, Elliot SL (2013) Foraging ants trade off further for faster: use of natural bridges and trunk-trail permanency in carpenter ants. Naturwissenschaften Vol 100 Issue 10 pp 957-963 (PDF)
de Bekker, C. Smith, P. Patterson, A.D and D.P. Hughes (2013) Metabolomics reveals the heterogeneous secretome of two entomopathogenic fungi to ex vivo cultured insect tissues PloS One 8(8): e70609. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0070609 (Link)
Maure, F. Brodeur, J. Hughes, D.P. and F. Thomas (2013) How much energy should manipulative parasites leave to their hosts to ensure altered behaviours? Journal of Experimental Biology 2012 216: 43-6. (Link)
Maure, F. Brodeur, J. Hughes, D.P. and F. Thomas (2013) How much energy should manipulative parasites leave to their hosts to ensure altered behaviours? Journal of Experimental Biology 2012 216: 43-6. (Link)
Hughes, D.P. (2013) Pathways to understanding the extended phenotype of parasites in their hosts Journal of Experimental Biology 216:142-147 (Link)
Hughes, D.P. Parasites and the Superogranism (2012). In Host Manipulation by Parasites Edited by David P. Hughes, Jacques Brodeur, and Frédéric Thomas (PDF)
Andersen SB, Ferrari M, Evans HC, Elliot SL, Boomsma JJ, and D.P. Hughes (2012) Disease Dynamics in a Specialized Parasite of Ant Societies. PLoS ONE 7(5): e36352. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036352 (PDF)
Andersen SB and D.P. Hughes (2012) Host specificity of parasite manipulation –zombie ant death location in Thailand vs. Brazil Communicative & Integrative Biology 5:2, 1–3; March/April (PDF)
Harry C. Evans, Simon L. Elliot and David P. Hughes (2011) Ophiocordyceps unilateralis: A keystone species for unraveling ecosystem functioning and biodiversity of fungi in tropical forests? Communicative & Integrative Biology 4:5, 598-602 (Link)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
DAVIS--Bruce Hammock, distinguished professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, has just received notice that the National Institutes of Health has renewed his Research Project Grant (R01) on “Hydrolytic Enzymes in the Metabolism of Toxins” for a five year-period, totaling $2 million.
This amounts to 37 years of continued grant support on inhibitors of the enzyme, soluble epoxide hydrolase, which Hammock discovered can block hypertension and neuropathic pain.
“Our investigation of the soluble epoxide hydrolase enzyme and its fatty acid epoxide substrates led to the discovery that environmental chemicals, personal care products, and pharmaceuticals can alter the enzyme's activity and expression, which in turn affects hypertension, inflammation, pain and other biologies,” Hammock said.
“We are now evaluating inhibitors of the enzyme as powerful probes to understand the mechanism by which this unique class of natural regulatory oxidized-lipids works, and we are finding that these inhibitors show promise in reducing pain, the growth of solid tumors and fibrosis. We found that omega 3 fatty acid epoxides interact positively with these enzyme inhibitors, illustrating that man's total environment, including exposure to chemicals as well as dietary nutrients and life-style, has a major role and should be considered in determining effects on human health.”
Hammock, who holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, directs the campuswide Superfund Research Program, National Institutes of Health Biotechnology Training Program, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Combined Analytical Laboratory. He is a fellow of the Entomological Society of America, a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, and the recipient of the 2001 UC Davis Faculty Research Lecture Award and the 2008 Distinguished Teaching Award for Graduate and Professional Teaching.
Hammock is the newly announced recipient of the biennial Bernard B. Brodie Award in Drug Metabolism, sponsored by American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) and will receive the award when he keynotes the joint annual meeting of ASPET and the Chinese Pharmacological Society, April 26-20, in San Diego. The award recognizes Hammock's outstanding original research contributions to the understanding of human drug metabolism and transport and the continued impact of his research in the area of drug discovery and development.
For some 40 years, Hammock has worked on the mechanism of certain hydrolytic enzymes and their effect on human health. His work has helped identify new targets for the action of drugs and other compounds to improve health and predict risk from various environmental chemicals
Hammock directs a laboratory of more than 40 scientists and students at UC Davis, where they explore the biochemical basis of human and environment interactions and their implications for improving both human and environmental health.