March 13, 2013
The program, now officially approved by the Academic Senate, is coordinated by professor Jay Rosenheim and assistant professors Louie Yang and Joanna Chiu, all of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
The coordinators ask:
"Eager to have the kind of one-on-one training and mentorship that you'd normally find only in a small liberal arts college?"
"Want to develop the skills that will make your application to graduate school, med school or vet school really stand out from the crowd?"
The Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology can provide the opportunity to learn research skills in all areas of biology:
- behavior and ecology
- biodiversity
- agroecology
- population biology
- mathematical bology
- human health
- cell biology
- biochemistry
- molecular biology
The program, which includes more than 40 mentoring faculty, aims to provide UC Davis undergraduates with a closely-mentored research experience in biology. Because insects can be used as model systems to explore virtually any area of biology (population biology; behavior and ecology; biodiversity and evolutionary ecology; agroecology; genetics and molecular biology; biochemistry and physiology; cell biology), faculty in the program can provide research opportunities across the full sweep of biology. The program’s goal is to provide academically strong and highly motivated undergraduates with a multi-year research experience that cultivates skills that will prepare them for a career in biological research.
Applications are now being accepted from first and second-year students and first-year transfer students. The application deadline is April 10. More information is on the program’s website.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
(Editor's Note: The news embargo lifted at noon on March 11, and this research article was posted March 14 on the PNAS website. Here's the link.)
March 11, 2013
The research, in the lab of cardiologist and cell biologist Nipavan Chiamvimonvat of the School of Medicine’s Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, utilized a treatment involving a compound synthesized by Sing Lee and Sung Hee Hwang in the lab of UC Davis entomologist Bruce Hammock.
In research published this week in the Proceedings of National Academic of Sciences, the 11-scientist team from the Chiamvimonvat and Hammock labs determined the molecular mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) inhibitors in a heart attack.
“Our study provides evidence for a possible new therapeutic strategy to reduce cardiac fibrosis and improve cardiac function after a heart attack,” Chiamvimonvat said.
Every year some 935,000 U.S. residents have a heart attack, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Heart disease kills about 600,000 a year, accounting for one in every four deaths in the nation.
The research, “New Mechanistic Insights into the Beneficial Effects of Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase Inhibitors in the Prevention of Cardiac Fibrosis,” is “really important in terms of understanding a unique pathway which may be targeted to reduce fibrosis and adverse cardiac remodeling,” Chiamvimonvat said.
“Cardiac fibrosis or the abnormal thickening of the heart tissues results from an increase in the proliferation of cardiac fibroblasts, cells in the connective tissues that produce collagen and other fibers,” she said. “After a heart attack, the loss of cardiac myocytes can culminate in cardiac fibrosis and abnormal cardiac remodeling leading to eventual heart failure.” Myocytes, or heart muscle cells, are critical in the normal function of the heart as a pump.
López said that tissue fibrosis “represents one of the largest problems in treating heart diseases for which there are few effective therapies currently. In the heart, adverse cardiac remodeling consists of enlargement of heart muscle cells (also termed cardiac myocyte hypertrophy), tissue fibrosis, and electrical perturbations and represents the prevailing response of the heart to abnormal stimuli, for example, after a heart attack or with long standing high blood pressure (hypertension).”
The Hammock/Chiamvimonvat collaborations earlier demonstrated the beneficial effects of several compounds that are potent inhibitors of the soluble epoxide hydrolase in different models of cardiac enlargement and heart failure. In this study, they treated murine (rodent) patients with the compound that resulted in “significant improvement in cardiac function after a heart attack.”
“There is significant decrease in cardiac myocyte hypertrophy associated with a decrease in the expression of fetal gene program,” they wrote in the abstract. Treatment also resulted in a significant decrease in cardiac fibrosis and a reduction in the migration of fibroblasts into the heart from bone marrow.” Fibroblasts are cells in the connective tissues that produce collagen and other fibers.
“Treatment with the inhibitor not only prevents the development of pathologic cardiac myocyte hypertrophy, the compound may also result in an improvement in diastolic dysfunction by decreasing cardiac fibroblast proliferation and cardiac fibrosis,” said López. Diastolic dysfunction, a future direction of the research but not covered in the research paper, refers to the abnormal relaxation of the heart after each beat, a condition commonly seen with excessive cardiac fibrosis while cardiac myocyte hypertrophy refers to the enlargement of the heart muscle cells.
“This study is the result of a long-term and exciting collaboration between the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the UC Davis School of Medicine which has been very productive,” said Hammock, a distinguished professor of entomology who has a joint appointment with the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Research Center. He has collaborated with Chiamvimonvat since 2005. “Not only did we do things we could never have done on our own but the interaction with Dr. Chiamvimonvat, Dr. Lopez and their team has made the project both educational and fun. Moreover, I think the translational value of the study could really be very significant."
The project drew major support from the National Institutes of Health, Veterans’ Administration, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Med-into-Grad Training Program to UC Davis, American Heart Association, Western States Affiliate Predoctoral Fellowship Award, Fellow-to-Faculty Award from Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation, and the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Award from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Partial support came from a National Institute of Environmental Health (NIEHS) grant, the NIEHS Superfund Basic Research Program, the NIEHS Center for Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention, a Technology Translational Grant from UC Davis Health System, and from the American Asthma Society. Hammock is a George and Judy Marcus Senior Fellow of the American Asthma Society.
Chiamvimonvat and Hammock have filed patents with the University of California for sEH inhibitors and cardiac hypertrophy therapy and organ fibrosis. “We have been working for the last 17 months with UC Davis to get options to the technologies from our laboratories and move them toward the clinic,” Hammock said. “I think we are close to an agreement with UC Davis to do this, but it is daunting to think of raising the funding for this effort in this economic climate.”
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Giant water bugs and dragonflies are some of the aquatic insects to be featured at the Bohart Museum of Entomology’s open house from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, March 24 in Room 1124 Academic Surge, Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. The event is free and open to the public.
The toe biters, know as giant water bugs, are in the Belostomatidae family of insects in the order Hemiptera. The largest insects in the order, they are found in freshwater streams and ponds throughout much of the world. In some Asian countries, the giant water bugs are considered a delicacy.
The toe biters or Belostomatids are unique in that the female lays her eggs on the back or wings of a male, who carries the eggs until they hatch.
The flame skimmers, also known as red or firecracker dragonflies, belong to the family Libellulidae and are native to western North America. The Libellula saturata is a common dragonfly in California. They inhabit warm ponds and streams. The immature flame skimmers or nymphs feed on such aquatic insects as mosquito larvae, aquatic fly larvae, mayfly larvae, freshwater shrimp, small fish, and tadpoles. The adults feed on soft-bodied insects including moths, flies, ants and bees.
In keeping with the aquatic insect theme, fly fishing drawers will also be featured at the aquatic insect-themed open house, said Tabatha Yang, Bohart Museum education and outreach coordinator. The drawers hold such specimens as caddisflies, mayflies and stoneflies.
The Bohart Museum, directed by Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at UC Davis, houses a global collection of nearly eight million insect specimens and is the seventh largest insect collection in North America. It is also the home of the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity. Noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007) founded the museum in 1946.
Visitors can also hold such live specimens as Madagascar hissing cockroaches and walking sticks. The gift shop includes 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 book tells the untold story of the California dogface butterfly (Zerene eurydice), Keller said. Bauer’s illustrations depict the life cycle of this butterfly and the children who helped designate it as the California state insect.
The net proceeds from the sale of this book go directly to the education, outreach and research programs of the Bohart Museum. The book can also be ordered online at http://www.bohartmuseum.com/the-story-of-the-dogface-butterfly.html.
Bohart officials schedule weekend open houses throughout the academic year so that families and others who cannot attend on the weekdays can do so on the weekends. The Bohart’s regular hours are from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday. The insect museum is closed to the public on Fridays and on major holidays. Admission is free.
The remainder of the open houses for the academic year:
Saturday, April 20: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Theme: UC Davis Picnic Day
Saturday, May 11, 1 to 4 p.m.
Theme: "Moth-er's Day"
Sunday, June 9, 1 to 4 p.m.
Theme: "How to Find Insects"
For further information, contact Yang at tabyang@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-0493.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
March 1, 2013
His seminar, hosted by professor Rick Karban, is from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in Room 1022 of Life Sciences Addition.
Rasmann served as a research associate in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, from 2011 to 2013.
Rasmann will be joining the UC Irvine faculty this July. He completed his undergraduate work in Ecology and Systematics, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in 2001. He received his diploma (master equivalent) in chemical ecology from the University of Neuchâtel in 2002. He worked as a postdoctoral research associate in the Anurag Agrawal lab at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., from 2007 to 2011.
Rasmann has delivered 28 seminars worldwide, including in Europe, United States, Canada, South America and Japan. He is the guest co-editor for Frontiers in Plant Science with the special topic, "Above-Below Ground Interactions Involving Plants, Microbes and Insects." He served as an adhoc reviewer for 43 journals, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Ecology Letters, New Phytologist, American Naturalist and Ecology.
Rasmann has also served as a grant reviewer for the National Science Foundation in both Switzerland and the United States; Research Foundation, Germany; and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, among others. He co-organized a symposium at the 2008 annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America.
Among his publications:
- Pellissier L, Fiedler K, Ndribe C, Dubuis A, Pradervand J-N, Guisan A, Rasmann S. Shifts in species richness, herbivore specialisation and plant resistance along elevation gradients. Ecology and Evolution. doi: 10.1002/ece3.296.
- Rasmann S, De Vos M, Casteel C, Tian D, Sun JY, Agrawal A A, Felton G W, and Jander G. Herbivory in the previous generation primes plants for enhanced insect resistance. Plant Physiology. 158: 854-863.
- Rasmann S and Agrawal AA . Evolution of specialization: a phylogenetic study of host range in the red milkweed beetle (Tetraopes tetraophthalmus). The American Naturalist. 177: 728-737.
- Rasmann S and Agrawal AA. Latitudinal patterns in plant defense: evolution of cardenolides, their toxicity, and induction following herbivory. Ecology Letters. 14: 476-483.
- Rasmann S, Kollner TG, Degenhardt J, Hiltpold I, Toepfer S, Kuhlmann U, Gershenzon J, and Turlings TCJ. Recruitment of entomopathogenic nematodes by insect-damaged maize roots. Nature 434: 732-737.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
March 6, 2013
Whitfield will be introduced by her former major professor, entomologist Diane Ullman, associate dean for undergraduate academic programs in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and a professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
Whitfield received her master's degree in plant pathology from Ullman in 1999 and her doctorate in plant pathology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 2004.
"Arthropod vectors play an essential role in dissemination of viruses that cause diseases in humans, animals, and plants," Whitfield says. "More than 70 percent of viruses infecting plants and 40 percent of viruses infecting mammals are transmitted from one host to another by arthropod vectors. My research is devoted to investigating plant-virus-vector interactions at the molecular level with the goal of developing a better understanding of the complex sequence of events leading to virus acquisition and transmission by vectors."
"Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) is considered one of the ten most devastating plant viruses and is one of the viruses that we are working with to define the viral and vector determinants of transmission. The virus is transmitted by thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), primarily Frankliniella occidentalis. The TSWV glycoproteins, designated GN and GC, are required for infection of thrips. We found that recombinant GN (GN-S) bound larval thrips midguts in a specific manner and inhibited TSWV acquisition and transmission (Whitfield et al., 2004, and Whitfield et al., 2008)."
"Our findings," Whitfield said, "provide evidence that GN serves as a viral ligand that mediates attachment of TSWV to receptors displayed on the epithelial cells of the thrips midgut. We generated transgenic tomato plants expressing a soluble form of GN with a GFP tag (GN-S::GFP) and found that thrips that fed on these transgenics had significantly lower virus titers and adult transmission efficiencies than thrips fed on TSWV-infected non-transgenic tomato plants. These results demonstrate that an initial reduction in virus infection of the larval insect midgut can result in a significant decrease in virus titer and transmission over the life-span of the vector. Despite the world-wide importance of thrips in agriculture, there is little knowledge of the F. occidentalis genome or gene functions at this time. We developed the first transcriptome analysis of F. occidentalis, and the partial thrips transcriptome was used to characterize the thrips proteome and response to virus infection (Rotenberg and Whitfield, 2010, Badillo-Vargas et al., 2012). Knowledge of thrips recognition and response to virus infection will enable us to develop new strategies to disrupt virus transmission."
Whitfield is the author of numerous publications and book chapters. She has published her work in the Journal of Virological Methods, Insect Molecular Biology, Journal of Virology and the Journal of Economic Entomology, among others.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
