Interpreting the Chemical Cues

Dec 28, 2010

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Most of us just finished a whirlwind of olfaction and taste during the holidays, but in the Walter Leal lab at the University of California, Davis, it's a full-time commitment.

Leal, a chemical ecologist and professor of entomology, recently organized and moderated a symposium with professor John Hildebrand of the University of Arizona on "The Diversity in Olfaction and Taste" at the 58th annual Entomological Society of America (ESA) meeting.

Among the nine speakers at the San Diego conference: Bert Hoelldobler of Arizona State University who discussed "Communication and Social Organization Among Insects Via Chemical Cues"; Kristin Scott of UC Berkeley, "Taste Recognition in Drosophila (Flies)"; Julien Pelletier of UC Davis, "Conserved and Diverse Mosquito Odorant Receptors"; Hildebrand, "Olfactory Mechanisms Underlying Moth-Host Plant Interactions"; and Leal, who covered "Odorant Receptors from Moths, Flies and Mosquitoes." (Note the communication between a male and female silkworm moth in the accompanying photo by Samuel Woo of UC Davis.)

It's an exciting field--the field of olfaction and taste. And now the Leal lab has an opening for a postdoc trained in biochemistry/molecular biology to join a group of scholars (http://chemecol.ucdavis.edu/) investigating at the molecular level how insect perceive the world true small chemical molecules like pheromones, oviposition attractants, repellents, etc.

Leal, a fellow of the ESA and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and former president of the International Society for Chemical Ecology, is focusing his current research on the molecular basis of insect olfaction, with particular emphasis on odorant binding, release, and inactivation in the peripheral nervous system and chemical ecology. 

Leal has published more than 150 papers in peer reviewed journals, 16 invited chapters and review articles, 28 Japanese patents and 2 US patents. Some of the recent publications:

http://www.pnas.org/content/107/44/19102.full.pdf

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/05/03/1003881107.full.pdf

http://www.pnas.org/content/106/44/18803.full.pdf

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0006237

http://www.pnas.org/content/105/36/13598.full.pdf

Postdoc scholars who want to apply can email their CV and a letter of application to wsleal@ucdavis.edu.


By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Author - Communications specialist

Attached Images:

CHEMICAL ECOLOGISTS John Hildebrand (left) of the University of Arizona and Walter Leal of the University of California, Davis, organized and moderated a lively discussion at their seminar at the Entomological Society of America's 58th annual meeting, held recently in San Diego. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Chemical Ecologists