Meeting November 15th: Double presentations on Discovery of new pesticide resistance genes in Drosophila sechellia and Osiris Genes and Bioinsecticidal RNAi Applications

Hi everyone! For our November meeting on Friday, November 15th, we will be having tag-team presentations by Dr. Joseph Coolon and his Doctoral student Chris Hayes at the Kerr lecture room, Shanklin Hall Room 107 at Wesleyan University in Middletown.  We will socialize and share pizza and refreshments at 6:30 p.m. just outside the lecture room, followed by the business meeting at 7:30 and the presentations about 8:00 or a bit earlier.  Shanklin Room 107 is equipped as a Zoom room, so this will be a joint in-person and Zoom meeting.  Please email ctentsoc@gmail.com for the Zoom link if you would like to attend virtually.

Presentation 1:  Discovery of new pesticide resistance genes in Drosophila sechellia

Brief Description: Drosophila sechellia is an island endemic species native to the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean that has specialized to eat a single host plant that is toxic to other species called Morinda citrifolia. Using this system, we have identified plant defense compounds that are toxic to fruit flies and have also identified the genetic basis for resistance to some of these toxins. This work led to the discovery of functional roles for a gene family called Osiris in evolved resistance to insecticidal compounds.

Biographical Sketch: Joe Coolon is an Associate Professor of Biology and Director of the College of Integrative Sciences at Wesleyan University. He earned his Ph.D. from Kansas State University studying the genomic basis of nematode responses to different bacterial species. He then worked on the mechanisms of evolutionary change in species of Drosophila fruit flies at the University of Michigan before starting at Wesleyan in 2015. Half his lab studies the regulatory networks that control gene expression in Saccharomyces yeasts and the other half studies the genetic and genomic basis of Drosophila species resistance to insecticides which we now hope to use to create novel insect control methodologies.

Presentation 2:  Osiris Genes and Bioinsecticidal RNAi Applications

Brief Description: The Osiris family of genes is common to all insects with possible orthologs found in species throughout Arthropoda. We believe that characteristics of this gene family make them remarkable candidates for targeting insect pests by developing novel bioinsecticides that utilize RNA interference. This strategy for pest management provides distinct advantages over conventional insecticides with improved outcomes for environmental safety, public health, and overcoming insect resistance.

Biographical Sketch: Chris Hayes is a first year PhD student in the Coolon Lab at Wesleyan University in the Department of Biology. He is a recent graduate of the Agricultural Biology MS program at Colorado State University, where he worked in the Nachappa Insect Vector Biology Lab. His MS project studied the biology of an understudied eriophyid mite crop pest (Aculops cannabicola), developing novel management strategies to effectively manage this pest. Prior to this, he worked extensively in horticultural production and plant breeding. His current research interest is in applying genomics and bioinformatics towards agricultural science.

We hope to see you there!

Parking instructions:

In addition to the on-street parking highlighted in the map below, Parking Lot D is off of Lawn Avenue by the Exley Science Center and should have open spaces in the evening.