Research Overview
Insect Transformation
Genetic transformation changes the genetic makeup of a cell, and is caused by the introduction of DNA, the genetic material. Transformation occurs quite often in nature when viruses affect certain host cells. In recent years, genetic transformation has become a powerful tool for biological research and for biotechnology.
Using genetic transformation to render insects incapable of transmitting diseases to humans is a very recent development, and represents a major advance for tropical medicine----one which circumvents the environmental and health hazards of insecticides, and that should prove more effective than biological pest control.
Insect transformation is a field that is in its infancy----one which holds tremendous promise for controlling serious and widespread insect-borne diseases such as malaria.
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Research Description
Research Areas: Insect Transformation, Pathobiology, Genome Sciences
Research Specialties: Insect molecular genetics; genetics, molecular genetics, and biochemistry of transposable elements; insect gene vector research and development
Insect biotechnology is largely founded on our abilities to genetically engineer insects using germline transformation technologies and my laboratory has been directly involved in the research, development and testing of new insect transformation technologies based on transposable elements. In collaboration with Dr. Peter Atkinson (U.C. Riverside), we discovered and isolated the transposable element Hermes from the common housefly, Musca domestica. Hermes is a functional and active transposable element that has proven to be an effective gene vector in a wide range of insect species. We remain interested in investigating the basic biology of this element and its use as a genetic transformation vector and functional genomics tool. Research into the behavior of existing insect gene vectors following their introduction into foreign genomes is an ongoing interest in the lab. We are also interested in exploring other mobile genetic elements as insect gene vectors and functional genomics tools but it is also serving as a proxy for introduced transgenes in this species. We are currently investigating the population genetics and natural history of Herves in An. gambiae as part of our effort to understand how introduced transgenes on transposable element-based...
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Representative Publications
2005
O'Brochta, D. A., Subramanian, R. A., Orsetti, J., Peckham, E., Nolan, N., Arensberger, P, Atkinson, P.W., Charlwood, D. (in press). hAT element population genetics in Anophelesgambiae s.l. in Mozambique. Genetica.
Sethuraman, N., O'Brochta, D. A. (2005). The Drosophila melanogaster cinnabar gene is a cell autonomous genetic marker in Aedesaegypti (Diptera: Culicidae). J. Med. Ent. 42:716-718
Arensburger P, Kim YJ, Orsetti J, Aluvihare C, O'Brochta DA, Atkinson PW. (2005) An Active Transposable Element, Herves, From the African Malaria Mosquito Anopheles gambiae. Genetics. 169(2):697-708.
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