Many insects act as vectors for human diseases such as malaria, sleeping sickness, and West Nile virus. Others are significant agricultural pests causing billions of dollars of damage to crops each year and requiring large-scale insecticide intervention. The development of rational control strategies, rather than utilizing insecticides, may provide a environmentally acceptable solution to these insect control problems and one possible locus of control is reproduction. My lab investigates the endocrine and genetic basis of control of the process of yolk protein (YP) production and uptake (vitellogenesis) during egg production. YP production is apparently under the control of both juvenile hormones (JHs) and ecdysteroids and its uptake is mediated by the insulin-signaling pathway.

Recent work has focused on the insulin-receptor substrate gene (chico) as an important ovary-autonomous factor driving receptor-mediated endocytosis of YPs. Mutations in this gene cause female sterility, decreased growth and extended longevity, clearly making this gene of interest in a number of areas of biology. The interaction of JH and the CHICO protein with ovarian proteins involved in receptor-mediated endocytosis is presently under investigation. Techniques used by students in my lab in recent years include mRNA extraction, Real Time PCR, Semi-quantitative Reverse Transcriptase-PCR, DNA purification/sequencing, confocal-immunofluorescence microscopy, Western blotting, microinjection and fly stock management. Students from my lab have presented their research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research meetings since 2002.