Plant-feeding insects are extraordinarily diverse as a result of their co-diversification with their host plants over 400 million years. One of the major adaptations necessary for herbivorous feeding is the ability to preferentially feed on the appropriate host plants, but how taste evolves in herbivorous insects is not well understood at molecular genetic and neurophysiological levels. Our research project will closely examine how chemoreceptors expressed in the peripheral nervous system have evolved to change neural responses, and how this ultimately shifts behavioral responses to toxic plant compounds from aversion to attraction. This research takes an integrative approach combining behavioral experimentation, comparative genetic analyses, and electrophysiology.
UC PI:
Noah Whiteman
Department of Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley
France PI:
Frédéric Marion-Poll
Evolution, Génomes, Comportement, Ecologie (EGCE), AgroParisTech