Pests, Plagues & Politics Lecture 17

Entomologists & other Entomologists & other HeroesHeroes

Key Points:

Ways in which insects dramatically impacted society as we know it today

• Biotech• Business (different types)• Philosophy• Taxonomy• Disease control

Drosophila melanogaster

Gregor MendelGregor Mendel1822-18441822-1844

The monk whostarted it all.

Discovered the concept of genetic transmissionof characters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gregor_Mendel.png

Fruit Flies & GeneticsFruit Flies & Genetics

• Small physical sizeSmall physical size– easily reared in confined space– little danger to experimenter

• Cost efficientCost efficient• Short life spanShort life span (time efficient)• Stable populationStable population

– ubiquitous & expendable

• Selected matings easily controlledSelected matings easily controlled

Fruit Flies & Genetics, cont.Fruit Flies & Genetics, cont.

• Experimental “confounds” are easy to account for and/or reduce

• Intricate & elaborate experiments possible– e.g., 40,000 matings to produce the data set

necessary to win the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology & Medicine

• Results are easily generalized

Fruit Flies & GeneticsFruit Flies & Genetics

• “…during the heyday of Drosophila, almost all significant basic concepts in transmission genetics were either first developed by Drosophila workers or conspicuously verified by them”– S.W. Brown: History of Entomology

www.fruitfly.org

1 Amgen USA 14,268.0 3,366.0 2,950.0 20,1002 Genentech USA 11,724.0 2,995.0 2,740.0 10,001+3 Genzyme USA 3,187.0 650.0 (16.8) 9,000+4 UCB Belgium 3,169.6 772.6 461.1 8,4775 Gilead Sciences USA 3,026.1 383.9 (1,190.0) 7,575

*Fruitflies and Biotech: Five top Biotech Companies in 2006

Revenue (Millions)

No. employees

http://www.fiercebiotech.com/special-reports/amgen-biotech-marketshare-report

http://crunchiesfood.com/press/amgen-tour-of-california-2010-day-2/

The humble fruit fly

Could just be responsible for getting your life insurance premium reduced!!

GOMPERTZ LAW

• Benjamin Gompertz - 19th century British polymath

• “Risk of death grows exponentially as we age until finally reaching 100%”

• You respond with: “So what?”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Gompertz

http://www.censusscope.org/us/chart_age.html

Men live shorter than women partly because of risky behavior

http://www.econguru.com/fundamentals_of_ecology/populations.html

Yea

rly

cost

$

Age

Long term care cost

Fruit Fly Fruit Fly ““M&MsM&Ms””Morgan and MullerMorgan and Muller

http://www.dipity.com/yodaseo/Emperor-of-All-Maladies/

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1933/morgan-article.html?print=1

Fruit Flies & GeneticsFruit Flies & Genetics

• T.H. Morgan @ Columbia University, turned the fruit fly into the “queen bee of genetics.”

• H.J. Muller discovered that x-ray & other forms for short-wave radiation spectacularly increased the genetic mutation frequency.– Lead to the “dominant lethal” gene(s)

– Ultimately gave us the “Sterile Insect Technique”

Applications, *SIT

http://www.pnri.dost.gov.ph/pnri.php?pnri=nrd

Insects & Philosophy: AESOPInsects & Philosophy: AESOP

• A Greek living around 2,500 B.P

• A historical personage who might have been fictitious.

• Reputed to be a slave, physically deformed and deaf

• A Poet– homilies exhorting the reader to a better life

– more than 25 insects are found in his writings

The ANT & the GRASSHOPPER

http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/milowinter/32.htm

ARISTOTLEARISTOTLE

• The founder of entomology as a science

• Gave us the first functional system of insect classification

– bloodless animals having more than four feet and some having wings

– being neither bony nor fleshy– their body is rigid within and without

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aristotle_Altemps_Inv8575.jpg

ARISTOTLEARISTOTLE

• Gave us the first DICHOTOMOUSDICHOTOMOUS identification system (“keys”)

• Two versions– One based on wings– One based on mouthparts

Aristotle's KeyAristotle's KeyI. WINGED

1) with elytra

2) without elytra• a. four wings• b. two wings

II. WINGLESS• MOUTH PARTS

1. Having teeth and being omnivorous

2. Without teeth, but with a proboscis

a. feeding on all saps (flies)

b. sucking on blood only (mosquitoes)

c. feeding on sweet saps only (bees)

ARISTOTLE on reproductionARISTOTLE on reproduction

• He recognized four types of reproduction:– Sexual

• with copulation (most large animals)

– Asexual by sprouting• some plants

– Asexual without copulation• most plants, fish & HONEY BEESHONEY BEES

– Spontaneous generation or abiogenesis• insects - Crustacea - some plants

Insects: Disease control

*Baghdad “Boil”

• As if bullets and mortars weren’t enough

• Along comes an ARBOR disease

• Cutaneous Leishmaniasis

What’s Cutaneous Leishmaniasis?

• A parasitic infection vectored by a fly!!!

• Produces open sores that are gross and a long time in healing and can leave permanent scarring.

• Sensitive viewers- the next few slides may upset you.

Symptoms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutaneous_leishmaniasis

The parasite

Leishmania major

A single-cell proto-zoan.

http://www.img.cas.cz/mci/introduction.php

The Vector

• A true fly in the Order Diptera– Family Psychodidae

• The sand flies & moth flies

– Lutzomyia longipalpis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutzomyia

Key Points:

Ways in which insects dramatically impacted society as we know it today

• Biotech• Business (different types)• Philosophy• Taxonomy• Disease control