OSU Entomologist Megan Meuti: Can We Trick Mosquitoes, Stopping Them from Biting Us? – Entomology & Nematology Information
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Megan Meuti of The Ohio State College
Megan Meuti, an assistant professor within the Division of Entomology, The Ohio State College (OSU), will current a digital seminar hosted by the UC Davis Division of Entomology and Nematology seminar on Wednesday, Jan. 19 on “How Do Mosquitoes Appropriately Interpret Environmental Alerts Into Advanced Seasonal Responses?”
Her presentation begins at 4:10 p.m., Pacific Time. The Zoom hyperlink: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/99515291076
“Northern home mosquitoes, Culex pipiens, transmit West Nile virus to birds and folks in the US,” Meuti says in her summary. “Nevertheless, transmission is restricted to some months of the yr when feminine mosquitoes are actively biting and reproducing. Throughout autumn, females of Cx. pipiens enter a physiologically dynamic however arrested state of growth generally known as diapause the place they divert sources from replica to survival.”
Meuti and members of her lab examine (1) how mosquitoes are capable of measure daylength and whether or not the circadian clock is concerned and (2) how human-mediated adjustments to the setting, like gentle air pollution and better temperatures in city warmth islands, have an effect on mosquito seasonality, and the way this may have an effect on illness transmission in cities.
Meuti holds three levels from OSU: twin bachelor levels in microbiology and entomology in 2008; and her doctorate in 2014 in entomology. Finding out with main professor David Denlinger, she accomplished her dissertation on “Circadian Clocks and Photoperiodic Diapause within the Northern Home Mosquito, Culex pipiens: Seek for the Lacking Hyperlink.”
Previous to becoming a member of the OSU college, Meuti served as a visiting professor within the Division of Biology, Kenyon Faculty, Gambier, Ohio, in 2015-16.
“Many people intuitively acknowledge that our mosquito issues are seasonal; there are occasions of the yr when mosquitoes are considerable and we can’t go outdoors with out getting bitten (e.g. late spring and summer time), whereas there are different instances after we get pleasure from a reprieve from mosquito bites (e.g. late fall and winter),” Meuti writes on her web site. “I’m serious about how exactly mosquitoes are capable of inform what time of yr it’s and appropriately reply to their setting. Members of my lab group examine how circadian clock genes may enable mosquitoes to measure day size to find out the time of yr; how male mosquitoes change their accent gland proteins to affect feminine conduct and physiology; and whether or not mosquitoes in city environments are lively for longer durations through the yr and/or chew people extra continuously. We use quite a lot of molecular, genetic and physiological strategies to analyze these questions. Our final objective is to uncover particular methods to control seasonal responses in bugs in order that we will extra successfully management them.”
The summary:
City gentle air pollution attributable to synthetic gentle at night time (ALAN) profoundly impacts the ecology, conduct, and physiology of crops and animals. Additional, this widespread environmental pollutant has the potential to negatively affect human and animal well being by altering the seasonal dynamics of disease-transmitting bugs. In response to brief days, females of the Northern home mosquito enter an overwintering dormancy, or diapause. Whereas in diapause, feminine mosquitoes divert power away from replica, stop blood-feeding, and now not transmit illness. We display that publicity to dim ALAN (~4 lx) causes feminine mosquitoes to avert diapause and develop into reproductively lively, as these females acquired much less fats content material, developed bigger egg follicles, imbibed vertebrate blood, and produced viable eggs and larvae. Our findings counsel that mosquitoes in extremely light-polluted areas reminiscent of cities could also be actively reproducing and biting later within the season, thereby extending the interval of illness threat for city residents. Our outcomes counsel that ALAN ought to be thought of when modeling mosquito abundance, illness threat, and when deciding how lengthy mosquito surveillance and management ought to persist in temperate areas.
Energetic within the Entomological Society of America, Meuti acquired the 2018 Early Profession Skilled Instructing Award of $1,000. She earlier received a 2008-2014 OSU fellowship, the Susan D. Huntington Dean’s Distinguished College Graduate Fellowship of $67,200; and a 2010-2013 Nationwide Science Basis Graduate Analysis Fellowship of $90,000.
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