Summer conferences
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- Written by: Nicky Wybouw
Back behind the computer.
For the last weeks, I was in Napels and York to present our work at the European Conference of Entomology and the Cytochrome P450 Biodiversity & Biotechnology meeting. In Napels, I discussed how horizontal gene transfer contributes to the evolution of herbivory in insects and mites, whereas in York, I presented our latest findings on the genetic basis of carotenoid metabolism in spider mites.
CLC @ SLC
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I was privileged to work in the lab of Prof Richard M Clark at the University of Utah for the past three weeks, an international lab visit that was funded by FWO.
During my stay, I mainly focused on Bryobia and Wolbachia genome assemblies and I got to experience all the weather conditions Salt Lake City has to offer in April; hail, snow and 20+°C summer days.
Now back in Ghent and finishing up our work on the genetic basis of keto-carotenoid pigment metabolism in spider mites.
On another note,
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during these last weeks of writing and bioinformatics, I appear to have unconsciously re-enacted a scene from Jurassic Park, one of my childhood favorite movies.
HGT screen & PhD layman's summary
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Very happy to announce that our recent Horizontal Gene Transfer screen of the Tetranychus urticae genome has just been published in Insect Molecular Biology. One of our main findings is the identification of two unique pantothenate biosynthesis genes of bacterial origin in spider mite genomes. Please click here for further reading!
Also, the layman's summary of my PhD thesis I wrote for the Dutch Entomological Society has been published in their bi-monthly journal Entomologische Berichten. For a copy of my summary, please click here!
Bryobia research
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Very excited to announce that my research proposal on Bryobia mites got granted. I am now hosted at Ghent University, in the lab of Thomas Van Leeuwen.
The grant is a three-year postdoctoral fellowship of FWO and started this October. The focus is on the effect of Wolbachia endosymbionts on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of the Bryobia mite hosts.
Mite immunity
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Last week, our research on the immune response of spider mites has been published. We show that upon bacterial infection, spider mites do not mount an immune response on the transcriptomic level and subsequently die after bacterial proliferation. Interestingly, similar observations have been made for the pea aphid, which reinforces a potential evolutionary link between ecological conditions regarding bacterial exposure and the architecture of the immune response. To read more, please click here!
Mite collecting
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Summer is coming and it's time to enjoy the great outdoors once again and collect some new samples of mite populations!
endosymbionts, herbivores and host plants
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Research spearheaded by Bart & Heike on the effects of bacterial reproductive parasites on a phytophagous arthropod and its host plant has just been published. Click here for the online article!
NEV award 2016
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I had the honour of being presented with the best PhD thesis award of 2015-2016 by the Dutch entomological society (NEV).
I wish to thank the organizers again for giving me the opportunity to share my research with fellow entomologists!
My personal website
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My personal website has been launched. Please stop by for regular updates.