Project description:Nasonia vitripennis injects venom into its host organism Sarcophaga crassipalpis together with the eggs in order to make it suitable for the offspring to survive. The venom is known to suppress the hosts immune system, elevate the lipid levels, slow down development, et cetera.This microarray can uncover new transcriptomal effects on the host organism after natural envenomation that have not been discovered by bioassays. Since transcriptomal effects will vary during time, two different time points have been selected, 3 and 25 hours after parasitization.
Project description:Nasonia vitripennis injects venom into its host organism Sarcophaga crassipalpis together with the eggs in order to make it suitable for the offspring to survive. The venom is known to suppress the hosts immune system, elevate the lipid levels, slow down development, et cetera.This microarray can uncover new transcriptomal effects on the host organism after natural envenomation that have not been discovered by bioassays. Since transcriptomal effects will vary during time, two different time points have been selected, 3 and 25 hours after parasitization. 16 individuals per sample, 4 replicates per group, loopdesign, 4 control individuals per time point, dye swap
Project description:Several cDNAs isolated from brains of diapausing pupae of the flesh fly, Sarcophaga crassipalpis, show expression patterns unique to diapause. To isolate such cDNAs a diapause pupal brain cDNA library was screened by using an elimination hybridization technique, and cDNAs that did not hybridize with cDNA probes constructed from the RNA of nondiapausing pupae were selected for further screening. The 95 clones that did not hybridize in the initial library screen were selected for further characterization. These clones were then screened against diapause and nondiapause pupal poly(A)+ Northern blots. The secondary screen identified 4 diapause-up-regulated clones, 7 diapause-down-regulated clones, 8 clones expressed equally in both diapause and nondiapause, and 75 clones without detectable expression. The diapause-up-regulated and down-regulated clones were further characterized by partial DNA sequencing and identity searches by using GenBank. Identities between our cloned cDNAs and other genes included those linked to cell cycle progression, stress responses, and DNA repair processes. The results suggest that insect diapause is not merely a shutdown of gene expression but is a unique, developmental pathway characterized by the expression of a novel set of genes.
Project description:Small RNA-seq was used to identify miRNAs in pupal stage Sarcophaga bullata and to assess differences in the abundance of miRNAs in developing and diapause (i.e. dormant) pupae.