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