Pests, Plagues & Politics Lecture 17

1. Pests, Plagues & Politics Lecture 17 Entomologists & other Heroes

2. Key Points:Ways in which insects dramatically impacted society as we know it today • Biotech • Business (different types) • Philosophy • Taxonomy • Disease control

3. Drosophila melanogaster

4. Gregor Mendel 1822-1844 The monk who started it all. Discovered the concept of genetic transmission of characters. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gregor_Mendel.png

5. Fruit Flies & Genetics • Small physical size • easily reared in confined space • little danger to experimenter • Cost efficient • Short life span (time efficient) • Stable population • ubiquitous & expendable • Selected matings easily controlled

6. 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

7. Fruit 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

8. *Fruitflies and Biotech: Five top Biotech Companies in 2006 Revenue (Millions) No. employees 1 Amgen USA 14,268.0 3,366.0 2,950.0 20,100 2 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 8,477 5 Gilead Sciences USA 3,026.1 383.9 (1,190.0) 7,575 http://crunchiesfood.com/press/amgen-tour-of-california-2010-day-2/ http://www.fiercebiotech.com/special-reports/amgen-biotech-marketshare-report

9. The humble fruit fly Could just be responsible for getting your life insurance premium reduced!!

10. 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

11. http://www.censusscope.org/us/chart_age.html http://www.econguru.com/fundamentals_of_ecology/populations.html Men live shorter than women partly because of risky behavior

12. Long term care cost Yearly cost $ Age

13. Fruit Fly “M&Ms” Morgan and Muller http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1933/morgan-article.html?print=1 http://www.dipity.com/yodaseo/Emperor-of-All-Maladies/

14. Fruit 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”

15. Applications, *SIT http://www.pnri.dost.gov.ph/pnri.php?pnri=nrd

16. Insects & 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

17. The ANT & the GRASSHOPPER http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/milowinter/32.htm

18. ARISTOTLE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aristotle_Altemps_Inv8575.jpg • 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

19. ARISTOTLE • Gave us the first DICHOTOMOUS identification system (“keys”) • Two versions • One based on wings • One based on mouthparts

20. Aristotle's Key I. 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)

21. ARISTOTLE 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 BEES • Spontaneous generation or abiogenesis • insects - Crustacea - some plants

22. Insects: Disease control

23. *Baghdad “Boil” • As if bullets and mortars weren’t enough • Along comes an ARBOR disease • Cutaneous Leishmaniasis

24. 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.

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

26. The parasite Leishmania major A single-cell proto- zoan. http://www.img.cas.cz/mci/introduction.php

27. The Vector • A true fly in the Order Diptera • Family Psychodidae • The sand flies & moth flies • Lutzomyialongipalpis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutzomyia

28. Key Points:Ways in which insects dramatically impacted society as we know it today • Biotech • Business (different types) • Philosophy • Taxonomy • Disease control