An evolutionary ecologist who studies the impacts of a plant diet on insects and their microbiomes, will discuss her research at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar on Wednesday, Feb. 25.
Evolutionary ecologist and UC Davis alumna Jessica M. Aguilar, a National Science Foundation postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University who researches the evolution of diet detoxification in insects, will speak on "Evolution of Xenobiotic Detoxification Genes in the Herbivorous Scaptomyza" (leaf-mining fly) at 12:10 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall and also on Zoom. The Zoom link:
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/94173209963.
"Identifying the factors that create and maintain biodiversity is a central goal of evolutionary biology," Aguilar writes in her abstract. "It is clear that biotic interactions spur species diversification, and insect herbivores provide a compelling example of the ways that adaptation to the biotic environment increases diversification rates. Using the herbivores Scaptomyza flava as a model, we used transcriptomics, population genetics, and in vivo characterizations to understand the necessary adaptation to plant chemicals of two ubiquitous detoxification genes, cytochrome p450s and Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs)."
Aguilar will be introduced by Professor Rachel Vannette, vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Aguilar, a member of the Tadashi Fukami lab since June of 2024, relates that she is "studying the evolutionary dynamics of the bacteria and phage in the gut of the coffee berry borer beetle, especially in response to the high amounts of caffeine present in their diet."
She holds a bachelor of science degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from UC Davis, where she studied with Professor Louie Yang. She received her doctorate in integrative biology, computational and genomic biology in May of 2024 from UC Berkeley, studying with major professor Noah Whiteman. For her dissertation, she researched the interactions between the leaf-mining fly S. flava, their host plants, and their gut microbiome.
Aguilar authored research titled "Insights into the Evolution of Herbivory from a Leaf-Mining Fly," published April 23, 2024 in Ecosphere, an open access publication of the Ecological Society of America.
"Herbivorous insects and their host plants comprise most known species on Earth. Illuminating how herbivory repeatedly evolved in insects from nonherbivorous lineages is critical to understanding how this biodiversity is created and maintained," she and her co-authors wrote in the abstract. "We characterized the trophic niche of Scaptomyza flava, a representative of a lineage nested within the Drosophila that transitioned to herbivory ~10–15 million years ago. We used natural history studies to determine whether S. flava is a true herbivore or a cryptic microbe-feeder, given that the ancestral character state for the family Drosophilidae is likely microbe-feeding. Specifically, we quantified oviposition substrate choice and larval viability across food types, trophic-related morphological traits, and nitrogen isotope and sterol profiles across putatively herbivorous and nonherbivorous drosophilids. The results of these studies show that S. flava is an obligate herbivore of living plants. Paired with its genetic model host, Arabidopsis thaliana, S. flava is a novel and powerful system for exploring mechanisms underlying the evolution of herbivory, a complex trait that enabled the exceptional diversification of insects."
For any seminar technical issues, contact seminar coordinator Marshal McMunn, assistant professor, at msmcmunn@ucdavis.edu.
Cover image: Scaptomyza flava in The Netherlands. (Courtesy of Dick Belgers, Wikipedia)