Retinoids are vital for normal embryonic development and are necessary during postnatal development and adulthood for the maintenance of the reproductive and nervous system and for visual pigment synthesis. STRA6 (Stimulated by retinoic acid 6) is the cell surface receptor for retinol binding protein (RBP4), which facilitates the cellular uptake of retinol. Mutations in Stra6 are responsible fo...

The red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum) is a major pest of stored grain and grain products and a popular model species for a variety of ecological, evolutionary, and developmental biology studies. Development of a linkage map based on reproducible and highly polymorphic molecular markers would greatly facilitate research in these disciplines. We have developed a genetic linkage map using 269...

Parasite infection impacts population dynamics through effects on fitness and fecundity of the individual host. In addition to the known roles of environmental factors, host susceptibility to parasites has a genetic basis that has not been well characterized. We previously mapped quantitative trait loci (QTL) for susceptibility to rat tapeworm (Hymenolepis diminuta) infection in Tribolium casta...

In animals having internal fertilization, both sexes can potentially influence the post-copulatory processes of sperm transfer, sperm storage and sperm use for fertilization. In this experiment, we investigated whether Tribolium castaneum females can influence male paternity success following consecutive matings with two different males. We compared second male paternity success (P2) between fe...

Male accessory gland proteins (Acps) act as key modulators of reproductive success in insects by influencing the female reproductive physiology and behavior. We used custom microarrays and identified 112 genes that were highly expressed in male accessory glands (MAG) in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum. Out of these 112 identified genes, 59 of them contained sequences coding for signal...

Tandemly repeated satellite DNAs are among most rapidly evolving sequences in eukaryotic genome, usually differing significantly among closely related species. By inducing changes in heterochromatin and/or centromere, satellite DNAs are expected to drive population and species divergence. However, despite high evolutionary dynamics, divergence of satellite DNA profiles at the level of natural p...

Specialized insect mouthparts, such as those of Drosophila, are derived from an ancestral mandibulate state, but little is known about the developmental genetics of mandibulate mouthparts. Here, we study the metamorphic patterning of mandibulate mouthparts of the beetle Tribolium castaneum, using RNA interference to deplete the expression of 13 genes involved in mouthpart patterning. These data...

Gamma radiation effects on the gonads of Tribolium castaneum were assessed by cytological techniques. Pupal treatments of 15 Gy resulted in the significant reduction of testes and ovaries leading to sterility in males and infecundity in females, respectively. The present findings thus provide an important information for designing a sterile male technique for this storage pest species.

There is a great demand for safe and effective alternative fumigants to replace methyl bromide and other toxic fumigants for postharvest pest control. Nitric oxide, a common signal molecule in biological systems, was found to be effective and safe to control insects under ultralow oxygen conditions. Four insect species including western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (Thys...