
MEMBERS OF THE GROUP (Active in 2018)
Research Technician José Carlos Montañés
Laboratory Technician Viviana Pagone
Master Students Fleur Chelemen, Ariadna Pedraza, Natalia Llonga
Undergraduate Student Oscar Paniello
I participate in the consortium that have sequenced the genome of a cockroach (Blattella germanica) and a termite (Cryptotermes secundus), doing a comparative analysis of genomes that provides key information about the evolution of insect eusociality. We also sequenced and identified, for the first time, the piRNA from a cockroach, studying its expression through the different developmental stages of B- germanica, and we did a comparative analysis against the piRNA from holometabolan insects showing the low level of conservation of these small non-coding RNAs between species. I was nominated as member of the ECE Praesidium.
Harrison, M.C., Jongepier, E., Robertson, H.M., Arning, N., Bitard-Feildel, T., Chao, H., Childers, C.P., Dinh, H., Doddapaneni, H., Dugan, S., Gowin, J., Greiner, C., Han, Y., Hu, H., Hughes, D.S.T., Huylmans, A.K., Kemena, C., Kremer, L.P.M., Lee, S,L,, Lopez-Ezquerra, A., Mallet, L., Monroy-Kuhn, J.M., Moser, A., Murali, S.C., Muzny, D.M., Otani, S., Piulachs, M.D., Poelchau, M., Qu, J., Schaub, F., Wada-Katsumata, A., Worley, K.C., Xie, Q., Ylla, G., Poulsen, M., Gibbs, R.A., Schal, C., Richards, S., Belles, X*., Korb, J*., Bornberg-Bauer. E*. 2018. Hemimetabolous genomes reveal molecular basis of termite eusociality. Nature Ecology and Evolution 2(3): 557-566.
Llonga, N., Ylla, G., Bau, J., Belles, X., Piulachs, M.D. (2018). Differential expression of piRNAs during the ontogeny of Blattella germanica, a short germ-band, hemimetabolan insect. J. Experimental Zoology. Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution. DOI: 10.1002/jez.b.22815. Corresponding author
Ylla, G., Piulachs, M.D. and Belles, X. (2018). Clues about the evolution of insect metamorphosis revealed by comparative transcriptomics of hemimetabolan and holometabolan species. iScience (Cell Press) 4, 164–179 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2018.05.017. We used 22 transcriptomes from B. germanica to analyze keys steps in insect development.
Title: RNAi “a la carta” para el control de cucarachas.
Funded by: MINECO (Ministry of Science, Spain).
Reference: CGL2016-76011-R.
PI: M.D. Piulachs y J.L. Maestro
Date: 2016-2019
99.000€
Title: Modifying plants to produce interfering RNA.
Funded by: CA COSTaction CA15223
PI: Bruno Mezzetti. (MD Piulachs Delegate for the Spanish Management Committee)
Date: 2016-2020
Title: Functional Genomics and Evolution (Ajuts de suport a la recerca de Catalunya, SGR).
Funded by: Generalitat de Catalunya, General Direction of Research, AGAUR. Catalan Government.
Reference: 2017-SGR 1030
Coordinator: Xavier Bellés
Date: 2017-2018
Follicular cells in a basal ovarian follicle from a 7-day-old adult female. Green: F-Actins stained with Phalloidin-Trict. Red: DNA staining with DAPI