Insect
Reproduction
lab

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

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HIGHLIGHTS OF 2018

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.

2018 SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

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.