| The first activities took place late in the decade of 1970, when XB started working on the inhibitory action of juvenile hormone and juvenile hormone analogs on insect metamorphosis. Research was carried out in the Institute of BioOrganic Chemistry (CSIC, Barcelona). Important in this time was the development of biological tests to evaluate the antimetamorphic activity of juvenile hormone and juvenile hormone analogues in different insect species. Analogues were synthesized by Francesc Camps and Josep Coll and their groups at Institute of BioOrganic Chemistry. In these years, we also counted on the collaboration of Miroslav Romanuk and Karel Slama, from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (CAS, Prague). [more]. |  |
Decade 1980
| Still in the Institute of BioOrganic Chemistry (CSIC, Barcelona), we continued the research on the inhibitory action of juvenile hormones on metamorphosis, and we carried out the first studies on the relationships between the corpora allata and oocyte growth in the German cockroach, Blattella germanica. A number of inhibitors of juvenile hormone biosynthesis, including compactin and precocenes, were investigated. As methodological achievement, we developed the radiochemical assay to measure juvenile hormone biosynthesis in the corpora allata of B. germanica incubated in vitro, inspired on the works of Grahame Pratt (The University of Sussex) and Stephen Tobe (University of Toronto). We also worked on the synthesis and study of biological activity of precocenes, in collaboration with William Bowers (Cornell University). The project of doctoral thesis of Maria-Dolors Piulachs, developed in the lab and finished in 1987, was an important milestone. [more]. |  |
Decade 1990
| Early in the decade, we carried out the first studies on B. germanica ecdysteroids (molting, antiecdysteroids, oogenesis and chorion formation), researches on allatostatins and other regulators of juvenile hormone synthesis and cDNA cloning of Juvenile hormone biosynthesis enzymes. We started the studies on vitellogenin (protein and gene expression). In 1996, we organized the XII Ecdysone Workshop. Late in the decade, the lab moved to the Institute of Molecular Biology of Barcelona. Concerning methodological aspects, we developed an enzyme immunoassay to quantify ecdysteroids in collaboration with Patrick Porcheron (University of Paris), and with Jan Koolman (University of Marburg), we trained in immunocytochemistry in the Girardie Lab (University of Bordeaux), and we carried out the purification and identification of B. germanica allatostatins in collaboration with Alan Thorpe and Hanne Duve (University of London). Molecular cloning became a current technique in the lab (enzymes of the juvenile hormone pathway in collaboration with Fausto G. Hegardt, University of Barcelona, and of allatostatin precursors in collaboration with Stephen Tobe lab, University of Toronto, and of vitellogenin). Important milestones were the PhD thesis projects of José-Luis Maestro (finished in 1994), Nuria Pascual (in 1995), David Martín (in 1997) and Lluïsa Vilaplana (in 1998). [more]. |  |
Decade 2000
| We continued the molecular studies on enzymes of Juvenile hormone biosynthesis. Vitellogenin synthesis under the action of juvenile hormone. Vitellogenin and lipophorin receptors. Researches on the regulation of food intake. Molecular and functional studies on nuclear receptors involved in ecdysone signalling. Juvenile hormone and insect metamorphosis. Regulatory role of small RNAs. In 2008, the lab, as one of the founders of the new Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), moved to this Institute. As methodological achievements, we can highlight the molecular cloning of nuclear receptors of the ecdysteroid cascade, membrane receptors involved in vitellogenesis and transcription factors involved in juvenile hormone action. Also, we implemented the interference of RNA (RNAi) techniques for functional genomic studies, high throughput sequencing, comparative genomic studies and construction of libraries by Suppression Subtractive Hybridization. Finally, we implemented the techniques for identification, detection, quantification and interference of small RNAs. PhD thesis projects finished in the lab in this decade were those of Daniel Comas (in 2000), Rafael Zapata (in 2002), Ruth Aguilar (in 2003), Josefa Cruz (in 2006), Daniel Mañé-Padrós (in 2007) and Laura Ciudad (in 2008). In 2008, three PIs from the original Belles group consolidated their own independent groups: Maria-Dolors Piulachs (insect reproduction), José-Luis Maestro (nutritional signals in insects) and David Martín (nuclear receptors in insect development). [more].
Click here [pdf] for a CV of X. Belles |
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