Insect-Pathogen Interactions
Major Research Directions
Our Research
Insects are some of the most abundant animals on Earth and have been co-evolving with pathogens for 500 million years. Insects defend themselves from bacterial infection using a robust innate immune system that is highly conserved to the immune responses that animals use in barrier tissues like the lungs. Understanding how these systems function and evolve is crucial to understanding health and disease across animals.
In our research, we leverage the powerful genetic and experimental tools available in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to make rapid progress in understanding how innate immune responses function, how they are integrated into the metabolic and physiological state of the host, and how they evolve in response to changing pathogen pressures.
Insect Immune Function
We study how insect immune systems work, and examine how environmental, physiological, and genetic variation impacts the quality of immune defense.
- Genetic variation and environmental differences that influence resistance to infection
- Sexual dimorphism in immune performance
- How diversity in Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs) leads to robust defense against varied infections
- Tolerance of infection as a way to maintain health and fitness
Immunity in Physiological Context
Our research tests the impacts of metabolic state, reproductive investment, and other physiological demands on the effectiveness of the immune response.
- Tradeoffs between reproductive investment and immune defense
- Hormonal regulation of the immune system
- Effects of diet and metabolism on resistance to infection
- Life history theory and the evolution of defense
Bacterial Infection and Anti-Immune Defense
We evaluate bacterial defenses against the host immune response, and how feedback between host immunity and bacterial counter-defense determines infection outcome.
- Mechanisms bacteria use to protect themselves from host immune reactions
- Chronic bacterial infections, how they are established and how they persist
- Mathematical modeling of dynamic interactions between host and pathogen
Evolution of Insect Immune Systems
We analyze evolutionary patterns in individual genes and at genome scale to understand how natural selection shapes insect immune systems.
- Quantitative genetic mapping to identify genes that control variation in defense against infection
- Genetic basis for genotype-by-environment interactions
- Molecular evolution and population genetics of insect immune genes
- Comparative genomics of immune systems across insects
- Evolutionary genetics of mosquitoes and other insects
Federal Funding Supports Our Research
NIH NIAID - R01 AI200383 - "Evolution and Engineering of Specificity in Antimicrobial Peptides" (2026 - 2031)
NIH NIAID - R21 AI200399 - "Hierarchical Control in an Endocrine-mediated Gene Regulatory Network Supporting Innate Immunity" (2026 - 2031)
NIH NIAID - R01 AI141385 - "Mechanisms and Evolutionary Consequences of a Reproduction-Immunity Tradeoff" (2019 - 2026)
NIH NIAID - R03 AI144882 - "Cellular Basis for Diverse Multifunction of Drosophila Fat Body Tissue" (2019 - 2022)
NIH NIAID - R56 AI083932 - "Genetic and Physiological Constraint on Immunity" (2017 - 2018)
NIH NIAID - R01 AI083932 - "Genetic Network Linking Immunity to Energetic Stress, Metabolism and Reproduction" (2009 - 2017)
NIH NIAID - R01 AI062995 - "Evolutionary Genomics of Anti-Malaria Genes in Mosquito" (2006 - 2012)
NIH NIAID - R01 AI064950 - "Functional and Comparative Genomics of Drosophila Immunity" (2005 - 2017)
NSF DEB - 0415851 - "Evolutionary Genetics of Pathogen Recognition Genes and the Spectrum of Bacteria Associated with Wild D. melanogaster" (2004 - 2009)