OPUS: From the Tangled Bank to Genbank: Multi-Scale Approaches to Insect-Plant Interactions

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In this project, two investigators who have collectively devoted more than a half-century to the study of an otherwise unremarkable small brown moth and the noxious weed that is its hostplant will write a scientific "biography" of an ecological interaction. The seemingly ordinary nature of the interaction between parsnip webworms and wild parsnips belies extraordinary complexity; these investigators will showcase, in a book for both specialists and nonspecialists, the complexities of ecological interaction and the value of a multiscale approach for understanding biological systems. The book will cover spatial scales ranging from amino acids in enzymes that metabolize plant toxins in caterpillar guts to hemisphere-level changes in distribution patterns of these species as they are transported out of their native range by human commerce; temporal scales range from millisecond changes in photosynthesis of leaves as they are chewed to evolutionary shifts in plant chemistry over centuries.The broader impact of this project is that it will illustrate the tremendous value of approaching scientific questions at multiple levels. Scientific training has become increasingly specialized even as expansion of knowledge across fields places a premium on broad-based perspectives for 21st century scientific competitiveness. This book can serve as both a useful source of information and as an example of the value of multiscale approaches to interaction ecology. Investigators in the fields of plant chemistry, insect molecular biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, and insect and plant physiology might, by virtue of this example, see connections across different scales in their own studies. Publication of an engaging, well-illustrated book can benefit both researchers and educators and as well benefit society at large by fostering a broader appreciation of multiscale research on such biological interactions as host/pathogen and crop/pest interactions, which can have profound impacts on human health and well-being.