NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2013

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This Postdoctoral Research Fellowship award to Dr. Alex R. Van Dam is supported by both the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Office of International Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation. During the 24-month fellowship, Dr. Van Dam will work on a project titled, "New insights into insect host-plant generalization: population transcriptome sequencing of Porphyrophora spp." under the sponsorship of Dr. Uffe H. Mortensen at the Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark.Many of the worlds' crops are attacked by parasitic sap sucking insects, eg. aphids and scale insects, which lead to crop losses and threaten food security. Among these insects, there is a wide variation in the number of plants they can attack. This project aims to describe genes responsible for different scale insects' host plant preferences by comparing the genes found in generalists (insects that feed on many different plant species) to specialists (insects that feed on only a few or single plant species). Besides identifying genes responsible for host plant preference in scale insects, this project also aims to understand how host plant preference genes are maintained across populations, and if this has an affect on the number of plant species they can feed on. Specifically the project aims to test if large populations are able to better maintain genes that lead to greater host plant breadth than small populations. A practical application of this research is utility in biological control of invasive weeds, and control of agricultural pests. This will help in broader societal goals such as reduction of pesticide use and sustainable farming. Support of this research will lead to discoveries that will make for a more profitable agriculture industry. Additionally practical bioinformatics tutorials will be developed that are open-access and web-based resources aimed at graduate students and undergraduates. Open-access tutorials on bioinformatics will benefit undergraduate and graduate student career development. This award provides a unique opportunity for a US scientist to collaborate with foreign scientists, and utilize the unique facilities, expertise and experimental conditions available abroad.