Molecular physiology of organic cation and metals excretion in insects

近年来，农业害虫和虫媒疾病死灰复燃，成为日益严重的经济、农业、环境和卫生相关问题。用于控制虫害或病媒的战略和化合物往往越来越无效，或对人类和环境有潜在危害。为了改进现有的昆虫控制策略，需要更好地了解昆虫是如何排泄潜在有毒化合物的。我提出的研究将利用昆虫基因组科学的最新进展，从生理学上确定和表征水生和陆生昆虫的马尔比氏（肾）小管排泄有毒有机分子（如杀虫剂）和潜在有毒金属的机制。本研究的好处包括：1)为开发新的有效和环保的昆虫防治措施找到新的目标；2)帮助我们了解昆虫如何适应不同的环境以及环境污染物如何对有益昆虫种群产生有害影响。3)本研究鉴定的转运蛋白可能成为潜在的毒物暴露生物标志物。4)开发不同种类的昆虫作为检测环境毒物释放的哨兵生物。5)这项研究的结果可用于制定有关毒物释放到环境中的健全环境政策。此外，该研究计划将提供分子生物学、生理学和毒理学方面的广泛科学培训，这将为学员提供在学术界、工业界和政府中从事各种生物学相关工作所需的技能。

Insect agricultural pests and insect vectored diseases have become resurgent in recent years and as a result have become growing economic, agricultural, environmental, and health related problems. All too often, the strategies and compounds used to control insect pests or disease vectors are increasingly ineffective or potentially harmful to man and the environment. In order to improve on existing insect control strategies a greater understanding of how insects excrete potentially toxic compounds is needed. My proposed research will take advantage of the recent advances in insect genomic science to identify and physiologically characterize mechanisms responsible for excretion of toxic organic molecules such as pesticides, and excretion of potentially toxic metals by the Malpighian (renal) tubule of both aquatic and terrestrial insects. Benefits of this research include: 1) Identifying new targets for the development of novel effective and environmentally benign insect control measures: 2) Helping us understand how insects adapt to different environments and how environmental pollutants may have deleterious effects on beneficial insect populations. 3) Transport proteins identified as a result of this research could become potential biomarkers for toxicant exposure. 4) Development of different species of insects as sentinel organisms for detecting environmental toxicant release. 5) Results of this research can be utilized for the development of sound environmental policy with regard to the release of toxicants into the environment. In addition, this research program will provide broad scientific training in molecular biology, physiology, and toxicology, which will provide trainees with the skills required for a variety of biology related jobs in academia, industry and government.