Molecular physiology of organic cation and metals excretion in insects

近年来，昆虫农业害虫和昆虫媒介疾病已经变得死灰复燃，并且因此已经成为日益严重的经济、农业、环境和健康相关问题。通常，用于控制昆虫害虫或疾病媒介的策略和化合物对人类和环境越来越无效或可能有害。为了改进现有的昆虫控制策略，需要更好地了解昆虫如何排泄潜在的有毒化合物。我的研究利用昆虫基因组科学和先进的生理技术的最新进展，研究负责排泄有毒有机分子，如农药的机制，并通过水生和陆生昆虫的马氏（肾）小管排泄潜在的有毒金属。这项研究的好处包括：1）确定新的目标，以开发新的有效和环境友好的昆虫控制措施：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的昆虫种群产生有害影响。3)这项研究确定的转运蛋白可能成为有毒物质暴露的潜在生物标志物。4)发展不同种类昆虫作为侦测环境毒物释出之哨生物。5)这项研究的结果可用于制定健全的环境政策方面的有毒物质释放到环境中。此外，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，为学员提供学术界，工业界和政府中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 research takes advantage of the recent advances in insect genomic science and advanced physiological techniques to study the 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 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.