Insect age: an ecological genomics approach to understanding host-parasite interactions

昆虫年龄(或昆虫种群的年龄结构)在了解昆虫与其非生物和生物环境之间的关系方面的重要性已在许多理论研究中得到强调，但很少被直接验证。这是因为几乎没有工具可以准确地测量野生昆虫的年龄。在这项提案中，我们计划使用基因组学方法来开发可用于有效确定昆虫年龄的工具，然后应用这些工具来更好地了解昆虫年龄与昆虫将病原体传播给人类、牲畜或植物的能力之间的关系。这些工具还将在开发控制昆虫传播疾病的新方法方面具有未来的适用性，并提供方法来确定当前旨在杀死具有农业或公共卫生意义的害虫种群的控制计划的有效性。

The importance of insect age (or the age structure of a population of insects) in understanding relationships between insects and their abiotic and biotic environment has been stressed in many theoretical studies but seldom directly tested. This is because few tools exist that can accurately measure the age of a wild-caught insect with any accuracy. In this proposal we plan to use a genomics approach to develop tools that can be used to efficiently determine the age of an insect and then apply these tools to better understand the relationship between insect age and the ability of an insect to transmit pathogens to humans, livestock or plants. These tools will also have future applicability in developing new approaches to control insect transmitted disease as well as provide methodology to determine the effectiveness of current control programs that seek to kill pest insect populations of agricultural or public health significance.