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We pursue the molecular, neural, and ethological signatures of arthropod dormancy

The Meiselman Lab’s goal is to understand how the brain perceives threatening environmental factors and effectuates behavioral or metabolic changes in response. Poikilothermic arthropods are particularly vulnerable to abiotic factors like temperature and must, therefore, adopt rapid strategic responses to changing climatic conditions. Many insects, including disease-spreading mosquitoes and ticks, circumvent persistent adverse environmental factors by dramatically suppressing metabolic rate until these factors subside. During winter in temperate climates or dry season in the tropics, vectors like ticks and mosquitoes arrest reproduction and enter a period of quiescence, during which they are major reservoirs for disease. Dormancy is thereby a critical component of disease transmission cycles, but little is known about its mechanistic underpinnings. Cold temperatures elicit similar metabolic and behavioral changes in closely-related Drosophila melanogaster adults; a dramatic metabolic decline that results in a period of stasis wherein reproduction arrests and aging ceases. Our lab uses the fly, which is more genetically tractable than mosquitoes and ticks while maintaining a similar hormonal repertoire, to model arthropod disease vectors.

Even African fruit flies like Drosophila melanogaster have to deal with temperatures that dip beneath their preferred range. How do flies respond when they do? Photo Credit: Jamien Shea
Ticks like Ixodes scapularis spend most of their time, legs curled, waiting in a dormant state for the perfect conditions to hunt for a host. What cues are they waiting for?

Mosquitoes are the world’s deadliest animal. Let’s bite back. Mosquito populations depend upon classes of dormancy like diapause or aestivation to survive seasons that are too cold or too dry for them to thrive. We hope use the closely-related fly as a model to help us find the neurons and neurotransmitters that underpin this state.

News:

The Meiselman Lab is excited to announce we will open our doors at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas on August 1st 2022! We are accepting applicants for Graduate Students, Postdocs and Undergraduate Researchers. Please fill out the form on the “Contact” page, or inquire directly to matthew.meiselman@unlv.edu