Stephen L. Dobson

 

In the last century, our reliance upon chemical pesticides to control insects has been increasingly challenged. As more and more insecticides are "pulled off the shelf" due to insect resistance and health/ecological concerns, scientists are searching for additional strategies to control arthropod pests. One potential means for insect control that is currently receiving much attention is a group of bacteria known as Wolbachia. The unique ability of these bacteria to manipulate insect reproduction has led to the proposal of two strategies for controlling insect populations. The first strategy utilizes the ability of Wolbachia to sterilize insects and thus reduce populations of pest insects. A second Wolbachia strategy, known as "population replacement," uses Wolbachia to replace entire insect populations with a modified population. One potential use for this latter strategy would be replacing an insect population responsible for transmitting disease (e.g., aphids transmitting plant pathogens or mosquitoes transmitting human disease) with strains that cannot vector the disease. Our lab is using molecular biology combined with both classical genetics and field research to examine and evaluate these proposed Wolbachia strategies and additional means of battling arthropod pests.

Dobson Lab

UK Department of Entomology

University of Kentucky