The long-term objective of this research is to gain an understanding of the neuroendocrine control of the development and activity of the poison gland of the Imported Fire Ant queen, Solenopsis invicta, and the elucidation of the biosynthetic pathway of the venom alkaloids and the attractant pheromone produced by this gland. Reaching these long-term objectives will be greatly enhanced by the development of an in vitro culture system for the poison gland. Thus one of the major goals of this pilot project is to investigate the feasibility of maintaining the poison gland in tissue culture using techniques similar to that developed by this investigator for the successful in vitro culture of the sex pheromone gland of the Indian Meal Moth, plodia interpunctella and the Navel Orangeworm, Amyelois transitella (Srinivasan, et al., 1979, 1986). Another goal of this project is to determine if the pheromone and the venom alkaloids can be recovered from the glands maintained in tissue culture and also from the medium in which the glands were cultured. The determination of the recovery of the pheromone will be conducted using bioassay (Vander Meer, et al., 1980) and the recovery of the venom alkaloids will be determined by fused capillary column gas chromatography (Obin and Vander Meer, 1985). Another important goal of this project is to involve undergraduate students in research so that they will be motivated to consider research as a career option.
