The evolution of diet breadth amongst herbivorous insects has long served as a testing ground for hypotheses about the role of ecological adaptation in biological diversification and speciation, but the scope of such research has been limited by the tools available. The advent of next generation sequencing technologies has made it possible to conduct a detailed examination of diet breadth evolution in a well-researched group of moths (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Heliothinae). The family Noctuidae is one of the largest in the order Lepidoptera, and research on the noctuid subfamily Heliothinae, which includes some of the world's most injurious crop pests, spans a wide range of evolutionary questions. This research project will use comparative genomics to examine the genetic basis of host plant range in at least seven heliothine species (ranging from extreme generalists feeding on many plant orders to extreme specialists feeding on a few plant species in a single genus) to identify the genes/gene categories involved in diet breadth evolution. By placing these results in a phylogenetic context, this research will help clarify the role of diet breadth evolution in the extraordinary phylogenetic radiation of the Lepidoptera.
This project will provide the Fellow with expertise in the emerging field of phylogenomics, and with fundamental training in bioinformatics, genomics, and transcriptomics. These skills will allow the Fellow to pursue future research on the genetic basis of ecologically important traits in a variety of organisms. The approaches developed during the course of this research will contribute to the analysis of genomic data from non-model organisms, and will potentially provide new techniques for integrating analyses at different levels (e.g., populations, species, and higher taxa). This project includes participation by middle school, high school, and college students from underrepresented groups, who will be mentored in the theory and practice of scientific research.
