Publications
| the design of silk fiber composition in moths has been conserved for more than 150 million years. | the silk of caterpillars is secreted in the labial glands, stored as a gel in their lumen, and converted into a solid filament during spinning. heavy chain fibroin (h-fibroin), light chain fibroin (l-fibroin), and p25 protein constitute the filament core in a few species that have been analyzed. identification of these proteins in yponomeuta evonymella, a moth from a family which diverged from the rest of lepidoptera about 150 million years ago, reveals that the mode of filament construction is ... | 2006 | 16755355 |
| evolution of multicomponent pheromone signals in small ermine moths involves a single fatty-acyl reductase gene. | fatty-acyl coa reductases (far) convert fatty acids into fatty alcohols in pro- and eukaryotic organisms. in the lepidoptera, members of the far gene family serve in the biosynthesis of sex pheromones involved in mate communication. we used a group of closely related species, the small ermine moths (lepidoptera: yponomeutidae) as a model to investigate the role of fars in the biosynthesis of complex pheromone blends. homology-based molecular cloning in three yponomeuta species led to the identif ... | 2010 | 20534481 |