Research program
I am interested in exploring insect locomotion from the level of neurons to species. Orientation and navigation are fundamental for animals to move through their environments and require integration of a variety of sensory cues. For many animals, such as locusts or monarch butterflies, navigation depends on the internal state of the animal and environmental conditions. Like these larger insects, even the humble vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster, can disperse long distances using celestial cues. In my lab we will leverage the genetic tools available to probe the neural circuits underlying orientation and navigation. In addition to learning about how animals move in the environment, this provides a powerful system to explore sensory-motor integration. How do animals process sensory cues and how does the nervous system transform this information into different motor patterns? We currently explore Drosophila responses to celestial cues during flight while varying sensory and motor inputs to explore their effect on flight behavior. Beyond flies, we are interested in exploring how life history shapes flight behavior, comparing the eusocial bumble bee to the solitary fly. A third avenue of research in the lab examines how extreme environments shape insect locomotion and physiology.
Neural circuits
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Using genetic tools and live neural imaging we will examine neurons involved in orientation and navigation behavior.
Development of flight behavior
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How does flight behavior develop in early adulthood? How does life history and sociality shape the physiology and behavior of flying insects?
Extreme environments
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We are currently exploring how hypergravity affects walking and geotactic behaviors in flies.
Neural circuits
Exploring the neural circuitry underlying orientation
Using genetic tools available in Drosophila melanogaster, we seek to identify neurons involved in celestial orientation. Multiphoton imaging allows us to quantify activity of specific cells or cell classes during flight behavior. Optogenetic tools allow us to precisely silence or activate cells during behavior. In conjunction with novel methods to identify neurons that putatively connect with neurons of interest (trans-Tango, photoactivatable GFP) we can effectively identify and characterize how information is processed in the insect brain during an ethologically-relevant behavior.
Development of flight behavior
Comparative study of flight behavior
Insects vary in behavioral and physiological development. While many solitary taxa must be ready to fly within hours of eclosion, adults in eusocial species can develop more slowly with the assistance of their nestmates. We are interested in examining phyioloigcal, hormonal, and behavioral differences in the development of flight in eusocial and solitary species, focusing on bumble bees and Drosophila.
Extreme Environments
Responses to hypergravity
Exposure to high or low gravity can have dramatic impact on animal’s physiology, and understanding its effects has particular importance for human space travel. We leverage the genetic tools in Drosophila to explore how acute and chronic exposure to the evolutionarily novel stimulus of hypergravity leads to changes in locomotion through effects on physiology and the nervous system.
Hypergravity simulator.
After acute exposure to 7G, flies do not exhibit typical geotactic behavior (vertical wall climbing).