Research Highlights

Research Highlights

Living with ants–

Moore W. and A. Di Giulio. 2019. Out of the burrow and into the nest: functional anatomy of three life history stages of Ozaena lemoulti (Coleoptera: Carabidae) reveals an obligate life with ants. PLOS ONE
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209790

Featured on PBS NOVA and Science Friday

Climate change impacts–

Yanahan, A.D. and W. Moore 2019. Impacts of 21st‐century climate change on montane habitat in the Madrean Sky Island Archipelago. Diversity and Distributions https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12965

Chemical defense–

NSF, Evolutionary Ecology. Collaborative Research: The Genetic Basis, Biosynthetic Pathways and Evolution of Geadephagan Chemical Defense, Kipling Will (UC Berkeley), W. Moore
(Univ. of Arizona), Tanya Renner (San Diego State University) and Athula Attygalle (Stevens Institute)

Geadephaga is the largest clade of organisms that use a single homologous gland system to produce no less than 19 distinct classes of chemical compounds for defense. This project will develop a detailed functional and evolutionary understanding of defensive chemistry evolution by focusing on eight species from the four lineages of quinone producing carabid beetles, including four species commonly known as the bombardier beetles, which chemically blast their defensive quinones at extremely hot temperatures (up to 100°C). Using a multidisciplinary approach, this project will identify and comparatively examine transcriptomes for genes involved in quinone production, elucidate chemical biosynthetic pathways, and describe the genetic architecture of quinone evolution. From gland-specific transcripts candidate genes related to the production of defensive secretions will be identified and gene function will be validated experimentally by blocking gene transcription and looking phenotypic changes in compounds produced and transcription activity in the chemical secretory cells. Biosynthetic pathways of quinones will be confirmed by injection of labeled amino acid precursors and analysis of compounds produced in the beetles’ glands. In order to study the evolutionary history of quinone biosynthesis in carabids we will infer the phylogenetic history of candidate gene families and the tree topology and branch lengths will be analyzed to test whether genes are ancient and shared among taxa, or if gene diversification is recent and specific to certain lineages. We will test the hypothesis that the genes up-regulated in secretory cells during quinone synthesis are closely related to those involved in quinone production in arthropod cuticle.

Also see this post and this video.

Arndt, E.M., W. Moore, W.K. Lee, C. Ortiz. 2015. Mechanistic origins of the bombardier beetle (Brachinini) explosive pulsed chemical defense.
Science 348: 563 –567.
X-ray video of the reaction chamber during a pulsed blast. Video recorded using Brachinus elongatulus by Eric Arndt, Wendy Moore, and Wah-Keat Lee at Argonne National Labs.

McManus, R., A. Ravenscraft, and W. Moore. 2018. Bacterial associates of a gregarious riparian beetle with explosive defensive chemistry. Frontiers in Microbiology 9:2361. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.02361

Moore, W. and J.A. Robertson. 2014. Explosive adaptive radiation and extreme phenotypic diversity within ant nest beetles.Current Biology 24 : 2435–2439.

Popular press: Nature

Robertson, J.A. and W. Moore
. 2016. Dissecting the species groups of Paussus L. (Carabidae: Paussinae): unraveling morphological convergence associated with myrmecophilous life histories. Systematic Entomology. DOI: 10.1111/syen.12205

Marek, P.E., and

W. Moore. 2015. Discovery of a glowing millipede in California and the gradual evolution of bioluminescence in Diplopoda. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. 112: 6419–6424.

Marek, P., D. Papaj, J. Yeager, S. Molina, W. Moore. 2011. Bioluminescent aposematism in millipedes. Current Biology 21(18): 680-681.