Publications by authors named "G R Banta"
Article Synopsis
- Bemisia tabaci is a highly damaging pest that affects various crops, and its management is complicated by pesticide resistance.
- The study focused on the Ecdysis triggering hormone receptor (ETHr) gene, finding that it is most expressed in third-instar nymphs and plays a critical role in the growth and reproduction of whiteflies.
- Silencing the ETHr gene using RNA interference (RNAi) resulted in significantly higher mortality rates among whiteflies and reduced their reproductive success, suggesting that targeting this gene could lead to new insecticides for controlling whitefly populations.
Background: Species- and genetic diversity can change in parallel, resulting in a species-genetic diversity correlation (SGDC) and raising the question if the same drivers influence both biological levels of diversity. The SGDC can be either positive or negative, depending on whether the species diversity and the genetic diversity of the measured species respond in the same or opposite way to drivers. Using a traditional species diversity approach together with ultra-conserved elements and high throughput sequencing, we evaluated the SGDCs in benthic macrofauna communities in the Baltic Sea, a geologically young brackish water sea characterised by its steep salinity gradient and low species richness.
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- - Sediments can act as both sources and sinks for contaminants like copper (Cu) and essential materials, influencing nutrient and pollutant dynamics via bioturbation from benthic organisms.
- - The study investigated how sediment-associated Cu affects the tubificid worm *T. tubifex* using traditional and non-destructive toxicity tests, revealing that Cu exposure impacted worm mortality, growth, and behaviors like feeding and bioturbation.
- - Findings showed that lower Cu concentrations initially had a slight positive effect, while higher concentrations led to detrimental outcomes, suggesting the need for using simple behavioral endpoints in ecotoxicity tests to better understand the impacts of pollutants on sediment ecosystems.
Potential of RNA interference in the study and management of the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci.
Arch Insect Biochem Physiol
February 2019
Whiteflies cause considerable losses to crops, directly by feeding, and indirectly by transmission of viruses. The current control methods consist of a combination of different control tactics, mainly still relying on unsafe and non-ecofriendly chemical control. RNA interference (RNAi) is a post-transcriptional gene-silencing strategy in which double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), corresponding specifically to a target gene, is introduced in a target organism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPoecilogonous species show variation in developmental mode, with larvae that differ both morphologically and ecologically. The spionid polychaete shows variation in developmental mode not only between populations, but also seasonally within populations. We investigated the consequences of this developmental polymorphism on the spatial and seasonal genetic structure of at four sites in the Danish Isefjord-Roskilde-Fjord estuary at six time points, from March 2014 until February 2015.
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