Grace Pruett, Ph.D. Candidate
Biology, Kearney Lab
Mosquitoes are vectors of several human pathogens including Zika virus, Dengue virus, Malaria, and numerous others. These pathogens are spread to humans when female mosquitoes blood feed to lay eggs. Since males do not feed on blood and females cannot live long exclusively on blood, nectar and other plant sugar sources are consumed as the main source of energy. Indoor and outdoor studies of mosquito preference of plant nectar sources have shown that the extrafloral nectar of Impatiens walleriana is particularly attractive to mosquitoes. This points to impatiens as an attractive species for delivery of target-specific toxins to mosquitoes especially since impatiens is one of the rare mosquito-attractive plants easily modified by Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation. These studies focus on transforming impatiens nectar into a platform for delivering biological products with the goal of controlling mosquito populations and preventing the spread of mosquito-borne diseases.
Tuesday, November26, 2019, 3:30 – 4:30 pm, BSB, room C.206
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