EDGE FGT: MUSH-IT: MUlti-Species Hemimetabolous Insect Tools

Most animals on earth are insects, and studying them is essential to understand the evolution of life on Earth. They are the only animals that colonize habits in air, land and water. Figuring out how insect bodies can function in such diverse environments has led to the creation of new robotic designs, generating robots that can fly, swim, or crawl over rough terrain.

Insects are also essential to human health because they are major plant pollinators, and thus crucial for the agricultural activity that provides human food. As for all animals, the body shapes and behaviors of insects are largely governed by their genes, making the study of insect genetics a high priority. Despite their obvious importance, our ability to study the true diversity of insects in the laboratory has been severely limited by the fact that no methods have been developed to understand the function of genes in the vast majority of insects.

In this proposal, we will develop new methods for learning about the sequences and functions of genes in insects from five different major insect groups. We will generate new genome sequences, improve and streamline methods for rearing these insects in controlled laboratory environments, and improve on existing methods or develop new ones to interfere with gene functions to understand how genes regulate insect biology.

We will share our findings and new methods with the global community of insect scientists in the form of video protocols, an interactive Slack group, and in-person and livestreamed workshops.

Insects have dominated animal diversity since their first appearance on Earth over 500 million years ago. Studying insects has led to ground-breaking discoveries across all fields of science. Despite this, only two of the 19 major groups (orders) of these insects contain model laboratory species with robust functional genetics techniques that are used outside of the laboratories that initially developed them.

This gap will be addressed by generating novel MUlti-Species Hemimetabolous Insect Tools (MUSH-IT) for species from five hemimetabolous insect orders. First, the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus will be developed into a highly sophisticated hemimetabolous insect for functional genomics. Second, species from four additional hemimetabolous orders will be developed into laboratory model organisms for functional genetics, providing researchers with a broader phylogenetic range of study systems across the base of insects.

Annual workshops will be held to help researchers working with Hemimetabola learn, troubleshoot, adapt and develop new methods for control of gene function in this critical branch of insects. This project will enhance existing infrastructure for research and education across the many fields of science that use insects as study systems.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.