The emphasis of my research program is understanding biochemical mechanisms involved in the interaction of arthropods with their hosts. The two systems that we work with are ticks on animal hosts and aphids on plant hosts including wheat and alfalfa. Over the years we have focused on the role of arthropod lipids in these interactions. Extensive studies have been carried out on the role of eicosanoids in tick feeding and we have recently found that endocannabinoids and related fatty acid amides are present in tick salivary glands and saliva. Studies with aphids have focused on the effects of environmental factors, including host plants quality, on aphid fatty acid metabolism. We have found that increased levels of certain fatty acids are correlated with host quality and that aphid fatty acid levels have a profound effects on the plant/aphid/insect predator tritrophic interaction. In the near future we will extend our lipid studies to include the role of lipid mediators in the response of plants to aphid attack.

We have also recently initiated a proteomics approach to study the response of plants to aphid feeding. This research has focused on greenbug and bird-cherry oat aphid feeding on wheat and has yielded interesting insights into differential protein expression induced by these two aphid species.. We are also initiating a similar study on the effects of aphid feeding on the model legume, Medicago truncatula. .