Elke Buschbeck
University of Cincinnati, OH·Biology
Human eyes work like cameras: a single lens focuses an image onto many light-sensing cells. Insects mostly have compound eyes made of many small units.
- Fields
Biology
Ecology & Evolution
Genetics
- Topics
eye development
camera-type eyes
compound eyes
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2030
What they work on
- Test predictions of EyeVolve, the lab's computational model of eye development, that camera-type eyes in sunburst diving beetle (Thermonectus marmoratus) larvae arose by expansion of developmental units.
- Determine where candidate eye-development genes are active in beetle larvae, and what they do, using Hybridization Chain Reaction in situ staining, RNAi gene knockdown and comparative transcriptomics.
- Test whether the single eye (stemma) of the sawfly Neodiprion lecontei forms by fusion of many ommatidial units into one camera-type eye, as EyeVolve predicts.
- Examine how the transcription factors cut and atonal, proteins that switch other genes on and off, shape the support cells of the sawfly stemma during late eye development.
More about the research
Yet some insects have also evolved camera-type eyes with hundreds of photoreceptors (light-sensing cells), and almost nothing is known about how development builds them. This project asks how an ancient eye-building plan can be rearranged to produce such eyes. The answer matters for evolutionary biology and could also guide engineers who design cameras inspired by insect eyes.
Why it matters
Understanding how insects build very different image-forming eyes could inform the design of next-generation imaging devices, autonomous sensors and adaptive optical systems that work well in complex environments. The lab's earlier insect-eye research has already inspired camera designs. The work also adds basic knowledge of how visual systems evolve.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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University of Maryland, MD·Genetics
Determine how the milkweed bug Oncopeltus achieves pair-rule segment patterning without the canonical pair-rule genes used by Drosophila, using expression analysis, RNA interference and CRISPR/Cas9.
Meredith Protas
University of San Francisco, CA·Genetics
Map the genome regions responsible for eye loss in two cave populations of the crustacean Asellus aquaticus and in a surface-population intercross, using RADseq (restriction site-associated DNA sequencing) to read markers across the genome.
Ricardo Mallarino
Princeton University, NJ·Biology
Determine how the signaling center of the sugar glider's gliding membrane (patagium) is established and how the gene Wnt5a controls membrane outgrowth, using spatial transcriptomics and in vivo transgenics.
The school
University of Cincinnati: 18 labs on PI Pages, $740M a year on research, 275 research doctorates a year.
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