Lina Ni
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, VA·Neuroscience
Insects cannot generate their own body heat, so they rely on the temperature and moisture around them to stay warm enough and hydrated. These two conditions affect how fast insects develop, how well their immune systems fight pathogens, and where their populations spread.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Biology
Genetics
- Topics
thermosensation
temperature sensing
hygrosensation
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Mar 2031
What they work on
- Identify the molecules that let newly discovered warm-activated neurons in the dorsal organ of fruit fly larvae detect warmth, testing a candidate new class of warm-sensing receptors with fly genetics.
- Determine how dorsal organ warm cells set larval temperature preference, and whether they modulate neighboring cool-activated neurons by changing those cells' physiological properties.
- Uncover the unknown moisture-sensing mechanism in fruit fly larvae by finding the molecular receptors and sensory neurons that detect humidity changes.
- Determine how temperature and moisture information are combined in sensory neurons and brain circuits to guide larval navigation toward favorable conditions.
More about the research
That links temperature and moisture to outbreaks of disease-carrying insects and crop pests. Many disease vectors, such as mosquitoes, also find warm-blooded hosts by sensing their body heat. The lab studies how animals detect these environmental cues and turn them into behavior. Its model is larvae of the fruit fly Drosophila, which have simple nervous systems, transparent bodies and powerful genetic tools. Their sensing molecules are also conserved in mosquitoes and other insects.
Why it matters
Mosquitoes and other disease vectors use body heat to find the hosts they bite, and temperature and moisture shape outbreaks of vectors and agricultural pests. Identifying the conserved molecules and neurons insects use to sense warmth and humidity could provide new targets for disrupting blood-feeding. It could also support better ways to predict and control outbreaks of disease-carrying insects and crop pests.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Arnaldo Carreira-Rosario
Duke University, NC·Neuroscience·Early-career
Identify the neurons that start spontaneous network activity in the Drosophila larval locomotor circuit and the mechanism by which they trigger it.
William Tracey
Indiana University, IN·Neuroscience
Characterize the function of nociception genes identified through forward genetic screens, focusing on evolutionarily conserved genes not already known to play important roles in sensing tissue-damaging stimuli.
Christopher Potter
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Neuroscience
Develop methods to harvest functional Ir8a chemosensory receptor complexes directly from roughly 10 million antennae of transgenic Drosophila expressing an EGFP-tagged Ir8a co-receptor.
The school
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: 35 labs on PI Pages, $657M a year on research, 496 research doctorates a year.
More about Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
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