Department of Entomology Faculty

David L. Denlinger

• e-mail: Denlinger.1@osu.edu
• Department of Entomology
  Ohio State University
  318 West 12th Avenue
  Aronoff Laboratories
  Columbus, OH 43210
  
• phone: (614) 292-8209
• fax: (614) 292-7865

• Professor
• Chair, Department of Entomology

• Ph.D. 1971 University of Illinois

The focus of my laboratory is the regulation of insect diapause, temperature tolerance and reproduction. Our interest in diapause ranges from its environmental and hormonal regulation to molecular studies examining diapause-specific gene expression. Our recent discovery of diapause-specific brain proteins suggests that a unique set of genes is expressed during diapause, and such genes offer interesting potential as regulators of the diapause response. In addition, we are seeking the identity of a maternally- derived brain factor that turns off the capacity for diapause. Experiments with temperature tolerance examine insects' responses to both high and low temperatures. Of special interest are the physiological adjustments that prevent cold shock and heat shock injury. An ongoing project in Kenya focuses on regulation of reproduction and metamorphosis in the tsetse fly, vector of African sleeping sickness. We are currently characterizing a hormone that stimulates parturition behavior in the tsetse female.

Laboratory Members:

• Joe Rinehart
• Scott Hayward
• Wei-Hu Xu
• Rebecca Robich
• Rob Micaud
• Bing Han

Rinehart, J.P., R.A. Cikra-Ireland, R.D. Flannagan and D.L. Denlinger. 2001. Expression of ecdysone receptor is unaffected by pupal diapause in the flesh fly, Sarcophaga crassipalpis, while its dimerization partner, USP, is downregulated. J. Insect Physiol. 47:915-921.

Denlinger, D.L. 2001. Time for a rest: Programmed diapause in insects. In: Molecular Mechanisms of Metabolic Arrest: Life in Limbo, Ed. K. Storey, pp. 155-167, BIOS Scientific, Oxford.

Denlinger, D.L., J.M. Giebultowicz and D.S. Saunders (editors). 2001. Insect Timing: Circadian Rhythmicity to Seasonality, Elsevier, Amsterdam. 234 p.

Denlinger, D.L., J.P. Rinehart and G.D. Yocum. 2001. Stress proteins: a role in insect diapause? In: Insect Timing: Circadian Rhythmicity to Seasonality, Ed. D.L. Denlinger, J.M. Giebultowicz and D.S. Saunders, pp. 155-171, Elsevier, Amsterdam.

Denlinger, D.L. 2002. Regulation of diapause. Annu. Rev. Entomol. 47:93-122.

Lee, K.Y., F.M. Horodyski, A.P. Valaitis and D.L. Denlinger. 2002. Molecular characterization of the insect immune protein hemolin and its high induction during embryonic diapause in the gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar. Insect Biochem. Mol. Biol. (in press).

Goto, S.G. and D.L. Denlinger. 2002. Genes encoding two cystatins in the flesh fly Sarcophaga crassipalpis and their distinct expression patterns in relation to pupal diapause. Gene 292:121-127.

Goto, S.G. and D.L. Denlinger. 2002. Short-day and long-day expression patterns of genes involved in the flesh fly clock mechanism: period, timeless, cycle and cryptochrome. J. Insect Physiol. 48:803-816.