Dr. Mara Heilig
Post Doctoral Fellow at CU Denver
Date: February 6, 2026
Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Location: Denver Campus – North Classroom 1003
Nutritional and Transcritpional Factors Impacting Transgenerational Signaling of the Diapause Program in the Asian Tiger Mosquito, Aedes Albopictus
Transgenerational signaling allows many organisms to anticipate seasonal variation. Diapause, a hormonally-programmed period of developmental arrest, is a widespread example of an anticipatory seasonal adaptation that is often mediated by transgenerational signaling. In temperate habitats, insects often anticipate winter's onset through shortened day-length, and respond by transferring an unknown signal to their offspring to promote dormancy. Whereas the significance of diapause as an ecological adaptation is well established, the molecular regulation of transgenerational diapause signaling remains largely unresolved. The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, is a model for maternally-controlled diapause. Adult females signal their embryos to enter diapause in response to autumnal short-photoperiod. Previous studies indicate increased nutrient storage, increased desiccation resistance, and hormonal modulation of development are hallmarks of Ae. albopictus. However, linking maternal reception of the diapause cue with developmental and physiological changes in offspring remains a major challenge. My work employs two complementary approaches to address this: RNA interference (RNAi) to knockdown candidate-diapause genes, and RNA-sequencing (RNAseq) to evaluate differences in maternally provisioned transcripts. I find that a 30% reduction in egg triglycerides reduces the desiccation resistance and starvation tolerance of diapause eggs without impacting diapause entry or termination. I also identify maternal mRNAs and long non-coding RNAs that are differentially abundant in diapause versus non-diapause embryos, with transcriptional patterns diverging throughout development and highlighting early metabolic, hormonal, and developmental reprogramming. These results indicate diapause regulation involves complex, pleiotropic mechanisms that are resilient to single-gene perturbations. This suggests a regulatory architecture where multiple pathways contribute to diapause, making the system buffered against disruption of individual components while allowing fine-tuning of constituent traits.