Research Interests

·       Juvenile Hormone Signalling Pathway: Juvenile hormone (JH) is an important growth regulator which controls many aspects of insect physiology including development, reproduction, diapauses, polyphenism and social behavior. In spite of its central role, cellular and molecular aspects of JH signaling mostly remain unexplored. A significant part of my research career has been focused on this classic problem of biology. I use mosquito Aedes aegypti as model system to study JH signalling pathway. JH is a unique sesquiterpenoid hormone found only in insects. Because of this specificity, JH and its analogs have been widely used as potent insecticides. Apart from solving a classic problem of basic biology, elucidation of the JH signaling pathway might lead us to novel pesticide targets. Thus, my work bears direct implications to insect pest control, and agricultural sciences.

·       Factors Governing Egg Production in Disease Vector Mosquito: Mosquitoes are vectors of numerous devastating diseases including malaria, dengue, filariasis, chikungunya and more recently zika fever, affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people each year globally. The pathogens are transmitted while the female mosquito feeds on vertebrate blood, an obligate source of key nutrients required for egg development. I am interested in characterizing the factors that regulate egg production in mosquitoes. These include factors such as hormones, nutrients and mosquito microRNAs.

·       Temporal Regulation of Mosquito Metabolism: Mosquitoe have a unique physiology catering to its development needs. As a result their metabolic regulation is also expected to be unique, a direction which remains completely unexplored. A direction of my research is focused on deciphering how metabolism is temporally regulated in mosquitoes.

·       Insect Immunity and Host-Parasitoid Interaction: Recently, I have started working on insect immunity and pest-parasitoid interaction aiming to elucidate the molecular mechanisms governing success of biological control agents. To study host-parasitoid interaction we have developed a model system comprising of two closely related wasp species Microplitis mediator (Mm) and Microplitis terminator (Mt), and their common host Helicoverpa armigera (Ha), a polyphagous lepidopteran pest (Mm/Mt-Ha model). Mm and Mt have distinct parasitic success, with Mm successfully colonizing Ha larvae and Mt being encapsulated out by 5d post infection. I plan to use this model to better understand the molecular basis of biological control agricultural pests