Functional Genomics and Proteomic
Spring Course for Graduate students and advanced undergraduate students (PCB 5994-PCB 4993)
Instructor: Fernando Noriega. Tuesdays from 9:30am – 12:15pm
The aim of this course is to introduce advanced undergraduates and graduate students to modern
strategies to understand fundamental aspects of biology, using functional genomics, functional
proteomics and other disciplines.
1. How do insects and ticks help prevent human heart diseases? Genomic and proteomic
approaches used to characterize powerful anti-hemostatic, anti-imflamatory and anti-immune
molecules.
2. How do insects smell cheese? Genomic approaches to understand insect olfaction.
3. How is energy storage regulated in Drosophila? Functional genomics and proteomics
approaches to study “fat” and “lean” mutants, and the implications to comprehend human obesity.
4. How to build a transgenic mosquito that does not transmit malaria? Analysis of strategies
to develop artificial genes that prevent the establishment or transmission of pathogens by insects.
5. How do insects detect and neutralize foreign molecules? What can we learn about our
own immune system? Functional genomic approaches to stop malaria and dengue epidemics
using DNA micro-array approaches.
6. How do neuropeptides command the life of an insect? The power of mass spectrometry to
pursue a functional proteomic analysis of the neuroendocrine system.
7. How do insects sense nutrients and regulate digestion and allocation of food? An
integrative approach using biochemistry, genomics, proteomics and creativity.
8. How do genomes evolve? Insect lessons to understand genome evolution.
Some references:
1. Valenzuela JG. (2002) High-throughput approaches to study salivary proteins and genes from
vectors of disease. Insect Biochem Mol Biol. 32: 1199-209.
2. Merrill CE, Riesgo-Escovar J, Pitts RJ, Kafatos FC, Carlson JR, Zwiebel LJ (2002) Visual
arrestins in olfactory pathways of Drosophila and the malaria vector mosquito Anopheles
gambiae. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 99: 1633-1638.
3. Gronke S, Beller M, Fellert S, Ramakrishnan H, Jackle H, Kuhnlein RP (2003) Control of fat
storage by a Drosophila PAT domain protein. Curr Biol. 13: 603-606.
4. Ito J, Ghosh A, Moreira LA, Wimmer EA, Jacobs-Lorena M.(2002) Transgenic anopheline
mosquitoes impaired in transmission of a malaria parasite. Nature. 417:452-455.
5. Osta MA, Christophides GK, Kafatos FC (2004) Effects of mosquito genes on Plasmodium
development. Science. 303 :2030-2032.
6. Li, Y., Martinez-Hernandez, S. and Noriega, F.G. (2004). Inhibition of juvenile hormone
biosynthesis in mosquitoes: effect of allatostatic head-factors, PISCF- and YXFGL-amideallatostatins. Regulatory peptides 118: 175-182.
7. Noriega F.G. and M. A. Wells (1999). A molecular view of protein-meal digestion in the yellow
fever mosquito Aedes aegypti. J. Insect Physiol. 45, 613-620.
8. Zdobnov EM et al (2002) Comparative genome and proteome analysis of Anopheles gambiae
and Drosophila melanogaster. Science 298 :149-59.