Molecular dissection of insect-plant interactions

Rapid developments in molecular biology have provided new resources for understanding fundamental processes in all organisms. Despite the considerable knowledge of insect pests at the molecular level, this information comes mostly from 'model' organisms such as the the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). However, using the technological tools recently made available to decipher the genome of any given species, scientists have rapidly discovered new genes and are characterizing their function even in 'non-model organisms' such as the Hessian fly, Mayetiola destructor. In particular, the 'omics' approach has proved to be an extremely useful tool, one whose applicability has been a dream come true only by the current availability of high throughput DNA sequencing capacity. Subsequent efforts can then be used to promote gene discovery and gene expression studies via two broad-based molecular methodologies: i) expressed sequence tag (EST), and ii) microarray analysis. Both these techniques tackle problems at the transcript level and not the protein level but have been applied and/or being tested to learn gene function in several insect species.