Department of Entomology

Mutti, Navdeep

Mutti, Navdeep Ph.D. 2006 Phone: (785) 532-6125 navdeep@ksu.eduDegree Being Pursued: Ph.D.

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Bio Brief

Molecular Studies of the Salivary Glands of Pea Aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum



Education

B.S. , Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India, 1996
M.S. Entomology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana India, 1998

Teaching

Graduate Teaching Assistant 2004

  • General Biochemistry BIOCH521 (on campus)
  • General Biochemistry BIOCH521 (online course)

Graduate Teaching Assistant 2005

  • Recombinant DNA Laboratory 1 BIOCH766
  • Recombinant DNA Laboratory 2 BIOCH767


Research

Salivary secretions of insects are important in eliciting damage in host plants. This damage usually triggers the plant's biochemical defensive responses and it is established that the injected salivary enzymes elicit responses where the mouthparts and plant tissues interface. Although our
target insects, the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris) and Hessian fly, Mayetiola destructor (Say) differ in host range, both are known to possess salivary enzymes that appear to aid in the feeding process. Pectinases are present in the saliva of the aphid and also in the salivary secretions of Hessian flies. These chemicals apparently play a key role in degrading the plant cell wall, thus aiding the insect to feed onto a host plant. Other enzymes, like oxidases, cellulases and proteinases are also present in the saliva of insects and may play key role in detoxifying defensive chemicals of plants, degrading cellulose and thus aiding in the penetration of stylets of aphids. Thus, these enzymes might be of particular importance to these insects and may play key role in manipulating host plant resistance.A cDNA library from salivary glands will be created for both insects under study. A large number of individual cDNA clones will be randomly selected, sequenced, and their protein products identified by searching against databases of gene sequences. Tissue specificity and the secretion of these protein products will be verified by western blotting.



Publications

Mutti, N. S., J. Louis, L. K. Pappan, K. Pappan, K. Begum, M-S. Chen, Y. Park, N. Dittmer, J. Marshall, J. C. Reese and G. R. Reeck (2008) A novel protein from the salivary glands of the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, is essential in feeding on host plants. Proc. Nat. Aca. Sci. USA. 105: 965-9969

Mutti, N. S., Y. Park, J. C. Reese, and G. R. Reeck. 2006. RNAi knockdown of a salivary transcript leading to lethality in the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum. J. Insect Science 6:38.


Shen, Z., K. Pappan, N.S. Mutti, Q-J. He, M. Denton, Y. Zhang, M.R. Kanost, J.C. Reese, and G. R. Reeck. 2005. Pectinmethylesterase from the rice weevil, Sitophilus oryzae: cDNA isolation and dwquencing, genetic origin, and expression of the recombinant enyzyme. Journal of Insect Science 5:21


Liu X., Fellers J.P., Zhu Y.C. Mutti N.S., Bouhssini M.E. and Chen M.S. cloning and characterization of cDNAs encoding carboxypeptidase-like proteins from the gut of Hessian fly [Mayetiola destructor (Say)]. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. (Submitted).


Shen, Z., M. Denton, N. Mutti, K. Pappan, M.R. Kanost, J.C. Reese, and G.R. Reeck. 2003. Polygalacturonase from Sitophilus oryzae: possible horizontal transfer of a pectinase gene from fungi to weevils. Journal of Insect Science 3:24


Dilawari V.K., Singh Navdeep, Kumari Anita and Dhaliwal G.S. 2003. Effect of glucosinolates on the feeding behaviour of mustard aphid Lipaphis erysimi (Kaltenbach). Allelopathy Journal 12(2): 221-228.


Kumar P., Gupta V.K., Navdeep Singh and Dilawari V.K. 2001. Development of RAPD-PCR based molecular markers for differentiation and genetic relatedness in Trichogramma species/ strains. In Darshan Singh, V.K.Dilawari, M.S.Mahal, K.S.Brar, A.S.Sohi and S.P.Singh. 2001.Biological control-Contributed papers. Proceedings of Symposium on Biological Control Based Pest Management for Quality Crop Protection in the Current Millenium, July 18-19,2001 PAU, Ludhiana. p.3-5.


Singh Navdeep, Dilawari V.K. and Dhaliwal G.S. (2000). Alighting behaviour and redistribution of mustard aphid, Lipaphis erysimi (Kalt.) on different rapeseed cultivars. J. Insect Sc. (India) Vol 13: 59-61.