Laboratory of Arthropod Chemosensation
Departamento de Ciencias Químicas y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco

Research questions:

We investigate how insects cope with different types of chemicals, from pheromones and host plant volatiles to phagostimulants, deterrents and insecticides. What type of chemosensory proteins are involved? How they have evolved? And what type of structural features determine ligand binding affinity?

Research organisms: Greater wax moth Galleria mellonella; Scarab beetle Hylamorpha elegans; spotted wing fly Drosophila suzukii

Experimental & Bioinformatic expertise: Transcriptomics, gene annotation, phylogenetics, protein structure prediction, molecular dynamics