Parasitic Science Brody Salazar @Brody_Salazar
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lthough parasitoid wasps are multicellular organisms, there is one species so small, that some bacteria are larger than it. University of California, Riverside’s Department of Entomology currently researches this species and attempting to classify them. Chaffey College student Houssam Nassser is an intern at the program and assists in the molecular work concerning the wasps so they may be further studied and classified. Currently, the lab is studying Chalcidoidea wasps, which lay their parasites in other wasps. The wasp that lays parasites smaller than single cellular organisms is known as mymaridae. It can be as small as 0.013 millimeters.
Krissy Dominguez showing DNA sequences.
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Houssam Nasser using a centrifuge. Photos by Brody Salazar.
Even though many people do not think of molecular information as being closely related to the topic of entomology, it occupies a good deal of the lab’s time. This is because the molecular work isolates and examines gene regions and can be used to properly identify the insects, especially in relation to others, and understand them. “We’re taking specific gene regions,” says Nasser’s supervisor Krissy Dominguez, “and… we do PCR, we also do next generation sequencing techniques, and we build phylogenetic trees, so like trees of life. We learn how these really important biological control wasps are related to one another. And that gives us a heads up on their evolution and an understanding host associations, behavior, all of which are critically important to agriculture in California and releasing natural enemies to go after pest insects.” Despite the development of molecular work, morphology is still a part of entomology, so the department employs both methods of study, albeit with less of an emphasis on morphology.
