Date of Award

5-2009

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Legacy Department

Genetics

Committee Chair/Advisor

Lawton-Rauh, Amy L

Committee Member

Heckel , David G

Committee Member

Morris , James C

Committee Member

Turnbull , Matthew W

Abstract

Research on insects, the most successful group from all metazoans on earth, has important societal, as well as scientific benefits. Insects occupy a wide range of roles, which have an effect on human life either because the former pose serious threats to public health and commercial crops as well as in some cases represent the only way to propagate food resources. Despite their tremendous importance, insect genomics remained an uneven territory dominated by studies in the Drosophila group and the mosquitoes. This dissertation attempts to: 1) report on advances in the development and characterization of genomic tools for species of the order Hymenoptera in the hopes of helping to close this gap; and 2) to shed light on the organization, origin and evolution of genes of the Hox cluster in species of the order Hymenoptera through molecular evolution analyses that were possible thanks to the availability of the aforementioned genomic resources.

Included in

Genetics Commons

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