Locusts are generalist herbivores meaning that they are able to consume a variety of plants. Because of their broad diet, and ability to respond rapidly to a favorable environment with giant swarms of voracious insects, they are dangerous pests. Their potential impacts on humans increase dramatically when individuals switch from their solitarious phase to their gregarious phase where they congregate and begin marching and eventually swarming together. These swarms, often billions strong, can consume the vegetation of enormous swaths of land and can travel hundreds of kilometers in a single day producing a complex threat to food security. To better understand the biology of these important pests we explored the gut microbiome of the South American locust (Schistocerca cancellata). We hypothesized generally that the gut microbiome in this species would be critically important as has been shown in many other species. We extracted and homogenized entire guts from male S. cancellata, and then extracted gut microbiome genomic DNA. Genomic DNA was then confirmed on a gel. The initial extractions were of poor quality for sequencing, but subsequent extractions performed by collaborators during troubleshooting at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville proved more useful and were used for PCR. This resulted in the detections of the following bacterial genera in the gut of S. cancellata: Enterobacter, Enterococcus, Serratia, Pseudomonas, Actinobacter, and Weisella. With this data, we are able to speculate about the physiological roles that they hold within the locust gut generating hypotheses for further testing. Understanding the microbial composition of this species’ gut may help us better understand the locust in general in an effort to more sustainably manage them.

Host plant choice by herbivorous insects can be driven by a variety of factors including plant nutrient composition and mechanical properties. In this study, I investigated the role of plant protein and carbohydrate composition, water content, and leaf thickness on plant preference for the Australian Plague Locust (Chortoicetes terminifera). For this, I used four economically important cereal crop species: barley Hordeum vulgare, wheat Triticum aestivum L., rye Secale cereale, and corn Zea mays. Using a full factorial design, I gave the choice to the locusts between two plant species then I measured 1) visual preference by pairing, 2) surface area consumed, and 3) dry mass consumed. For each leaf, I measured protein content, carbohydrate content, foliar wet mass, and Specific Leaf Area (SLA, a measure of plant thickness). I found plant nutrient content was not a good predictor of host plant choice in the short term, however, leaf thickness had a significant relationship with dry amount of leaf consumed and defoliation. Overall locusts preferred plants that were thinner. I discuss these results in light of our current knowledge of the nutritional ecology of this important cereal crop pest.

Serial femtosecond crystallography requires reliable and efficient delivery of fresh crystals across the beam of an X-ray free-electron laser over the course of an experiment. We introduce a double-flow focusing nozzle to meet this challenge, with significantly reduced sample consumption, while improving jet stability over previous generations of nozzles. We demonstrate its use to determine the first room-temperature structure of RNA polymerase II at high resolution, revealing new structural details. Moreover, the double flow-focusing nozzles were successfully tested with three other protein samples and the first room temperature structure of an extradiol ring-cleaving dioxygenase was solved by utilizing the improved operation and characteristics of these devices.