Theses and Dissertations

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4927-0489

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Hoffmann, Federico G.

Committee Member

Dapper, Amy L.

Committee Member

Perkins, Andy D.

Committee Member

Ballinger, Matthew J.

Committee Member

Brown, Ashli E.

Date of Degree

12-13-2024

Original embargo terms

Worldwide

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Computational Biology

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

Office of Academic Affairs

Department

Computational Biology Program

Abstract

In the past couple of decades, advances in genomic sequencing technology have caused an unprecedented increase in biological data. Because of the quantity and size of these datasets, the need for biologists with computational expertise also increased, and using these large genomic datasets has revolutionized the way we can answer biological questions. In this dissertation, I apply genomic and transcriptomic data to answer questions about insects of the order Hemiptera that are relevant to agriculture and public health. My dissertation mainly focuses on stink bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), many of which are agricultural pests, and bed bugs (Hemiptera: Cimicidae), which are blood-sucking insects of public health concern. Using the genome and salivary transcriptome of a soybean pest, we found evidence that retention of ancestral genes instead of genomic innovations explains its heightened ability to degrade soybean tissues compared to other stink bugs. Our investigation of this stink bug’s salivary transcriptome led to an additional discovery that a horizontally transferred gene present in phytophagous stink bugs and the seed bugs may help them digest seed tissues during feeding. Next, we investigated bed bugs which are interesting because they feed on human blood but have never been linked to pathogen transmission. To survey the understudied viral diversity within bed bugs, we sequenced the metatranscriptomes of a worldwide sample of individual bed bugs and discovered three novel bed bug viruses, while also detecting two previously known bed bug viruses. Notably, we did not detect any human viruses. Finally, we exposed bed bugs to diverse immune challenges and measured their transcriptomic responses. We found that bed bugs express canonical immune effectors when exposed to an entomopathogen and environmental bacteria, but not a human pathogen.

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