Hunter laboratory at the University of Arizona
Encarsia females with whitefly nymphs. Photo credit Alex Wild
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Leptoglossus zonatus. Photo credit Al Reina
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Welcome
In the Hunter laboratory, we study the ecology and evolution of interactions between microbial symbionts and their insect hosts. We are currently studying the mechanisms of reproductive manipulation of Encarsia parasitoids by the symbiont Cardinium, and the transmission and fitness consequences of the environmentally-acquired Burkholderia on the leaf-footed bug Leptoglossus zonatus. We have recently concluded more than a decade of study on the population ecology of the symbiont Rickettsia in the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci.
In the Hunter laboratory, we study the ecology and evolution of interactions between microbial symbionts and their insect hosts. We are currently studying the mechanisms of reproductive manipulation of Encarsia parasitoids by the symbiont Cardinium, and the transmission and fitness consequences of the environmentally-acquired Burkholderia on the leaf-footed bug Leptoglossus zonatus. We have recently concluded more than a decade of study on the population ecology of the symbiont Rickettsia in the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci.
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Molly Hunter is also the Chair of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Entomology & Insect Science. If you are interested in graduate study in the Hunter laboratory, contact Molly Hunter (see contact page), and check out what the EIS graduate program has to offer. Click on the beetle icon on the left to take you to the GIDP-EIS home page where you can find out more about the program.
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Lab News
Summer 2021. We haven't had a lot of recent lab events to show, but one pandemic consequence is that I've been walking longer and earlier, so have gotten to see the most extraordinary Sonoran desert skies. 
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That isn't to say nothing has been happening! In July Matt Doremus defended his dissertation in spectacular fashion and is now Dr. Doremus (eee the back of dissertation committee member Todd Schlenke's head and Luciano Matzkin's elbow in the picture!). Luckily for us, he is staying around in a short-term postdoc to continue work on our NSF grant with collaborators Stephan Schmitz-Esser (Iowa State) and Manuel Kleiner (NC State).
Edwin Umanzor and Liam Sullivan both had an excellent first year despite all of their classes being on Zoom. Both of them are working on the Leptoglossus-Burkholderia system, and both had really interesting results from their projects, on the role of the intracellular symbiont Lariskella in Leptoglossus (Edwin) and in the limitations to transmission of Burkholderia (Liam). Edwin, Liam and Matt will all be presenting at the upcoming Entomological Society of America meeting in Denver at the end of October.
Lastly, in the last year, we welcomed two new undergraduates, Andrea Ramos and David Adkins, to join Esther Gomez in helping Suzanne keep all of our cultures afloat and to assist with experiments.
Edwin Umanzor and Liam Sullivan both had an excellent first year despite all of their classes being on Zoom. Both of them are working on the Leptoglossus-Burkholderia system, and both had really interesting results from their projects, on the role of the intracellular symbiont Lariskella in Leptoglossus (Edwin) and in the limitations to transmission of Burkholderia (Liam). Edwin, Liam and Matt will all be presenting at the upcoming Entomological Society of America meeting in Denver at the end of October.
Lastly, in the last year, we welcomed two new undergraduates, Andrea Ramos and David Adkins, to join Esther Gomez in helping Suzanne keep all of our cultures afloat and to assist with experiments.
