The object of study of the research group are the mechanisms that regulate the metamorphosis of insects , and how these mechanisms have evolved from ancestral species, with a gradual metamorphosis (like in cockroaches or locusts), to the most modified species, with a discontinuous metamorphosis (like in butterflies or flies). Therefore, the questions that the research group on the Evolution of insect metamorphosis seek to answer are: How did metamorphosis develop in insects? What endocrine and molecular mechanisms led to the evolutionary transition from gradual to discontinuous metamorphosis?
Lab website: Bellés Lab
Principal Investigator
Current members
Ongoing projects
Publications
Ons, S.; Bellés, X.; Maestro, J. L. 2015. Orcokinins contribute to the regulation of vitellogenin transcription in the cockroach Blattella germanica. Journal of Insect Physiology 82: 129-133.
Lozano, J.; Montañez, R.; Belles, X. 2015. MiR-2 family regulates insect metamorphosis by controlling the juvenile hormone signaling pathway. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112(12): 3740-3745.
Jindra, M.; Bellés, X.; Shinoda, T. 2015. Molecular basis of juvenile hormone signaling. Current Opinion in Insect Science 11: 39-46.
Faille, A.; Bourdeau, C.; Bellés, X.; Fresneda, J. 2015. Allopatric speciation illustred: The Hypogean genus Geotrechus Jeannel, 1919 (Coleoptera: Carabidae:Trechini), with description of four new species from the Eastern Pyrinees (Spain). Arthropod systematics & Phylogeny 73(3): 439-455.