Research lines
The main goal of this lab is to understand how nutrition regulates key physiological processes in insects. Thus, its main interest lies in unravelling how the insulin receptor pathway controls reproduction, and also how insects regulate the expression of insulin-like peptides (ILPs), the putative effectors of the signalling pathway. In addition to this, the Nutritional Signals in Insects lab, in collaboration with the Insect Reproduction Lab, studies how interference RNA (RNAi) works in insects, the enzymes involved and their functions and the mechanisms of production and selection of the small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) that are generated.
Lab website: Maestro 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.
Süren-Castillo, S.; Abrisqueta, M.; and Maestro, J.L. 2014. FoxO is required for the activation of hypertrehalosemic hormone expression in cockroaches. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1840 (1):86-94
Abrisqueta, M.; Songül, S.; Maestro, JL. 2014. Insulin receptor-mediated nutritional signalling regulates juvenile hormone biosynthesis and vitellogenin production in the German cockroach. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. 49:14-23