Ray
WangPostdoctoral Associate
106 Center for Integrated Plant Systems
Phone: (517) 353-5571
email: wangru@msu.edu
Fax: (517) 353-5598
Education:
B.Sc. Animal Sciences Shanxi (China) Agricultural University
M.Sc. Entomology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Ph.D. Animal Breeding and Genetics, China Agricultural University
Research:
When he was in China, Ray worked with ultrastructure and protein synthesizing activities of the hypopharyngeal gland, the gland which produces the main component of royal jelly. His Ph.D. study focused on the ATPase genes of the mitochondrial DNA of Apis cerana cerana, the sister species of the North American honey bees (Apis mellifera). Ray currently is working on the resistance mechanism of Varroa mites to fluvalinate (Apistan). The main hypothesis is that resistant mites may have altered target sites so they become insensitive to the only registered pesticide, Apistan. Currently he is trying to clone the voltage-sensitive sodium channel gene, which encodes the voltage-sensitive sodium channels, targe sites for pyrethroid insecticides. This project is a collaboration between Profs. Ke Dong and Zachary Huang, and jointly supported by a GREEEN grant from MSU, and a grant from the Plant and Pest Management Division, Michigan Department of Agriculture.