Joanne Yew
Assistant Researcher - Pacific Biosciences Research Center
Chemical communication of insects; neurobiology of chemosensory perception; development of mass spectrometry methods for natural product chemistry
Research Interests
The overall aim my research is to understand the evolution of insect chemical communication. My lab integrates genetics, behavioral analysis, and mass spectrometry to detect and characterize the chemical and functional diversity of lipid pheromones in Drosophila and other insects. My major interests are as follow:
1. Biodiversity of pheromones: characterizing the chemical diversity, function, and biochemical production of lipid pheromones amongst Drosophila species, including native Hawaiian Drosophila
2. Neural basis of pheromone detection: elucidation of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying pheromone detection and behavior
3. Methods for lipid pheromone analysis: development of improved mass spectrometry-based methods for lipid structural characterization and detection of pheromones from intact insects
Selected Publications
1. Chiang YN, Tan KJ, Chung H, Lavrynenko O, Shevchenko A, Yew JY. 2016. Steroid Hormone Signaling Is Essential for Pheromone Production and Oenocyte Survival. PLoS Genet. 12(6):e1006126.
2. Ng WC, Chin JSR, Tan KJ, Yew JY. 2015. The fatty acid elongase Bond is essential for Drosophila sex pheromone synthesis and male fertility. Nat Commun. 6:9263.
3. Shankar S, Chua JY, Tan KJ, Calvert ME, Weng R, Ng WC, Mori K, Yew JY. 2015. The neuropeptide tachykinin is essential for pheromone detection in a gustatory neural circuit. Elife. 4:e06914.
4. Chin JSR, Ellis SR, Pham HT, Blanksby SJ, Mori K, Koh QL, Etges WJ, Yew JY. 2014. Sex-specific triacylglycerides are widely conserved in Drosophila and mediate mating behavior. Elife 3: e01751.