I. Evolution of herbivore resistance to plant toxins
Plants and herbivores have been locked in reciprocal antagonism for hundreds of millions of years. The lab studies the molecular basis of these interactions by examining how plants deploy toxins against herbivores and how herbivores evolve resistance to these toxins. A central finding from this work is that adaptation to plant chemical defense is sometimes both predictable and molecularly constrained: adaptation draws on a limited set of solutions, whether through convergent substitutions across independent lineages or through lineage-specific changes that are nonetheless often predictable. Using genome editing, comparative genomics, and functional biochemistry, we trace these evolutionary trajectories by connecting molecular changes to organismal phenotypes and ecological functions.
Selected Recent Publications
Guo, L., X. Qiao, D. Haji, T. Zhou, Z. Liu, N. K. Whiteman & J. Huang (2023). Convergent resistance to GABA receptor neurotoxins through plant–insect coevolution. Nature Ecology & Evolution 7: 1444–1456.
Karageorgi, M., S. C. Groen, K. I. Verster, J. M. Aguilar, F. Sumbul, A. P. Hastings, J. N. Peláez, S. L. Bernstein, T. Matsunaga, M. Astourian, G. Guerra, F. Rico, S. Dobler, A. A. Agrawal & N. K. Whiteman (2019). Genome editing retraces the evolution of toxin resistance in the monarch butterfly. Nature 574: 409–412.
Groen, S. C. & N. K. Whiteman (2021). Convergent evolution of cardiac-glycoside resistance in predators and parasites of milkweed herbivores. Current Biology 31: R1465–R1466.
Gloss, A. D., D. G. Vassao, A. L. Hailey, A. C. Nelson Dittrich, K. Schramm, M. Reichelt, T. J. Rast, A. Weichsel, M. G. Cravens, J. Gershenzon, W. R. Monfort & N. K. Whiteman (2014). Evolution in an ancient detoxification pathway is coupled with a transition to herbivory in the Drosophilidae. Molecular Biology and Evolution 31: 2441–2456.
II. Sensory evolution at the plant-insect interface
Co-evolution reshapes the sensory systems that organisms use to perceive and navigate their chemical environments. In particular, as herbivores evolve to exploit toxic host plants, the olfactory and gustatory receptors they use to detect, avoid, or seek out plant compounds are simultaneously rewired. We trace how chemosensory gene families expand, contract, and diverge in function during the evolution of herbivory itself to host shifts, and connect receptor-level molecular evolution to animal behavior and ecology.
Selected Recent Publications
Matsunaga, T., C. Reisenman, B. Goldman-Huertas, S. Rajshekar, H. C. Suzuki, D. Tadres, J. Wong, M. Louis, S. R. Ramírez & N. K. Whiteman (2025). Odorant receptors mediating avoidance of toxic mustard oils in Drosophila melanogaster are expanded in herbivorous relatives. Molecular Biology and Evolution 42: msaf164.
Suzuki, H. C., C. T. Saito, S. Rajshekar, T. Sokabe, D. Haji, S. C. Groen, J. N. Peláez, T. Matsunaga, A. S. Takemoto, K. M. Tanaka, A. Takahashi, M. Tominaga, S. Saito & N. K. Whiteman (2025). Alternative splicing in TRPA1 drives sensory adaptation to electrophiles in drosophilids. BioRxiv 2025.05.09.653172.
Peláez, J. P., S. L. Bernstein, J. Okoro, E. Rodas, I. Liang, A. Leipertz, F. Marion-Poll & N. K. Whiteman (2024). Taste evolution in an herbivorous drosophilid. BioRxiv 2024.02.27.582299.
Matsunaga, T., C. E. Reisenman, B. Goldman-Huertas, P. Brand, K. Miao, H. Suzuki, S. R. Ramírez & N. K. Whiteman (2021). Evolution of olfactory receptors tuned to mustard oils in herbivorous Drosophilidae. Molecular Biology and Evolution 39: msab62.
Goldman-Huertas, B., R. F. Mitchell, R. L. Lapoint, C. P. Faucher, J. G. Hildebrand & N. K. Whiteman (2015). Evolution of herbivory in Drosophilidae linked to loss of behaviors, antennal responses, odorant receptors and ancestral diet. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 112: 3026–3031.
III. Horizontal gene transfer
The canonical view of animal evolution assumes that genes are inherited vertically, from parent to offspring. However, we have found that multiple insect lineages have acquired new genes directly from bacteria and their phages, which the animals have subsequently co-opted for new functions, including immunity against parasitoids. These discoveries reveal horizontal gene transfer as a recurrent and ecologically consequential mechanism of animal genome evolution.
Selected Recent Publications
Tarnopol, R. L., J. Tamsil, G. Cinege, J. Ha, K. I. Verster, E. Ábrahám, L. B. Magyar, B. Y. Kim, S. L. Bernstein, Z. Lipinszki, I. Andó & N. K. Whiteman (2025). Experimental horizontal transfer of phage-derived genes to Drosophila confers innate immunity to parasitoids. Current Biology 35: 514–529.
Verster, K. I., G. Cinege, Z. Lipinszki, L. B. Magyar, É. Kurucz, R. L. Tarnopol, E. Ábrahám, Z. Darula, M. Karageorgi, J. A. Tamsil, S. M. Akalu, I. Andó & N. K. Whiteman (2023). Evolution of insect innate immunity through domestication of bacterial toxins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 120: e2218334120.
Magyar, L. B., E. Ábrahám, Z. Lipinszki, R. L. Tarnopol, N. K. Whiteman, V. Varga, D. Hultmark, I. Andó & G. Cinege (2025). Pore-forming toxin-like proteins in the anti-parasitoid immune response of Drosophila. Journal of Innate Immunity 17: 10–28.
Verster, K. I., R. L. Tarnopol, S. M. Akalu & N. K. Whiteman (2021). Horizontal transfer of microbial toxin genes to gall midge genomes. Genome Biology and Evolution 13: evab202.
Verster, K. I., J. H. Wisecaver, R. P. Duncan, M. Karageorgi, A. D. Gloss, E. Armstrong, D. K. Price, A. R. Melon, Z. M. Ali & N. K. Whiteman (2019). Horizontal transfer of bacterial cytolethal distending toxin B genes to insects. Molecular Biology and Evolution 36: 2105–2110.
Whiteman Lab 