Noah Whiteman

Professor of Genetics, Genomics, Evolution, and Development

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Research Interests

Ultimately, we are interested in characterizing the genetic basis of adaptations that arise from biotic interactions. The Darwinian war of nature includes interactions between individuals of the same or different specie. These dynamics are a crucible for the evolution of novelty. Our research focuses primarily on how bottom-up forces (chemical defenses produced by plants) and top-down forces (natural enemies of the herbivores like parasites and predators) lead to new adaptations in herbivorous insects and reciprocal changes in the plants and natural enemies. We focus on toxins of biological origin as a fulcrum around which many other adaptations revolve. Such molecules can become keystones, supporting the evolution and integration of diverse phenotypic modules in animals. The evolution of toxicity transforms animal phenotypes from cryptic to conspicuous, nocturnal to diurnal, small to big, fast to slow, solitary to social, local to widespread, neglectful to doting parents and short- to long-lived. Toxicity is not only restricted to gaudy animals: a parallel transformation unfolded as chemical defense and innate immune systems were armed with an arsenal of novel toxins. Those that we study include the breakdown products of glucosinolates from mustard plants, cardiac glycosides from milkweed plants, the deadly venoms of Lonomia spp. caterpillars, and the apoptotic proteins that fruit flies and aphids borrowed from phages and now deploy in their blood against parasitoid wasps. 

Current Projects

Many projects use Drosophila melanogaster (the “fruit” fly) and its relatives in the Drosophilidae as a model for tackling the questions we address. This includes one lineage nested deep in the Drosophila lineage called Scaptomyza, which attacks the living leaves of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana (mouse-ear cress), a member of the mustard family Brassicaceae. We are using the Scaptomyza-Arabidopsis system to understand how herbivory itself evolves from non-herbivorous ancestors and how specialization to toxic plants evolves at the behavioral, morphological and physiological levels of biological organization. This is fundamentally important because around 50% of all insect species are herbivorous and the toxins with which they interact are often biomedically important. Our work intersects with the study of neurological disorders, including autism-spectrum and age-related diseases like Parkinson’s, because mustard oils that form after glucosinolates are hydrolyzed during wounding are highly promising candidates for their treatment. A new project is emerging that uses horizontally transmitted genes that moved from phages or bacteria to insects, including drosophilids that encode eukaryotic genotoxins. We are using this system a model to understand both the evolution of the animal immune system and mechanisms underlying the functional integration of novel genes in animals. We continue to study the monarch butterfly and the broader community of cardiac glycoside-adapted animals that feed on milkweed plants that produce these heart poisons, as well as the impact of these toxins on the third trophic level. We use genomics and both forward and reverse genetic approaches and techniques from molecular and cell biology, development, biochemistry, metabolomics, and neuroscience to tackle these problems. Beyond these basic research questions, we are ultimately interested in understanding the metabolism and pharmacology of plant and microbial toxins in humans—the source or inspiration for most of our medicines. Finally, our laboratory is committed to creating an inclusive, supportive, and intellectually rigorous environment for all group members.

Selected Publications

Whiteman, N.K. (2023) Most Delicious Poison: The Story of Nature's Toxins--from Spices to Vices. Little Brown Spark (Hachette). ISBN-139780316386579. 

Guo, L., Qiao, Z., Haji, D., Zhou, T., Liu, Z., N.K. Whiteman & J. Huang. (2023) Convergent resistance to GABA receptor neurotoxins through plant-insect coevolution. Nature Ecology & Evolution 7:1444-1456. 

Verster, K.I., C. Cinege, Z. Lipinski, L.B. Magyar, E. 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. 

Chaturvedi, S., M. Escalona, P. Mohan, P.A. Marimuthu, O. Nguyen, N. Chumchim, C.W. Fairbairn, W. Seligmann, C. Miller, H.B. Shaffer & N.K. Whiteman (2023). A draft reference genome assembly of the Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly, Battus philenor hirsuta. Journal of Heredity 114:698-706.

Peláez, J.N., A.D. Gloss, B. Goldman-Huertas, B. Kim, R.T. Lapoint, G. Pimentel-Solorio, K.I. Verster, J.M. Aguilar, A.C. Nelson Dittrich, M. Singhal, H.C. Suzuki, T. Matsunaga, E.E. Armstrong, J.L.M. Charboneau, S.C. Groen, D.H. Hembry, C.J. Ochoa, T.K. O’Connor, S. Prost, S. Zaaijer, P.D. Nabity, J. Wang, E. Rodas, I. Liang, & N.K. Whiteman (2023). Evolution of chemosensory and detoxification gene families across herbivorous Drosophilidae. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics 13: jkad133.

Matsunaga, T., C.E. Reisenman, B. Goldman-Huertas, P. Brand, K. Miao, H. Suzuki, S.R. Ramírez,  & N.K. Whiteman. (2022). Evolution of olfactory receptors tuned to mustard oils in herbivorous Drosophilidae. Molecular Biology and Evolution 39:msab362.

Peláez, J.N., A.D. Gloss, J.F. Ray, S. Chaturvedi, D. Haji, J.L.M. Charboneau, K.I. Verster & N.K. Whiteman. (2022). Evolution and genomic basis of the plant-penetrating ovipositor: a key morphological trait in herbivorous Drosophilidae. Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B, Biological Sciences 289:20221938.

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.

Karageorgi, M., S.C. Groen, F. Sumbul, J.N. Pelaez, K.I. Verster, J.M. Aguilar, A.P. Hastings, 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. 

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.

Last Updated 2024-08-25