We describe the development and implementation of an instructional design that focused on bringing multiple forms of active learning and student-centered pedagogies to a one-semester, undergraduate introductory biology course for both majors and nonmajors. Our course redesign consisted of three major elements: 1) reordering the presentation of the course content in an attempt to teach specific content within the context of broad conceptual themes, 2) incorporating active and problem-based learning into every lecture, and 3) adopting strategies to create a more student-centered learning environment. Assessment of our instructional design consisted of a student survey and comparison of final exam performance across 3 years—1 year before our course redesign was implemented (2006) and during two successive years of implementation (2007 and 2008). The course restructuring led to significant improvement of self-reported student engagement and satisfaction and increased academic performance. We discuss the successes and ongoing challenges of our course restructuring and consider issues relevant to institutional change.

Photoperiodic diapause is a crucial adaptation to seasonal environmental variation in a wide range of arthropods, but relatively little is known regarding the molecular basis of this important trait. In temperate populations of the mosquitoAedes albopictus, exposure to short-day (SD) lengths causes the female to produce diapause eggs. Tropical populations do not undergo a photoperiodic diapause. We identified afatty acyl coA elongasetranscript that is more abundant under SD versus long-day (LD) photoperiods in mature oocyte tissue of replicate temperate, but not tropical,A. albopictuspopulations. Fatty acyl CoA elongases are involved in the synthesis of long chain fatty acids (hydrocarbon precursors). Diapause eggs from a temperate population had one-third more surface hydrocarbons and one-half the water loss rates of non-diapause eggs. Eggs from a tropical population reared under SD and LD photoperiods did not differ in surface hydrocarbon abundance or water loss rates. In both a temperate and tropical population, composition of hydrocarbon chain lengths did not differ between eggs from SD versus LD conditions. These results implicate the expression offatty acyl coA elongaseand changes in quantity, but not composition, of egg surface hydrocarbons as important components of increased desiccation resistance during diapause inA. albopictus.

The invasion and range expansion of Aedes albopictus (Skuse) in North America represents an outstanding opportunity to study processes of invasion, range expansion, and climatic adaptation. Furthermore, knowledge obtained from such research is relevant to developing novel strategies to control this important vector species. Substantial evidence indicates that the photoperiodic diapause response is an important adaptation to climatic variation across the range of Ae. albopictus in North America. Photoperiodic diapause is a key determinant of abundance in both space and time, and the timing of entry into and exit out of diapause strongly affects seasonal population dynamics and thus the potential for arbovirus transmission. Emerging genomic technologies are making it possible to develop high-resolution, genome-wide genetic markers that can be used for genetic mapping of traits relevant to disease transmission and phylogeographic studies to elucidate invasion history. Recent work using next-generation sequencing technologies (e.g., RNA-seq), combined with physiological experiments, has provided extensive insight into the transcriptional basis of the diapause response in Ae. albopictus . Applying this knowledge to identify novel targets for vector control represents an important future challenge. Finally, recent studies have begun to identify traits other than diapause that are affected by photoperiodism. Extending this work to identify additional traits influenced by photoperiod should produce important insights into the seasonal biology of Ae. albopictus .

Many temperate insects survive the harsh conditions of winter by undergoing photoperiodic diapause, a pre-programmed developmental arrest initiated by short day lengths. Despite the well-established ecological significance of photoperiodic diapause, the molecular basis of this crucial adaptation remains largely unresolved. The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus (Skuse), represents an outstanding emerging model to investigate the molecular basis of photoperiodic diapause in a well-defined ecological and evolutionary context. Ae. albopictus is a medically significant vector and is currently considered the most invasive mosquito in the world. Traits related to diapause appear to be important factors contributing to the rapid spread of this mosquito. To generate novel sequence information for this species, as well as to discover transcripts involved in diapause preparation, we sequenced the transcriptome of Ae. albopictus oocytes destined to become diapausing or non-diapausing pharate larvae.

The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae), invaded eastern North America in 1985 and subsequently spread across a range of ≈14° la