@article{hickin_kakumanu_schal_2022, title={Effects of Wolbachia elimination and B-vitamin supplementation on bed bug development and reproduction}, volume={12}, ISSN={["2045-2322"]}, url={https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-14505-2}, DOI={10.1038/s41598-022-14505-2}, abstractNote={Abstract Obligate blood feeders, such as Cimex lectularius (common bed bug), have symbiotic associations with nutritional endosymbionts that produce B-vitamins. To quantify the symbiont’s contribution to host fitness in these obligate mutualisms, the symbiont must be eliminated and its absence rigorously confirmed. We developed and validated procedures for complete elimination of Wolbachia ( Wb ) in bed bugs and quantified development and reproduction in bed bugs with and without Wb and with and without B-vitamins supplementation. Aposymbiotic bed bugs had slower nymphal development, reduced adult survivorship, smaller adult size, fewer eggs per female, and lower hatch rate than bed bugs that harbored Wb . In aposymbiotic bed bugs that were fed B-vitamins-supplemented blood, nymph development time, adult survivorship and hatch rate recovered to control levels, but adult size and egg number only partially recovered. These results underscore the nutritional dependence of bed bugs on their Wb symbiont and suggest that Wb may provide additional nutritional benefits beyond the B-vitamin mix that we investigated.}, number={1}, journal={SCIENTIFIC REPORTS}, author={Hickin, Mauri L. and Kakumanu, Madhavi L. and Schal, Coby}, year={2022}, month={Jun} }
 @article{hickin_nadel_schal_cohen_2021, title={Optimization of a Diet for the Greater Wax Moth (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) Using Full Factorial and Mixture Design}, volume={114}, ISSN={["1938-291X"]}, url={https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toab039}, DOI={10.1093/jee/toab039}, abstractNote={Abstract Diet optimization is an important process to increase the efficiency of rearing insects and can be used to develop high-quality insects with specific fitness and life-history traits. Galleria mellonella (L.), the greater wax moth, is widely used in research, microbiology assays, as pet food, and host for biological control agents. Although artificial diets for G. mellonella have been researched and optimized for decades, preliminary tests indicated that the predominantly utilized G. mellonella diet could be improved to yield larger larvae with a short development time. We used a design of experiments (DOE) approach that incorporated multiple full factorial designs and a final mixture design to test the qualitative and quantitative effects of ingredients and their interactions on larval mass and survival. Analysis of 17 ingredient variations in 35 diet formulations yielded an optimized diet that supported high survival and 2.4-fold greater larval body mass than the standard rearing diet. This study demonstrates the importance and efficiency of statistical DOE in guiding the optimization of insect diets to improve traits that represent the quality and fitness of the reared insects.}, number={3}, journal={JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY}, publisher={Oxford University Press (OUP)}, author={Hickin, Mauri and Nadel, Hannah and Schal, Coby and Cohen, Allen C.}, editor={Neven, LisaEditor}, year={2021}, month={Jun}, pages={1091–1103} }