Meeting Information

    Meeting/Event Information

    Our Search for Natural Insecticides

    April 21, 2022
    7:00 PM - 8:15 PM
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    Zoom meeting -- link to be provided upon registration

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    April 2022 Virtual meeting

    Dr. David Wiemer

    F. Wendell Miller Professor of Chemistry

    Professor of Neuroscience and Pharmacology

    University of Iowa

    Our Search for Natural Insecticides

    ABSTRACT

    The leafcutter ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Attini) are classed as agricultural pests throughout the tropical Americas, both because of the massive amount of leaf material that they harvest and their special fondness for agriculturally important plants. Colonies whose foraging is restricted to areas of native forest encounter a great variety of potential host plants, but while the ants are considered polyphagous they are quite specific in their preferences for some plant species and dislike of others. We have been investigating avoided plants for the presence of natural chemical defenses against this insect. From the leaves of unpalatable plants, we have isolated a number of compounds that function as ant repellents. Representative structures will be presented to illustrate modern techniques for determining the structures of natural products (e.g., 2D NMR and chemical synthesis). Some speculation on the basis of this ant-repellent activity also will be offered. Application of the strategies developed from studies with leafcutter ants to investigation of other types of insect-plant interactions will be presented as well.

    PROGRAM

    • 7:00 - 7:10  Announcements (Mark Cesa)
    • 7:10 - 7:15  Introduction of Speaker (Sherri Rukes)
    • 7:15 - 8:00  Presentation by David Wiemer
    • 8:00 - 8:15  Q&A, closing remarks

    REGISTRATION

    Contact us by phone (847-391-9091), email ([email protected]) or online: REGISTER HERE

    Deadline to register is Thursday, April 21st at 8:00 PM 

    BIOGRAPHY

    David Wiemer joined the faculty at the University of Iowa in 1978, where he now serves as F. Wendell Miller Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Neuroscience and Pharmacology. Prof. Wiemer is a Midwestern native who received a B.S. degree from Marquette University and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois. He has pursued studies on the chemistry of host-plant selection by leafcutter ants as well as plant defenses against other insects. His repeated encounters with terpenoids that function in these roles encouraged an interest in the chemical synthesis of compounds that mimic, or inhibit, the biological activity of natural isoprenoids in human metabolism. Prof. Wiemer has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and mentored more than 60 graduate students. He has received a University of Iowa Collegiate Teaching Excellence Award and the Iowa Regents Award for Faculty Excellence, and has been recognized as an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow and a fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society. In 2020 David Wiemer received the Midwest Award presented by the St. Louis Section of the ACS.

     

    Tickets

    $0.00 Donation to Project SEED (flexible amount)

    $0.00 REGISTRATION: Chicago ACS member

    $0.00 REGISTRATION: Guest and Non-Chicago ACS member

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