Valerie A. BennettPhysiological EcologistDepartmental Chair Associate Professor Chair, Pre-Professional Committee for the Healing Arts TrainingB.A. Colgate University, Hamilton, NY (1993) M.S. Miami University, Oxford, OH (1995) Ph.D. Miami University, Oxford, OH (2001) Contact:(W) 814-393-2163 Email: vbennett@clarion.edu Office: 255 STC |
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Professional Associations
Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB)
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania University Biologists (CPUB)
Northeast Association of Advisors of the Health Professions (NEAAHP)
National Association of Advisors of the Health Professions (NAAHP)
National Academic Advising Association (NACADA)
Courses taught
BIOL 451/551 Animal Physiology
BIOL 459/559 Physiological Ecology
BIOL 305 General Zoology
BIOL 258 and 259 Human Anatomy & Physiology I & II
Research Interests
My research focuses on adaptations for winter survival, low temperature tolerance, and dormancy in insect. The field of insect cryobiology is fascinating because the challenges to overwintering insects can be considered from the ecological to the molecular level, and it is the integration of adaptations at these various levels that results in survival of winter conditions. Comparative studies of various strategies and adaptations employed by insects may lend insight to applications as far reaching as preservation of food and biomedical materials (blood, organs, vaccines, etc.), biological pest control, and indications of global climate change.
Species currently being studied in my lab include the freeze-tolerant goldenrod gall fly larva (Eurosta solidaginis); the banded woollybear caterpillar (Pyrrharctia isabella) whose bands, according to folklore, are predictors of the harshness of the approaching winter; and a beetle larvae, Cucujus clavipes, which seasonally produces antifreeze proteins.
In addition to correlating behavioral and physiological indicators of dormancy with seasonal changes in environmental conditions and cues, I would like to develop molecular indicators related to regulation of physiological aspects of diapause and dormancy, such as production of diapause-regulating hormones, cellular and biochemical mechanisms of metabolic depression during dormancy and pathways of cryoprotectant metabolism and antifreeze protein expression.
Recent Publications
Bennett, V.A., T. Sformo, K. Walters, Ø. Tøien, K. Jeannet, R. Hochstrasser, B.M. Barnes and J.G. Duman. (2005) Comparative overwintering physiology of Alaska and Indiana populations of the beetle Cucujus clavipes (Fabricius): roles of antifreeze proteins, polyols, dehydration and diapause. Journal of Experimental Biology 208:4467-4477.
Duman, J.G., V.A. Bennett, N. Li, L. Wang, L. Huang, T. Sformo, B.M. Barnes. (2004) Antifreeze Proteins in Terrestrial Arthropods. (proceedings of the Life In the Cold conference, July 2004).
Duman, J.G., V.A. Bennett, T. Sformo, R. Hochstrasser, and B.M. Barnes. (2004) Antifreeze proteins in Alaskan insects and spiders. Journal of Insect Physiology 50:259-266.
Bennett, V.A., J.S. Nauman*, R.E. Lee and O. Kukal (2003) Selection of overwintering microhabitats used by the Arctic woollybear caterpillar, Gynaephora groenlandica. CryoLetters 24:191-200.
Irwin, J.T., V.A. Bennett, and R.E. Lee. (2001) Diapause development in frozen goldenrod gall fly larvae, Eurosta solidaginis (Diptera: Tephritidae). Journal of Comparative Physiology B 171:181-188.
Bennett, V.A., O. Kukal, and R.E. Lee. (1999) Metabolic opportunists: feeding and temperature influence the rate and pattern of respiration in the high arctic woollybear caterpillar, Gynaephora groenlandica (Lymantriidae). Journal of Experimental Biology 202:47-53.
Bennett, V.A. and R.E. Lee. (1997) Modeling seasonal changes in intracellular freeze-tolerance of fat body cells of the gall fly, Eurosta solidaginis (Diptera, Tephritidae). Journal of Experimental Biology 200:185-192.
Bennett, V.A., N.L. Pruitt, and R.E. Lee. (1997) Seasonal changes in fatty acid composition associated with cold-hardening in third instar larvae of Eurosta solidaginis. Journal of Comparative Physiology B 167:249-255.
