Transcript The Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit (WRBU), Department of

WRBU: “Know The Vector,
Know The Threat”
Pollie L.M. Rueda, Ph.D.
Rick Wilkerson, Ph.D.
Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit (WRBU)
Entomology Division, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), Silver Spring, MD
20910
Office address:
WRBU, Smithsonian Institution
4210 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, MD 20746
The Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit
(WRBU), Department of Entomology,
DCD&I, WRAIR
• Basic and applied systematics research on mosquitoes of
medical importance.
Primary Activities and Goals
• Morphological and molecular systematics
research on vector species and vector species
groups
• Provide identification resources in paper and
electronic formats
• Provide identifications to DOD
• Curate the National Mosquito Collection
• Support DOD research, e.g. arbovirus surveys,
repellent trials - provide quality control on
identifications
History
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1964 Army Mosquito Project (AMP)
1966 Southeast Asia Mosquito Project (SEAMP)
1974 Medical Entomology Project (MEP)
1981 Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit (WRBU)
Approximately 18 military officers, 11 civilians, 32
adjunct personnel and collaborators
 409+ publications; 12,000+ pages
Collaboration with
Smithsonian
• Facilities, services, collection
infrastructure support, etc…
• Use of sequencing resources of
Laboratory of Analytical Biology (LAB)
• Emu (Electronic Museum) capture of
Mosquitoes of Middle America collection
records
• Grants for scanning literature and alcohol
collection maintenance
Components needed for
systematics research and
taxonomic identifications
• Personnel
• Collection
• Literature
Personnel
WRBU
• Dr. Rick Wilkerson, Research Entomologist/Curator
•
Dr. Pollie Rueda, Research Entomologist/Curator
•
Mr. Tom Gaffigan, Biol. Sci. Lab. Tech
• Mr. Jim Pecor, Biol. Sci. Lab. Tech
• Army Officer - MAJ Mark Potter
• Contract technicians, illustrator, post docs, visiting
scientists, SI research associate, graduate students,
volunteers
WRBU
• Large mosquito systematics reprint
collection
• Caretakers of World’s largest (best?)
mosquito collection (about 1.5
million specimens)
Primary projects
• Identification tools for medically important mosquitoes
of the PACOM*, CENTCOM*, SOUTHCOM, EUCOM
(Africa) Areas of Responsibility
– Lucid keys
– Species pages
– Updating catalog, reprints, pdfs, web
• Identification tools for medically important sand flies
of the CENTCOM Areas of Responsibility
– Lucid keys
– Species pages
– New catalog
• Modeling the potential distribution of vectors
Fig. 5. Anopheles sinensis Wiedemann
(red dots, occurrence points;
blue areas, predicted distribution
in South Korea).
Fig. 8. Anopheles minimus Theobald A (red dots, occurrence points;
blue areas, predicted distribution in Southeast Asia).
MosquitoMap logo
www.mosquitomap.org ---website being developed to host
global mosquito occurrence data
and mosquito distribution models.
Current Projects
• Neotropical Anopheles
- An. (Nys.) albitarsis complex
(marajoara)
- An. (Nys.) oswaldoi complex
- An. (Nys.) triannulatus complex
- An. (Ano.) crucians complex*
- Review of An. subgenus Kerteszia
• Korean/China malaria vectors
• Application of molecular tools for solution
of taxonomic problems and development
of diagnostics
An. kleini Rueda
An. belenrae Rueda
Current Projects/Activities
• Vector Identification Service (VIS)
• Support of malaria, dengue, repellent
studies
• Collaborations in Brazil, Peru,
Mexico, Columbia, Venezuela, China,
Japan, Korea, Georgia
• Collection curation
• Lab and basic identification training
• Training of DOD entomologists
Current Projects/Activities
• Mosquito/Sand fly* Systematics Information
Resource
- Update/publish mosquito/sand fly*
taxonomic catalog
- Scan all systematics literature
- Make all literature available in digital
format
- Annotate catalog to allow retrieval of keys
and other identification materials by
country, region or mosquito group
- Convert catalog into a database
- Web page development -- access to all
literature, field and lab protocols,
identification aids and services
Website • http://wrbu.org
http://wrbu.org/
http://www.mosquitocatalog.org
Web-identification keys
• Please try running our keys to ID your
mosquito specimens
• Keys – still in a “beta format”; need further
expert/user reviews and corrections before
the final format.
• Email us any corrections, comments, etc to
improve the keys, and the website as a
whole. Contact the webmaster (click), Pollie
Rueda ([email protected]) or Rick Wilkerson
([email protected])