Scientists have sequenced the bed bug's entire genome in search of clues on how to kill it

By Ed Oswald February 4, 2016

bed bug genome sequenced 2016 bedbug remedy

Due to the recent surge in the world’s bedbug population, the phrase “sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite,” is now more of a cautionary warning than a playful goodnight farewell — but if researchers with the American Museum of Natural History and Weill Cornell Medicine have their way, we might not have to worry about these annoying – and painful — pests for much longer.

Researchers with both organizations are mapping the bedbug’s genome in hopes that it would lead to a better understanding of the insect’s behavior. From this, they hope a better pesticide could be created.

Related Videos

Bedbugs have evolved quickly to combat efforts to eradicate them, despite not changing in exterior appearance for nearly 60 million years. One major evolutionary change was the development of a built-in resistance against pesticides: the bedbug can secrete enzymes and proteins to nullify pesticide effects.

This resistance has seemed to only increase in recent years, resulting in a noticeable increase in population since the 1990s. Researchers looked at the genetic makeup of the insect at various life stages to explain this new resistance.

The study found that bedbugs are at their most vulnerable in the “nymph” stage, and seem to only develop the resistance to insecticides after the first blood meal. A future insecticide could be targeted to kill the bedbug in the developmental stage versus attempting to kill older bugs, for example.

With an entire genome in hand, pesticide researchers should be able to create even more effective insecticides that focus on the bedbug’s weak spots, here apparently at or near birth. “This work gives us the genetic basis to explore the bedbug’s basic biology and its adaptation to dense human environments,” study author and museum director George Amato says.

The study was published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, and is available in full to read from the journal’s website.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Space

These scientists have a wildly futuristic plan to harvest energy from black holes

This artist’s impression shows the central black hole and the galaxies trapped in its gas web.

Could black holes be harvested to provide power for future off-planet colonies? It sounds -- and, in some ways, certainly is -- pretty far-fetched. But, according to researchers from Columbia University and Chile’s Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, it’s also possible. At least, theoretically.

“Imagine two parts of charged matter around a rotating black hole,” Felipe Asenjo, Professor of Physics at the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, told Digital Trends. “If they are in the right place, and they are pushed apart at a speed that is close to the speed of light, then one part will fall into the black hole, while the other one will gain energy escaping from it.”

Space

Scientists who sent spiders to the ISS have discovered something truly strange

spider-web-1a via photohome

If you think space is tough on astronauts, you should try being a spider spinning a web in pitch black microgravity. OK, so that sentence is kind of a non sequitur, but it accurately describes a fascinating, somewhat oddball science experiment carried out aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

You see, spiders on Earth are pretty darn good at spinning webs. Gravity, it turns out, is a key part of the way spiders orient themselves on webs. Spiders typically begin spinning their webs by dropping down from above and attaching anchor lines. The spider then typically sits on the upper-third of the web, facing down, waiting for prey.

News

Don’t drop your diet yet, but scientists have discovered how CRISPR can burn fat

The ODIN DIY CRISPR kit

A personalized therapy for metabolic conditions that are linked to obesity could involve removing a small amount of a person’s fat, transforming it into an energy-burning variation using CRISPR gene-editing, and then re-implanting it into the body, according to researchers from the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

In tests involving mice, the implanted human fat cells helped lower sugar concentrations in the blood and decrease fat in the liver. When the mice were put on a high-fat diet, the ones that had been implanted with the human beige fat only gained half as much weight as those that had been implanted with regular human fat.