1980 Folwell Ave
St. Paul, MN 55108
United States
Undergraduate and Graduate
- Annhurst College, Woodstock, Connecticut, 1967-1969
- University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, 1970-1972, BA (Biology, H. Laufer)
- Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 1972-1973, MS (Biology, G.R. Wyatt)
- Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, 1973-1976, PhD (Biology, G.R. Wyatt)
Postdoctoral Training
- University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1976-1978 (Molecular Biology, with M. Nomura)
- Texas A & M University, College Station, 1978-1979 (Virology, with M.D. Summers)
- University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; formerly Rutger’s Medical School, Piscataway, 1979-1981 (Molecular Biology, arbovirology, with V. Stollar)
Areas of Interest
Mosquito physiology, molecular biology and biochemistry, mosquito cell culture, Wolbachia
Teaching
- ENT 1905, Freshman Seminar, Zika Virus and Transgenic Mosquitoes, Spring 2018
- ENT 3275/5275, Insect transmitted diseases of humans, Annually, Spring
- Ent 1903, Freshman seminar, Toxins, venoms and drugs in bugs, Fall 2021
- Ent 2575, Miniature Livestock: Insects in commerce, trade and biotechnology, Annually, Fall
- Biol 4944, directed research, CBS students, as requested
Research
- Mosquito reproduction
- Mosquito cell culture; gene expression, gene amplification; toxicology
- Hormonal effects on cell cycle progression
- Structure and regulation of mosquito ribosomal protein genes
- Host microbe interactions, especially Wolbachia in Culex mosquitoes
- Development of in vitro systems for manipulating Wolbachia
National and International Interests:
- Grant review panels: NIH (past member, Vector Biology Study Section), NSF, USDA, Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellowships, Lindbergh Foundation
- Invited Visiting Professor, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 1999
- Sabbatical: University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, 2005
- Rosetta Briegel Barton Seminar, University of Oklahoma: Wolbachia and Mosquitoes: Prospects for Disease Reduction by Population Control, 2016.
- Manipulating Wolbachia infection and maintenance in mosquito cell lines. 14th International Conference on Invertebrate and Fish Cell culture, San Diego, CA, 2016.
- Optimizing Wolbachia infection and maintenance in mosquito cell lines. Tenth International Wolbachia Conference, Salem MA, 2018.
- Maintaining Wolbachia in Cell Culture, 8th International Symposium on Molecular Insect Science, Sitges, Spain, 2019.
Select Publications
Submitted:
Fallon, AM, Carroll, EM. The WO phage-like genome from Wolbachia strain wStri contains a compact conserved core resembling a gene transfer agent. Insect Mol Biol, submitted Nov. 2022.
Published:
Fallon, AM. Mitotically inactivated mosquito cells support robust Wolbachia infection and replication. In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol. – Animal 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11626-022-00726-2
Fallon, AM. From mosquito ovaries to ecdysone; from ecdysone to Wolbachia: one woman’s career in insect biology. Insects 2022, 13,756. https://doi.org/10.3390/ insects13080756
Fallon, AM. Muramidase, nuclease, or hypothetical protein genes intervene between paired genes encoding DNA packaging terminase and portal proteins in Wolbachia phages and prophages. Virus Genes 2022, 58(4):327-349. doi: 10.1007/s11262-022-01907-7.
Fallon, AM. Growth and maintenance of Wolbachia in insect cell lines. Insects 2021, 12, 706. doi.org/10.3390/insects12080706.
Fallon, AM. Assessment of mitotically inactivated mosquito cell feeder layers produced with mitomycin C. In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol. – Animal 2021, 57:583–586. doi.org/10.1007/s11626-021-00597-z
Fallon, AM. DNA recombination and repair in Wolbachia: RecA and related proteins, Mol. Genet. Genomics 2021, 296(2):437-456. doi 10.1007/s00438-020-01760-z.
Fallon, AM: Computational evidence for antitoxins associated with RelE/ParE, RatA, Fic and AbiEii-family toxins in Wolbachia genomes. Mol. Genet. Genomics, 2020, 295, 891-909; doi 10.1007/s00438-020-01662-0
Fallon, AM: Conditions facilitating infection of mosquito cell lines with Wolbachia, an obligate intracellular bacterium, In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Animal 2019, 55 (2), 120-129. https://doi.org. 10.1007/s11626-019-00319-6
Graber, LC Fallon, AM. Tetracycline reduces feeding and reproduction of the parthenogenetic springtail, Folsomia candida. Symbiosis 2019, 77(3), 257-264. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13199-018-00593-0
Todey, SA, Fallon AM, Arnold, WS: Neonicotinoid insecticide hydrolysis and photolysis: rates and residual toxicity. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 2018, 37 (11):2797-2809. doi 10.1002/etc.4256.
Fallon, AM: Strain-specific response to ampicillin in Wolbachia-infected mosquito cell lines. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Animal 2018, 454: 580-588. doi.org/10.1007/s11626-018-0279-x
Baldridge, GD, Higgins, LA, Witthuhn, BA, Markowski, TW, Baldridge, AS, Armien, AG, Fallon, AM. Proteomic analysis of a mosquito host response to persistent Wolbachia infection. Research in Microbiol 2017, 168, 609-625. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resmic.2017.04.005.
Baldridge, GD, Li, YG, Witthuhn, BA, Higgins, LA, Markowski, TW, Baldridge, AS and Fallon, AM. Mosaic composition of ribA and wspB genes flanking the virB8-D4 operon in the Wolbachia supergroup B strain, wStr. Archs. Microbiol 2016, 198, 53-69. https://DOI 10.1007/s00203-015-1154-8.
Baldridge, GD, Markowski, TW, Witthuhn, BA Witthuhn, Higgins, LA, Baldridge AS and Fallon, AM. The Wolbachia WO bacteriophage proteome in the Aedes albopictus C/wStr1 cell line: Evidence for lytic activity? In Vitro Cell Dev. Biol--Animal 2016, 52, 77-88. https://DOI 10.1007/s11626-015-9949-0.
Li, G and Fallon, AM. Rearing the soil arthropod Folsomia candida (Collembola: Isotomidae) on agar plates and estimating biomass by protein staining with Ponceau S. Applied Entomol. Zool. 2016, 51(3) 489-494. DOI 10.1007/s13355-016-0405-8.
Fallon AM. Effects of mimosine on Wolbachia in mosquito cells: Cell cycle suppression reduces bacterial abundance. In Vitro Cell Dev. Biol Animal 2015, 51, 958-963. https://DOI 10.1007/s11626-015-9918-7.
Baldridge, GD, Baldridge, AS, Higgins, LA, Witthuhn, BA, Markowski, TW, Fallon, AM. Proteomic profiling of a robust Wolbachia infection in an Aedes albopictus mosquito cell line. Mol Microbiol 2014, 94, 537-556. doi:10.1111.mmi12768.
Fallon, AM, Baldridge, GD, Carroll, EM, Kurtz, CM. Depletion of host cell riboflavin reduces Wolbachia levels in cultured mosquito cells. In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol Animal 2014, 50, 707-713.
Fallon, AM. Flow cytometric evaluation of the intracellular bacterium, Wolbachia pipientis, in mosquito cells. J Microbiological Methods 2014, 107, 119-125.
Beckmann, JF, Markowski, TW, Witthuhn, BA, Fallon, AM. Detection of the Wolbachia encoded DNA binding protein, HU-beta, in mosquito gonads. Insect Biochem Mol. Biol 2013, 43, 272-279.
Beckmann, JF and Fallon, AM. Detection of a Wolbachia Protein in Mosquito Spermathecae: Implications for Cytoplasmic Incompatibility. Insect Biochem. Mol. Biol. 2013, 43, 867-878.
Fallon, AM, Baldridge, GD, Higgins, LA, Witthuhn, BA. Wolbachia from the planthopper Laodelphax striatellus establishes a robust, persistent, streptomycin-resistant infection in clonal mosquito cells. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Animal 2013, 49, 66-73.
Fallon, AM, Kurtz, CM, Carroll, EM. The oxidizing agent, paraquat, is more toxic to Wolbachia than to mosquito host cells. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Animal, 2013, 49, 501-507.
Beckmann, J. F. and Fallon, A. M. Decapitation improves detection of Wolbachia pipientis (Rickettsiales: Anaplasmataeae) in Culex pipiens Linnaeus (Diptera: Culicidae) mosquitoes by the polymerase chain reaction. J. Med. Entomol 2012, 49, 1103-1108.
Students Advised
At Rutgers
- 1982-1987 Joan E. Durbin, PhD 1987, MD, 1989
- 1983-1986 Mary Ann Fritz, PhD 1986
- 1985-1988 Yang-Ja Park, PhD 1988
- 1985-1986 Irawathy Chalikonda, MS 1986
- 1986-1987 Cuong Lam, MS 1987
- 1984-1988 Nassim Nouri, MS 1988
- 1986-1989 Steve Young, MS 1989
At University of Minnesota
- 1988-1992 Karl Kjer, PhD 1992
- 1988-1993 Que Lan, PhD 1993
- 1988-1992 Frank Shotkoski, PhD 1992
- 1989-1997 Christina Wu, MS 1992; PhD 1997;
- 1990-1995 Celeste Mazzacano, PhD 1995
- 1992-1997 Zhonghui Wang, PhD 1997
- 1992-2001 Ling Ling Niu Visiting Scholar/PhD, 1999
- 1993-1997 Jun Liu, MS 1996
- 1995-2000 Xiaogang Li, PhD 2000
- 1995-1998 Vida Hernandez, MS 1998
- 1996-2007 Karen Moline Shih, MS 1999; PhD 2007.
- 1996-2001 Dongxu Sun, PhD 2001
- 1998-2002 Nadia Nasr, PhD 2002
- 2000-2003 Melinda Schwientek, MS 2003
- 2001-2005 Abeer Yakout, MS 2006
- 2001-2005 Lingzhi Ma, Research Specialist, 2002; MS 2005
- 2001-2005 Yongjiao Zhai, Research Specialist, 2002; MS 2005
- 2002-2005 Lei Li, MS 2005
- 2009-2014 John Beckmann, PhD 2014
- 2011-2016 Grace Li, PhD 2016
Post Doctoral Associates:
- 1983-1987 Anne M. Johnston, Postdoctoral (Rutgers)
- 1984-1986 Phyllis G. Hotchkin, Postdoctoral (Rutgers)
- 1989-1989 Judy Helgen, Postdoctoral (Minnesota)
- 1989-1994 Gerald Baldridge, Postdoctoral (Minnesota)
- 1990-1994 Yang-Ja Park, Postdoctoral (Minnesota)
- 1999-2001 Ling Ling Niu, Postdoctoral (Minnesota)
- 1995-2003 Gitanjali Jayachandran, Postdoctoral (Minnesota)
Others:
- 1995, 1996, 1997 Huazhu Hong, Visiting Scientist (Central China Normal University)
- 1995-1999 Youxin Gao (Research Fellow, Minnesota)
- 2008-2008 Dr. Anita Bellie, Associate Professor, Government of India BioTechnology, Overseas Associate
- 2009-2010 Dr. Debby Filler, Professor, Anoka Ramsey Community College, Sabbatical
- 2010-2016 Gerald Baldridge, Senior Research Associate