Joop van Loon's research

Research

Over 80% of plant feeding insect species and many parasitoid species are specialized feeders, whereas predators comprise both specialized and generalist species.

Using comparative physiological, behavioural and ecological approaches, we study questions on the use of chemical information by insects, such as:

• how do specialists recognise their host plants and how do generalists discriminate preferred plants from less preferred plants?
• which chemical cues play a key role in host (plant) and prey searching and host (plant) acceptance?
• which chemoreceptors mediate these cues? How specific are these chemoreceptors?
• how is olfactory activity encoded and processed in the brain to generate behaviour? (cooperation with Hans Smid)
• what chemical changes take place in a plant when it is damaged by a plant-feeding insect and how does this affect plant-feeding insects, their parasitoids and predators? (cooperation with Marcel Dicke)
• are there fitness benefits to plants by emitting volatile information which attracts natural enemies? (cooperation with Marcel Dicke and Jeff Harvey)

I am also involved in projects studying the odour-mediated host selection behaviour of malaria mosquitoes (cooperation with Willem Takken).

Research methods

Behavioural studies are the starting point of our work. We dispose over wind tunnels, olfactometers, a locomotion compensator (automated detailed walking track recording), videocamera’s, behavioural recording and analysis software and we use a range of feeding and oviposition assays on natural and artificial substrates. Behavioural observations raise questions on specificity and sensitivity of sensory perception which are addressed using electrophysiological techniques. Specificity and sensitivity of chemoreceptors that insects use to perceive plant-derived compounds are analysed by electrophysiological techniques: electroantennagrams (EAG) and single cell recordings on taste (‘tip-recording’) and olfactory neurons (surface-contact recording). For volatile plant compounds, sensory and chemical-analytical techniques are combined on-line, thereby enabling the efficient detection of individual chemicals that elicit sensory activity (coupled gas chromatography – electroantennography (GC-EAG)). Active chemicals eliciting attraction or acceptance are subsequently isolated and identified in several projects using a range of chemical analytical techniques (GC-MS, HPLC) under the guidance of behavioural assays, in close cooperation with chemists (Department of Organic Chemistry at WAU; Netherlands Institute of Ecological Research CTO-NIOO of KNAW; Department of Organic Chemistry, Technical University of Braunschweig; Institute of Zoology, Free University of Berlin).

Publications

• Efficiency of organic stream conversion by black soldier fly larvae: a review of the scientific literature
  Bosch, G. , Veenenbos, M.E. , Zanten, H.H.E. van , Meijer, N.P. , Fels-Klerx, H.J. van der , Loon, J.J.A. van (2018) Journal of Insects as Food and Feed 4 (2018)supplement 1. - ISSN 2352-4588 - p. S44 - S44.
• Black soldier fly larvae to upcycle organic streams: a review of the scientific literature
  Bosch, G. , Veenenbos, M.E. , Zanten, H.H.E. van , Meijer, N.P. , Fels-Klerx, H.J. van der , Loon, J.J.A. van (2018)
• Consideration of insects as a source of dietary protein for human consumption
  Churchward-Venne, T.A. , Pinckaers, P.J.M. , Loon, J.J.A. van , Loon, L.J.C. van (2017) Nutrition Reviews 75 (2017)12. - ISSN 0029-6643 - p. 1035 - 1045.
• The residual biomass landscape for insect production
  Meijer, N.P. , Bosch, G. , Veenenbos, M.E. , Loon, J.J.A. van , Zanten, H.H.E. van , Fels, H.J. van der (2017) In: Insecta Conference 2017 Book of Abstracts. - Potsdam : Leibniz-Institüt für Agrartechnik Potsdam-Bornim (Bornimer Agrartechnische Berichte ) - p. 54 - 54.
• Nutritional value of the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens L.) and its suitability as animal feed - a review
  Barragan-Fonseca, K.B. , Dicke, M. , Loon, J.J.A. van (2017) Journal of Insects as Food and Feed 3 (2017)2. - ISSN 2352-4588 - p. 105 - 120.
• Degradation and excretion of the Fusarium toxin deoxynivalenol by an edible insect, the Yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor L.)
  Broekhoven, S. van , Mota Gutierrez, J. , Rijk, T.C. de , Nijs, W.C.M. de , Loon, J.J.A. van (2017) World Mycotoxin Journal 10 (2017)2. - ISSN 1875-0710 - p. 163 - 169.
• Data from: Endure and call for help: strategies of black mustard plants to deal with a specialised caterpillar
  Lucas Gomes Marques Barbosa, D. , Dicke, M. , Kranenburg, Twan , Aartsma, Y.S.Y. , Beek, T.A. van , Huigens, Martinus E. , Loon, J.J.A. van (2016)
• Photoreceptor spectral sensitivity of the compound eyes of black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) informing the design of LED-based illumination to enhance indoor reproduction
  Oonincx, D.G.A.B. , Volk, N. , Diehl, J.J.E. , Loon, J.J.A. van , Belušič, G. (2016) Journal of Insect Physiology 95 (2016). - ISSN 0022-1910 - p. 133 - 139.
• Plant-mediated interactions between two herbivores differentially affect a subsequently arriving third herbivore in populations of wild cabbage
  Kroes, A. , Stam, J.M. , David, A. , Boland, W. , Loon, J.J.A. van , Dicke, M. , Poelman, E.H. (2016) Plant Biology 18 (2016)6. - ISSN 1435-8603 - p. 981 - 991.
• Visual and odour cues: plant responses to pollination and herbivory affect the behaviour of flower visitors
  Lucas-Barbosa, D. , Sun, P. , Hakman, A. , Beek, T.A. van , Loon, J.J.A. van , Dicke, M. (2016) Functional Ecology 30 (2016)3. - ISSN 0269-8463 - p. 431 - 441.

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