Genetics of Blowfly Parasitism

Understanding the biology of the Australian sheep blowfly (Lucilia cuprina) is critical to developing new and effective strategies for its control. The unique parasitic lifecycle of the blowfly means that insect model organisms currently available for study using sophisticated genetic techniques are not necessarily going to provide results about gene function relevant to the blowfly. This project aimed to improve on the genomics resources available in L. cuprina because, while the initial genome was of a high quality when released, new sequencing technologies could be used to improve the L. cuprina genome further. This would assist researchers to correctly identify genes, and gene families and provide a blueprint for researchers to analyse the function of genes.