Jing-Ke Weng

Hi Nathan, Thank you so much for your generous support! Let's definitely touch base some time soon to discuss shared interests and potential future collaborations in firefly research.

Good luck! I'd really like to see the volcanic earthworm genome sequenced. There are so many mysteries to be revealed.

Thank you for your generous support! Yes, once sequenced, the firefly genome will be released as open data freely accessible to the general public.

Thank you for your generous support, Doug! The chemical structure of firefly luciferin was actually first resolved by William McElroy, when he's a professor at Johns Hopkins back in the 1960s. He paid kids one cent per piece to collect fireflies for him. Jody Banks happens to be one of those kids... We definitely hope that the native populations of fireflies persist, but the increasing light pollution and pesticide use is definitely concerning. Also thank you for passing this to Abner Lall.

Thank you so much for your generosity and support, Liliana! We'll certainly uncover many secrets from the genome of these charismatic critters that have intrigued people for millenniums! Please check on our progress here if you'd like, as we routinely update our lab notes as the project moves forward. Stay tuned!

Thank you for your generous support, Allan! We'll definitely keep you posted with the progress.

Hi Daniel, Thank you so much for your generous support. Your interest in genetic basis for divergent evolution of photoemission and receptivity within fireflies is exactly something we hope to uncover through this genome project. With a high-quality Photinus pyralis reference genome in hand, it may be feassible to assemble genomes of other firefly species using shortgun approach with much lower cost in the near future. Comparative analysis of these recently diverged firefly genomes will likely identify genetic loci contributing to variations in bioluminescent traits.