Scholars@Duke
Jackson T Sparks

Jackson T Sparks

Associate Professor of the Practice of Medical Education
Medical Education
jackson.sparks@duke.edu
DUMC Box 3899, Durham, NC 27710
Office of Curricular Affairs, DUMC Box 3899, Durham, NC 27710
Office hours By appt.  

Selected Publications

ATG8 is conserved between Saccharomyces cerevisiae and psychrophilic, polar-collected fungi.

Journal Article microPublication biology · January 2021 Autophagy is a conserved catabolic process by which eukaryotic cells respond to stress by targeting damaged or unneeded molecules or organelles for sequestration into specialized vesicles known as autophagosomes. Autophagosomes ultimately facilitate the di ... Full text Cite

Membrane Proteins Mediating Reception and Transduction in Chemosensory Neurons in Mosquitoes.

Journal Article Frontiers in physiology · January 2018 Mosquitoes use chemical cues to modulate important behaviors such as feeding, mating, and egg laying. The primary chemosensory organs comprising the paired antennae, maxillary palps and labial palps are adorned with porous sensilla that house primary senso ... Full text Cite

Mini review: Gustatory reception of chemicals affecting host feeding in aedine mosquitoes.

Journal Article Pesticide biochemistry and physiology · October 2017 Mosquitoes vector dangerous human diseases during blood feeding. Gustatory (taste) receptor neurons in the mosquito provide important chemical information including the nature and suitability of a potential host. Here we discuss the behavior, neurophysiolo ... Full text Cite

Chemosensory Responses to the Repellent Nepeta Essential Oil and Its Major Component Nepetalactone by Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae), a Vector of Zika Virus.

Journal Article Journal of medical entomology · July 2017 Nepeta essential oil (Neo; catnip) and its major component, nepetalactone, have long been known to repel insects including mosquitoes. However, the neural mechanisms through which these repellents are detected by mosquitoes, including the yellow fever mosq ... Full text Cite

Electrophysiological Responses of Gustatory Receptor Neurons on the Labella of the Common Malaria Mosquito, Anopheles quadrimaculatus (Diptera: Culicidae).

Journal Article Journal of medical entomology · September 2016 We recorded electrical responses from sensory cells associated with gustatory sensilla on the labella of female Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say to salt, sucrose, quinine (a feeding deterrent), and the insect repellent, N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide (DEET). A ... Full text Cite

Bitter-sensitive gustatory receptor neuron responds to chemically diverse insect repellents in the common malaria mosquito Anopheles quadrimaculatus.

Journal Article Die Naturwissenschaften · June 2016 Female mosquitoes feed on blood from animal hosts to obtain nutritional resources used for egg production. These contacts facilitate the spread of harmful human diseases. Chemical repellents are used to disrupt mosquito host-seeking and blood-feeding behav ... Full text Cite

Olfactory disruption: toward controlling important insect vectors of disease.

Chapter · January 2015 Chemical repellents are used to decrease contacts between insect disease vectors and their hosts, thus reducing the probability of disease transmission. The molecular mechanisms by which repellents have their effects are poorly understood and remain a cont ... Full text Cite

Physiological recordings and RNA sequencing of the gustatory appendages of the yellow-fever mosquito Aedes aegypti.

Journal Article Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · December 2014 Electrophysiological recording of action potentials from sensory neurons of mosquitoes provides investigators a glimpse into the chemical perception of these disease vectors. We have recently identified a bitter sensing neuron in the labellum of female Aed ... Full text Cite

The genetics of chemoreception in the labella and tarsi of Aedes aegypti.

Journal Article Insect biochemistry and molecular biology · May 2014 The yellow-fever mosquito Aedes aegypti is a major vector of human diseases, such as dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya and West Nile viruses. Chemoreceptor organs on the labella and tarsi are involved in human host evaluation and thus serve as potential fo ... Full text Cite

The maxillary palp of Aedes aegypti, a model of multisensory integration.

Journal Article Insect biochemistry and molecular biology · May 2014 Female yellow-fever mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti, are obligate blood-feeders and vectors of the pathogens that cause dengue fever, yellow fever and Chikungunya. This feeding behavior concludes a series of multisensory events guiding the mosquito to its host f ... Full text Cite

Gustatory receptor expression in the labella and tarsi of Aedes aegypti.

Journal Article Insect biochemistry and molecular biology · December 2013 The yellow-fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, infects a growing number of people every year with dengue, yellow fever and chikungunya viruses. Contact chemoreception in mosquitoes influences a number of behaviors including host-selection, oviposition and feedi ... Full text Cite

The insect SNMP gene family.

Journal Article Insect biochemistry and molecular biology · July 2009 SNMPs are membrane proteins observed to associate with chemosensory neurons in insects; in Drosophila melanogaster, SNMP1 has been shown to be essential for the detection of the pheromone cis-vaccenyl acetate (CVA). SNMPs are one of three insect gene clade ... Full text Cite