JOHN LIGHTON LAB
RESEARCH OUTLINE

As a biologist I am best known for my work in insect gas exchange physiology, but my interests and current and future research plans are more diverse and integrative. I have concentrated largely on insects because of the sheer diversity of important biological questions that they pose across a wide variety of disciplines, and the facility with which - given the energy and ingenuity - they can be induced to answer these questions.

Speaking as a physiologist with interests and publications ranging from the molecular to the ecological aspects of biology, my interest in insects is also driven by their fascinating difference from vertebrates— by the inventiveness, if you will, of natural selection. If any animals on Earth could as easily have evolved on a different planet, in terms of sheer difference from vertebrates, those animals are insects. Beneath this difference lies, in some areas, a tantalizing glimpse of deeper similarity - witness the tinman gene. But insects have entirely different solutions from ours to the common dilemmas of maintaining homeostasis, the arrangement of skeletal and other support structures, the transport of O2 into, and CO2 out of, their bodies— the list goes on and on.

Especially in the area of respiratory physiology, insects and certain other arthropods have arrived at unique solutions, and it is at this base that most of my current research is anchored. If a base for research work may be likened to a physical expeditionary base surrounded by little-known territory, few such bases - in my opinion - lie so centrally located among such a diversity of exciting localities. To quote from a recent review article of mine published in Annual Review of Entomology,

The behavioral and other epiphenomena that we rightly admire in insects [and other animals]... vanish like mist in the morning mere milliseconds after oxidative phosphorylation stops providing the currency that neuronal circuitry and motor effectors require.

My research into respiratory physiology therefore has direct spin-offs in the areas of behavioral biology, cost-benefit analysis, resource allocation analysis and so on. This is because we so often deal in common currencies. However, my interests lie not only in the usage of the currency but in its mining, refining and minting. Rather than bother the reader with the minutiae of my current research (see my list of publications for that), I want to address the conceptual issues that unite them and form the basis for my future plans (which have admittedly been adversely affected by the near-destruction of my research program by the University of Utah's equipment and funding thefts; let's call a spade a spade.)

In essence, I am interested in obtaining a united and comprehensive insight into the mode of operation of the tracheal system in insects and other tracheate arthropods- the relative roles of diffusion and convection; the trade-offs between discontinuous and non-discontinuous gas exchange; the mechanisms of capacity-load matching during activity; to name but a few areas of current active research in my laboratory. Beyond these physiological questions, however, I am starting to extend my research to further levels of microscopic and macroscopic integration.

On the more molecular/reductionistic level, I plan an extensive program of metabolic biochemistry (as initiated by my ongoing collaborative and future planned collaborations with Raul Suarez, Jon Harrison and others). My intention is to address both mechanisms and functional significance with this approach, within a comparative context that may, in time, extend well beyond insects. I am also planning research on the phylogeny and molecular ontogeny of the tracheal system in arthropods as a whole (only insects have been partially characterized in this respect).

I am a driven person and expect others to be likewise willing to give of their best. This is a function both of innate personality and of George Bartholomew's influence as my major Ph.D. advisor. In the past this has led to exceptional performances from some students and postdocs but a degree of friction with others. This is putting the matter mildly. You can learn the details in my upcoming novel (purely a work of fiction), The Ivory Trailer Park. I thank a UNLV colleague, Dr. Karen Hoff, for coming up with that inspired description of much of present-day academia.

I have made the decision not to engage any postdoctoral associates or graduate students. This aside, I am delighted to offer help, advice, facilities or simply encouragement to any who wish it, whether they are undergraduates, graduate students, post-docs or faculty.

Not being part of the regular faculty at UNLV, and operating at the creative outer edges of academia where business and research engage in mutual cooperation, has its pitfalls but it also has its rewards. More on those as this site matures...

A complete list of my publications...

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