My laboratory is interested in gene diversity and the resulting functional/pharmacological properties of ligand-gated ion channels, using genome sequence analysis, molecular biology and electrophysiology. In particular, I am focusing on cys-loop ligand-gated ion channels of insects. The cys-loop ligand-gated ion channel superfamily includes nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, GABA receptors and glutamate-gated chloride channels, which play key roles in signalling and are also of interest as they are targets of pesticides.

Taylor-Wells, J., Brooke, B.D., Bermudez, I. and Jones, A.K. The neonicotinoid imidacloprid, and the pyrethroid deltamethrin, are antagonists of the insect Rdl GABA receptor. (2015). J Neurochem 135(4):705-13. Graphical Abstract Sadd, B.M., et al. (2015). The genomes of two key bumblebee species with primitive eusocial organisation. Genome Biol 16:623. Research Highlight Scott, J.G., Warren, W.C., Beukeboom, L.W., Bopp, D., Clark, A.G., Giers, S.D., Hediger, M., Jones, A.K., Kasai, S., Leichter, C.A., Li, M., Meisel, R.P., Minx, P., Murphy, T.D., Nelson, D.R., Reid, W.R., Rinkevich, F.D., Robertson, H.M., Sackton, T.B., Sattelle, D.B., Thibaud-Nissen, F., Tomlinson, C., van de Zande, L., Walden, K., Wilson, R.K. and Liu N. (2014). Genome of the house fly, Musca domestica L., a global vector of diseases with adaptations to a septic environment. Genome Biol Oct 14;15(10):466. Furutani, S., Ihara, M., Nishino, Y., Akamatsu, M., Jones, A.K., Sattelle, D.B. and Matsuda, K. (2014). Exon 3 Splicing and Mutagenesis Identify Residues Influencing Cell Surface Density of Heterologously-expressed Silkworm (Bombyx mori) Glutamate-gated Chloride Channels. Mol Pharmacol 86(6):686-95 Lees, K., Jones, A.K., Matsuda, K., Akamatsu, M., Sattelle, D.B., Woods, D.J. and Bowman, A.S. (2014). Functional characterisation of a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha subunit from the brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus. Int J Parasitol 44:75-81. Bennett, H.M., Lees, K., Harper, K.M., Jones, A.K., Sattelle, D.B., Wonnacott, S. and Wolstenholme, A.J. (2012). Xenopus laevis RIC-3 enhances the functional expression of the C. elegans homomeric nicotinic receptor, ACR-16, in Xenopus oocytes. J Neurochem 123:911-918