Nicholas Miller

Education

Ph.D., The University of Birmingham
BSc., The University of Birmingham

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

• Entomological Society of America
• Genetics Society of America
• Diabrotica Genetics Consortium
• Subject Editor: Environmental Entomology

Publications

Selected recent publications

• Rault LC, Siegfried BD, Gassmann AJ, Wang H, Brewer GJ, Miller NJ(2018). Investigation of Cry3Bb1 resistance and intoxication in western corn rootworm by RNA sequencing. J Appl Entomol. 2018. 1–16. DOI: 10.1111/jen.12502
• Lombaert E, Ciosi M, Miller NJ, Sappington TW, Blin A, Guillemaud T (2017). Colonization history of the western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera) in North America: insights from random forest ABC using microsatellite data. Biol Invasions (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-017-1566-2
• Miller NJ, Sappington TW (2017). Role of dispersal in resistance evolution and spread. Curr Opin Insect Sci. 2017. 21:68-74. DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2017.04.005
• Miller NJ (2016). Stress-induced changes in abundance differ among obligate and facultative endosymbionts of the soybean aphid. Ecology and Evolution 6: 818–829.
• Coates BS, Alves AP, Wang H, Rangasamy M, Robertson HM, Whitfield CW, Walden KKO, Katchman SD, Chen H, French BW, Meinke LJ, Abel CA, Sappington TW, Siegfried BD, Miller NJ (2016). Quantitative trait locus mapping and functional genomics of an organophosphate resistance trait in the western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera. Insect Molecular Biology 25: 1–15.
• Nanoth Vellichirammal N, Wang H, Eyun S, Moriyama EN, Coates BS, Miller NJ, Siegfried BD (2015). Transcriptional analysis of susceptible and resistant European corn borer strains and their response to Cry1F protoxin. BMC Genomics 16: 558.
• Miller NJ, Zhao Z (2015). Transcriptional responses of Diabrotica virgifera virgifera larvae to benzoxazinoids. Journal of Applied Entomology 139: 416–423.
• Alouw JC, Miller NJ (2015). Effects of benzoxazinoids on specialist and generalist Diabrotica species. Journal of Applied Entomology 139: 424–431.
• Enders LS, Bickel RD, Brisson JA, Heng-Moss TM, Siegfried BD, Zera AJ, Miller NJ (2015). Abiotic and biotic stressors causing equivalent mortality induce highly variable transcriptional responses in the soybean aphid. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics 5: 261–270.
• Enders L, Bickel R, Brisson J, Heng-Moss T, Siegfried B, Zera A, Miller N (2014). Soybean aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae) response to soybean plant defense: stress levels, tradeoffs, and cross-virulence. Environmental Entomology 43: 47–57.
• Miller NJ, Sun J, Sappington TW (2012). High-throughput transcriptome sequencing for SNP and gene discovery in a moth. Environmental Entomology 41: 997–1007.
• Coates BS, Alves AP, Wang H, Walden KKO, French BW, Miller NJ, Abel CA, Robertson HM, Sappington TW, Siegfried BD (2012). Distribution of genes and repetitive elements in the Diabrotica virgifera virgifera genome estimated using BAC sequencing. Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology 2012: 1–9.
• Miller NJ, Richards S, Sappington TW (2010). The prospects for sequencing the western corn rootworm genome. Journal of Applied Entomology 134: 420–428.
• Ciosi M, Miller NJ, Toepfer S, Estoup A, Guillemaud T (2010). Stratified dispersal and increasing genetic variation during the invasion of Central Europe by the western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera. Evolutionary Applications 4: 54–70.

Expertise

Research in the lab focuses on the population genetics and evolution of herbivorous insects. We mostly study species that are pests of agriculture. Key areas of interest include:

• Adaptation by insect pests to the technologies intended to control them, including genetically-modified crops and pesticides.
• The interactions of specialist and generalist herbivores to plant defenses.
• Dispersal and movement of insects and the genes they carry.

We use a mixture of traditional population genetic methods, genomics, transcriptomics, bioinformatics and computer simulations in our research.