The genome of the Blattella germanica is more similar to that of vertebrates than the genome of the fruit fly Drosophila. In addition, while the fruit fly is the most modified of all insects, the cockroach is one of the least altered, or most basic. This makes it interesting to compare them and try and understand how they have evolved. “What matters is understanding how an organism works, seeing how it differs from others, and knowing why the same genes do such different things”, the researcher states.

As highlighted in the feature, the global cockroach research community is very small, and the Institute has four groups who work on the Blattella germanica species. These groups are the Evolution of Insect Metamorphosis Lab, led by Xavier Bellés; the Nutritional signals in Insects Lab, led by José Luis Maestro; the Evolution and Developmental Biology, led by David Martín and Xavier Franch, and Piulachs’.

“You could say that Barcelona is Blatella central”, Piulachs says.

Read the feature here.