377 | A Spoonful of Trehalose Helps the Crickets Chill Out

If you have ever wondered what happens with insects during the winter, this episode will provide some answers. Hosts Ariel Frame and Laura Muñoz Baena chat with Alyssa Stephens, a student of the Biology department who just defended her Masters thesis on freezing tolerance in spring field crickets. More specifically,  Alyssa studied how crickets modify their metabolism to accumulate trehalose, a sugar that crickets use as source of energy in the summer and protection for cell freezing during the winter. 

Follow Alyssa on Twitter @lyssastephens and for more interesting facts about crickets and other insects, follow the Entomological Society of Ontario on Twitter @EntSocOnt

Recorded on June 7 2022

Produced by Ariel Frame

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