I am a Research Geneticist at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Ames, IA. At this position, I investigate the genetic and genomic mechanisms of insects that lead to adaptation and the evolution of resistance traits. My main focus is the study of traits in European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis, and corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera that increase transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxin and chemical insecticide resistance in large scale crop production systems. This involved the characterization of global gene expression differences, development and used of molecular genetic markers to trace the segregation of Bt resistance alleles, isolation of quantitative trait loci (QTL), positional cloning from bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) screens, and genome sequencing. Research findings have increased the knowledge of how Cry1Ab and Cry1F resistance evolves. Additionally, my research involved bioinformatic methods to predict gene orthology and evolution among corn insect pests, and has been assembled at the website LepDB.org. Lastly, I investigate the role of transposable elements (TEs) in the generation of genome novelty and phenotypic variation as a factor that influences environmental adaptation.