Judith Willis

Judith H. Willis (born 2 January 1935) is an American biologist currently Professor Emeritus at University of Georgia and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her research frequently involved insect cuticular proteins (CPs) as molecular markers of metamorphic stage, precise role CPs play in constructing insects and annotating the CP genes of Anopheles gambiae, the major vector of malaria.

Selected publications

Willis, J.H. 2018  The evolution and metamorphosis of arthropod proteomics and genomics.  Ann. Rev. Entomol.  63:1-13.

Vannini, L. and J.H. Willis  2016.  Immunolocalization of cuticular proteins in Johnston's organ and the corneal lens of Anopheles gambiae.  Arthropod Structure & Develop.  45:519-535.

Ioannidou, Z S., Theodoropoulou, M.C., Papandreou, N.C., Willis, J.H., Hamodrakas, S.J.  2014.  CutProtFam-Pred: Detection and classification of putative structural cuticular proteins from sequence alone, based on profile Hidden Markov Models.  Insect Biochem. Molec. Biol. 52:51-59.

Cornman, R.S., T. Togawa, W.A. Dunn.  N. He, A.C. Emmons, J.H. Willis.  2008.  Annotation and analysis of a large cuticular protein family with the R&R Consensus in Anopheles gambiae.  BMC Genomics 9:22.

Iconomidou, V.A., J.H. Willis and S.J. Hamodrakas.  2005.  Unique features of the structural model of ‘hard’ cuticle proteins: implications for chitin-protein interactions and cross-linking in cuticle.  Insect Biochem. Molec. Biol.  35:553-560.

Dotson, E.M., A.J. Cornel, J.H. Willis and F.H. Collins. 1998.  A family of pupal-specific cuticular protein genes in the mosquito Anopheles gambiae.  Insect. Biochem. Molec. Biol. 28: 459-472.

Willis, J.H.  1986.  The paradigm of stage specific gene sets in insect metamorphosis:  Time for revision!  Arch. Insect Biochem. Physiol. Suppl. 1:47-57.