Site of sex pheromone production in Ascaris suum (Nematoda)

1985 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 664-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Garcia-Rejon ◽  
M. Sanchez-Moreno ◽  
S. Verdejo ◽  
M. Monteoliva

The site of production of sexual pheromones in Ascaris suum was studied. Different organ and tissue homogenates were used as attractant sources and a single worm of the opposite sex was used as a responder. The possible attraction of the worms towards homogenates from their own sexes was tested also. Males were attracted significantly to sexual organs of females, whereas females were attracted to testes and male body fluid. Females were attracted weakly to male cuticles. Attraction to homosexual sources was not found. The sexual organs are proposed as the site of pheromonal production in both sexes, and the body fluid as the vehicle for transport of male pheromone.

2003 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Frontera ◽  
F. Serrano ◽  
D. Reina ◽  
M. Alcaide ◽  
J. Sánchez-López ◽  
...  

AbstractAdult Ascaris suum were dissected to obtain different worm components (body wall, body fluid, ovaries, uterus and oesophagus) which were used as antigens when testing 95 sera of naturally A. suum-infected Iberian pigs by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Western blot (WB). Pigs with patent Ascaris infections had significantly lower ELISA optical density values than pigs without adult worms when using the body fluid and the body wall as antigens. A poor negative correlation was found between adult intestinal worm burden or eggs in faeces and specific antibody responses, measured by ELISA and WB using all antigens. By WB, the recognition of specific bands was variable, but three groups of bands with molecular weights of 97 kDa, 54–58 kDa and 42–44 kDa were generally recognized by sera from naturally infected pigs as well as from hyperimmunized pigs when using the five antigen extracts. The ELISA and WB techniques may be used for immunodiagnosis, using somatic adult worm antigens, to declare young pigs to be Ascaris-free but cannot be used for individual Ascaris-diagnosis in adult Iberian pigs.


Author(s):  
Deborah J. Howse ◽  
Julia M. Potter ◽  
David I. Grove
Keyword(s):  

1939 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. W. Fenwick

Numerous attempts have been made in the past to induce the eggs of Ascaris suum to hatch outside the body of the host. Extra-corporeal hatching has been observed under a variety of conditions by different workers. Kondo (1920, 1922), Asada (1921) and others record hatching in water, charcoal and sand cultures. Wharton (1915) states that hatching will occur in alkaline digestive juices, while Martin (1913) records a similar phenomenon in pancreatic fluid. Many different explanations have been offered to explain this hatching. Wharton suggested that the interaction of algae and sand might have some effect. Ohba (1923), who found that hatching would occur in 0·2% hydrochloric acid and 0·2% sodium carbonate believed that extra-corporeal hatching was limited to very old cultures of eggs. Many workers are of the opinion that some stimulus normally present in the digestive tract is necessary for hatching.


1950 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
GARTH CHAPMAN

Four aspects of the functioning of a fluid-filled cylindrical animal have been examined, viz.: (I) the role of the body fluid as a skeleton for the interaction of the longitudinal and circular muscles of which the animal must be composed; (2) the measurement of the maximum thrust which the animal can exert by measurement of its internal hydrostatic pressure; (3) the application of the force to the substratum and the part played by friction; (4) the relation between the changes in dimensions of the animal and the working length of the muscles. Under (1) the necessity for a longitudinal and circular construction has been shown and the necessity for a closed system emphasized. Under (2) the pressure exerted on the body fluid by the contraction of the longitudinal and circular muscles is discussed, and from their cross-sectional areas it is shown to be probable that when contracting maximally in Lumbricus they are not balanced, but that the longitudinals are about ten times as strong as the circulars. Under (3) it is shown that the strength of an animal as measured by its internal hydrostatic pressure is sufficient to account for its customary activities. Use which may be made of the longitudinals during burrowing is pointed out. Under (4) it is shown to be mechanically sound for burrowing animals of cylindrical form to be ‘fat’, but that a ‘thin’ animal is more efficient at progression.


1952 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-29
Author(s):  
A. D. HOBSON ◽  
W. STEPHENSON ◽  
A. EDEN

The results obtained in this investigation are admittedly not as extensive as is desirable but they allow certain conclusions to be drawn. 1. The sodium and potassium contents of the body fluid of Ascaris lumbricoides are somewhat variable, but these variations do not seem to be dependent upon those of the external medium. 2. The calcium and magnesium contents of the body fluid are relatively constant and are not affected by those of the external medium. 3. The chloride concentration of the body fluid is closely related to and always remains lower than that of the external medium. 4. As shown in Table 2, there is a large gap between the total concentrations of inorganic cations and anions in the intestinal fluid of the pig. Presumably a considerable proportion of the inorganic cations are combined with organic anions, at present undetermined. Exposing the worms to saline media composed of chloride caused a large rise in the internal chloride concentration. This may well be a limiting factor in the life of the animals in such media, and the next step forward would seem to be the fuller analysis of the environment to which they are normally exposed.


Development ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-161
Author(s):  
Par J. C. Relexans

Transplantations of undifferentiated gonads in the simultaneous hermaphrodite Eisenia foetida (Oligochaeta, Lumbricidae) leading to evidence of local factors (inductors?) of sexual differentiation The hypothesis of a ♀ sex capable of autodifferentiation and of a ♂ sex depending on an androgen hormone has been verified in several gonochoric or hermaphrodite invertebrates. In order to test the validity of this hypothesis in the hermaphrodite Eisenia foetida we have investigated the influence of the gonads' environment on their differentiation by transplanting undifferentiated gonads, dorsally and ventrally, on different parts of the body. The gonads, taken with the adjacent wall of the body from new-born worms, are grafted on worms of the same age; some grafts do, others do not, retain their nervous system. The control transplantation in which a graft of a given presumptive sex is transplanted in a region of the same sex can lead to inversions. These inversions have a rare and short-lived character in the gonads coming from presumptive testes. They are more frequent and more or less durable in the gonads coming from presumptive ovaries. These results can only be explained by the existence, within the grafts of the two presumptive sexes, of a dominant relationship between one and the other sexual potentiality which can be momentarily inverted by trophic disturbances caused by the transplantation. The heterosexual transplantations, in which a graft of a given presumptive sex is transplanted in the region of the opposite sex, show that the frequency of the inversions is doubled in relation to the frequency obtained in the control transplantations. The inversions which occur in the presumptive testes can be lasting and even permanent. These results lead to the opinion that to the effects of transplantation is added an inductive action from the host, leading to masculinity in the ♂ region and femininity in the ♀ region. The transplantations outside of the sexual ventral regions lead to inversions of which the character and frequency recall those obtained in the control transplantations. They suggest that these regions are devoid of inductive sexualizing power. The very slight variations of frequency of the inversions observed along the antero-posterior and dorso-ventral axes can be explained by the existence of physiological gradients acting on the balance of the graft's own potentialities. The removal of the nervous system in the grafts shows that this system plays a part, probably trophic, in favour of the masculine potentialities of the graft. In conclusion, our experiments lead to the rejection of the hypothesis of the ♀ sex capable of autodifferentiation in Eisenia, in order to adopt that of a sexual balance between the ♂ and ♀ potentialities determining, according to their dominant relationship, the synthesis of ♂ or ♀ ‘inductors’ respectively in the ♂ and ♀ ventral regions. These inductors act in turn on the bipotential sexual cells.


2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-72
Author(s):  
Håkan Larsson

Håkan Larsson: Sport and gender This article concerns bodily materialisation as it occurs in youth sport. It is based on interviews with teenagers 16 to 19 years of age doing track and field athletics. The purpose of the article is to elucidate how the notion of a “natural body“ can be seen as a cultural effect of sports practice and sports discourse. On the one hand, the body is materialised as a performing body, and on the other as a beautiful body. The “performing body“ is a single-sexed biological entity. The “beautiful body“ is a double-sexed and distinctly heterosexually appealing body. As these bodies collide in teenager track and field, the female body materialises as a problematic body, a body that is at the same time the subject of the girl’s personality. The male body materialises as an unproblematic body, a body that is the object of the boy’s personality. However, the body as “(a problematic) subject“ or as “(an unproblematic) object“ is not in itself a gendered body. Rather, these are positions on a cultural grid of power-knowledge relations. A girl might position herself in a male discourse, and a boy might position himself in a female discourse, but in doing so, they seem to have to pay a certain price in order not to be seen as queer.


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