Neural Control of Fibrillar Muscles in Bees During Shivering and Flight

1991 ◽  
Vol 159 (1) ◽  
pp. 419-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
HARALD ESCH ◽  
FRANZ GOLLER

The big indirect flight muscles in the thorax of honeybees and bumblebees show two modes of action: they contract with ‘conventional’ twitches in response to slowly repeated muscle potentials and go into tetanus at higher muscle potential frequencies. They can also contract much faster when quickly stretched (stretch activation). We observed contractions of DV (dorsoventral) and DL (dorsal longitudinal) muscles optically with the help of a tiny mirror glued to the scutellum. We noticed that DL muscles contracted much more than DV muscles during pre-flight warmup. During warm-up, muscle potential frequencies in DL muscles were higher than in DV muscles (DL frequency/DV frequency =1.3), whereas during flight the ratio reversed (DL/DV=0.8). The scutal fissure was completely closed during shivering warm-up, apparently because the DL muscles shortened as much as they could. As a consequence, fast antagonistic stretching was not possible. However, the scutal fissure oscillated between wide open and closed during flight, and antagonists could stretch each other quickly. Flight was started by highly synchronized ‘conventional’ contractions of many muscle elements in DV muscles. Antagonistic stretch-activation during flight led to faster shortening than during shivering warm-up and synchronized all activated muscle elements to produce maximal contractions. The indirect flight muscles of bumblebees were in tetanic contractions during shivering warm-up over the whole range of temperatures between 8 and 36°C. These tetanic contractions probably prevented other researchers from observing mechanical muscle activity. Our results, which for the first time allow us to detect tetanic contractions directly, make it very improbable that non-shivering thermogenesis occurs in bumblebees, as has been proposed previously.

1996 ◽  
Vol 199 (10) ◽  
pp. 2317-2321 ◽  
Author(s):  
M J King ◽  
S L Buchmann ◽  
H Spangler

The indirect flight muscles of bees are used to produce a variety of actions in addition to flight, including sonication, which has a higher frequency than flight. We observed the dynamic movement of the scutum during sonication and the transition from tethered flight to sonication. During sonication, the scutum oscillated above its rest position, indicating that the conformation of the structural components of the thorax had been altered. Sonication vibrations of the thorax occurred by deformation of the scutum rather than by opening of the scutal fissure and are smaller than vibrations associated with flight. During tethered flight, the ratio of muscle activity (recorded via electromyograms) between the dorsal longitudinal muscles and the dorsoventral muscles approached 1, but during sonication the ratio was significantly higher (up to 4.0). This increase may cause the dorsal longitudinal muscles to contract further than the dorsoventral muscles and close the scutal fissure during sonication, so limiting the displacement of the wings and 'decoupling' them from the indirect flight muscles.


1990 ◽  
Vol 150 (1) ◽  
pp. 221-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANZ GOLLER ◽  
HARALD ESCH

Muscle potentials in insect flight muscles decrease in amplitude and increase in duration with decreasing temperature. Amplitudes fall to zero at distinct temperatures, which are characteristic for different species. Chill-coma temperature is thus denned here as the critical temperature below which flight muscles cannot be activated. Chill-coma temperatures were 2°C in the species of butterflies measured and −2 to 0°C in the moths. In the species of Hymenoptera, Coleoptera and Diptera measured, chill-coma temperatures ranged from 3 to 14°C. The rate of decline of muscle potential amplitudes with decreasing temperature was different for different species. Rates were smaller over most of the temperature range for species that warm up from low environmental temperatures to reach thoracic temperatures necessary for flight. Amplitudes decreased faster at higher thoracic temperatures in species that start shivering only at higher ambient temperatures. Temperature has a similar effect on durations of muscle potentials in different species. Between 25 and 15°C, durations increased by 100% in all species. The results suggest that cold-adaptation is not strongly related to chill-coma temperature but is strongly related to the rate of decline of muscle potential amplitudes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 54-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinz Hans Florian Buchner ◽  
Lisa Zimmer ◽  
Louisa Haase ◽  
Justine Perrier ◽  
Christian Peham

1970 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 629-639
Author(s):  
JAMES L. HANEGAN ◽  
JAMES EDWARD HEATH

1. The transition from the warm-up motor pattern to the flight motor pattern in the saturnid moth H. cecropia, is described. 2. The transition from warm-up to flight was found to be dependent on the temperature of the thoracic ganglia. 3. A model to account for the two different motor output patterns and the transition of the warm-up pattern to the flight pattern is proposed.


1968 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-109
Author(s):  
ANN E. KAMMER

1. The patterns of muscle activity during warm-up were compared to those of flight. In the skipper Hylephila phylaeus and in the hawk moths Celerio lineata and Mimas tiliae the intervals between bursts of muscle potentials are the same as the wingbeat periods of flight at the same thoracic temperature, and the burst length is the same as in flight. In saturniids the period and burst length are both shorter during wing-vibrating than during flight. 2. During wing-vibrating the amplitude of the wing movement is small, and some of the muscles which are antagonists in flight are active simultaneously. In Hylephila phylaeus and Celerio lineata there is a phase change between some synergistic muscles, while some antagonistic pairs retain the phase relationships of flight. During wing-vibrating in Mimas tiliae and in saturniids all the motor units sampled were active at the same time. 3. In M. tiliae a variety of phase relationships intermediate between those of wing-vibrating and flight were observed, including a case of ‘relative co-ordination’ between motor units in the mesothorax. The results exclude the possibility that a single pace-making centre drives the motor neurons in the flight pattern. 4. A model of the central nervous interactions which generate the observed motor patterns is proposed. It is postulated that a small group of positively coupled neurons produces bursts of impulses at the wingbeat frequency and that these groups interact to generate the phase relationships seen during warm-up and flight.


1994 ◽  
Vol 107 (5) ◽  
pp. 1115-1129 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Ferguson ◽  
A. Lakey ◽  
A. Hutchings ◽  
G.W. Butcher ◽  
K.R. Leonard ◽  
...  

Asynchronous insect flight muscles produce oscillatory contractions and can contract at high frequency because they are activated by stretch as well as by Ca2+. Stretch activation depends on the high stiffness of the fibres and the regular structure of the filament lattice. Cytoskeletal proteins may be important in stabilising the lattice. Two proteins, zeelin 1 (35 kDa) and zeelin 2 (23 kDa), have been isolated from the cytoskeletal fraction of Lethocerus flight muscle. Both zeelins have multiple isoforms of the same molecular mass and different charge. Zeelin 1 forms micelles and zeelin 2 forms filaments when renatured in low ionic strength solutions. Filaments of zeelin 2 are ribbons 10 nm wide and 3 nm thick. The position of zeelins in fibres from Lethocerus flight and leg muscle was determined by immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy. Zeelin 1 is found in flight and leg fibres and zeelin 2 only in flight fibres. In flight myofibrils, both zeelins are in discrete regions of the A-band in each half sarcomere. Zeelin 1 is across the whole A-band in leg myofibrils. Zeelins are not in the Z-disc, as was thought previously, but migrate to the Z-disc in glycerinated fibres. Zeelins are associated with thick filaments and analysis of oblique sections showed that zeelin 1 is closer to the filament shaft than zeelin 2. The antibody labelling pattern is consistent with zeelin molecules associated with myosin near the end of the rod region. Alternatively, the position of zeelins may be determined by other A-band proteins. There are about 2.0 to 2.5 moles of myosin per mole of each zeelin. The function of these cytoskeletal proteins may be to maintain the ordered structure of the thick filament.


1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 382-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takashi Tachimura ◽  
Hisanaga Hara ◽  
Takeshi Wada

This study was designed to determine if levator veli palatini muscle activity can be elicited by simultaneous changes in oral air pressure and nasal air flow when a speech appliance is in place. The speech appliances routinely worn by 15 subjects were each modified experimentally by drilling a hole in the vertical center of the pharyngeal bulb. The air flow rate into the nasal cavity through the opening in the bulb was altered by changing the circular area of the opening in the bulb from the occluded condition (Condition I), to circular area of 12.6 mm2 (4 mm in diameter; Condition II), and then to 38.5 mm2 (7 mm in diameter; Condition III). Electromyographic activity was measured from the levator veli palatini muscle with changes in nasal air flow rate and oral air pressure. Levator veli palatini muscle activity was correlated with changes in nasal air flow and oral air pressure. Increases in levator veli palatini muscle activity were associated with increases in nasal air flow rate compared to oral air pressure changes. The results indicated that aerodynamic variables of nasal air flow and oral air pressure might be involved in the neural control of speech production in individuals wearing a speech appliance, even if the subjects exhibit velopharyngeal incompetence without using a speech appliance. Also, the stimulating effect of bulb reduction therapy on velopharyngeal function might be achieved through the change in aerodynamic variables in association with the bulb reduction.


1973 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 677-688
Author(s):  
BERND HEINRICH ◽  
ANN E. KAMMER

1. Extracellular action potentials and thoracic temperatures (TTh) were simultaneously recorded from the fibrillar flight muscles of Bombus vosnesenskii queens during preflight warm-up, during stabilization of TTh in stationary bees, and during fixed flight. 2. In most stationary bees during warm-up and during the stabilization of TTh the rate of heat production, as calculated from thoracic temperature and passive rates of cooling, is directly related to the frequency of action potentials in the muscles. 3. The rate of heat production increases throughout warm-up primarily because of a greater spike frequency at higher TTh. 4. In stationary bees during the stabilization of TTh at different ambient temperatures (TA) the fibrillar muscles are activated by any in a continuous range of spike frequencies, rather than only by on-off responses. 5. Regulation of TTh in stationary bees may involve not only changes in the rate of heat production but also variations of heat transfer from the thorax to the abdomen. 6. During fixed flight the fibrillar muscles are usually activated at greater rates at the initiation of flight than later in flight, but the spike frequency and thus heat production are not varied in response to differences in TA and heating and cooling rates. 7. During fixed flight TTh is not regulated at specific set-points; TTh appears to vary passively in accordance with the physical laws of heating and cooling. 8. Differences in the TTh of bees in free and in fixed flight are discussed with regard to mechanisms of thermoregulation.


Genes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 246 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Spencer Johnston ◽  
Mary E. Zapalac ◽  
Carl E. Hjelmen

Drosophila underreplicate the DNA of thoracic nuclei, stalling during S phase at a point that is proportional to the total genome size in each species. In polytene tissues, such as the Drosophila salivary glands, all of the nuclei initiate multiple rounds of DNA synthesis and underreplicate. Yet, only half of the nuclei isolated from the thorax stall; the other half do not initiate S phase. Our question was, why half? To address this question, we use flow cytometry to compare underreplication phenotypes between thoracic tissues. When individual thoracic tissues are dissected and the proportion of stalled DNA synthesis is scored in each tissue type, we find that underreplication occurs in the indirect flight muscle, with the majority of underreplicated nuclei in the dorsal longitudinal muscles (DLM). Half of the DNA in the DLM nuclei stall at S phase between the unreplicated G0 and fully replicated G1. The dorsal ventral flight muscle provides the other source of underreplication, and yet, there, the replication stall point is earlier (less DNA replicated), and the endocycle is initiated. The differences in underreplication and ploidy in the indirect flight muscles provide a new tool to study heterochromatin, underreplication and endocycle control.


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