scholarly journals Tactile active sensing in an insect plant pollinator

2021 ◽  
Vol 224 (4) ◽  
pp. jeb239442
Author(s):  
Tanvi Deora ◽  
Mahad A. Ahmed ◽  
Thomas L. Daniel ◽  
Bing W. Brunton
Keyword(s):  
Feeding Behavior ◽  
Manduca Sexta ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
Search Strategy ◽  
Flowering Plants ◽  
Sensory Structure ◽  
Numerous Species ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Plant Pollinator

ABSTRACTThe interaction between insects and the flowers they pollinate has driven the evolutionary diversity of both insects and flowering plants, two groups with the most numerous species on Earth. Insects use vision and olfaction to localize host plants, but we know relatively little about how they find the tiny nectary opening in the flower, which can be well beyond their visual resolution. Especially when vision is limited, touch becomes crucial in successful insect–plant pollination interactions. Here, we studied the remarkable feeding behavior of crepuscular hawkmoths Manduca sexta, which use their long, actively controlled, proboscis to expertly explore flower-like surfaces. Using machine vision and 3D-printed artificial flower-like feeders, we revealed a novel behavior that shows moths actively probe surfaces, sweeping their proboscis from the feeder edge to its center repeatedly until they locate the nectary opening. Moreover, naive moths rapidly learn to exploit these flowers, and they adopt a tactile search strategy to more directly locate the nectary opening in as few as three to five consecutive visits. Our results highlight the proboscis as a unique active sensory structure and emphasize the central role of touch in nectar foraging insect–plant pollinator interactions.

scholarly journals Tactile active sensing in insect-plant pollination

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanvi Deora ◽  
Mahad A. Ahmed ◽  
Thomas L. Daniel ◽  
Bingni W. Brunton
Keyword(s):  
Manduca Sexta ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
Search Strategy ◽  
Tactile Feedback ◽  
Entire Body ◽  
Sensory Structure ◽  
Flying Insects ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Sense Of Touch

The interaction between insects and the flowers they pollinate has driven the evolutionary diversity of both insects and flowering plants, two groups with the most numerous species on earth. Insects use vision and olfaction to localize their host plants, but to feed from the flower, they must find the tiny nectary opening, which can be well beyond their visual resolution. When vision is limited, the sense of touch becomes especially crucial, yet very few studies have investigated the role of rapid and precise tactile feedback in successful feeding and pollination interactions. In this paper, we study the remarkable feeding behavior of flying insects that use their proboscis, a flexible mouthpart often longer than their entire body length when unfurled, to expertly explore floral surfaces. Specifically, we observed how the crepuscular hawkmoth Manduca sexta interacts with artificial, 3D-printed flowers of varying shapes. We found that moths actively explore the flower for tactile features, systematically sweeping their proboscis from edge to center repeatedly until they locate the nectary. Moreover, naive moths rapidly learn to exploit flowers, and they adopt a tactile search strategy to more directly locate the nectary in as few as three to five consecutive visits. We suggest moths wield their proboscis to extract salient tactile features, such as floral edges and corolla curvature. Our results highlight the proboscis as a unique sensory structure and emphasize the central role of touch in insect-plant pollination interactions.

scholarly journals Bee flowers drive macroevolutionary diversification in long-horned bees

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1959) ◽  
pp. 20210533
Author(s):  
Achik Dorchin ◽  
Anat Shafir ◽  
Frank H. Neumann ◽  
Dafna Langgut ◽  
Nicolas J. Vereecken ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Host Plants ◽  
Host Preference ◽  
Probabilistic Approach ◽  
Rapid Radiation ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Rapid Diversification ◽  
Floral Visitors ◽  
Angiosperm Pollen ◽  
Plant Pollinator

The role of plant–pollinator interactions in the rapid radiation of the angiosperms have long fascinated evolutionary biologists. Studies have brought evidence for pollinator-driven diversification of various plant lineages, particularly plants with specialized flowers and concealed rewards. By contrast, little is known about how this crucial interaction has shaped macroevolutionary patterns of floral visitors. In particular, there is currently no empirical evidence that floral host association has increased diversification in bees, the most prominent group of floral visitors that essentially rely on angiosperm pollen. In this study, we examine how floral host preference influenced diversification in eucerine bees (Apidae, Eucerini), which exhibit large variations in their floral associations. We combine quantitative pollen analyses with a recently proposed phylogenetic hypothesis, and use a state speciation and extinction probabilistic approach. Using this framework, we provide the first evidence that multiple evolutionary transitions from host plants with accessible pollen to restricted pollen from ‘bee-flowers’ have significantly increased the diversification of a bee clade. We suggest that exploiting host plants with restricted pollen has allowed the exploitation of a new ecological niche for eucerine bees and contributed both to their colonization of vast regions of the world and their rapid diversification.

scholarly journals Florigen governs shoot regeneration

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaarit Kutsher ◽  
Michal Fisler ◽  
Adi Faigenboim ◽  
Moshe Reuveni
Keyword(s):  
Nitric Oxide ◽  
Shoot Regeneration ◽  
Ectopic Expression ◽  
Flowering Plants ◽  
Regeneration Capacity ◽  
No Donor ◽  
Tobacco Leaves ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Delayed Flowering

AbstractIt is widely known that during the reproductive stage (flowering), plants do not root well. Most protocols of shoot regeneration in plants utilize juvenile tissue. Adding these two realities together encouraged us to study the role of florigen in shoot regeneration. Mature tobacco tissue that expresses the endogenous tobacco florigen mRNA regenerates poorly, while juvenile tissue that does not express the florigen regenerates shoots well. Inhibition of Nitric Oxide (NO) synthesis reduced shoot regeneration as well as promoted flowering and increased tobacco florigen level. In contrast, the addition of NO (by way of NO donor) to the tissue increased regeneration, delayed flowering, reduced tobacco florigen mRNA. Ectopic expression of florigen genes in tobacco or tomato decreased regeneration capacity significantly. Overexpression pear PcFT2 gene increased regeneration capacity. During regeneration, florigen mRNA was not changed. We conclude that florigen presence in mature tobacco leaves reduces roots and shoots regeneration and is the possible reason for the age-related decrease in regeneration capacity.

scholarly journals GLP-1 Receptor Stimulation of the Lateral Parabrachial Nucleus Reduces Food Intake: Neuroanatomical, Electrophysiological, and Behavioral Evidence

Endocrinology ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 155 (11) ◽  
pp. 4356-4367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer E. Richard ◽  
Imre Farkas ◽  
Fredrik Anesten ◽  
Rozita H. Anderberg ◽  
Suzanne L. Dickson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Feeding Behavior ◽  
Fluorescent Protein ◽  
Yellow Fluorescent Protein ◽  
Parabrachial Nucleus ◽  
Lateral Parabrachial Nucleus ◽  
Electrophysiological Studies ◽  
Glucagon Like Peptide 1 ◽  
Behavioral Evidence ◽  
Stimulation Of

Abstract The parabrachial nucleus (PBN) is a key nucleus for the regulation of feeding behavior. Inhibitory inputs from the hypothalamus to the PBN play a crucial role in the normal maintenance of feeding behavior, because their loss leads to starvation. Viscerosensory stimuli result in neuronal activation of the PBN. However, the origin and neurochemical identity of the excitatory neuronal input to the PBN remain largely unexplored. Here, we hypothesize that hindbrain glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) neurons provide excitatory inputs to the PBN, activation of which may lead to a reduction in feeding behavior. Our data, obtained from mice expressing the yellow fluorescent protein in GLP-1-producing neurons, revealed that hindbrain GLP-1-producing neurons project to the lateral PBN (lPBN). Stimulation of lPBN GLP-1 receptors (GLP-1Rs) reduced the intake of chow and palatable food and decreased body weight in rats. It also activated lPBN neurons, reflected by an increase in the number of c-Fos-positive cells in this region. Further support for an excitatory role of GLP-1 in the PBN is provided by electrophysiological studies showing a remarkable increase in firing of lPBN neurons after Exendin-4 application. We show that within the PBN, GLP-1R activation increased gene expression of 2 energy balance regulating peptides, calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and IL-6. Moreover, nearly 70% of the lPBN GLP-1 fibers innervated lPBN CGRP neurons. Direct intra-lPBN CGRP application resulted in anorexia. Collectively, our molecular, anatomical, electrophysiological, pharmacological, and behavioral data provide evidence for a functional role of the GLP-1R for feeding control in the PBN.

A review on the role of 3D printing in the fight against COVID-19: safety and challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sapam Ningthemba Singh ◽  
Vavilada Satya Swamy Venkatesh ◽  
Ashish Bhalchandra Deoghare
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
3D Printing ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Medical Supplies ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Safety And Reliability ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Comprehensive Study

Purpose During the COVID-19 pandemic, the three-dimensional (3D) printing community is actively participating to address the supply chain gap of essential medical supplies such as face masks, face shields, door adapters, test swabs and ventilator valves. This paper aims to present a comprehensive study on the role of 3D printing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, its safety and its challenges. Design/methodology/approach This review paper focuses on the applications of 3D printing in the fight against COVID-19 along with the safety and challenges associated with 3D printing to fight COVID-19. The literature presented in this paper is collected from the journal indexing engines including Scopus, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, PubMed, Web of Science, etc. The main keywords used for searches were 3D printing COVID-19, Safety of 3D printed parts, Sustainability of 3D printing, etc. Further possible iterations of the keywords were used to collect the literature. Findings The applications of 3D printing in the fight against COVID-19 are 3D printed face masks, shields, ventilator valves, test swabs, drug deliveries and hands-free door adapters. As most of these measures are implemented hastily, the safety and reliability of these parts often lacked approval. The safety concerns include the safety of the printed parts, operators and secondary personnel such as the workers in material preparation and transportation. The future challenges include sustainability of the process, long term supply chain, intellectual property and royalty-free models, etc. Originality/value This paper presents a comprehensive study on the applications of 3D printing in the fight against COVID-19 with emphasis on the safety and challenges in it.

scholarly journals Reporting of the Role of the Expert Searcher in Cochrane Reviews

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Zhang ◽  
Margaret Sampson ◽  
Jessie McGowan
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Search Strategy ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Cochrane Library ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
Statistical Decision ◽  
Cochrane Reviews ◽  
Statistical Decisions ◽  
Search Quality

Introduction - This study applied the principles of evidence based information practice to clarify the role of information specialists and librarians in the preparation of Cochrane systematic reviews and to determine whether information specialists impact the quality of searching in Cochrane systematic reviews. Objectives - This research project sought to determine how the contribution of the person responsible for searching in the preparation of Cochrane systematic reviews was reported; whether the contribution was recognized through authorship or acknowledgement; the qualifications of the searcher; and the association between the type of contributorship and characteristics of the search strategy, assessability, and the presence of certain types of errors. Methods - Data sources: The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, The Cochrane Library 3 (2002). Inclusion criteria: The study included systematic reviews that met the following criteria: one or more sections of the Cochrane Highly Sensitive Search Strategy were utilised, primary studies were either randomised controlled trials (RCTs) or quasi-RCTs, and included and excluded studies were clearly identified. Data extraction: Two librarians assessed the searches for errors, establishing consensus on discordant ratings. Results - Of the 169 reviews screened for this project, 105 met all eligibility criteria. Authors fulfilled the searching role in 41.9% of reviews studied, acknowledged persons or groups in 13.3%, a combination in 9.5%, and the role was not reported in 35.2% of reviews. For the 78 reviews in which meta-analyses were performed, the positions of those responsible for statistical decisions were examined for comparative purposes. The statistical role was performed by an author in 47.4% of cases and unreported in the same number of cases. Insufficient analyzable data was obtained regarding professional qualifications (3/105 for searching, 2/78 for statistical decisions). Search quality was assessed for 66 searches across 74 reviews. In general, it was more possible to assess the search quality when the searcher role was reported. An association was found between the reporting of searcher role and the presence of a consequential error. There was no association between the number of consequential errors and how the contribution of the searcher was reported. Conclusions - Qualifications of the persons responsible for searching and statistical decision-making were poorly reported in Cochrane reviews, but more complete role reporting is associated with greater assessability of searches and fewer substantive errors in search strategies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document