Search results for "InSe"

Tracking zoonotic pathogens using blood-sucking flies as 'flying syringes'

2017

About 60% of emerging infectious diseases in humans are of zoonotic origin. Their increasing number requires the development of new methods for early detection and monitoring of infectious agents in wildlife. Here, we investigated whether blood meals from hematophagous flies could be used to identify the infectious agents circulating in wild vertebrates. To this aim, 1230 blood-engorged flies were caught in the forests of Gabon. Identified blood meals (30%) were from 20 vertebrate species including mammals, birds and reptiles. Among them, 9% were infected by different extant malaria parasites among which some belonged to known parasite species, others to new parasite species or to parasite …

A Role of Histone Acetylation in the Regulation of Circadian Rhythm in Ants

2020

Summary In many organisms, circadian rhythms and associated oscillations in gene expression are controlled by post-translational modifications of histone proteins. Although epigenetic mechanisms influence key aspects of insect societies, their implication in regulating circadian rhythms has not been studied in social insects. Here we ask whether histone acetylation plays a role in adjusting circadian activity in the ant Temnothorax longispinosus. We characterized activity patterns in 20 colonies to reveal that these ants exhibit a diurnal rhythm in colony-level activity and can rapidly respond to changes in the light regime. Then we fed T. longispinosus colonies with C646, a chemical inhibi…

Embryo multinucleation at the two-cell stage is an independent predictor of intracytoplasmic sperm injection outcomes.

2016

Objective To determine the prognostic impact of the nuclear status at the two-cell stage on intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) outcomes. Design Retrospective study. Setting Hospital. Patient(s) Only ICSI cycles with time-lapse monitoring of transferred embryos with known implantation/delivery data from November 2012 to December 2014 were included. A total of 2,449 embryos were assessed for multinucleation rates at the two- and four-cell stage, and 608 transferred embryos were studied for ICSI outcomes. Intervention(s) None. Main Outcome Measure(s) Implantation rate (IR) and live birth rate (LBR) according to the number of multinucleated blastomeres at the two-cell stage: none (Without-…

European eel (<i>Anguilla anguilla</i>) plasma biochemistry alerts about propanil stress

2017

Propanil stress response in the eel (Anguilla anguilla) was examined. Eels were exposed to 3.16 mg/L for 72 hr and allowed to recover for 96 hr. Plasma levels of cortisol, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), alkaline phosphatase (AP), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, ammonium, lactate, albumin, and total proteins as well as electrolytes (chloride, sodium, potassium, calcium and phosphorus) were determined. As a consequence of exposure, cortisol, AP, AST, and LDH increased. A hyperglycemic condition, together with hyperlactemia, hypoalbuminemia, hypoproteinemia, hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglycemia was registered. Ammonium increased during exposure concomi…

Aestivation motifs explain hypertension and muscle mass loss in mice with psoriatic skin barrier defect

2021

Aim Recent evidence suggests that arterial hypertension could be alternatively explained as a physiological adaptation response to water shortage, termed aestivation, which relies on complex multi-organ metabolic adjustments to prevent dehydration. Here, we tested the hypothesis that chronic water loss across diseased skin leads to similar adaptive water conservation responses as observed in experimental renal failure or high salt diet. Methods We studied mice with keratinocyte-specific overexpression of IL-17A which develop severe psoriasis-like skin disease. We measured transepidermal water loss and solute and water excretion in the urine. We quantified glomerular filtration rate (GFR) by…

Functional Gustatory Role of Chemoreceptors in Drosophila Wings

2016

Summary: Neuroanatomical evidence argues for the presence of taste sensilla in Drosophila wings; however, the taste physiology of insect wings remains hypothetical, and a comprehensive link to mechanical functions, such as flight, wing flapping, and grooming, is lacking. Our data show that the sensilla of the Drosophila anterior wing margin respond to both sweet and bitter molecules through an increase in cytosolic Ca2+ levels. Conversely, genetically modified flies presenting a wing-specific reduction in chemosensory cells show severe defects in both wing taste signaling and the exploratory guidance associated with chemodetection. In Drosophila, the chemodetection machinery includes mechan…

Drosophila Food-Associated Pheromones: Effect of Experience, Genotype and Antibiotics on Larval Behavior

2016

International audience; Animals ubiquitously use chemical signals to communicate many aspects of their social life. These chemical signals often consist of environmental cues mixed with species-specific signals-pheromones-emitted by conspecifics. During their life, insects can use pheromones to aggregate, disperse, choose a mate, or find the most suitable food source on which to lay eggs. Before pupariation, larvae of several Drosophila species migrate to food sources depending on their composition and the presence of pheromones. Some pheromones derive from microbiota gut activity and these food-associated cues can enhance larval attraction or repulsion. To explore the mechanisms underlying…

Monitoring of ticks and tick-borne pathogens through a nationwide research station network in Finland.

2020

In 2015 a long-term, nationwide tick and tick-borne pathogen (TBP) monitoring project was started by the Finnish Tick Project and the Finnish Research Station network (RESTAT), with the goal of producing temporally and geographically extensive data regarding exophilic ticks in Finland. In the current study, we present results from the first four years of this collaboration. Ticks were collected by cloth dragging from 11 research stations across Finland in May September 2015-2018 (2012-2018 in Seili). Collected ticks were screened for twelve different pathogens by qPCR: Borrelia afzelii, Borrelia garinii, Borrelia valaisiana, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia miyamotoi, Babesia sp…

Modulation of muscle-tendon interaction in the human triceps surae during an energy dissipation task.

2017

The compliance of elastic elements allows muscles to dissipate energy safely during eccentric contractions. This buffering function is well documented in animal models but our understanding of its mechanism in humans is confined to non-specific tasks, requiring a subsequent acceleration of the body. The present study aimed to examine the behaviour of the human triceps surae muscle-tendon unit (MTU) during a pure energy dissipation task, under two loading conditions. Thirty-nine subjects performed a single-leg landing task, with- and without added mass. Ultrasound measurements were combined with 3D kinematics and kinetics to determine instantaneous length changes of MTUs, muscle fascicles, A…

2020

We report that several viruses from the human enterovirus group B cause massive vimentin rearrangements during lytic infection. Comprehensive studies suggested that viral protein synthesis was triggering the vimentin rearrangements. Blocking the host cell vimentin dynamics with β, β'-iminodipropionitrile (IDPN) did not significantly affect the production of progeny viruses and only moderately lowered the synthesis of structural proteins such as VP1. In contrast, the synthesis of the nonstructural proteins 2A, 3C, and 3D was drastically lowered. This led to attenuation of the cleavage of the host cell substrates PABP and G3BP1 and reduced caspase activation, leading to prolonged cell surviva…