The 40th Annual Meeting

By Junko Nakai, H. Aonuma, Manabu, Sakakibara, E. Ito, Joseph D. Monaco, Grace Duan, Benjamin J Bell, Shanhong Liu, Kechen Zhang and 1 more. 1941

As we approach the 60th anniversary of the chemical identification of the first pheromone, bombykol, pheromones have been found in species across the whole animal kingdom, from insects to newts, mice and goats, in every habitat, and with a great variety of functions. Pheromones, the invisible chemical signals within species, have also offered model systems studied by scientists worldwide, including many distinguished JSCPB members. In this wide-ranging talk, I will touch on the remarkable discoveries made about the evolution, mechanisms, and roles of pheromones in a diversity of model and non-model animal systems. to different forms of mechanical are chosen to illustrate the power of evolutionary constraints to fine-tune the functional “design” of animal sensors to the specific roles they play in particular behaviors. The application of computational biomechanics and the cooperation between biologists and engineers demonstrate that there are remarkable“technical”tricks to be found by which spider tactile sensors , airflow sensors , and strain sensors are adjusted to their biologically relevant stimulus patterns. The application of such“tricks”to technical solutions of measuring problems similar to those of the spiders is both realistic and promising. The olfactory system model for the neural mechanisms of olfaction due to the common architecture of the circuit organization with vertebrates while smaller number of neurons constitutes the circuits. A fundamental question in olfactory coding to understand how odor information initially separated by multiple receptor-glomerulus channels is integrated and read out by higher brain centers. In addition, little is about how odor maps at higher processing centers are related to the animal’s perception and innate behavior. To address these questions, we used in vivo whole cell patch-clamp recordings in the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster and comprehensively mapped odor response profiles and morphologies of AL projection neurons (PNs). We found that attractive and aversive odors were separately represented by different clusters of glomeruli in the AL, and these representations were segregated into two different regions in the lateral horn and partly separated in the mushroom body. These results provided a global picture of the olfactory circuit design underlying innate odor-guided behavior. In contrast to general odor processing, a certain types of ecologically relevant odors such as sex pheromones are processed via labelled line pathways. In our earlier work, we examined how pheromonal information is represented in higher brain centers in the silkmoth Bombyx mori . We found that anti-cGMP immunohistochemistry specifically labeled the PNs that respond to the major pheromone component. Using single PN stainings combined with anti-cGMP immunohistochemistry, we revealed a first detailed projection map in the lateral protocerebrum from each subdivision of the macroglomerular complex. These two studies have greatly advanced our understanding of how olfactory information is represented in higher brain centers. Additionally, we also performed Reef-building corals establish an endosymbiotic relationship with dinoflagellate in the family Symbiodiniaceae , which is commonly called zooxanthella. Zooxanthellae can still grow outside the host corals as other dinoflagellates. In general, the seawater surrounding coral reefs is heterotrophic and not suitable to sustain photosynthetic organisms, including zooxanthellae. Therefore, the cell density of zooxanthellae in seawater is low. Within host cells, zooxanthella lose their motility, becoming immotile. Although they lose their motility, the host provides sufficient nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, with the zooxanthellae providing photosynthetically produced energy, such as sucrose, in return. The mutual symbiotic relationship between corals and zooxanthellae allow them both to adapt to the heterotrophic environment of coral reefs. Zooxanthellae within coral are major producers in coral reef ecosystems, which are one of the most biologically enriched environments on our planet. Thereby, the healthy coral-zooxanthellae symbiotic relationship is important for all organisms in coral reefs. Unfortunately, we are losing corals worldwide due to coral beaching induced by increases in seawater temperature. Coral bleaching occurs mainly through the expulsion of zooxanthellae from host corals. The expelled zooxanthellae are still alive and remain free-living in seawater until they find a new coral host. I will explain the unique characteristics of zooxanthellae, and outline difference in their lifestyles in inside and outside the host corals. differ in 14-day-old workers between treatments and controls, but in 7-day-old workers, those were significantly lower in treatments than in controls. From these results, we discuss about the sex differences of regulation of biogenic amines by JH. of the We are studying in gene- polymorphism(s) the of many inbred by AB1 CB4856 phenotypic and down into three golgi the Animals have been flourishing under dramatically altering temperature condition on the earth by adapting to environmental temperature changes. We are studying fundamental mechanisms underlying temperature response of animal by utilizing cold tolerance of nematode C. elegans , as a model. Wild-type animals can survive at 2℃ after cultivation at 15℃, while animals cultivated at 25℃ can not survive at 2℃. Here we show progresses of two studies. (1) To identify new molecules involved in cold tolerance, we isolated KHR018 mutant defective in cold tolerance. By using deep sequencer, we decoded genome DNA sequence of KHR018 mutant. Based on this information, its responsible gene was mapped on the middle of chromosome X. (2) We are also studying RSBP-1 homologues to human RGS7BP and RGS9BP, which are regulator of G protein signaling (RGS). We found that rsbp-1 mutant showed decrease of cold tolerance. RSBP-1::GFP reporter was expressed in the head neurons and pharyngeal muscle. We are now introducing a series of cell-specific rescue experiments. the closest group to the vertebrates. Its tadpole-like larvae have a photosensory organ, which comprises dozens of ciliary photoreceptors in the vicinity of the pigmented ocellus. The photoreceptors expresses visual pigment, Ci-opsin1, closely related to vertebrate opsin groups. While there have been morphological and molecular biological on the photoreceptor cells, its physiological characteristics still remain elusive. Here, we performed whole-cell patch clamp recordings for isolated photoreceptors to elucidate physiological characteristics of the photoreceptors. In voltage-clamp recordings, depolarizing voltage steps induced two types of the outward current; the transient or sustained outward current, suggesting that the photoreceptors of different types of cells. In current clamp recordings, depolarizing evoke any action potential and flash light hyperpolarizing photoresponse, as in vertebrate photoreceptors. the to be to the cone photoreceptors. Cryptochromes (CRY) regulate the circadian clock in vertebrates. Zebrafish has 7 Cry genes, and among their products, CRY1a, CRY1b, CRY2a, CRY2b, and CRY3 inhibit CLOCK:BMAL-mediated transactivation of clock (-controlled) genes, and hence they are considered to be involved in the circadian clockwork. temporal spatial expression profiles of genes with light-responsiveness. a characteristic profile with dual peaks at dawn and in the but not tissues we compared temporal expression patterns Cry1b in the eye under short-day (light:dark=10:14) and long-day conditions (light:dark=14:10) reveal regulation by the circadian The peaks be regulated so as to midpoints of the at the suggesting unique circadian this study, we analyzed the role of cwo in the clock mechanism in the cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus . Quantitative RT-PCR showed that cwo is rhythmically expressed in the optic lobe to peak during the night. When cwo was knocked-down by RNA interference, some crickets lost the locomotor rhythm while others maintained a rhythm but with a longer free-running period. In cwo RNAi crickets, cyc and per lost the rhythmic expression and were constantly expressed below trough level of control crickets ( DsRed2 RNAi ), while tim was expressed rhythmically with a delayed phase. cwo RNAi upregulated the expression of vri and E75 . These results suggest that cwo regulates expression of Clk and cyc indirectly through vri and E75 effect the rhythm of clock gene in mouse using a mouse model with a Our data shows that odor may affect circadian In the antennal lobe of the a male cockroach Periplaneta americana , a large number of sex pheromone-receptive sensory neurons (pSNs) converge onto the macroglomeruli and synapse to 15 projection neurons (PNs). Axons of these macrogromerular PNs terminate in the specific regions of the mushroom body and lateral protocerebrum. However, sex pheromone processing neurons in downstream of the macrogromerular PNs are still unclear. To comprehensively identify the neurons to process the sex pheromone, we used anti-pERK antibody which binds to phosphorylated MAP kinase involving the signaling in activated neurons. At a given time after exposure of periplanone-B, which is one of major sex pheromone components, pERK signals were significantly increased in pSNs and macroglomerular PNs. These results suggest that anti-pERK antibody effectively labeled activated neurons by the sex pheromone. In addition, anti-pERK antibody also labeled specific Kenyon cells in the mushroom body and unidentified neural cluster in the lateral protocerebrum. These neurons might be process the sex pheromone in higher brain centers. to wild-type male moths, resulting in less efficient pheromone source localization. To understand the physiological aspects related to low temporal behavioral resolution in BmPBP1 -KO male moths, we examined antennal response kinetics to ph

Subfields: Evaluation & Benchmarks