Structure and ultrastructure of the insect midgut

1996 ◽  
pp. 3-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. F. Billingsley ◽  
M. J. Lehane
Author(s):  
D.A. Palmer ◽  
C.L. Bender

Coronatine is a non-host-specific phytotoxin produced by several members of the Pseudomonas syringae group of pathovars. The toxin acts as a virulence factor in P. syringae pv. tomato, allowing the organism to multiply to a higher population density and develop larger lesions than mutant strains unable to produce the toxin. The most prominent symptom observed in leaf tissue treated with coronatine is an intense spreading chlorosis; this has been attributed to a loss of chlorophylls a and b in tobacco. Coronatine's effects on membrane integrity and cell ultrastructure have not been previously investigated. The present study describes changes in tomato leaves in response to treatment with purified coronatine, infection by a coronatine-producing strain of P. syringae pv. tomato, and infection by a cor" mutant.In contrast to H2O-treated tissue, coronatine-treated tissue showed a diffuse chlorosis extending approximately 5 mm from the inoculation site. Leaf thickness, cell number, and cell dimensions were similar for both healthy and coronatine-treated, chlorotic tissue; however, the epidermal cell walls were consistently thicker in coronatine-treated leaves (Figs, la and lb).


Author(s):  
A.M. Pucci ◽  
C. Fruschelli ◽  
A. Rebuffat ◽  
M. Guarna ◽  
C. Alessandrini ◽  
...  

Amphibians have paired muscular pump organs, called “lymph heart”, which rhythmically pump back the lymph from the large subcutaneous lymph sacs into the veins. The structure and ultrastructure of these organs is well known but to date there is a lack of information about the innervation of lymph hearts. Therefore has been carried out an ultrastructural study in order to study the distribution of the nerve fibers, and the morphology of the neuromuscular junctions in the lymph heart wall.


Author(s):  
James M. Slavicek ◽  
Melissa J. Mercer ◽  
Mary Ellen Kelly

Nucleopolyhedroviruses (NPV, family Baculoviridae) produce two morphological forms, a budded virus form and a viral form that is occluded into a paracrystalline protein matrix. This structure is termed a polyhedron and is composed primarily of the protein polyhedrin. Insects are infected by NPVs after ingestion of the polyhedron and release of the occluded virions through dissolution of the polyhedron in the alkaline environment of the insect midgut. Early after infection the budded virus form is produced. It buds through the plasma membrane and then infects other cells. Later in the infection cycle the occluded form of the virus is generated (reviewed by Blissard and Rohrmann, 1990).The processes of polyhedron formation and virion occlusion are likely to involve a number of viral gene products. However, only two genes, the polyhedrin gene and 25K FP gene, have been identified to date that are necessary for the wild type number of polyhedra to be formed and viral particles occluded.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1233
Author(s):  
Adriana Ricarte-Bermejo ◽  
Oihane Simón ◽  
Ana Beatriz Fernández ◽  
Trevor Williams ◽  
Primitivo Caballero

Enhancins are metalloproteinases that facilitate baculovirus infection in the insect midgut. They are more prevalent in granuloviruses (GVs), constituting up to 5% of the proteins of viral occlusion bodies (OBs). In nucleopolyhedroviruses (NPVs), in contrast, they are present in the envelope of the occlusion-derived virions (ODV). In the present study, we constructed a recombinant Autographa californica NPV (AcMNPV) that expressed the Trichoplusia ni GV (TnGV) enhancin 3 (En3), with the aim of increasing the presence of enhancin in the OBs or ODVs. En3 was successfully produced but did not localize to the OBs or the ODVs and accumulated in the soluble fraction of infected cells. As a result, increased OB pathogenicity was observed when OBs were administered in mixtures with the soluble fraction of infected cells. The mixture of OBs and the soluble fraction of Sf9 cells infected with BacPhEn3 recombinant virus was ~3- and ~4.7-fold more pathogenic than BacPh control OBs in the second and fourth instars of Spodoptera exigua, respectively. In contrast, when purified, recombinant BacPhEn3 OBs were as pathogenic as control BacPh OBs. The expression of En3 in the soluble fraction of insect cells may find applications in the development of virus-based insecticides with increased efficacy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Chun-Yi ◽  
Diann Achor ◽  
Amit Levy

Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), the devastating pathogen related to Huanglongbing (HLB), is a phloem-limited, fastidious, insect-borne bacterium. Rapid spread of HLB disease relies on CLas propagates efficiently in its vector, the Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri, in a circulative manner. Understanding the intracellular lifecycle of CLas in psyllid midgut is fundamental to improve current management strategies. Using a microscopic approach within CLas-infected insect midgut, we observed the entry of CLas into gut cells inside vesicles by endocytosis, termed Liberibacter containing vacuoles (LCVs). Endocytosis is followed by the formation of endoplasmic reticulum-related and replication permissive vacuoles (rLCVs). rLCVs then further develop into bigger double membrane autophagosome-like structure, termed autophagy-related vacuole (aLCV). Vesicles, containing CLas egress from aLCV and fuse with the cell membrane. Immunolocalization studies showed that CLas employs endo/exocytosis-like mechanisms that mediates bacterial invasion and egress. Upregulation of autophagy-related genes indicated subversion of host autophagy by CLas in psyllid vector to promote infection. These results indicate that CLas interacts with host cellular machineries to undergo a multistage intracellular cycle through endocytic, secretory, autophagic and exocytic pathways via complex machineries. Potential tactics for HLB controlling can be made depending on further investigations on the knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of CLas intracellular cycle.


The biology of antigenic variation is discussed, and the problems that must be solved to provide a full understanding of antigenic variation are considered. These are (i) the induction of v.s.g. synthesis in the salivary glands of the tsetse fly; (ii) the nature of the restriction on v.s.g. genes that allows only some of them to be expressed in the salivary glands; (iii) the nature of ‘predominance’ in v.s.g. expression in the mammalian host, and the mechanism by which it operates; (iv) the repression of v.s.g. synthesis in the insect midgut; (v) the anamnestic response that produces expression of the ingested variant in the first patent parasitaemia in the mammalian host; (vi) the mechanism by which only one v.s.g. gene at a time is expressed; (vii) the relationship if any ofv.s.g. structure to v.s.g.-associated differences in growth rate and host range; (viii) the role of v.s.g. release within the life cycle and to pathogenesis.


Contraception ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 66 (6) ◽  
pp. 463-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.L. Yano ◽  
H. Dolder

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 1582-1589
Author(s):  
Luzivaldo Castro dos Santos Júnior ◽  
Miriam Marmontel ◽  
Francisco Glauco de Araújo Santos ◽  
Rose Eli Grassi Rici ◽  
Maria Angélica Miglino ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
S. J. Ball ◽  
Robert Michael Pittilo

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