scholarly journals Increase in egg resistance to desiccation in springtails correlates with blastodermal cuticle formation: eco-evolutionary implications for insect terrestrialization

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Carolina Martins Vargas ◽  
Kristen A. Panfilio ◽  
Dick Roelofs ◽  
Gustavo Lazzaro Rezende

AbstractLand colonization was a major event in the history of life. Among animals, insects exerted a staggering terrestrialization success, due to traits usually associated with post-embryonic life stages, while the egg stage has been largely overlooked in comparative studies. In many insects, after blastoderm differentiation, the extraembryonic serosal tissue wraps the embryo and synthesizes the serosal cuticle, an extracellular matrix that lies beneath the eggshell and protects the egg against water loss. In contrast, in non-insect hexapods such as springtails (Collembola) the early blastodermal cells synthesize a blastodermal cuticle. Here, we investigate the relationship between blastodermal cuticle formation and egg resistance to desiccation in the springtails Orchesella cincta and Folsomia candida, two species with different oviposition environments and developmental rates. The blastodermal cuticle becomes externally visible in O. cincta and F. candida at 22 and 29% of embryogenesis, respectively. To contextualize, we describe the stages of springtail embryogenesis, exemplified by F. candida. Our physiological assays then showed that blastodermal cuticle formation coincides with an increase in egg viability in a dry environment, significantly contributing to hatching success. However, protection differs between species: while O. cincta eggs survive at least 2 hours outside a humid environment, the survival period recorded for F. candida eggs is only 15 minutes, which correlates with this species’ requirement for humid microhabitats. We suggest that the formation of this cuticle protects the eggs, constituting an ancestral trait among hexapods that predated and facilitated the process of terrestrialization that occurred during insect evolution.Research HighlightsThe formation of the blastodermal cuticle produced during early embryogenesis coincides with a higher protection against water loss in springtail (Collembola) eggs.Orchesella cincta eggs are more resistant to drought than Folsomia candida ones.The formation of a protective egg cuticle would be an ancestral trait among hexapods that facilitated their process of terrestrialization.Graphical AbstractGraphical Abstract legend: Eggs when laid uptake water but are also prone to water loss. Late eggs acquire some protection against water loss, but at different levels, depending on the species.

Author(s):  
LN Hazrati

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) or concussion is a very common occurrence in contact sports, and can cause brain damage with long-term symptoms, including depression, aggression, memory loss, and an increased risk of neurodegeneration later in life. Recently, there has been increased attention towards concussion in sport both in research and media, however the nature and pathophysiology of mTBI-induced neurodegeneration remain unknown. The objective of this study is to identify early pathophysiological markers of TBI. This study used a collection of donated postmortem brains with a history of repetitive mTBI in contact sports and non-TBI control brains. Nanostring ncounter’s immune panel was used to evaluate gene expression, and results showed that brains with a history of TBI tended to group with significantly older brains with no history of TBI in regards to their immune profile. Further analysis of this expression panel revealed that genes associated with senescence and secretory phenotype were upregulated in brains with a history of mTBI. Additionally, immunohistochemistry for γ-H2AX (a marker for double stranded DNA breaks) showed that brains with a history of repetitive TBI accumulated a spectrum of DNA damages not present in controls. This damage was widespread and involved mainly glial cells including oligodendrocytes, and astrocytes. The latter showed morphological changes reminiscent of senescence, including soma swelling and beading of processes. Further, these changes were accompanied by translocation of structural nuclear proteins. These changes preceded the appearance of abnormal protein deposition in the brain. Overall, these results suggest that DNA damage and cellular senescence are upstream events in the manifestation of post-mTBI symptoms and pathology, and represent promising opportunities for discovery of biomarkers for early TBI detection and follow-up of progression.LEARNING OBJECTIVESThe presentation will enable the learner to:1.Explore the relationship between trauma and DNA structural changes2.Explore the relationship between trauma and senescence


2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 310-317
Author(s):  
О.К. Khozamberdiyev ◽  
◽  
B. Serikbayeva ◽  

The article examines the problem of professional training of actors and directors through verbal action in the process of reading a text. Verbal action is a popular concept among many teachers of stage language and acting. The pedagogical education of the individuality of each student in the process of reading the text through verbal influence raises the problem of the relationship between his knowledge and further professional development. The system of progressive study of theoretical concepts of different levels of complexity allows future actors and directors to easily reveal the stylistic nature of the text and develop language techniques based on the optimal level of their development and personal orientation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shan Li

AbstractThis article studies the role of rainfall in determining the education composition of Mexico-US migration. Emphasizing the relationship between rainfall and migration costs, a revised Roy model indicates that rainfall affects selection on education through not only households’ liquidity constraints but also the comparisons between changes in migration costs and wage differentials at different levels of education. With retrospective data on the migration history of male Mexicans, the empirical analysis shows that the inverted U-shaped relationship between migration probabilities and education is less dispersed with a higher vertex when rainfall decreases, suggesting higher migration costs and reinforced self-selection patterns. The impacts of rainfall on selection and education are stronger for the migrant stock than for migration flows. Studying how rainfall influences migrants’ return decisions provides consistent results.


Paleobiology ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 6 (02) ◽  
pp. 146-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Oliver

The Mesozoic-Cenozoic coral Order Scleractinia has been suggested to have originated or evolved (1) by direct descent from the Paleozoic Order Rugosa or (2) by the development of a skeleton in members of one of the anemone groups that probably have existed throughout Phanerozoic time. In spite of much work on the subject, advocates of the direct descent hypothesis have failed to find convincing evidence of this relationship. Critical points are:(1) Rugosan septal insertion is serial; Scleractinian insertion is cyclic; no intermediate stages have been demonstrated. Apparent intermediates are Scleractinia having bilateral cyclic insertion or teratological Rugosa.(2) There is convincing evidence that the skeletons of many Rugosa were calcitic and none are known to be or to have been aragonitic. In contrast, the skeletons of all living Scleractinia are aragonitic and there is evidence that fossil Scleractinia were aragonitic also. The mineralogic difference is almost certainly due to intrinsic biologic factors.(3) No early Triassic corals of either group are known. This fact is not compelling (by itself) but is important in connection with points 1 and 2, because, given direct descent, both changes took place during this only stage in the history of the two groups in which there are no known corals.


Crisis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 265-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meshan Lehmann ◽  
Matthew R. Hilimire ◽  
Lawrence H. Yang ◽  
Bruce G. Link ◽  
Jordan E. DeVylder

Abstract. Background: Self-esteem is a major contributor to risk for repeated suicide attempts. Prior research has shown that awareness of stigma is associated with reduced self-esteem among people with mental illness. No prior studies have examined the association between self-esteem and stereotype awareness among individuals with past suicide attempts. Aims: To understand the relationship between stereotype awareness and self-esteem among young adults who have and have not attempted suicide. Method: Computerized surveys were administered to college students (N = 637). Linear regression analyses were used to test associations between self-esteem and stereotype awareness, attempt history, and their interaction. Results: There was a significant stereotype awareness by attempt interaction (β = –.74, p = .006) in the regression analysis. The interaction was explained by a stronger negative association between stereotype awareness and self-esteem among individuals with past suicide attempts (β = –.50, p = .013) compared with those without attempts (β = –.09, p = .037). Conclusion: Stigma is associated with lower self-esteem within this high-functioning sample of young adults with histories of suicide attempts. Alleviating the impact of stigma at the individual (clinical) or community (public health) levels may improve self-esteem among this high-risk population, which could potentially influence subsequent suicide risk.


Author(s):  
Jesse Schotter

The first chapter of Hieroglyphic Modernisms exposes the complex history of Western misconceptions of Egyptian writing from antiquity to the present. Hieroglyphs bridge the gap between modern technologies and the ancient past, looking forward to the rise of new media and backward to the dispersal of languages in the mythical moment of the Tower of Babel. The contradictory ways in which hieroglyphs were interpreted in the West come to shape the differing ways that modernist writers and filmmakers understood the relationship between writing, film, and other new media. On the one hand, poets like Ezra Pound and film theorists like Vachel Lindsay and Sergei Eisenstein use the visual languages of China and of Egypt as a more primal or direct alternative to written words. But Freud, Proust, and the later Eisenstein conversely emphasize the phonetic qualities of Egyptian writing, its similarity to alphabetical scripts. The chapter concludes by arguing that even avant-garde invocations of hieroglyphics depend on narrative form through an examination of Hollis Frampton’s experimental film Zorns Lemma.


Author(s):  
Ted Geier

Covers the long history of the Smithfield animal market and legal reform in London. Shows the relationship of civic improvement tropes, including animal rights, to animal erasure in the form of new foodstuffs from distant meat production sites. The reduction of lives to commodities also informed public abasement of the butchers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 330-343
Author(s):  
Fabio Camilletti

It is generally assumed that The Vampyre was published against John Polidori's will. This article brings evidence to support that he played, in fact, an active role in the publication of his tale, perhaps as a response to Frankenstein. In particular, by making use of the tools of textual criticism, it demonstrates how the ‘Extract of a Letter from Geneva’ accompanying The Vampyre in The New Monthly Magazine and in volume editions could not be written without having access to Polidori's Diary. Furthermore, it hypothesizes that the composition of The Vampyre, traditionally located in Geneva in the course of summer 1816, can be postdated to 1818, opening up new possibilities for reading the tale in the context of the relationship between Polidori, Byron, and the Shelleys.


2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-104
Author(s):  
Robert Kiely

A world-ecological perspective of cultural production refuses a dualist conception of nature and society – which imagines nature as an external site of static outputs  – and instead foregrounds the fact that human and extra-human natures are completely intertwined. This essay seeks to reinterpret the satirical writing of a canonical figure within the Irish literary tradition, Brian O'Nolan, in light of the energy history of Ireland, understood as co-produced by both human actors and biophysical nature. How does the energy imaginary of O'Nolan's work refract and mediate the Irish environment and the socio-ecological relations shaping the fuel supply-chains that power the Irish energy regime dominant under the Irish Free State? I discuss the relationship between peat as fuel and Brian O'Nolan's pseudonymous newspaper columns, and indicate how questions about energy regimes and ecology can lead us to read his Irish language novel An Béal Bocht [The Poor Mouth] (1941) in a new light. The moments I select and analyze from O'Nolan's output feature a kind of satire that exposes the folly of separating society from nature, by presenting an exaggerated form of the myth of nature as an infinite resource.


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