Phonotactic response of female crickets on the Kramer treadmill: methodology, sensory and behavioural implications

Since population-level variation in female mating preferences can shape intraspecific communication systems within the context of sexual selection it is essential to quantify these preferences and their sources of variation. We calculated individual female response functions for four male calling song traits in the field cricket Gryllus bimaculatus, by performing untethered phonotaxis measurements on a spherical locomotor compensator (Kramer treadmill). Firstly, we quantify the population-level sources of phonotactic variation and correct for factors that adversely affect this measurement. Secondly, we develop methodology for the characterisation of individual female phonotactic response functions suitable for population-level analyses and demonstrate the applicability of our method with respect to recent literature on Orthopteran acoustic communication. Phonotaxis towards a preferred stimulus on different occasions is highly repeatable, with lower repeatabilities away from the most preferred signal traits. For certain male signal traits, female preference and selectivity are highly repeatable. Although phonotactic response magnitude deteriorated with age, preference functions of females remained the same during their lifetimes. Finally, the limitations of measuring phonotaxis using a spherical locomotor compensator are described and discussed with respect to the estimation of the selectivity of female response

The role of vitamin D in pulmonary disease: COPD, asthma, infection, and cancer

The role of vitamin D (VitD) in calcium and bone homeostasis is well described. In the last years, it has been recognized that in addition to this classical function, VitD modulates a variety of processes and regulatory systems including host defense, inflammation, immunity, and repair. VitD deficiency appears to be frequent in industrialized countries. Especially patients with lung diseases have often low VitD serum levels. Epidemiological data indicate that low levels of serum VitD is associated with impaired pulmonary function, increased incidence of inflammatory, infectious or neoplastic diseases. Several lung diseases, all inflammatory in nature, may be related to activities of VitD including asthma, COPD and cancer. The exact mechanisms underlying these data are unknown, however, VitD appears to impact on the function of inflammatory and structural cells, including dendritic cells, lymphocytes, monocytes, and epithelial cells. This review summarizes the knowledge on the classical and newly discovered functions of VitD, the molecular and cellular mechanism of action and the available data on the relationship between lung disease and VitD status

Enhancing Biological and Biomechanical Fixation of Osteochondral Scaffold: A Grand Challenge

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease, typified by degradation of cartilage and changes in the subchondral bone, resulting in pain, stiffness and reduced mobility. Current surgical treatments often fail to regenerate hyaline cartilage and result in the formation of fibrocartilage. Tissue engineering approaches have emerged for the repair of cartilage defects and damages to the subchondral bones in the early stage of OA and have shown potential in restoring the joint's function. In this approach, the use of three-dimensional scaffolds (with or without cells) provides support for tissue growth. Commercially available osteochondral (OC) scaffolds have been studied in OA patients for repair and regeneration of OC defects. However, some controversial results are often reported from both clinical trials and animal studies. The objective of this chapter is to report the scaffolds clinical requirements and performance of the currently available OC scaffolds that have been investigated both in animal studies and in clinical trials. The findings have demonstrated the importance of biological and biomechanical fixation of the OC scaffolds in achieving good cartilage fill and improved hyaline cartilage formation. It is concluded that improving cartilage fill, enhancing its integration with host tissues and achieving a strong and stable subchondral bone support for overlying cartilage are still grand challenges for the early treatment of OA

Transcriptome Analysis of the Desert Locust Central Nervous System: Production and Annotation of a Schistocerca gregaria EST Database

) displays a fascinating type of phenotypic plasticity, designated as ‘phase polyphenism’. Depending on environmental conditions, one genome can be translated into two highly divergent phenotypes, termed the solitarious and gregarious (swarming) phase. Although many of the underlying molecular events remain elusive, the central nervous system (CNS) is expected to play a crucial role in the phase transition process. Locusts have also proven to be interesting model organisms in a physiological and neurobiological research context. However, molecular studies in locusts are hampered by the fact that genome/transcriptome sequence information available for this branch of insects is still limited. EST information is highly complementary to the existing orthopteran transcriptomic data. Since many novel transcripts encode neuronal signaling and signal transduction components, this paper includes an overview of these sequences. Furthermore, several transcripts being differentially represented in solitarious and gregarious locusts were retrieved from this EST database. The findings highlight the involvement of the CNS in the phase transition process and indicate that this novel annotated database may also add to the emerging knowledge of concomitant neuronal signaling and neuroplasticity events. EST data constitute an important new source of information that will be instrumental in further unraveling the molecular principles of phase polyphenism, in further establishing locusts as valuable research model organisms and in molecular evolutionary and comparative entomology

Chromosome conformation signatures define predictive markers of inadequate response to methotrexate in early rheumatoid arthritis

The authors would like to thank members of OBD Reference Facility Benjamin Foulkes, Chloe Bird, Emily Corfeld and Matthew Salter for expedient processing of clinical samples on the EpiSwitch™ platform and Magdalena Jeznach and Willem Westra for help with preparation of the manuscript. The study employed samples from the SERA Biobank used with permission and approval of the SERA Approval Group. We gratefully acknowledge the invaluable contribution of the clinicians and operating team in SERA. We would also like to thank Prof. Raju Kucherlapati (Harvard Medical School), and Prof. Jane Mellor (Oxford Univ.), Prof. John O’Shea (National Institute of Health) and Prof. John Isaacs (New Castle Univ.) for their independent and critical review of our study. A list of Scottish Early Rheumatoid Arthritis (SERA) inception cohort investigators is provided in Additional fle 1: Additional Note. Funding This work was funded by Oxford BioDynamics.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A conserved plan for wiring up the fan-shaped body in the grasshopper and Drosophila

The central complex comprises an elaborate system of modular neuropils which mediate spatial orientation and sensory-motor integration in insects such as the grasshopper and Drosophila. The neuroarchitecture of the largest of these modules, the fan-shaped body, is characterized by its stereotypic set of decussating fiber bundles. These are generated during development by axons from four homologous protocerebral lineages which enter the commissural system and subsequently decussate at stereotypic locations across the brain midline. Since the commissural organization prior to fan-shaped body formation has not been previously analyzed in either species, it was not clear how the decussating bundles relate to individual lineages, or if the projection pattern is conserved across species. In this study, we trace the axonal projections from the homologous central complex lineages into the commissural system of the embryonic and larval brains of both the grasshopper and Drosophila. Projections into the primordial commissures of both species are found to be lineage-specific and allow putatively equivalent fascicles to be identified. Comparison of the projection pattern before and after the commencement of axon decussation in both species reveals that equivalent commissural fascicles are involved in generating the columnar neuroarchitecture of the fan-shaped body. Further, the tract-specific columns in both the grasshopper and Drosophila can be shown to contain axons from identical combinations of central complex lineages, suggesting that this columnar neuroarchitecture is also conserved