Variation in Courtship Ultrasounds of Three Ostrinia Moths with Different Sex Pheromones

Moths use ultrasounds as well as pheromones for sexual communication. In closely related moth species, variations in ultrasounds and pheromones are likely to profoundly affect mate recognition, reproductive isolation, and speciation. The European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis, and its Asian congeners, Ostrinia furnacalis and Ostrinia scapulalis, exhibit within-species and between-species variation in their pheromone communication. Recently, we reported ultrasound communication in O. furnacalis; however, variations in ultrasounds in the three congeners have not been addressed to date. Here we investigated features of ultrasound production and hearing in O. nubilalis and O. scapulalis, and compared them with those of O. furnacalis. As in O. furnacalis, males of O. nubilalis and O. scapulalis produced ultrasounds during courtship by rubbing specialized scales on the wings against scales on the thorax. The covering of these scales with nail polish muffled the sounds and significantly reduced mating success in O. nubilalis, showing the importance of ultrasound signaling in mating. The ultrasounds produced by O. nubilalis and O. scapulalis were similar, consisting of long trains of pairs of pulses with a main energy at 40 kHz, but distinctly different from the ultrasound produced by O. furnacalis, consisting of groups of pulses peaking at 50 kHz and with substantially more energy up to 80 kHz. Despite overall similarities, temporal features and patterns of amplitude modulation differed significantly among the geographic populations of O. nubilalis and O. scapulalis, which differed in pheromone type. In contrast, no significant difference in hearing was found among the three species with regard to the most sensitive frequencies and hearing threshold levels. The patterns of variations in the songs and pheromones well reflected those of the phylogenetic relationships, implying that ultrasound and pheromone communications have diverged concordantly. Our results suggest that concordant evolution in sexual signals such as courtship ultrasounds and sex pheromones occurs in moths

Extracellular cyclophilin A possesses chemotaxic activity in cattle

International audienceCyclophilin A (CyPA) was originally discovered in bovine thymocytes as a cytosolic binding protein of the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine A. Recent studies have revealed that in mice and humans, CyPA is secreted from cells in injured or infected tissues and plays a role in recruiting inflammatory cells in those tissues. Here we found that in cattle abundant level of extracellular CyPA was observed in tissues with inflammation. To aid in investigating the role of extracellular CyPA in cattle, we generated recombinant bovine CyPA (rbCyPA) and tested its biological activity as an inflammatory mediator. When bovine peripheral blood cells were treated with rbCyPA in vitro, we observed that rbCyPA reacts with the membranous surface of granulocytes, monocytes and lymphocytes. Chemotaxis analysis showed that the granulocytes migrate toward rbCyPA and the migration is inhibited by pre-treatment with an anti-bovine CyPA antibody. These results indicate that, as for mice and humans, extracellular CyPA possesses chemotactic activity to recruit inflammatory cells (e.g., granulocytes) in cattle, and could thus be a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of inflammation

Advanced application of bovine intestinal epithelial cell line for evaluating regulatory effect of lactobacilli against heat-killed enterotoxigenicEscherichia coli-mediated inflammation

Background: Previously, a bovine intestinal epithelial cell line (BIE cells) was successfully established. This work hypothesized that BIE cells are useful in vitro model system for the study of interactions of microbial- or pathogenassociated molecular patterns (MAMPs or PAMPs) with bovine intestinal epithelial cells and for the selection of immunoregulatory lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Results: All toll-like receptor (TLR) genes were expressed in BIE cells, being TLR4 one of the most strongly expressed. We demonstrated that heat-stable PAMPs of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) significantly enhanced the production of IL-6, IL-8, IL-1! and MCP-1 in BIE cells by activating both NF-"B and MAPK pathways. We evaluated the capacity of several lactobacilli strains to modulate heat-stable ETEC PAMPs-mediated inflammatory response in BIE cells. Among these strains evaluated, Lactobacillus casei OLL2768 attenuated heat-stable ETEC PAMPs-induced pro-inflammatory response by inhibiting NF-"B and p38 signaling pathways in BIE cells. Moreover, L. casei OLL2768 negatively regulated TLR4 signaling in BIE cells by up-regulating Toll interacting protein (Tollip) and B-cell lymphoma 3-encoded protein (Bcl-3). Conclusions: BIE cells are suitable for the selection of immunoregulatory LAB and for studying the mechanisms involved in the protective activity of immunobiotics against pathogen-induced inflammatory damage. In addition, we showed that L. casei OLL2768 functionally modulate the bovine intestinal epithelium by attenuating heat-stable ETEC PAMPs-induced inflammation. Therefore L. casei OLL2768 is a good candidate for in vivo studying the protective effect of LAB against intestinal inflammatory damage induced by ETEC infection or heat-stable ETEC PAMPs challenge in the bovine host.Fil: Takanashi, Naoya. Food and Feed Immunology Group. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Tohoku University; Japan;Fil: Tomosada, Yohsuke. Food and Feed Immunology Group. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Tohoku University; Japan;Fil: Villena, Julio Cesar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET - Tucuman. Centro de Referencia Para Lactobacilos (i); Food and Feed Immunology Group. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Tohoku University; Japan;Fil: Murata, Kozue. Food and Feed Immunology Group. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Tohoku University; Japan;Fil: Takahashi, Takuya. Food and Feed Immunology Group. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Tohoku University; Japan;Fil: Chiba, Eriko. Food and Feed Immunology Group. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Tohoku University; Japan;Fil: Tohno, Masanori. Food and Feed Immunology Group. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Tohoku University; Japan; National Agriculture and Food Research Organization. National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science; Japan.;Fil: Tomoyuki Shimazu. Food and Feed Immunology Group. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Tohoku University; Japan; Laboratory of Animal Breading and Genetics. Graduate School of Agricultural Science; Japan.;Fil: Aso, Hisashi. Cell Biology Laboratory, Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Tohoku University; Japan.;Fil: Suda, Yoshihito. Department of Food, Agriculture and Environment. Miyagi University; Japan.;Fil: Ikegami, Shuji. Division of Research and Development. Food Science Institut. Meiji Dairies CoOdawara; Japan;Fil: Itoh, Hiroyuki. Division of Research and Development. Food Science Institut. Meiji Dairies CoOdawara; Japan;Fil: Kawai, Yasushi. Food and Feed Immunology Group. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Tohoku University; Japan;Fil: Tadao Saito. Food and Feed Immunology Group. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Tohoku University; Japan;Fil: Alvarez, Gladis Susana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos (i); Argentina;Fil: Kitazawa, Haruki. Food and Feed Immunology Group. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Tohoku University; Japan