Wednesday December 16, 2009
Here's your chance to show off your bug ID skills. If you can name this bug, you'll win fame, fortune, and fabulous prizes. Actually, no, you won't win fortune or prizes, but you will get a mention in next week's Bug of the Week! So leave a comment with your answer, and come back next Wednesday for another challenge and to see your name in lights. Need a hint? Check the forum, where I've left your clues.
As for last week's image, that black and gold bug was a mottled tortoise beetle, Deloyala guttata. Quite a few readers jumped in and answered this one: Spirula, Anne, Kylee, Moni, and Mobugs41. Excellent identification skills, y'all.
Tom Coleman, University of Kentucky, Bugwood.org
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Tuesday December 15, 2009
Fruit flies use the same molecular mechanisms to control cholesterol and obesity as we do, according to new research at the University of Utah. And just as people who eat high fat diets tend to put on the pounds, the wrong foods can make fruit flies fat.
Dr. Carl S. Thummel manipulated a key nuclear receptor, DHR96, in the fruit fly. DHR96 corresponds closely to a human nuclear receptor, LXR, which is known to regulate cholesterol levels. In the fruit fly, DHR96 regulates cholesterol and the fat molecule TAG, or triacylglycerol.
Dr. Thummel and his colleagues bred fruit flies in which they had disabled the DHR96 protein, crippling their ability to regulate cholesterol. When these fruit flies feasted on fatty diets, their cholesterol levels soared. Lean diets led to low cholesterol levels.
In another study, Dr. Thummel measured the levels of TAG molecules in the intestines of fruit flies with or without the DHR96 protein. In flies without the DHR96 protein, fat molecules in the intestines declined, making them resistant to diet-induced obesity. On the other hand, as levels of DHR96 proteins increased, so did the TAG molecules, and the flies got fat.
High cholesterol and obesity, which affects an estimated 25 percent to 30 percent of the U.S. population, are linked to heart disease, diabetes, and other diseases that take huge tolls on health and add billions of dollars to the nation's medical bills. Understanding the processes that regulate cholesterol and fat in humans could be critical for addressing those health risks in people, Thummel believes.
Source: Learning About High Cholesterol and Obesity From Fruit Flies, University of Utah, Dec 2, 2009
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Monday December 14, 2009
Congratulations to Dr. Jan Michels of the University of Kiel, Germany, for taking first prize in the 2009 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition®. This image of a water flea, Daphnia atkinsoni, earned Dr. Michels his choice of Olympus microscope or camera equipment valued at $5,000.
This water flea specimen has a visible "crown of thorns," a defensive trait induced in offspring only when the parents sense chemical cues released by one of their main predators, the tadpole shrimp Triops cancriformis. The water flea's exoskeleton (exterior structure, green) and subcellular details within the organism (nuclei - tiny blue dots) are also both visible.
Now in its sixth year, the Olympus BioScapes competition is the world's premier platform for honoring images and movies of human, plant and animal subjects as captured through light microscopes. Any life science subject is eligible, and entries are judged based on the science they depict, their aesthetics (beauty and impact of the image), and their technical merit. You can view all the incredible winning entries by visiting the Bioscapes web gallery.
Photo courtesy Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition®
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Friday December 11, 2009
Did you know...
As ferocious as they might seem, tarantulas are really quite fragile creatures. A tarantula's abdomen is covered with a thin exoskeleton that can rupture easily. In fact, a fall from even a short height can be fatal for a taratula.
Learn More About Tarantulas:
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