'Taste sensor' genes in female butterflies vital to species' survival, UCI study finds
Distinctive plant sampling behavior helps ensure hospitable host for larvae
2013-07-12
(Press-News.org) Irvine, Calif. — Giving the phrase "Mother knows best" a whole new meaning, UC Irvine researchers have identified unique genes in female butterflies that enable them to select the best host plant for their larvae – and avoid deadly ones.
Biologist Adriana Briscoe and colleagues found that females of the Heliconius species express gustatory, or taste, receptor genes when choosing a host on which to lay their eggs. Many plants defend themselves by producing toxic chemicals, so it's vital to their larvae's survival that the butterflies pick the right kind. Heliconius females have 80 taste organs called sensilla on their forelegs that they use to sample potential host plants, while male butterflies have none.
"This study is important for understanding the co-evolution of butterfly species and their host plants, uncovers a new set of genes critical to the species' survival, and reveals that female butterfly behavior shapes the hereditary makeup of butterflies," said Briscoe, professor of ecology & evolutionary biology and lead author of the paper, which will be published online July 11 in PLOS Genetics.
Heliconius females choose young, robust passionflower vines to host their larvae. They're so selective that they inspect a number of vines multiple times daily for other butterfly larvae and deficient leaves that are not healthy enough to sustain larvae or produce toxic chemicals before deciding on which specific vine to lay their eggs. Healthy passionflower vines are a limited commodity indigenous to rainforests in Mexico, Central America and South America.
Briscoe and her team have published other studies on butterflies, including a 2010 one in which they found that butterfly species with a duplicate gene allowing them to see ultraviolet colors also have ultraviolet-yellow pigment on their wings, helping them identify appropriate mates in a timely manner.
###
Additional contributors to the current work were Aide Macias-Muñoz and Furong Yuan of UC Irvine; Chris D. Jiggins, Krzysztof M. Kozak, Gabriel A. Jamie and Simon H. Martin of the University of Cambridge; James R. Walters of Stanford University; Kanchon K. Dasmahapatra of England's University of York; Laura C. Ferguson of the University of Oxford; James Mallet of Harvard University; and Emmanuelle Jacquin-Joly of France's National Institute for Agricultural Research.
The study was supported in part by the National Science Foundation.
About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Led by Chancellor Michael Drake since 2005, UCI is among the most dynamic campuses in the University of California system, with more than 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students, 1,100 faculty and 9,400 staff. Orange County's second-largest employer, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $4.3 billion. For more UCI news, visit news.uci.edu.
News Radio: UCI maintains on campus an ISDN line for conducting interviews with its faculty and experts. Use of this line is available for a fee to radio news programs/stations that wish to interview UCI faculty and experts. Use of the ISDN line is subject to availability and approval by the university.
UCI maintains an online directory of faculty available as experts to the media. To access, visit http://www.today.uci.edu/experts.
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2013-07-12
Large earthquakes from distant parts of the globe are setting off tremors around waste-fluid injection wells in the central United States, says a new study. Furthermore, such triggering of minor quakes by distant events could be precursors to larger events at sites where pressure from waste injection has pushed faults close to failure, say researchers.
Among the sites covered: a set of injection wells near Prague, Okla., where the study says a huge earthquake in Chile on Feb. 27, 2010 triggered a mid-size quake less than a day later, followed by months of smaller tremors. ...
2013-07-12
Over two million deaths occur each year as a direct result of human-caused outdoor air pollution, a new study has found.
In addition, while it has been suggested that a changing climate can exacerbate the effects of air pollution and increase death rates, the study shows that this has a minimal effect and only accounts for a small proportion of current deaths related to air pollution.
The study, which has been published today, 12 July, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, estimates that around 470,000 people die each year because of human-caused ...
2013-07-12
Selective grazing by slugs may prevent key grassland species from taking hold and hampers efforts to restore our hay meadows, new research has shown.
Work by scientists at Newcastle University, UK, has looked at the impact slugs have on grassland biodiversity and how this might inform future restoration work.
Although renowned for their ability to chew through a gardener's prize petunias or strawberry patch, still relatively little is known about the effect these munching molluscs have on large scale grassland conservation projects.
But for the first time this latest ...
2013-07-12
HOUSTON -- Two Houston researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital were part of an international team that developed a new gene therapy approach to treatment of Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome, a fatal inherited form of immunodeficiency.
The new research, led by researchers at the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milan, Italy was published in Science Express.
The disorder that weakens the body's immune system is caused by a mutation in a gene that encodes the protein WASP. The most often used therapy is a bone marrow or stem ...
2013-07-12
There are clear risk factors for postpartum psychosis that all women should be asked about antenatally to ensure early recognition and prompt treatment of the condition, says a new review published today (12 July) in The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist (TOG).
Postpartum psychosis is a severe mental illness with a dramatic onset shortly after childbirth, affecting approximately 1-2 in 1000 deliveries. However, the review notes that the true incidence may be higher.
Common symptoms include; mania, severe depression, delusions and hallucinations, confusion, bewilderment ...
2013-07-12
Millions of people in low-income countries still depend on public computer and Internet access venues despite the global proliferation of mobile phones and home computers. However, interest in providing such public access has waned in recent years, especially among development agencies, as new technologies become available.
But a five-year, eight-country study recently concluded by the Technology & Social Change Group at the University of Washington Information School has found that community access to computer and Internet technology remains a crucial resource for connecting ...
2013-07-12
Bethesda, MD – The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) applauds the Senate Appropriations Committee for approving a fiscal year (FY) 2014 Labor, Health and Human Services (LHHS)Appropriations bill that provides $30.95 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). "The Senate funding level for NIH replaces the funding lost due to sequestration and is a critical step in the right direction," said FASEB President Margaret K. Offermann, MD, PhD. "We especially appreciate the leadership of Chairman Tom Harkin and Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski ...
2013-07-12
A team of U.S. and U.K. scientists has found geologic evidence that casts doubt on one of the conventional explanations for how Antarctica's ice sheet began forming. Ian Dalziel, research professor at The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics and professor in the Jackson School of Geosciences, and his colleagues report the findings today in an online edition of the journal Geology.
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), an ocean current flowing clockwise around the entire continent, insulates Antarctica from warmer ocean water to the north, helping ...
2013-07-12
Using the same type of mathematical formulas used to draw political redistricting maps, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have developed a model that would allow for the more equitable allocation of livers from deceased donors for transplantation.
Currently, in the United States, where you live dictates the availability of a liver transplant. Studies show that geography can mean the difference between a 10 percent chance of dying while on the waiting list for a donor liver, and a 90 percent chance, the researchers say. The new model depends not on the longstanding relationships ...
2013-07-12
Simon Fraser University biologists have discovered a new, extinct family of insects that will help scientists better understand how some animals responded to global climate change and the evolution of communities.
The Eocene Apex of Panorpoid Family Diversity, a paper by SFU's Bruce Archibald and Rolf Mathewes, plus David Greenwood from Brandon University, was recently published in the Journal of Paleontology.
The researchers named the new family the Eorpidae, after the Eocene Epoch, the age when these insects lived some 50 million years ago. The fossils were found ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] 'Taste sensor' genes in female butterflies vital to species' survival, UCI study finds
Distinctive plant sampling behavior helps ensure hospitable host for larvae
