PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

That pregnant feeling makes a fly start nesting

That pregnant feeling makes a fly start nesting
2014-10-16
(Press-News.org) DURHAM, N.C. -- Across the animal kingdom, it's not uncommon for pregnancy to change an expectant mom's behavior. Even female flies have their own rudimentary way of "nesting," which appears to be brought on by the stretch of their egg-filled abdomens rather than the act of mating, according to a Duke study published online October 16 in Cell Reports.

After mating, the female fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster dramatically shifts priorities as she prepares to lay eggs.

"For example, the virgin flies are interested in sex. Once they're mated, it's very striking -- they vigorously reject male courtship," said lead author Rebecca Yang, an assistant professor of neurobiology in the Duke University School of Medicine.

As their egg production ramps up after mating, female flies also seek out a "nest" of acetic acid, or vinegar, a chemical found in fermenting fruit on which they prefer to deposit their eggs.

The fly's eggs are normally made in the ovaries and move down a long, narrow tract into the uterus, where they are fertilized by sperm that are already stored there. After fertilization, the fly lays her eggs: where and when depends on how good the environment is for the offspring, Yang said.

Previous studies have alluded to the effects of mating on the fly's nesting behavior, but Yang and her team wondered whether pregnancy alone (that is, the pressing need to lay eggs) could cause these changes.

Fortunately, their earlier work uncovered a set of motor neurons that squeeze the reproductive tract to push out eggs when the time is right.

In the new study, the scientists genetically inhibited those motor neurons to cause an "egg jam" in the flies' reproductive tracts.

Using custom-built nesting chambers with one side containing vinegar-infused gel and the other without, the team found that the egg-jammed flies sought out and preferred vinegar compared with mated flies that were not carrying eggs.

The pregnant females seemed to sense the eggs, but how? The scientists had a hunch that sensory neurons for detecting stretch innervate the long narrow part of the fly's reproductive tract. One type of cell already known to line the tract, the ppk1 neuron, was an obvious candidate.

So Yang's group stimulated the motor neurons of the tract to make it contract and the ppk1 neurons responded. When they blocked these sensory neurons, the females' interest in vinegar seemed to diminish.

"Before our work, I thought that this behavior was driven by hormones. Now I think that it's sensory neurons that can initiate the change," said co-author Bin Gou, a postdoctoral researcher in Yang's lab who just became a parent with his wife and co-author, postdoc Ying Liu.

The flies join dogs, sheep and rats that have been found to have similar ways of detecting stretch in their reproductive organs. But these new findings don't rule out the possibility that hormones also contribute to behavior change, Yang said.

"The sensory neuron innervates the reproductive tract and projects to the fly equivalent of the spinal cord," Yang said. "In the end, the decision to move toward or away from the [vinegar] probably takes place in the brain."

As for what occurs between the neurons of the reproductive tract and the brain, Yang and her team are working to find out. "It's a black box," she added.

INFORMATION:

The research is supported by the Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fund and the National Institutes of Health (R01 GM100027).

"Mechanosensitive Neurons on the Internal Reproductive Tract Contribute to Egg-Laying-Induced Acetic Acid Attraction in Drosophila," Bin Gou, Ying Liu, Ananya R. Guntur, Ulrich Stern, and Chung-Hui Yang. Cell Reports, October 16, 2014, DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2014.09.033


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
That pregnant feeling makes a fly start nesting

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Study recommends ongoing assessment of impact of offshore wind farms on marine species

Study recommends ongoing assessment of impact of offshore wind farms on marine species
2014-10-16
SOLOMONS, MD (October 16, 2014)--Offshore wind power is a valuable source of renewable energy that can help reduce carbon emissions. Technological advances are allowing higher capacity turbines to be installed in deeper water, but there is still much unknown about the effects on the environment. In a recent paper, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science researcher Helen Bailey and colleagues review the potential impacts of offshore wind developments on marine species and make recommendations for future monitoring and assessment as interest in offshore wind ...

MicroRNA molecules serve as on/off switches for inflammation

2014-10-16
(SALT LAKE CITY)—University of Utah scientists have identified two microRNA molecules that control chronic inflammation, a discovery that one day may help researchers prevent certain fatal or debilitating conditions before they start. "We're living at a time where the aging population is growing," said Ryan O'Connell, D.Phil., assistant professor of pathology, whose lab made the discovery. "The question is: how can we predict and prevent the onset of disorders that emerge upon growing older?" The research will be published this Thursday in Immunity, a top immunology ...

Scripps Research Institute scientists identify trigger for crucial immune system cell

Scripps Research Institute scientists identify trigger for crucial immune system cell
2014-10-16
LA JOLLA, CA—October 16, 2014—Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have identified the long-sought activating molecules for a rare but crucial subset of immune system cells that help rally other white blood cells to fight infection. In the process, the team also uncovered a previously unsuspected link between the mammalian immune system and the communication systems of simpler organisms such as bacteria. The findings, published online ahead of print on October 16 by the journal Immunity, could lead to novel therapeutic approaches for diseases ...

Pitt/McGowan Institute team discovers stem cells in the esophagus

2014-10-16
PITTSBURGH, Oct. 16, 2014 – Despite previous indications to the contrary, the esophagus does have its own pool of stem cells, said researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in an animal study published online today in Cell Reports. The findings could lead to new insights into the development and treatment of esophageal cancer and the precancerous condition known as Barrett's esophagus. According to the American Cancer Society, more than 18,000 people will be diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the U.S. in 2014 and almost 15,500 people will ...

Mysterious Midcontinent Rift is a geological hybrid

Mysterious Midcontinent Rift is a geological hybrid
2014-10-16
An international team of geologists has a new explanation for how the Midwest's biggest geological feature -- an ancient and giant 2,000-mile-long underground crack that starts in Lake Superior and runs south to Oklahoma and to Alabama -- evolved. Scientists from Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), the University of Gottingen in Germany and the University of Oklahoma report that the 1.1 billion-year-old Midcontinent Rift is a geological hybrid, having formed in three stages: it started as an enormous narrow crack in the Earth's crust; ...

Simple test may predict surgical wound healing complications

2014-10-16
MAYWOOD, Ill. (Oct. 16, 2014) -- As many as 35 percent of patients who undergo surgery to remove soft tissue sarcomas experience wound-healing complications, due to radiation they receive before surgery. Now a study has suggested that a simple test called transcutaneous oximetry may be able to predict which of these patients are most likely to experience wound-healing complications, potentially enabling surgeons to take extra precautions. Lukas Nystrom, MD, of Loyola University Medical Center presented his findings during the 2014 annual meeting of the Musculoskeletal ...

Should first responders use acupuncture & integrative medicine in natural disasters & battle zones?

Should first responders use acupuncture & integrative medicine in natural disasters & battle zones?
2014-10-16
New Rochelle, NY, October 16, 2014—Delivering traditional emergency medical care at ground zero of natural disasters and military conflicts is challenging. First responders trained in simple integrative medicine approaches such as acupuncture, hypnosis, or biofeedback can provide adjunctive treatment to help relieve patients' pain and stress. How to teach and utilize modified techniques and their potential benefit are described in a Review article in Medical Acupuncture, a peer-reviewed journal from by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free ...

New study finds that the probability of unprotected intercourse in hookups doubles between freshman

2014-10-16
An article released by Social Forces titled, "Casual Contraception in Casual Sex: Life-Cycle Change in Undergraduates' Sexual Behavior in Hookups" by Jonathan Marc Bearak (New York University) explores the changes in undergraduate uncommitted sexual behavior during years 1–4 of college. The article provides reasoning for the decline in the use of condoms, and explains how changes in the odds of coitus and condom use depend on fam¬ily background, school gender imbalance, and whether the partners attend the same college. The results show that the odds of unprotected ...

Dispelling a misconception about Mg-ion batteries

Dispelling a misconception about Mg-ion batteries
2014-10-16
Lithium (Li)-ion batteries serve us well, powering our laptops, tablets, cell phones and a host of other gadgets and devices. However, for future automotive applications, we will need rechargeable batteries with significant increases in energy density, reductions in cost and improvements in safety. Hence the big push in the battery industry to develop an alternative to the Li-ion technology. One promising alternative would be a battery based on a multivalent ion, such as magnesium (Mg). Whereas a Li-ion with a charge of +1 provides only a single electron for an electrical ...

Myth-conceptions: How myths about the brain are hampering teaching

2014-10-16
Myths about the brain are common among teachers worldwide and are hampering teaching, according to new research. Teachers in the UK, Holland, Turkey, Greece and China were presented with seven so-called 'neuromyths' and asked whether they believe them to be true. A quarter or more of teachers in the UK and Turkey believe a student's brain would shrink if they drank less than six to eight glasses of water a day, while around half or more of those surveyed believe a student's brain is only 10 per cent active and that children are less attentive after sugary drinks and ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

A third of licensed GPs in England not working in NHS general practice

ChatGPT “thought on the fly” when put through Ancient Greek maths puzzle

Engineers uncover why tiny particles form clusters in turbulent air

GLP-1RA drugs dramatically reduce death and cardiovascular risk in psoriasis patients

Psoriasis linked to increased risk of vision-threatening eye disease, study finds

Reprogramming obesity: New drug from Italian biotech aims to treat the underlying causes of obesity

Type 2 diabetes may accelerate development of multiple chronic diseases, particularly in the early stages, UK Biobank study suggests

Resistance training may improve nerve health, slow aging process, study shows

Common and inexpensive medicine halves the risk of recurrence in patients with colorectal cancer

SwRI-built instruments to monitor, provide advanced warning of space weather events

Breakthrough advances sodium-based battery design

New targeted radiation therapy shows near-complete response in rare sarcoma patients

Does physical frailty contribute to dementia?

Soccer headers and brain health: Study finds changes within folds of the brain

Decoding plants’ language of light

UNC Greensboro study finds ticks carrying Lyme disease moving into western NC

New implant restores blood pressure balance after spinal cord injury

New York City's medical specialist advantage may be an illusion, new NYU Tandon research shows

Could a local anesthetic that doesn’t impair motor function be within reach?

1 in 8 Italian cetacean strandings show evidence of fishery interactions, with bottlenose and striped dolphins most commonly affected, according to analysis across four decades of data and more than 5

In the wild, chimpanzees likely ingest the equivalent of several alcoholic drinks every day

Warming of 2°C intensifies Arctic carbon sink but weakens Alpine sink, study finds

Bronze and Iron Age cultures in the Middle East were committed to wine production

Indian adolescents are mostly starting their periods at an earlier age than 25 years ago

Temporary medical centers in Gaza known as "Medical Points" (MPs) treat an average of 117 people daily with only about 7 staff per MP

Rates of alcohol-induced deaths among the general population nearly doubled from 1999 to 2024

PLOS One study: In adolescent lab animals exposed to cocaine, High-Intensity Interval Training boosts aversion to the drug

Scientists identify four ways our bodies respond to COVID-19 vaccines

Stronger together: A new fusion protein boosts cancer immunotherapy

Hidden brain waves as triggers for post-seizure wandering

[Press-News.org] That pregnant feeling makes a fly start nesting