(Press-News.org) WORCESTER, Mass. – Escape responses are some of the most studied behaviors by neurobiologists who want to understand how the brain processes sensory information. The ability to evade predators plays a vital role in the process of natural selection. Animals explore their environment to find food, find mates and locate new habitats, and have developed distinct escape responses to avoid predators, thereby increasing their chances for survival. Yet there are few examples that illustrate a complete understanding of the basic biological mechanisms of behavior with its ecological relevance.
New research by scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) published this week in Current Biology offers evidence that for the first time illuminates a biological and ecological path that links genes to molecule to neural circuit to behavior to environment. "We're studying how the nervous system generates behavior and translates sensory information into a coordinated motor output," said Mark Alkema, PhD, assistant professor of neurobiology at UMMS and lead author of the study. "For example, when you try to swat a fly, it has to coordinate its leg lift and wing flapping in order to escape being crushed. We believe that the small roundworm C. elegans does something similar in its own escape-response."
A gentle touch to the head of the C. elegans causes the microscopic nematode to cease normal exploratory head movements and quickly reverse direction. This response is one of the rare examples where the complete path from sensory neuron to coordinated motor output is understood by scientists. What wasn't known, however, is why C. elegans would suppress exploratory head movements when touched on the head but not when touched on the nose or tail. While the C. elegans is commonly grown in petri dishes in laboratories, its normal habitat is in the soil. Dr. Alkema and his colleagues at UMMS hypothesized that the nematode adapted this singular behavior in response to predacious fungi found in its natural environment that use constricting rings to trap its prey.
"Predacious fungi and soil nematodes have a long predator-prey relationship that goes back more than 100 million years," said Alkema. "Predacious fungi have developed very sophisticated strategies to catch and devour nematodes. The most ingenious of these fungi use constricting rings that ensnare the nematode when it passes through the ring. But in the evolutionary arms race between the two organisms, the nematodes have found a way to escape these fungal nooses."
Though the fungi's ensnaring rings react quickly once the trap is triggered, there is a small delay that occurs during which the worm can carefully backup and escape the trap. Alkema suspected the suppression of head movements in response to touch would increase the microscopic worm's chances to escape from the deadly fungal noose.
To test the contribution of the head suppression gene in this predator-prey interaction, Sean Maguire, a research assistant, and Chris Clark, a PhD student, in Alkema's lab, performed competition experiments between mutant and normal nematodes. "What we found was that worms that couldn't suppress their head movements were caught much more efficiently than worms that could," said Clark. "This indicates that suppression of head movements provide a selective advantage to surviving fungal encounters in the natural environment for nematodes."
"This study raises the intriguing possibility that maybe this behavior has evolved as a result of selective pressures imposed by predacious fungi as part of an evolutionary arms race," said Alkema. "There is wide variety of nematodes with different escape behaviors. Since we know the neurotransmitters and receptors that control this behavior in C. elegans, we can start to understand how the environment has shaped the evolution of their behavior."
###
About the University of Massachusetts Medical School
The University of Massachusetts Medical School, one of the fastest growing academic health centers in the country, has built a reputation as a world-class research institution, consistently producing noteworthy advances in clinical and basic research. The Medical School attracts more than $255 million in research funding annually, 80 percent of which comes from federal funding sources. The mission of the Medical School is to advance the health and well-being of the people of the commonwealth and the world through pioneering education, research, public service and health care delivery with its clinical partner, UMass Memorial Health Care. For more information, visit www.umassmed.edu.
Elusive prey
Study shows that selection pressures imposed by predator fungi have shaped escape behavior in microscopic worms
2011-08-01
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Geographic analysis offers new insight into coral disease spread
2011-08-01
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In the last 30 years, more than 90 percent of the reef-building coral responsible for maintaining major marine habitats and providing a natural barrier against hurricanes in the Caribbean has disappeared because of a disease of unknown origin.
Now a University of Florida geographer and his colleagues applied Geographic Information Systems, known as GIS — as well as software previously used to examine human illness — to show where clusters of diseased coral exist. Their findings, published this month in the journal PLoS One, may help scientists derive ...
NASA identifies the areas of Tropical Storm Muifa's strength
2011-08-01
The strongest thunderstorms that make up tropical storm Muifa are on the storm's eastern and southern sides, according to infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite. The northern side is being weakened by a nearby weather system.
Tropical Storm Muifa is moving through the western North Pacific Ocean, and had strengthened during the early morning hours of July 28. On July 27, it was tropical depression 11W and winds have since increased to 40 knots (46 mph/74 kmh).
When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Storm Muifa the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument ...
NASA eyes Tropical Storm Nock-Ten's heavy rains for Hainan Island and Vietnam
2011-08-01
Infrared satellite imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite shows bands of strong thunderstorms wrapping around the center of Tropical Storm Nock-Ten as it makes its way through the South China Sea and two landfalls on Hainan Island and in Vietnam.
Bands of strong thunderstorms that make up tropical storm Nock-ten were visible in an infrared image captured on July 28 by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies on NASA's Aqua satellite. The colder the cloud tops, the higher the thunderstorms and the stronger they are, and cloud top temperatures over a large ...
NASA measures wildfire pollution pour over Niagara Falls
2011-08-01
Water isn't the only thing pouring over Niagara Falls. Pollution from fires in Ontario, Canada is also making the one thousand mile trip, while being measured by NASA's Aqua satellite.
One instrument that flies aboard two of NASA's satellites has provided two views of the pollution from the fires in Ontario. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS instrument, flies onboard NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites. MODIS has provided a visible look at the smoke and pollution that has spread over Niagara Falls and east to Nova Scotia.
As of July 20, the Canadian ...
Cash Advances US Provides Fast Cash Loans Online With No Credit Check
2011-08-01
Less-than-perfect credit score can wipe off any opportunity to get some cash you need at the moment as most of the lenders consider people with bad credit history as high-risk borrowers. However, Cash Advances US offers particular cash loans with no credit check which are available online. The service was actually designed specially for consumers with damaged credit report who often face troubles applying for some extra money.
It's fast and simple to take out online payday advance loans performed by the company as the application process is held totally on the Internet. ...
Using a 'systems biology' approach to look under the hood of an aggressive form of breast cancer
2011-08-01
SEATTLE – Using a "systems biology" approach – which focuses on understanding the complex relationships between biological systems – to look under the hood of an aggressive form of breast cancer, researchers for the first time have identified a set of proteins in the blood that change in abundance long before the cancer is clinically detectable. The findings, by co-authors Christopher Kemp, Ph.D., and Samir Hanash, M.D., Ph.D., members of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's Human Biology and Public Health Sciences divisions, respectively, are published online ahead ...
SOHO watches a comet fading away
2011-08-01
On Nov. 4, 2010, NASA's EPOXI spacecraft came within 450 miles of Comet Hartley 2, a small comet not even a mile in diameter, which takes about six and a half years to orbit the sun. Designated officially as 103P/Hartley 2, the comet thus became the fifth for which scientists have collected close-up images.
But the comet was also observed from another spacecraft: the Solar and Heliospheric Observer (SOHO), better known for its observations of the sun. Together, the two returned data about what appears to be an irregular comet, belching chunks of ice and losing water at ...
Fresh Produce Clothing's Summer-Fall Collections Feature Unique Pieces of Wearable Works of Art
2011-08-01
Fresh Produce customers can make an artful statement when they wear the eclectic prints featured in its latest collections of effortless and spirited looks. The inspired prints are available in a variety of new styles and fabrications from cool cotton voile to comfy cotton jersey and versatile rayon-lycra.
This summer's standout print is the Blue Tahitian Flower. Fresh Produce women adore this romantic watercolor-inspired motif. Its look and feel is "pure summer" with beautiful tropical flowers captured in soft, watery hues and translated to new chic tunics, ...
An unexpected clue to thermopower efficiency
2011-08-01
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and their colleagues have discovered a new relation among electric and magnetic fields and differences in temperature, which may lead to more efficient thermoelectric devices that convert heat into electricity or electricity into heat.
"In the search for new sources of energy, thermopower – the ability to convert temperature differences directly into electricity without wasteful intervening steps – is tremendously promising," says Junqiao Wu of Berkeley Lab's Materials ...
Boloco Earns Another 'Green' Star
2011-08-01
Back in March 2008 boloco, a chain of inspired burrito restaurants, became the first fast-casual chain in New England to become a Certified Green Restaurant by the Green Restaurant Association (GRA). But when boloco found out an even higher level of certification could be achieved - well, let's just say they reached for the stars. Boloco is now the first chain* of restaurants to become a 2 Star Certified Green Restaurant across all of their 17 locations.
For each of boloco's 17 locations to earn the GRA's rigorous two-star certification, they had to be inspected and ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Study tracks chromium chemistry in irradiated molten salts
Scientists: the beautiful game is a silver bullet for global health
Being physically active, even just a couple of days a week, may be key to better health
High-fat diet promote breast cancer metastasis in animal models
A router for photons
Nurses and AI collaborate to save lives, reduce hospital stays
Multi-resistance in bacteria predicted by AI model
Tinker Tots: A citizen science project to explore ethical dilemmas in embryo selection
Sensing sickness
Cost to build multifamily housing in California more than twice as high as in Texas
Program takes aim at drinking, unsafe sex, and sexual assault on college campuses
Inability to pay for healthcare reaches record high in U.S.
Science ‘storytelling’ urgently needed amid climate and biodiversity crisis
KAIST Develops Retinal Therapy to Restore Lost Vision
Adipocyte-hepatocyte signaling mechanism uncovered in endoplasmic reticulum stress response
Mammals were adapting from life in the trees to living on the ground before dinosaur-killing asteroid
Low LDL cholesterol levels linked to reduced risk of dementia
Thickening of the eye’s retina associated with greater risk and severity of postoperative delirium in older patients
Almost one in ten people surveyed report having been harmed by the NHS in the last three years
Enhancing light control with complex frequency excitations
New research finds novel drug target for acute myeloid leukemia, bringing hope for cancer patients
New insight into factors associated with a common disease among dogs and humans
Illuminating single atoms for sustainable propylene production
New study finds Rocky Mountain snow contamination
Study examines lactation in critically ill patients
UVA Engineering Dean Jennifer West earns AIMBE’s 2025 Pierre Galletti Award
Doubling down on metasurfaces
New Cedars-Sinai study shows how specialized diet can improve gut disorders
Making moves and hitting the breaks: Owl journeys surprise researchers in western Montana
PKU Scientists simulate the origin and evolution of the North Atlantic Oscillation
[Press-News.org] Elusive preyStudy shows that selection pressures imposed by predator fungi have shaped escape behavior in microscopic worms