scholarly journals F-actin Re-organization Mediates Hierarchical Morphogenesis of Swallowtail Butterfly Wing Scale Nanostructures

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwi Shan Seah ◽  
Vinodkumar Saranathan

AbstractThe development of color patterning in lepidopteran wings is of fundamental interest in evolution and developmental biology. While significant advances have recently been made in unravelling the cell and molecular basis of lepidopteran pigmentary coloration, the morphogenesis of wing scales, often involved in structural color production, is not well understood. Contemporary research focuses almost exclusively on a few nymphalid model taxa (e.g., Bicyclus, Heliconius), despite an overwhelming diversity across lepidopteran families in the hierarchical nanostructural organization of the scale. Here, we present a time-resolved, comparative developmental study of hierarchical wing scale nanostructure in Parides eurimedes and other papilionid species. Our results uphold the putative conserved role of F-actin bundles in acting as spacers between developing ridges as previously documented in several nymphalid species. While ridges are developing, the plasma membrane manifests irregular crossribs, characteristic of Papilionidae, which delineate the accretion of cuticle into rows of planar disks in between ridges. Once ridges have grown, Arp2/3 appears to re-organize disintegrating F-actin bundles into a reticulate network that supports the extrusion of the membrane underlying the disks into honeycomb-like tubular lattices of air pores in cuticle. Our results uncover a previously undocumented role for F-actin in the morphogenesis of wing scale nanostructures prominently found in Papilionidae. They are also relevant to current challenges in engineering of mesophases, since understanding the diversity and biological basis of hierarchical morphogenesis may offer facile, biomimetic solutions.

2013 ◽  
Vol 461 ◽  
pp. 731-740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Xia Sun ◽  
Ai Ping Liang ◽  
Gregory S. Watson ◽  
Jolanta A. Watson ◽  
Yong Mei Zheng ◽  
...  

The microstructures on elytral surface of aquatic beetles belonging to Hydrophilidae and Dytiscidae were observed under an environment scanning microscope, and the wettabilities were determined with an optical contact angle meter. The results show the elytral surfaces are relatively smooth compared to the structures of other insects such as the butterfly wing scales or cicada wing protrusions. They exhibit a polygonal structuring with grooves and pores being the main constituent units. The contact angles (CAs) range from 47.1oto 82.1o. The advancing and receding angles were measured by injecting into and withdrawing a small amount of water on the most hydrophilic (with a contact angle of 47.1o) and hydrophobic (with a contact angle of 82.1o) elytral surfaces, which illustrates the vital role of three-phase contact line (TCL) in the wetting mechanism of aquatic beetle elytral surfaces.


2006 ◽  
Vol 983 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine Dovidenko ◽  
Laurie A. Le Tarte ◽  
Radislav A. Potyrailo

AbstractWe have developed and successfully demonstrated a protocol for mounting and electrical grounding of a butterfly wing scale using a series of localized electron- and ion-beam assisted Pt depositions in the dual-beam Focused Ion Beam (FIB)-SEM system. This method eliminates introduction of silver paint or other typical mounting materials, along with their chemistries, and produces a stable structure for FIB cross-sectioning, electron imaging, chemical analysis by Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (EDS) and/or Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES), and FIB milling for 3-D reconstruction.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuji Matsuoka ◽  
Antónia Monteiro

AbstractThe cuticular skeleton of a butterfly wing scale cell serves both as a substrate for the deposition of pigments and as an exquisitely finely-sculpted material responsible for the production of structural colors. While cuticle rigidity and pigmentation depend to a large extent on the end products of a branched biochemical pathway – the melanin pathway – little is known whether genes in this pathway also play a role in the development of specific scale morphologies that might aid in the development of structural colors. Here we first show that male and female Bicyclus anynana butterflies display differences in scale size and scale morphology but no differences in scale color. Then we use CRISPR/Cas9 to show that knockout mutations in five genes that function in the melanin pathway, TH, DDC, yellow, ebony, and aaNAT, affect both the fine structure and the coloration of the wing scales. Most dramatically, mutations in yellow led to extra horizontal cuticular laminae on the surface of scales, whereas mutations in DDC led to taller and sheet-like vertical cuticular laminae throughout each scale. We identify some of the first genes affecting the development of scale morphology, and whose regulation and pleiotropic effects may be important in creating, as well as limiting, the diversity of structural as well as pigmentary colors observed in butterflies.


Author(s):  
Petar Halachev ◽  
Victoria Radeva ◽  
Albena Nikiforova ◽  
Miglena Veneva

This report is dedicated to the role of the web site as an important tool for presenting business on the Internet. Classification of site types has been made in terms of their application in the business and the types of structures in their construction. The Models of the Life Cycle for designing business websites are analyzed and are outlined their strengths and weaknesses. The stages in the design, construction, commissioning, and maintenance of a business website are distinguished and the activities and requirements of each stage are specified.


Author(s):  
Stephen Yablo

Aboutness has been studied from any number of angles. Brentano made it the defining feature of the mental. Phenomenologists try to pin down the aboutness features of particular mental states. Materialists sometimes claim to have grounded aboutness in natural regularities. Attempts have even been made, in library science and information theory, to operationalize the notion. However, it has played no real role in philosophical semantics, which is surprising. This is the first book to examine through a philosophical lens the role of subject matter in meaning. A long-standing tradition sees meaning as truth conditions, to be specified by listing the scenarios in which a sentence is true. Nothing is said about the principle of selection—about what in a scenario gets it onto the list. Subject matter is the missing link here. A sentence is true because of how matters stand where its subject matter is concerned. This book maintains that this is not just a feature of subject matter, but its essence. One indicates what a sentence is about by mapping out logical space according to its changing ways of being true or false. The notion of content that results—directed content—is brought to bear on a range of philosophical topics, including ontology, verisimilitude, knowledge, loose talk, assertive content, and philosophical methodology. The book represents a major advance in semantics and the philosophy of language.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (7) ◽  
pp. 1041-1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Spartalis ◽  
Eleftherios Spartalis ◽  
Antonios Athanasiou ◽  
Stavroula A. Paschou ◽  
Christos Kontogiannis ◽  
...  

Atherosclerotic disease is still one of the leading causes of mortality. Atherosclerosis is a complex progressive and systematic artery disease that involves the intima of the large and middle artery vessels. The inflammation has a key role in the pathophysiological process of the disease and the infiltration of the intima from monocytes, macrophages and T-lymphocytes combined with endothelial dysfunction and accumulated oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) are the main findings of atherogenesis. The development of atherosclerosis involves multiple genetic and environmental factors. Although a large number of genes, genetic polymorphisms, and susceptible loci have been identified in chromosomal regions associated with atherosclerosis, it is the epigenetic process that regulates the chromosomal organization and genetic expression that plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Despite the positive progress made in understanding the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, the knowledge about the disease remains scarce.


Author(s):  
Amy Strecker

The final chapter of this book advances four main conclusions on the role of international law in landscape protection. These relate to state obligations regarding landscape protection, the influence of the World Heritage Convention and the European Landscape Convention, the substantive and procedural nature of landscape rights, and the role of EU law. It is argued that, although state practice is lagging behind the normative developments made in the field of international landscape protection, landscape has contributed positively to the corpus of international cultural heritage law and indeed has emerged as a nascent field of international law in its own right.


Universe ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. 226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Koks

I analyse the role of simultaneity in relativistic rotation by building incrementally on its role in simpler scenarios. Historically, rotation has been analysed in 1 + 1 dimensions; but my stance is that a 2 + 1 -dimensional treatment is necessary. This treatment requires a discussion of what constitutes a frame, how coordinate choices differ from frame choices, and how poor coordinates can be misleading. I determine how precisely we are able to define a meaningful time coordinate on a gravity-free rotating Earth, and discuss complications due to gravity on our real Earth. I end with a critique of several statements made in relativistic precision-timing literature, that I maintain contradict the tenets of relativity. Those statements tend to be made in the context of satellite-based navigation; but they are independent of that technology, and hence are not validated by its success. I suggest that if relativistic precision-timing adheres to such analyses, our civilian timing is likely to suffer in the near future as clocks become ever more precise.


2005 ◽  
Vol 892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrei Osinsky ◽  
Jianwei Dong ◽  
J. Q. Xie ◽  
B. Hertog ◽  
A. M. Dabiran ◽  
...  

AbstractThis paper reviews of some of the progress made in the development of ZnO-based light emitting diodes (LEDs). n-ZnO/p-AlGaN-based heterostructures have been successfully for the fabrication of UV emitting LEDs that have operated at temperatures up to 650K, suggesting an excitonic origin for the optical transitions. RF-plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy has been used to grow epitaxial CdxZn1-xO films on GaN/sapphire structure. These films have a single-crystal wurtzite structure as demonstrated by structural and compositional analysis. High quality CdxZn1-xO films were grown with up to x=0.78 mole fraction as determined by RBS and SIMS techniques. Optical emission ranging from purple (Cd0.05Zn0.95O) to yellow (Cd0.29Zn0.71O) was observed. Compositional fluctuations in a Cd0.16Zn0.84O films were not detected by spatially resolved CL measurements, although intensity fluctuation with features of ∼0.5 μm diameter were seen on the intensity maps. Time resolved photoluminescence shows multi-exponential decay with 21 psec. and 49±3 psec. lifetimes, suggesting that composition micro-fluctuations may be present in Cd0.16Zn0.84O film.


2021 ◽  
pp. 088506662199232
Author(s):  
Xiaojuan Zhang ◽  
Xin Li

Septic shock with multiple organ failure is a devastating situation in clinical settings. Through the past decades, much progress has been made in the management of sepsis and its underlying pathogenesis, but a highly effective therapeutic has not been developed. Recently, macromolecules such as histones have been targeted in the treatment of sepsis. Histones primarily function as chromosomal organizers to pack DNA and regulate its transcription through epigenetic mechanisms. However, a growing body of research has shown that histone family members can also exert cellular toxicity once they relocate from the nucleus into the extracellular space. Heparin, a commonly used anti-coagulant, has been shown to possess life-saving capabilities for septic patients, but the potential interplay between heparin and extracellular histones has not been investigated. In this review, we summarize the pathogenic roles of extracellular histones and the therapeutic roles of heparin in the development and management of sepsis and septic shock.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document