High impact information on Grasshoppers

• Our pharmacological studies with intact and behaving grasshoppers revealed a functional role for muscarinic acetylcholine receptors as being the basis for specific arousal in defined areas of the brain, underlying the selection and control of acoustic communication behavior [1].
• A role for muscarinic excitation: control of specific singing behavior by activation of the adenylate cyclase pathway in the brain of grasshoppers [1].
• We have investigated the expression of homologs of the Drosophila Pax group III genes paired, gooseberry and gooseberry-neuro in short germ flour beetles and grasshoppers [2].
• In grasshoppers, maternal hunchback activity is provided uniformly to the embryo as protein and, we suggest, serves a distinct role in distinguishing embryonic from extra-embryonic cells along the anteroposterior axis from the outset of development - a distinction made in Drosophila along the dorsoventral axis later in development [3].
• Leg development in flies versus grasshoppers: differences in dpp expression do not lead to differences in the expression of downstream components of the leg patterning pathway [4].

Biological context of Grasshoppers

• The promutagen cyclophosphamide (CPhos) induces chromosome breaks in neuroblasts of the 14-day-old grasshopper embryo (Chortophaga viridifasciata DeGeer, Orthoptera: Acrididae) only when activated with S12 mix or freshly isolated hepatocytes [5].
• Within the framework of the GTZ project, Biological and Integrated Control of Locusts and Grasshoppers, a laboratory screening fo rMetarhizium flavoviride (strain Mfl 5) blastospore pathogenicity to the nontarget arthropods Pharoscymnus anchorago F [6].
• Cholesterol was the dominant tissue sterol recovered from cholesterol and "soybean sitosterol" fed grasshoppers but among the grasshoppers fed diets with stigmasterol and spinach sterols (both unsuitable for growth and development), the amount of cholesterol recovered was not different from that of newly hatched grasshoppers [7].
• Histopathological and cytochemical effects of hempa on the ovaries of Poekilocerus pictus Fabr. (Acrididae: Orthoptera) [8].

Anatomical context of Grasshoppers

• Interneurons with inhibitory effects on stridulation in grasshoppers exhibit GABA-like immunoreactivity [9].

Associations of Grasshoppers with chemical compounds

• In the first experiment, grasshoppers were allowed to feed on spinach, a plant containing only unsuitable sterols; immediately after this first meal, a suitable or unsuitable sterol was injected into the haemolymph [10].
• A novel finding of this study is that fructan, a potentially large carbohydrate source in C3 grasses, is utilized by grasshoppers [11].
• 2. The time course for increased fluid absorption is similar to that required to stimulate electrogenic chloride transport in locusts and grasshoppers [12].
• We exposed grasshoppers of first, third and fifth instars and adults to decreasing levels of atmospheric O2 and measured their ventilatory responses [13].
• In the second experiment, grasshoppers were fed food containing only unsuitable sterols and were then presented with glass-fibre discs containing different concentrations of a suitable sterol or sucrose only (the control) [10].

Gene context of Grasshoppers

• Previous studies in grasshoppers suggest that hunchback may play a conserved role in axial patterning in this insect, but this function may be supplied solely by the zygotic component of hunchback expression [14].
• In addition structural homologs of NCAM and L1 have been identified in Drosophila and Grasshoppers [Walsh and Doherty (1991)] [15].
• To analyse this subject in grasshoppers, organisms that have been considered as models for meiotic studies for many years, we have studied the localization of phosphorylated histone H2AX (gamma-H2AX), which marks the sites of double-strand breaks (DSBs), in combination with localization of cohesin SMC3 and recombinase Rad51 [16].
• The pesticide also caused a significant decrease in activities of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) followed by a decrease in GSH levels in grasshoppers from all assayed groups, demonstrating high sensitivity of glutathione-dependent metabolism to the additional stressing factor [17].
• Endomitosis in grasshoppers. I. Nuclear morphology and synthesis of DNA and RNA in the endopolyploid cells of the inner parietal layer of the testicular follicle [18].

References