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Bittersweet: Bait-Averse Cockroaches Shudder at Sugar

By Guest PostJune 9, 2013Nature, Scienceayako wada katsumata, behavior, behavioral resistance, bittersweet, coby schal, cockroaches, entomologist, genetic changes, german cockroaches, glucose, glucose averse roaches, jules silverman, loss of function, memory, mutations, normal cockroaches, north Carolina, paraglossae, receptor neurons, roach bait poison, state university, sugar, types of food

Sugar isn’t always sweet to German cockroaches, especially to the ones that avoid roach baits.

In a study published May 24 in the journal Science, North Carolina State University entomologists show the neural mechanism behind the aversion to glucose, the simple sugar that is a popular ingredient in roach-bait poison. Glucose sets off bitter receptors in roach taste buds, causing roaches to avoid foods that bring on this taste-bud reaction. This aversion has a genetic basis and it eventually spreads to offspring, resulting in increasingly large groups of cockroaches that reject glucose and any baits made with it.

In normal German cockroaches, glucose elicits activity in sugar gustatory receptor neurons, which react when exposed to sugars like glucose and fructose – components of corn syrup, a common roach-bait ingredient. Generally, roaches have a sweet tooth for these sugars. (more…)

Flies of the World Embrace Vegetarianism

By Guest PostFebruary 2, 2013Nature, Scienceagricultural pests, animal kingdom, australia, bracken ferns, brassicas, canolas, change of lifestyle, convergent phenotypes, cyanogenic compounds, detoxify the plants, earth, evolutionary biologists, Facebook, family drosophilidae, fly detectives, genetic changes, genetic pathways, genome biology evolution, good model organisms, hawaii, hawaiian lineage, herbivores, herbivorous fly species, insects, levels of alcohol, microbe eating flies, mt lemmon, mustard plants, new zealand, noah whiteman, North America, north american flies, organisms, papua new guinea, richard lapoint, scaptomyza nigrita, South Pacific, toxic plants, united kingdom, university of arizona, vegetarianism

Microbe-eating flies from at least three different locations around the world recently have evolved into herbivores, feeding on some of the most toxic plants on Earth. Fly detectives and UA evolutionary biologists Noah Whiteman and Richard Lapoint are trying to find out what genetic pathways led the flies to such a major change of lifestyle.

For millennia, they buzzed through the woods, contentedly munching yeasts off the surfaces of leaves, bracken and rotting duff on the forest floor. But now, flies in the family Drosophilidae, whose disparate members dwell in areas all across the planet, have evolved into all-out vegetarians with a wicked diet of plants that are deadly to most other organisms.

What, University of Arizona scientists would like to know, has caused these flies, yeast-feeders for nearly 80 million years, to independently go cold turkey with respect to their formerly meaty diets? (more…)

Offspring of Older Fathers May Live Longer

By Guest PostJune 17, 2012Healthaccidental death, biologists, cells and tissues, christopher w kuzawa, chromosomes, dan t a eisenberg, DNA, Environment, evolutionary perspective, genetic changes, geoffrey hayes, harmful mutations, live longer, miscarriage, molly mcelroy, northwestern university, offspring, older fathers, Philippines, telomeres, university of washington, wenner-gren foundation

If your father and grandfather waited until they were older before having children, you might experience life-extending benefits. Biologists assume that a slow pace of aging requires that the body invest more resources in repairing cells and tissues.

A new study suggests that our bodies might increase these investments to slow the pace of aging if our father or grandfather waited until they were older before having children.

“If your father and grandfather were able to live and reproduce at a later age, this might predict that you yourself live in an environment that is somewhat similar — an environment with less accidental deaths or in which men are only able to find a partner at later ages,” said Dan T.A. Eisenberg, lead author of the study published June 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)

Not a One-Way Street: Evolution Shapes Environment of Connecticut Lakes

By Guest PostMay 24, 2012Environment, Naturealewife, atlantic coast, bosminia, colonial settlers, colonial times, connecticut, daphnia, david post, ecology, environmental change, evolution, evolutionary change, evolutionary feedback, fish, force, genetic changes, john delong, lake, loop, matthew r walsh, organism, plankton, population growth, predator, prey, torrance hanley, water fleas, yale university, zooplankton

Environmental change is the selective force that preserves adaptive traits in organisms and is a primary driver of evolution. However, it is less well known that evolutionary change in organisms also trigger fundamental changes in the environment.

Yale University researchers found a prime example of this evolutionary feedback loop in a few lakes in Connecticut, where dams built 300 years ago in Colonial times trapped a fish called the alewife.

In a study published May 23 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Academy B, the Yale team describes how this event fundamentally changed the structure of the alewife and, with it, the water flea that the alewife feeds upon and the food chain that supports them both. (more…)

Tag Archives: genetic changes

Bittersweet: Bait-Averse Cockroaches Shudder at Sugar

Flies of the World Embrace Vegetarianism

Offspring of Older Fathers May Live Longer

Not a One-Way Street: Evolution Shapes Environment of Connecticut Lakes