The medial neurosecretory cells (MNSCs) of the pars intercerebralis in the brain of insects release various hormonal factors that control essential physiological and developmental functions such as moulting, reproduction and metabolism (Wigglesworth, 1940; Girardie, 1966; Goldsworthy, 1969), and these cells are therefore of considerable biological significance. A culture system for locust embryonic pars intercerebralis neurosecretory cells has recently been developed (Vanhems et al. 1993), and Rossler and Bickmeyer (1993) have established an in vitro system for growing larval and adult medial neurosecretory cells. Calcium plays an important role in neural physiology: neurosecretion depends on calcium influx into the cells and calcium currents carry the rising phase of action potentials in different types of insect neurones (Orchard, 1976; Pitman, 1979); calcium also mediates other ionic currents (Thomas, 1984). It is therefore of considerable interest to characterize the types of calcium channel currents found in locust neurosecretory neurones.
In the field: an interview with Martha Muñoz
Martha Muñoz is an Assistant Professor at Yale University, investigating the evolutionary biology of anole lizards and lungless salamanders. In our new Conversation, she talks about her fieldwork in Indonesia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and the Appalachian Mountains, including a death-defying dash to the top of a mountain through an approaching hurricane.
Call for new preLighters
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preLights is the preprint highlighting community supported by The Company of Biologists. At the heart of preLights are our preLighters: early-career researchers who select and write about interesting new preprints for the research community. We are currently looking for new preLighters to join our team. Find out more and apply here.
Graham Scott in conversation with Big Biology
Graham Scott talks to Big Biology about the oxygen cascade in mice living on mountaintops, extreme environments for such small organisms. In this JEB-sponsored episode, they discuss the concept of symmorphosis and the evolution of the oxygen cascade.
Trap-jaw ants coordinate tendon and exoskeleton for perfect mandible arc
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Trap-jaw ants run the risk of tearing themselves apart when they fire off their mandibles, but Greg Sutton & co have discovered that the ants simultaneously push and pull the mandibles using energy stored in a head tendon and their exoskeleton to drive the jaws in a perfect arc.
Hearing without a tympanic ear
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In their Review, Grace Capshaw, Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard and Catherine Carr explore the mechanisms of hearing in extant atympanate vertebrates and the implications for the early evolution of tympanate hearing.
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