Publications related to Insect physiology

Ricca's factors as mobile proteinaceous effectors of electrical signaling

Leaf-feeding insects trigger high-amplitude, defense-inducing electrical signals called slow wave potentials (SWPs). These signals are thought to be triggered by the long-distance transport of low molecular mass elicitors termed Ricca's factors. We sought ...

CELL PRESS2023

Mechanistic Understanding of Neurobehavioral Effects of Insecticides on the Larvae of Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Sarah-Katharina Könemann

Due to conservation of neuronal functioning across phyla, molecular targets of insecticides are similar in insects and vertebrates. Insecticides thus pose a risk to aquatic vertebrates, such as fish, and potentially cause neurotoxic effects. Although these ...

EPFL2022

Dual proteomics of Drosophila melanogaster hemolymph infected with the heritable endosymbiont Spiroplasma poulsonii

Bruno Lemaitre, Samuel Rommelaere, Fanny Schüpfer, Florent François Masson, Alice Marra

Insects are frequently infected with heritable bacterial endosymbionts. Endosymbionts have a dramatic impact on their host physiology and evolution. Their tissue distribution is variable with some species being housed intracellularly, some extracellularly ...

2021

Rapid molecular evolution of Spiroplasma symbionts of Drosophila

Bruno Lemaitre, Florent François Masson

Spiroplasma is a genus of Mollicutes whose members include plant pathogens, insect pathogens and endosymbionts of animals. Spiroplasma phenotypes have been repeatedly observed to be spontaneously lost in Drosophila cultures, and several studies have docume ...

2021

Role of Nimrod receptors in the Drosophila melanogaster cellular immune response

Claudia Melcarne

The use of modern molecular biology tools and simple but powerful tractable model organisms such as Drosophila has contributed significantly to our recent advances in the innate immunity field, notably phagocytosis. Since 2001, many phagocytic transmembran ...

EPFL2020

Deformation of porous flexible strip in low and moderate Reynolds number flows

François Gallaire, Pedro Miguel Nunes Pereira de Almeida Reis, Matteo Pezzulla

We present results from a combined experimental and numerical investigation of the fluid-structure interaction of cantilevered porous flexible strips, towed through a fluid bath. We characterize the steady-state deformation of the strips and their associat ...

AMER PHYSICAL SOC2020

Insect-Inspired Visual Perception for Flight Control and Collision Avoidance

Julien Jean Denis Nicolas Lecoeur

Flying robots are increasingly used for tasks such as aerial mapping, fast exploration, video footage and monitoring of buildings. Autonomous flight at low altitude in cluttered and unknown environments is an active research topic because it poses challen ...

EPFL2019

The role of optic flow pooling in insect flight control in cluttered environments

Dario Floreano, Julien Jean Denis Nicolas Lecoeur, Emily Baird

Flight through cluttered environments, such as forests, poses great challenges for animals and machines alike because even small changes in flight path may lead to collisions with nearby obstacles. When flying along narrow corridors, insects use the magnit ...

Nature Research2019

Two Nimrod receptors, NimC1 and Eater, synergistically contribute to bacterial phagocytosis in Drosophila melanogaster

Bruno Lemaitre, Jan Paul Dudzic, Elodie Julie Virginie Ramond, Andrew Jonathan Bretscher, Claudia Melcarne

Eater and NimC1 are transmembrane receptors of the Drosophila Nimrod family, specifically expressed in haemocytes, the insect blood cells. Previous ex vivo and in vivoRNAi studies have pointed to their role in the phagocytosis of bacteria. Here, we have cr ...

2019

Weevil pgrp-lb prevents endosymbiont TCT dissemination and chronic host systemic immune activation

Florent François Masson, João Pedro Alves Da Silva

Long-term intracellular symbiosis (or endosymbiosis) is widely distributed across invertebrates and is recognized as a major driving force in evolution. However, the maintenance of immune homeostasis in organisms chronically infected with mutualistic bacte ...

National Academy of Sciences2019

Bioinspired dual-stiffness origami

Dario Floreano, Stefano Mintchev, Jun Shintake

Origami manufacturing has led to considerable advances in the field of foldable structures with innovative applications in robotics, aerospace, and metamaterials. However, existing origami are either load-bearing structures that are prone to tear and fail ...

2018

Anatomy and Physiology of the Digestive Tract of Drosophila melanogaster

Bruno Lemaitre

The gastrointestinal tract has recently come to the forefront of multiple research fields. It is now recognized as a major source of signals modulating food intake, insulin secretion and energy balance. It is also a key player in immunity and, through its ...

GENETICS SOCIETY AMERICA2018

The double-edged toxins : how Spiroplasma Ribosome-Inactivating Proteins affect Drosophila melanogaster life history traits

Mario Gonzalo Garcia Arraez

Many insect species are associated with endosymbiotic bacteria which have the particularity of living within host tissues. Endosymbionts benefit from this stable and nutritious environment, while providing ecological advantages to their host, such as prote ...

EPFL2018

Form - function relationships in dragonfly mandibles under an evolutionary perspective

Alessandra Patera

Functional requirements may constrain phenotypic diversification or foster it. For insect mouthparts, the quantification of the relationship between shape and function in an evolutionary framework remained largely unexplored. Here, the question of a functi ...

Royal Soc2017

An Insect Eye Inspired Miniaturized Multi-Camera System for Endoscopic Imaging

Yusuf Leblebici, Ömer Cogal

In thiswork,we present aminiaturized high definition vision system inspired by insect eyes, with a distributed illumination method, which can work in dark environments for proximity imaging applications such as endoscopy. Our approach is based on modeling ...

Ieee-Inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc2017

Unsteady fluid dynamics around a hovering flat plate wing

Swathi Badala Krishna

Insect flight is characterised by complex time-dependent flows in response to the unsteady wing movements. Biological fliers exploit the unsteady flow fields to modulate aerodynamic forces, thereby displaying unmatched flight performance, especially in hov ...

EPFL2017

Locomotion Dynamics for Bio-inspired Robots with Soft Appendages: Application to Flapping Flight and Passive Swimming

Yannick Morel, Mathieu Porez

In animal locomotion, either in fish or flying insects, the use of flexible terminal organs or appendages greatly improves the performance of locomotion (thrust and lift). In this article, we propose a general unified framework for modeling and simulating ...

Springer2017

Thioester-containing proteins regulate the Toll pathway and play a role in Drosophila defence against microbial pathogens and parasitoid wasps

Bruno Lemaitre, Samuel Rommelaere, Anna Dostalova

Background: Members of the thioester-containing protein (TEP) family contribute to host defence in both insects and mammals. However, their role in the immune response of Drosophila is elusive. In this study, we address the role of TEPs in Drosophila immun ...

2017

Infection Dynamics and Immune Response in a Newly Described Drosophila-Trypanosomatid Association

Bruno Lemaitre, Anna Dostalova

Trypanosomatid parasites are significant causes of human disease and are ubiquitous in insects. Despite the importance of Drosophila melanogaster as a model of infection and immunity and a long awareness that trypanosomatid infection is common in the genus ...

American Society for Microbiology2015

A Miniaturized Insect Eye Inspired Multi-camera Real-time Panoramic Imaging System

Ömer Cogal

During the last 50 years miniaturization became a key element in human history, since it opens doors for manufacturing new devices that enhances the quality of human life. Camera and imaging systems are following this miniaturization trend as well. Meanwhi ...

EPFL2015