a-combined-3d-tissue-engineered-vitroin-silico-lung-tumor-model-for

A Combined 3D Tissue Engineered <em>In Vitro</em>/<em>In Silico</em> Lung Tumor Model for Predicting Drug Effectiveness in Specific Mutational Backgrounds

In the present study, we combined an in vitro 3D lung tumor model with an in silico model to optimize predictions of drug response based on a specific ...

University Hospital Wuerzburg

Ants show a rich behavioral repertoire and a highly complex organization, which have been attracting behavioral and sociobiological researchers for a long time. The neuronal underpinnings of ant behavior and social organization are, however, much less understood. Neuropeptides are key signals that orchestrate animal behavior and physiology, and it is thus feasible to assume that they play an important role also for the social constitution of ants. Despite the availability of different ant genomes and in silico prediction of ant neuropeptides, a comprehensive biochemical survey of the neuropeptidergic communication possibilities of ants is missing. We therefore combined different mass spectrometric methods to characterize the neuropeptidome of the adult carpenter ant Camponotus floridanus. We also characterized the local neuropeptide complement in different parts of the nervous and neuroendocrine system, including the antennal and optic lobes. Our analysis identifies 39 neuropeptides encoded by different prepropeptide genes, and in silico predicts new prepropeptide genes encoding CAPA peptides, CNMamide as well as homologues of the honey bee IDLSRFYGHFNT- and ITGQGNRIF-containing peptides. Our data provides basic information about the identity and localization of neuropeptides that is required to anatomically and functionally address the role and significance of neuropeptides in ant behavior and physiology.

Neuropeptidomics of the carpenter ant Camponotus floridanus.

Cataglyphis desert ants undergo an age-related polyethism from interior workers to relatively short-lived foragers with remarkable visual navigation capabilities, predominantly achieved by path integration using a polarized skylight-based sun compass and a stride-integrating odometer. Behavioral and physiological experiments revealed that the polarization (POL) pattern is processed via specialized UV-photoreceptors in the dorsal rim area of the compound eye and POL sensitive optic lobe neurons. Further information about the neuronal substrate for processing of POL information in the ant brain has remained elusive. This work focuses on the lateral complex (LX), known as an important relay station in the insect sky-compass pathway. Neuroanatomical results in Cataglyphis fortis show that LX giant synapses (GS) connect large presynaptic terminals from anterior optic tubercle neurons with postsynaptic GABAergic profiles of tangential neurons innervating the ellipsoid body of the central complex. At the ultrastructural level, the cup-shaped presynaptic structures comprise many active zones contacting numerous small postsynaptic profiles. Three-dimensional quantification demonstrated a significantly higher number of GS (∼13%) in foragers compared with interior workers. Light exposure, as opposed to age, was necessary and sufficient to trigger a similar increase in GS numbers. Furthermore, the increase in GS numbers was sensitive to the exclusion of UV light. As previous experiments have demonstrated the importance of the UV spectrum for sky-compass navigation in Cataglyphis, we conclude that plasticity in LX GS may reflect processes involved in the initial calibration of sky-compass neuronal circuits during orientation walks preceding active foraging. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 76: 390-404, 2016.

Experience-related reorganization of giant synapses in the lateral complex: Potential role in plasticity of the sky-compass pathway in the desert ant Cataglyphis fortis.

Article	Year
Neuropeptidomics of the carpenter ant Camponotus floridanus. Journal of proteome research\| PubMed ID: 25641051	2015
Experience-related reorganization of giant synapses in the lateral complex: Potential role in plasticity of the sky-compass pathway in the desert ant Cataglyphis fortis. Developmental neurobiology\| PubMed ID: 26138802	2016

Franziska Schmitt

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