Recent investigations of hypoxia physiology in the naked mole rat have opened up an interesting line of research into the basic physiological and genomic alterations that accompany hypoxia survival. The extent to which such findings connect the effect of hypoxia to metabolic rate (O2 consumption), core body temperature (Tb), and transcripts encoding the immediate early gene product (such as c-fos) under a constant ambient temperature (Ta) is not well known. We investigated this issue in the current study. Our first sets of experiments measured Tb and metabolic rates during exposure of naked mole rats to hypoxia over a constant Ta. Hypoxia significantly decreased metabolic rates in the naked mole rat. Although core Tb also decreased during hypoxia, the effect of hypoxia in suppressing core Tb was not significant. The second series of experiments revealed that c-fos protein and mRNA expression in the hippocampus neurons (CA1) increased in naked mole rats that were repeatedly exposed to 3% O2 for 60min per day for 5 days when compared to normoxia. Our findings provide evidence for the up-regulation of c-fos and suppression of metabolic rate in hypoxia tolerating naked mole rats under constant ambient temperature. Metabolic suppression and c-fos upregulation constitute part of the physiological complex associated with adaptation to hypoxia.

[pt] Os solos moles geram preocupações nos projetos de engenharia devido à sua alta compressibilidade e baixa resistência. Estes tipos de solos têm sido alvo de pesquisas, especialmente no litoral brasileiro, necessitando de contínuas investigações para sua melhor compreensão. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho apresenta a caracterização de um depósito de argila mole em Guaratiba, zona oeste do município do Rio de Janeiro. As amostras foram coletadas de uma área onde seria realizada a Missa da Jornada Mundial da Juventude – JMJ de 2013, denominada Campus Fidei. Para caracterização do depósito foram realizados ensaios de campo e laboratório, a saber, SPT, CPTu, Vane Test, adensamento edométrico convencional e ensaios triaxiais drenados e não drenados, além dos ensaios de caracterização físico-química, imprescindíveis para solos moles. Os resultados obtidos possibilitaram a obtenção de propriedades consideradas fundamentais para entendimento do comportamento desses solos, tais como, resistência ao cisalhamento não drenada, razão de sobreadensamento dos depósitos e coeficientes de adensamento. Os parâmetros geotécnicos obtidos mostraram-se concordantes com os valores encontrados na literatura no que tange aos solos moles da região. / [en] Soft ground generates concerns in engineering projects due to its high compressibility and low strength. These types of soils have been the subject of research in soil mechanics, especially on the Brazilian coast, requiring continuous investigations for better understand its behavior. In this context, this work presents the characterization of a soft clay deposit in Guaratiba, west of Rio de Janeiro city. Samples were collected from an area where it would celebrate the Mass of World Youth Day – WYD, called Campus Fidei. The characterization involved field and laboratory tests: SPT, CPTu, Vane test, conventional density and drained and undrained triaxial tests, in addition to the physical-chemical characterization. The results enabled the determination of some properties considered fundamentals to understanding the behavior of these soils, such as undrained shear strength, over consolidation ratio of deposits and consolidation coefficients. The found geotechnical parameters are consistent with the literature values with respect to the soft soils of the region.

Mole Crickets (Scapteriscus spp.) are the most destructive pests in southern turf and pasture grasses. In response to extensive losses from mole crickets, Florida formed a task force to identify natural enemies in the native range of these pests. Two parasitic insects, Larra bicolor and Ormia depleta, and Steinernema scapterisci, an entomopathogenic nematode, were imported and released. Of the two insects, only Larra bicolor has spread to other states infested with mole crickets in the southeast. The present study documents the seasonal biology of Larra bicolor in the northern Gulf region, ornamental plants that can be used as nectar sources, and the impact of these nectar sources on longevity of the wasp and parasitism of mole crickets. Results of field and laboratory experiments showed that the ornamental Pentas lanceolata attracted wasps in the field and provided comparable or better longevity than Spermacoce verticillata which was the only known nectar source.

No description available.

No description available.

The naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) is one of the most social mammals on the planet. These animals live in underground colonies consisting of a breeding female (the “queen”), 1 to 3 breeding males and up to 300 nonreproductive “workers” organized in a dominance hierarchy. In addition to their eusociality, naked mole-rats have evolved many extreme biological characteristics including an exquisite sense of touch and insensitivity to certain types of pain. However, the overlap between the social and somatosensory abilities of naked mole-rats remains mysterious. In this work, we show that naked mole-rats exhibit caste-like behavioral signatures linked to eusociality, predominantly utilize snout-to-snout interactions in social behavior and possess a somatosensory profile to mechanical stimuli distinct from mice. In the first chapter of this work, we leveraged machine learning and molecular biology tools to create a behavioral atlas of naked mole-rat behavior. We first utilized a computational pipeline of pose-tracking using SLEAP and behavioral segmentation using keypoint-MoSeq to identify 20+ behavioral syllables. This showed that the queen naked mole-rat has a distinct behavioral phenotype from the workers, consisting of faster movements, less anxiety-like freezing, and less colony maintenance behaviors such as digging. We next showed that behavioral differences exist between the workers and that the dominance rank of a given individual could be predicted by its spontaneous behaviors in an open field. Relative rank differential appeared to have relevance for social behaviors: during a tube test for dominance, pairings of a high-ranked and low-ranked animal occurred more quickly and were won more frequently by the dominant animal. Snout touch played an integral role in these dominance tests (perhaps in the communication of individual ID information). This prompted us to investigate snout-to-snout interactions in the open field. We found that two familiar naked mole-rats from the same colony engaged in hundreds of snout interactions in a 10-minute period, and the number of interactions was nearly twice as high between two foreign animals. Follow-up experiments explored the molecular basis of this snout touch and showed that mechanosensory channels (e.g. Piezo2) are likely involved in social snout-to-snout interactions. Furthermore, trimming the sensory whiskers of naked mole-rats disrupts their ability to recognize conspecifics and alters their relative dominance relationships. These findings uncover face touch as a prominent social behavior in naked mole-rats that is intimately linked to social recognition. In the second chapter of this work, we more deeply investigated naked mole-rat somatosensation by using high-speed videography. We began by determining how naked mole-rats respond to both innocuous stimuli (cotton swab, dynamic brush) and noxious stimuli (light and heavy pinpricks) when given to the hindpaw. Compared to mice, naked mole-rats showed a distinct hindpaw phenotype, never responding to innocuous touch stimuli, responding to light pinprick, but rarely responding to heavy pinprick (normally the most noxious stimulus that elicits the strongest pain response in mice). Interestingly, naked mole-rats do respond to brush stimuli to the back skin with a dorsiflexion posture. These animals also exhibit an idiosyncratic withdrawal response to a brush applied to the snout skin which appears to be highly aversive. Interestingly, the velocity of this aversive snout withdrawal appears to be socially modulated and is decreased in the presence of another naked mole-rat in the testing chamber. This phenotype does not occur in mice and provides additional evidence that the naked mole-rat snout is not only extremely sensitive but plays a role in processing socially relevant information.

No / Recurrent fires have a considerable potential to influence the structure and composition of savanna vegetation. In Mole National Park in Ghana, the policy is to burn the vegetation annually early in the dry season. This study aimed to assess the effects of these perennial fires on the trees and shrubs of the Park. To achieve this, scars on tree bole bases as well as mortality and top-kill to trees ¿ 2 m tall resulting from perennial fires were assessed in twenty 50 m x 50 m plots in the savanna vegetation near Grupe camp at the south-western section of the Park. Fire scars on tree bole bases were widespread, but were significantly more frequent on large trees (> 5 m tall) than small ones (< 2 m tall). Also, certain tree species, notably Burkea africana and Detarium microcarpum were more prone to scarring. The greater proportion of the scars had reached an advanced stage and the affected individuals were either moribund or were likely to be killed by subsequent fires or toppled by the wind. Contrary to the popular opinion that fire generally affects tree recruitment and not adult survival, fire-induced mortality and top-kill to large trees (> 5 m tall) was widespread among all the tree species, particularly Acacia dudgeoni, Burkea africana, Detarium microcarpum and Vitellaria paradoxa. These fire impacts will likely lead to changes in the relative abundance of the constituent tree species as well as a decline in the density of woody elements in the plant community as a whole unless burning frequency is reduced. The areas for which these predicted vegetation changes are valid can be generalized to include the vegetation in the northern half of the Park where similar conditions of high fuel load and intense fires are likely to prevail.

Being the longest-lived rodent, naked mole-rats (NMR; Heterocephalus glaber) are an exceptional model for biogerontological research. However, unlike other rodents, not much is known about their wound healing process. To investigate that, full-thickness wounds were created in the back skin of naked mole rats. Our initial data confirmed that wound closure in NMR skin was achieved primarily by reepithelialization and granulation tissue formation, with only ~26% wound contraction, making them an excellent model to study human cutaneous wound healing. Similar to mice and human skin, changes in wound epithelial tongue included progressive enlargement of wound epithelium, increased proliferation and changes in the expression pattern of epidermal markers including K14, K17, integrin α6 and E-cadherin. Further analysis revealed characteristics of reduced scarring in NMR wounds including low collagen I to III ratio, increased HA expression (HMW) and increased fibronectin expression. Transcriptional profiling of TGFβ isoforms and different pro/anti-inflammatory cytokines revealed a balance in the expression and repression of different cytokines, potentially contributing into reduced scarring. Comparison of RNA-seq data from NMR and human fullthickness wounds revealed a delay in the activation of important biological processes and pathways in NMR skin in response to injury. Further analysis based on cultured human and NMR cells revealed differential regulation of TGFβ signalling pathway between both species. 3-D collagen gel contraction assay revealed that NMR fibroblast showed noticeable contraction but independently of TGFβ treatment, while human fibroblast showed marked increased in gel contraction in the presence of TGFβ. In conclusion, NMR can serve as a very useful model to study human cutaneous wound healing. The reduced scarring in NMR could be a result of multiple factors including HMW-HA, balanced cytokine expression and differential regulation of different TGFβ cytokines as observed in the in vitro studies.

Thesis (PhD (Botany and Zoology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / The Bathyergidae are subterranean rodents endemic to Africa south of the Sahara. They are characterised by divergent diploid numbers that range from 2n=40 in Fukomys mechowi to 2n=78 in F. damarensis. In spite of this variation there is limited understanding of the events that shaped the extant karyotypes and in an attempt to address this, and to shed light on the mode and tempo of chromosomal evolution in the African mole-rats, a detailed analysis of both the autosomal and sex chromosome components of the genome was undertaken. In addition to G- and Cbanding, Heterocephalus glaber (2n=60) flow-sorted painting probes were used to conduct cross-species chromosome painting among bathyergids. This allowed the detection of a balanced sex chromosome-autosome translocation in F. mechowi that involved a complex series of rearrangements requiring fractionation of four H. glaber autosomes and the subsequent translocation of segments to sex chromosomes and to the autosomal partners. The fixation of this rare rearrangement has probably been favoured by the presence of an intercalary heterochromatic block (IHB) that was detected at the boundary with the translocated autosomal segment. Male meiosis in Cryptomys, the Fukomys sister clade, was investigated by immunostaining of the SCP1 and SCP3 proteins involved in the formation of the synaptonemal complex. This allowed confirmation of a Y-autosome translocation that is shared by C. hottentotus subspecies. We discuss reduced recombination between Y and X2 that seems to be heterochromatin dependent in the C hottentotus lineage, and the implications this holds for the evolution of a meiotic sex chromosome chain such as has been observed in platypus. By extending cross-species chromosome painting to Bathyergus janetta, F. damarensis, F. darlingi and Heliophobius argenteocinereus, homologous chromosomal regions across a total of 11 species/subspecies and an outgroup were examined using cladistic and bioinformatics approaches. The results show that Bathyergus, Georychus and Cryptomys are karyotypically highly conserved in comparison to Heterocephalus, Heliophobius and Fukomys. Fukomys in particular is characterised by a large number of rearrangements that contrast sharply with the conservative Cryptomys. The occurrence and fixation of rearrangements in these species has probably been facilitated by vicariance in combination with life history traits that are particular to these mammals.

Naked mole-rats are eusocial rodents that live in subterranean colonies with a strict reproductive and social hierarchy. Breeders are socially dominant and other colony members are non-reproductive subordinates. The effects of manipulating the serotonergic system on aggression are well studied in many species, but not in eusocial rodents like the naked mole-rat. For the current study, the effects of fluoxetine hydrochloride (FLX) on status-specific behaviours of subordinates (Experiment 1) and queens (Experiment 2) were evaluated both in-colony and in a social-pairing paradigm to investigate how the serotonergic system influences aggression in this species. In accordance with our main hypothesis, chronic treatment of FLX attenuated the frequency and duration of aggression in queens, but not subordinates, when paired with an unfamiliar conspecific. Further exploration of pharmacological manipulation on status-specific behaviours of this eusocial species may elucidate the neurobiological mechanisms underlying their unique and rigid social hierarchy.