@article{ZoephelReiherRexeretal.2012, author = {Zoephel, Judith and Reiher, Wencke and Rexer, Karl-Heinz and Kahnt, J{\"o}rg and Wegener, Christian}, title = {Peptidomics of the Agriculturally Damaging Larval Stage of the Cabbage Root Fly Delia radicum (Diptera: Anthomyiidae)}, series = {PLoS One}, volume = {7}, journal = {PLoS One}, number = {7}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0041543}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-131727}, pages = {e41543}, year = {2012}, abstract = {The larvae of the cabbage root fly induce serious damage to cultivated crops of the family Brassicaceae. We here report the biochemical characterisation of neuropeptides from the central nervous system and neurohemal organs, as well as regulatory peptides from enteroendocrine midgut cells of the cabbage maggot. By LC-MALDI-TOF/TOF and chemical labelling with 4-sulfophenyl isothiocyanate, 38 peptides could be identified, representing major insect peptide families: allatostatin A, allatostatin C, FMRFamide-like peptides, kinin, CAPA peptides, pyrokinins, sNPF, myosuppressin, corazonin, SIFamide, sulfakinins, tachykinins, NPLP1-peptides, adipokinetic hormone and CCHamide 1. We also report a new peptide (Yamide) which appears to be homolog to an amidated eclosion hormone-associated peptide in several Drosophila species. Immunocytochemical characterisation of the distribution of several classes of peptide-immunoreactive neurons and enteroendocrine cells shows a very similar but not identical peptide distribution to Drosophila. Since peptides regulate many vital physiological and behavioural processes such as moulting or feeding, our data may initiate the pharmacological testing and development of new specific peptide-based protection methods against the cabbage root fly and its larva.}, language = {en} } @article{ParthoChenBrauckhoffetal.2011, author = {Partho, Halder and Chen, Yi-chun and Brauckhoff, Janine and Hofbauer, Alois and Dabauvalle, Marie-Christine and Lewandrowski, Urs and Winkler, Christiane and Sickmann, Albert and Buchner, Erich}, title = {Identification of Eps15 as Antigen Recognized by the Monoclonal Antibodies aa2 and ab52 of the Wuerzburg Hybridoma Library against Drosophila Brain}, series = {PLoS One}, volume = {6}, journal = {PLoS One}, number = {12}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0029352}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-137957}, pages = {e29352}, year = {2011}, abstract = {The Wuerzburg Hybridoma Library against the Drosophila brain represents a collection of around 200 monoclonal antibodies that bind to specific structures in the Drosophila brain. Here we describe the immunohistochemical staining patterns, the Western blot signals of one- and two-dimensional electrophoretic separation, and the mass spectrometric characterization of the target protein candidates recognized by the monoclonal antibodies aa2 and ab52 from the library. Analysis of a mutant of a candidate gene identified the Drosophila homolog of the Epidermal growth factor receptor Pathway Substrate clone 15 (Eps15) as the antigen for these two antibodies.}, language = {en} } @article{ChenGerber2014, author = {Chen, Yi-chun and Gerber, Bertram}, title = {Generalization and discrimination tasks yield concordant measures of perceived distance between odours and their binary mixtures in larval Drosophila}, series = {The Journal of Experimental Biology}, volume = {217}, journal = {The Journal of Experimental Biology}, number = {12}, doi = {10.1242/jeb.100966}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-121625}, pages = {2071-7}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Similarity between odours is notoriously difficult to measure. Widely used behavioural approaches in insect olfaction research are cross-adaptation, masking, as well as associative tasks based on olfactory learning and the subsequent testing for how specific the established memory is. A concern with such memory-based approaches is that the learning process required to establish an odour memory may alter the way the odour is processed, such that measures of perception taken at the test are distorted. The present study was therefore designed to see whether behavioural judgements of perceptual distance are different for two different memory-based tasks, namely generalization and discrimination. We used odour-reward learning in larval Drosophila as a study case. In order to challenge the larvae's olfactory system, we chose to work with binary mixtures and their elements (1-octanol, n-amyl acetate, 3-octanol, benzaldehyde and hexyl acetate). We determined the perceptual distance between each mixture and its elements, first in a generalization task, and then in a discrimination task. It turns out that scores of perceptual distance are correlated between both tasks. A re-analysis of published studies looking at element-to-element perceptual distances in larval reward learning and in adult punishment learning confirms this result. We therefore suggest that across a given set of olfactory stimuli, associative training does not grossly alter the pattern of perceptual distances.}, language = {en} } @article{KreuzwieserScheererKruseetal.2014, author = {Kreuzwieser, J{\"u}rgen and Scheerer, Ursel and Kruse, J{\"o}rg and Burzlaff, Tim and Honsel, Anne and Alfarraj, Saleh and Georgiev, Palmen and Schnitzler, J{\"o}rg-Peter and Ghirardo, Andrea and Kreuzer, Ines and Hedrich, Rainer and Rennenberg, Heinz}, title = {The Venus flytrap attracts insects by the release of volatile organic compounds}, series = {Journal of Experimental Botany}, volume = {65}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Botany}, number = {2}, doi = {10.1093/jxb/ert455}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-121161}, pages = {755-66}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Does Dionaea muscipula, the Venus flytrap, use a particular mechanism to attract animal prey? This question was raised by Charles Darwin 140 years ago, but it remains unanswered. This study tested the hypothesis that Dionaea releases volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to allure prey insects. For this purpose, olfactory choice bioassays were performed to elucidate if Dionaea attracts Drosophila melanogaster. The VOCs emitted by the plant were further analysed by GC-MS and proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry (PTR-MS). The bioassays documented that Drosophila was strongly attracted by the carnivorous plant. Over 60 VOCs, including terpenes, benzenoids, and aliphatics, were emitted by Dionaea, predominantly in the light. This work further tested whether attraction of animal prey is affected by the nutritional status of the plant. For this purpose, Dionaea plants were fed with insect biomass to improve plant N status. However, although such feeding altered the VOC emission pattern by reducing terpene release, the attraction of Drosophila was not affected. From these results it is concluded that Dionaea attracts insects on the basis of food smell mimicry because the scent released has strong similarity to the bouquet of fruits and plant flowers. Such a volatile blend is emitted to attract insects searching for food to visit the deadly capture organ of the Venus flytrap.}, language = {en} } @article{DusikSenthilanMentzeletal.2014, author = {Dusik, Verena and Senthilan, Pingkalai R. and Mentzel, Benjamin and Hartlieb, Heiko and W{\"u}lbeck, Corina and Yoshii, Taishi and Raabe, Thomas and Helfrich-F{\"o}rster, Charlotte}, title = {The MAP Kinase p38 Is Part of Drosophila melanogaster's Circadian Clock}, series = {PLoS Genetics}, volume = {10}, journal = {PLoS Genetics}, number = {8}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1004565}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-119433}, pages = {e1004565}, year = {2014}, abstract = {All organisms have to adapt to acute as well as to regularly occurring changes in the environment. To deal with these major challenges organisms evolved two fundamental mechanisms: the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway, a major stress pathway for signaling stressful events, and circadian clocks to prepare for the daily environmental changes. Both systems respond sensitively to light. Recent studies in vertebrates and fungi indicate that p38 is involved in light-signaling to the circadian clock providing an interesting link between stress-induced and regularly rhythmic adaptations of animals to the environment, but the molecular and cellular mechanisms remained largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate by immunocytochemical means that p38 is expressed in Drosophila melanogaster's clock neurons and that it is activated in a clock-dependent manner. Surprisingly, we found that p38 is most active under darkness and, besides its circadian activation, additionally gets inactivated by light. Moreover, locomotor activity recordings revealed that p38 is essential for a wild-type timing of evening activity and for maintaining ∼ 24 h behavioral rhythms under constant darkness: flies with reduced p38 activity in clock neurons, delayed evening activity and lengthened the period of their free-running rhythms. Furthermore, nuclear translocation of the clock protein Period was significantly delayed on the expression of a dominant-negative form of p38b in Drosophila's most important clock neurons. Western Blots revealed that p38 affects the phosphorylation degree of Period, what is likely the reason for its effects on nuclear entry of Period. In vitro kinase assays confirmed our Western Blot results and point to p38 as a potential "clock kinase" phosphorylating Period. Taken together, our findings indicate that the p38 MAP Kinase is an integral component of the core circadian clock of Drosophila in addition to playing a role in stress-input pathways.}, language = {en} } @article{BuchnerBlancoRedondoBunzetal.2013, author = {Buchner, Erich and Blanco Redondo, Beatriz and Bunz, Melanie and Halder, Partho and Sadanandappa, Madhumala K. and M{\"u}hlbauer, Barbara and Erwin, Felix and Hofbauer, Alois and Rodrigues, Veronica and VijayRaghavan, K. and Ramaswami, Mani and Rieger, Dirk and Wegener, Christian and F{\"o}rster, Charlotte}, title = {Identification and Structural Characterization of Interneurons of the Drosophila Brain by Monoclonal Antibodies of the W{\"u}rzburg Hybridoma Library}, series = {PLoS ONE}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0075420}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-97109}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Several novel synaptic proteins have been identified by monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) of the W{\"u}rzburg hybridoma library generated against homogenized Drosophila brains, e.g. cysteine string protein, synapse-associated protein of 47 kDa, and Bruchpilot. However, at present no routine technique exists to identify the antigens of mAbs of our library that label only a small number of cells in the brain. Yet these antibodies can be used to reproducibly label and thereby identify these cells by immunohistochemical staining. Here we describe the staining patterns in the Drosophila brain for ten mAbs of the W{\"u}rzburg hybridoma library. Besides revealing the neuroanatomical structure and distribution of ten different sets of cells we compare the staining patterns with those of antibodies against known antigens and GFP expression patterns driven by selected Gal4 lines employing regulatory sequences of neuronal genes. We present examples where our antibodies apparently stain the same cells in different Gal4 lines suggesting that the corresponding regulatory sequences can be exploited by the split-Gal4 technique for transgene expression exclusively in these cells. The detection of Gal4 expression in cells labeled by mAbs may also help in the identification of the antigens recognized by the antibodies which then in addition to their value for neuroanatomy will represent important tools for the characterization of the antigens. Implications and future strategies for the identification of the antigens are discussed.}, language = {en} }