The Insects has been the standard textbook in the field since the first edition published over forty years ago. Building on the strengths of Chapman's original text, this long-awaited 5th edition has been revised and expanded by a team of eminent insect physiologists, bringing it fully up-to-date for the molecular era. The chapters retain the successful structure of the earlier editions, focusing on particular functional systems rather than taxonomic groups and making it easy for students to delve into topics without extensive knowledge of taxonomy. The focus is on form and function, bringing together basic anatomy and physiology and examining how these relate to behaviour. This, combined with nearly 600 clear illustrations, provides a comprehensive understanding of how insects work. Now also featuring a richly illustrated prologue by George McGavin, this is an essential text for students, researchers and applied entomologists alike.

The insects: structure and function.

The Immuno Polymorphism Database (IPD) was developed to provide a centralized system for the study of polymorphism in genes of the immune system. Through the IPD project we have established a central platform for the curation and publication of locus-specific databases involved either directly or related to the function of the Major Histocompatibility Complex in a number of different species. We have collaborated with specialist groups or nomenclature committees that curate the individual sections before they are submitted to IPD for online publication. IPD consists of five core databases, with the IMGT/HLA Database as the primary database. Through the work of the various nomenclature committees, the HLA Informatics Group and in collaboration with the European Bioinformatics Institute we are able to provide public access to this data through the website http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ipd/. The IPD project continues to develop with new tools being added to address scientific developments, such as Next Generation Sequencing, and to address user feedback and requests. Regular updates to the website ensure that new and confirmatory sequences are dispersed to the immunogenetics community, and the wider research and clinical communities.

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The IPD and IMGT/HLA database: allele variant databases

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/171/3973/757.full.pdf

Allelochemics: Chemical Interactions between Species

Influenza A virus reservoirs in animals have provided novel genetic elements leading to the emergence of global pandemics in humans. Most influenza A viruses circulate in waterfowl, but those that infect mammalian hosts are thought to pose the greatest risk for zoonotic spread to humans and the generation of pandemic or panzootic viruses. We have identified an influenza A virus from little yellow-shouldered bats captured at two locations in Guatemala. It is significantly divergent from known influenza A viruses. The HA of the bat virus was estimated to have diverged at roughly the same time as the known subtypes of HA and was designated as H17. The neuraminidase (NA) gene is highly divergent from all known influenza NAs, and the internal genes from the bat virus diverged from those of known influenza A viruses before the estimated divergence of the known influenza A internal gene lineages. Attempts to propagate this virus in cell cultures and chicken embryos were unsuccessful, suggesting distinct requirements compared with known influenza viruses. Despite its divergence from known influenza A viruses, the bat virus is compatible for genetic exchange with human influenza viruses in human cells, suggesting the potential capability for reassortment and contributions to new pandemic or panzootic influenza A viruses.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/109/11/4269.full.pdf

A distinct lineage of influenza A virus from bats

The IMGT/HLA database (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/imgt/hla) has provided a centralized repository for the sequences of the alleles named by the WHO Nomenclature Committee for Factors of the HLA System for the past four years. Since its initial release the database has grown and is the primary source of information for the study of sequences of the human major histocompatibilty complex. The initial release of the database contained a limited number of tools. As a result of feedback from our users and developments in HLA we have been able to provide new tools and facilities. The HLA sequences have also been extended to include intron sequences and the 3' and 5' untranslated regions in the alignments and also the inclusion of new genes such as MICA. The IMGT/MHC database (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/imgt/mhc) was released in March 2002 to provide a similar resource for other species. The first release of IMGT/MHC contains the sequences of non-human primates (apes, new and old world monkeys), canines and feline sequences. Further species will be added shortly and the database aims to become the primary source of MHC data for non-human sequences.

IMGT/HLA and IMGT/MHC: sequence databases for the study of the major histocompatibility complex

Prion protein genes were sequenced in free-ranging Alaska caribou (Rangifer tarandus grantii). Caribou prion alleles are identical or nearly so to those of wapiti, white-tailed deer, and mule deer. Five single-nucleotide polymorphisms were detected with substitutions at residues 2 (V-->M), 129 (G-->S), 138 (S-->N), 146 (N-->N), and 169 (V-->M). The 138N codon had been previously reported only in prion pseudogenes of other cervids. In caribou, the 138S and 138N alleles are present at frequencies of approximately 0.7 and 0.3, respectively, and they are seen in both homozygotes and heterozygotes of three geographically separated herds, each a component of the continental metapopulation. Genetics seems to permit the spread of chronic wasting disease from middle-latitude deer to high-latitude caribou in North America.

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Prion protein genes in caribou from Alaska

The sex pheromone produced by female yellow mealworm beetles, Tenebrio molitor L. (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), was conveniently and quantitatively assayed by exposing males to air containing female scent. Although extracts of both sexes released a male response, males responded only to live females and not to live males. The female pheromone was purified 700-fold by column chromatography. By means of assays with live females it was demonstrated that pheromone emission reached a peak about 4 days after eclosion from the pupal skin. Crowding enhanced pheromone release in virgin females; after mating, the effect of crowding disappeared.

Bioassay, Preliminary Purification, and Effect of Age, Crowding, and Mating on the Release of Sex Pheromone by Female Tenebrio molitor

Cytodifferentiation in the accessory glands of Tenebrio molitor. VIII. Crossed immunoelectrophoretic analysis of terminal differentiation in the postecdysial tubular accessory glands

A basidiomycetous yeast is a dimorphic fungal ectosymbiont associated with the southern pine beetle, Dendroctonus frontalis. Within the mycangium (a glandular integumental invagination) of the southern pine beetle, the fungus grows in a yeast-like manner, while on some media or in a plant host, it forms mycelial masses. The yeast stage has a lamellate cell wall and forms new cross walls in a manner rather similar to the basidiomycetous yeasts. Like certain ambrosial fungi (Ascoidea), the yeast stage is multinucleate. The mycelial stage, initially produced in culture and within the plant host, shows clamp connections and dolipore septa, characteristic of many Basidiomycetes, but its cell wall is not lamellate.The dolipore septa have septal pore caps and also mirror images of these caps. The septal pore caps (about 400 A in thickness) have five layers: the two outermost (40 A) are probably continuous with the 'unit membranes' of the endoplasmic reticulum; the middle layer is similar to the outermost; and th...

Bark beetle – fungal symbiosis. II. Fine structure of a basidiomycetous ectosymbiont of the southern pine beetle

Tularemia is a zoonotic disease caused by the Category A bioterrorism agent Francisella tularensis. In Scandinavia, tularemia transmission by mosquitoes has been widely cited in the literature, We tested >2,500 mosquitoes captured in Alaska and found Francisella DNA in 30% of pooled samples. To examine the potential for transmission of Francisella by mosquitoes, we developed a mosquito model of Francisella infection, Larvae of Anopheles gambiae Giles and Aedes aegypti (L.) readily ingest F. tularensis but do not efficiently transfer infective doses of the bacterium to the pupal or adult stage, After a bloodmeal containing Francisella, adult female An. gambiae and Ae. aegypti retained detectable levels of Francisella DNA for 3 d, but when they took a second bloodmeal, the mammalian host was not infected. This study suggests that although Francisella DNA can be detected in a significant portion of wild-caught mosquitoes, transmission of Francisella is either very inefficient or is species dependent...

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George M. Happ

Papers

Prion protein genes in caribou from Alaska

Bioassay, Preliminary Purification, and Effect of Age, Crowding, and Mating on the Release of Sex Pheromone by Female Tenebrio molitor

Cytodifferentiation in the accessory glands of Tenebrio molitor. VIII. Crossed immunoelectrophoretic analysis of terminal differentiation in the postecdysial tubular accessory glands

Bark beetle – fungal symbiosis. II. Fine structure of a basidiomycetous ectosymbiont of the southern pine beetle

Detection of Francisella tularensis in Alaskan Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) and Assessment of a Laboratory Model for Transmission