COATES, M.M.*; NILSSON, D-E; Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University; Lund University, Sweden: An eye for each reason: the multiple eye types of a box jellyfish, Tripedalia cystophora Like most jellyfish, box jellyfish (class Cubozoa) have small pit shaped ocelli. However, they also have camera-type eyes. Why does the box jellyfish have multiple eye types and […]

FRANK, TM; Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution: Adaptations in deep-sea crustaceans for vision in light-limited environments Animals that successfully use vision in the deep-sea environment possess some unusual adaptations to maximize their sensitivity in this very low light environment. In spite of their smaller size, deep-sea crustacean photoreceptors are approximately 80 times more sensitive than human […]

POSNER, M.; HORWITZ, J.; Ashland University; Univ. of California, Los Angeles: A Comparative View of Alpha Crystallin Chaperone Function in the Vertebrate Lens The small heat shock protein (sHSP) alpha crystallin contributes greatly to the refractive index of the vertebrate eye lens. Like other sHSP, both the alpha A and alpha B subunits also act […]

DENVER, Robert/J; Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor: The Vertebrate Neuroendocrine Stress System and its Role in Orchestrating Life History Transitions Animals make critical decisions at all stages of their life cycles. For example, the timing of metamorphosis, hatching or birth depends on the tradeoffs between growth opportunity and mortality risk in the developmental habitat. Physiological […]

NIJHOUT, Fred; Duke University: The Development and Evolution of Adaptive Polyphenisms The ability to develop alternative phenotypes in response to specific environmental cues is called polyphenism. The developmental mechanisms underlying polyphenisms are now beginning to be understood. The development of alternative phenotypes comes about through environmentally induced changes in the patterns of hormone secretion. In […]

ZERA, Anthony J.; University of Nebraska, Lincoln: Regulation of wing polymorphism by juvenile hormone: State of the art and new perspectives For over four decades the endocrine mechanisms that underlie morph development and reproduction in wing polymorphic insects have been the subject of extensive experimentation and speculation. Yet little is known about the details of […]

HATLE, JD; BORST, DW; JULIANO, SA; Illinois State Univ: Plasticity of control of reproductive tactics in lubber grasshoppers Reproductive tactics are correlated with fitness. Reproductive plasticity is predicted to affect fitness, and it is likely that endocrine mechanisms regulate this plasticity. We have studied how the reproductive physiology of the lubber grasshopper if affected by […]

CREWS, D*; PARTESOTTI, S; PORTER, R; RAMSEY, M; SKIPPER, JK; WU, M; Unversity of Texas, Austin: Physiology of temperature-dependent sex determination in reptiles The triggers that determine sexual differentiation of the bipotential gonad are inherited genes in some species or environmental signals in other species. In many reptiles it is the temperature experienced during the […]

WHEELER, D.E.; Univ. of Arizona, Tucson: Molecular basis of caste determination in social Hymenoptera Castes in social insects are a dramatic example of polyphenism. Polyphenic insects can develop into alternative forms, usually in response to environmental cues. We recently were successful in using suppressive subtractive hybridization (Clontech) to find >100 unique ESTs differentially expressed during […]

SCHOECH, Stephan J.; Univ. of Memphis: Mechanisms Underlying Behavioral Plasticity in Cooperatively Breeding Birds Cooperatively breeding is a social system in which individuals express different behaviors consistent with their occupying different within-group roles. Behavioral plasticity in Florida Scrub-Jays is exemplified by a single pair reproducing while other group members help to rear non-descendant young. Two […]