REGULATION OF METAMORPHOSIS BEHAVIOR IN THE TSETSE FLY

该提案将使调查人员能够参与 肯尼亚的科学家们正在进行一项旨在发现 协调变态行为的神经内分泌机制 采采蝇，非洲锥虫的传播媒介。 采采蝇有一种特殊的 一种生殖策略，其中幼虫的发育是在 女性的子宫，她生下一个发育完全的第三个 龄期幼虫 利用幼虫结扎、蜕皮激素 注射，蜕皮激素RIA的，时间的承诺，变态 以及蜕皮激素释放的时间和临界点 将决定是否使用。 女性对分娩的贡献 将通过气压技术进行监测， 血淋巴压和子宫肌肉的体外制备：两者 技术将被用来分析激素和其他药物的功效。 诱发分娩反应的药物。 气压技术 也将用于量化血淋巴压的急剧变化， 通常发生在化蛹期 血淋巴改变 压力分布和对肉蝇属蛹化生物测定的反应将 用于检测是否存在调节 化蛹的子集：幼虫固定， 前节、纵向收缩和晒黑。 的机制 的化蛹和蛹头外翻也将被测量 气压，和外源性蜕皮类固醇将测试其 有效地阻止了这一过程。 羽化和羽化后行为 （从蛹中逃脱，挖掘和想象的扩张）将是 用气压计和张力计的方法描述， 这些不同行为的调节将使用生物测定法进行研究 先前在Sarcophaga中开发的技术。 这项研究应该为理解变态行为提供基础 以及它在采采蝇中的神经激素调节， 控制这一重要害虫物种的战略。

This proposal will enable the investigators to participate with scientists in Kenya on a research program aimed at the discovery of neuroendocrine mechanisms that serve to coordinate metamorphic behavior in tsetse, the vector of African trypanosomiasis. Tsetse has a peculiar reproductive strategy in which larval development is completed within the uterus of the female and she gives birth to a fully developed third instar larva. Using techniques of larval ligation, ecdysteroid injection, and ecdysteroid RIA's, the time of commitment to metamorphosis and the timing and critical release of the ecdysteroids that trigger pupariation will be determined. The female's contribution to parturition will be monitored with a barographic technique to record changes in hemolymph pressure and by in vitro preparations of uterine muscles: both techniques will be used to assay the efficacy of hormones and other agents in eliciting the parturition response. The barographic technique will also be used to quantify the dramatic changes in hemolymph pressure that normally occur during pupariation. Alterations of the hemolymph pressure profile and responses to Sarcophaga pupariation bioassays will be used to test for the presence of discrete hormones that regulate subsets of pupariation: larval immobilization, retraction of the anterior segments, longitudinal contraction, and tanning. The mechanisms of pupation and pupal head evagination will also be measured barographically, and exogenous ecdysteroids will be tested for their efficacy in blocking this process. Eclosion and post-eclosion behavior (escape from the puparium, digging, and imaginal expansion) will be described with barographic and tensometric methods, and the hormonal regulation of these various behaviors will be investigated using bioassay techniques previously developed in Sarcophaga. This study should provide a basis for understanding metamorphic behavior and its neurohormonal regulation in tsetse and may thus augment strategies for the control of this important pest species.