Drosophila Thermoreceptors: A Case Study

The temperature decrease results in alterations of the autonomic sympathetic response[11] and in impaired conduction velocity of the electrical signals through the

Ectothermic animals are animals whose body temperature is affected by their surroundings. This means that if the environment is cold the animal will be cold. If the environment is warm the animal will be warm. This is because the animal doesn’t have the capability of regulating its body systems to keep a constant body temperature. When an ectothermic animal is cold, its heart rate will lower. When the animal is warmer, the heart rate will raise – as long as the temperature isn’t sufficiently high to harm the animal. (Campbell, 2005)

It is also thought that the digestive system is given an opportunity to adjust to a “hot” and “cold” food before fully digesting it (Salimbene et al., 2000 pg. 137).

Freeman (2008) furthers Eckert et al’s argument by stating that the actin filaments of the muscle cell in organisms are able to intake ATP (adenosine triphosphate) faster and will move the organism faster when higher temperatures are imposed. This is because of an increase in enzyme reaction rates (Freeman 2008). These arguments can be applied to our experiment to help explain the trends observed. It can be argued that as the Gammarus setosus experiences the cold treatments, the organ of Bellonci senses the cold temperature, which in turn signals the organism to preserve its energy to protect itself; therefore, the organism will swim slower. In addition, the enzymes in the muscle cells of the organism, when experiencing the cold treatments, will have decreased ability to carry out enzymatic reactions, therefore inhibiting the uptake of ATP, which will cause the organism to swim slowly. Conversely, as the organisms are put into the heated treatments, the organ of Bellonci senses the heat, and allows the organism to swim faster, since it does not have allocate as much of its energy towards survival. Furthermore, the enzymes in the cells will be able to catalyze reactions more quickly, therefore allowing the organism to swim faster. However, when the temperature of the surroundings is too high, the enzymes will denature, therefore, reducing the activity rate of

Ectotherms like Gryllus (Niehaus 2012), commonly known as crickets, instead depend on external sources for their body heat. Ectotherms must use the environmental energy and behavioral adaptations to shift their body temperature. The basal metabolic rate (BMR) is a measure of the rate at which an organism releases heat after breaking down food molecules. Crickets possess the ability to respond to thermal change by

11.A. The stimulus is the hypothalamus sensing that the temperature is too low or too high and sends out signals to cool the body. The response is that the blood vessels in the skin dilate to radiate heat and the sweat glands increase sweat production.

The purpose of this lab is to analysis goldfish an ectothermic animal affect toward different temperature ranges. The reactions toward the temperatures are taken upon the term of homeostasis, which is regulation for organisms to maintain a steady state while adapting to the conditions that are favorable for survival (Encyclopedia Britannica). In order to achieve a successful homeostasis, many animals use different methods of thermoregulation, which helps maintain the internal temperature of animals. Many methods vary whether the organisms is an endotherm or ectoderm. An endotherm, which includes mammals and birds, is a warm-blooded animal, which maintains a constant body temperature not influenced by the environment (Britannica).

The principal objective of this study was to determine how temperature affects the activity of

Somewhat more precise descriptions can be made by using the terms poikilothermic and homoiothermic. The body temperature of poikllotherms is relatively variable, while that of homeotherms is relatively constant.

The change in temperature affects the respiration of goldfish. In goldfish, active metabolic rate decreases as temperature is lowered (Johnston and Dunn 1987). The goldfish breathes per minute is decreased as oxygen is required for this activity. A similar experiment conducted supports the result from this experiment that oxygen consumption decreases as temperature decreases (Fry and Hart 1948). The decrease in breathes per minute was observed as the temperature was lowered. The average breathes per minute decreased from 110 to 92 per minute when the temperature was lowered from 22 to 12. So, the null hypothesis that the change in temperature will not affect the breathes of the goldfish was rejected. There were some sources of error for this

Investigating the Effects of Temperature on the Rate of Respiration of Blowfly Larvae This experiment was setup to investigate the effects of temperature on the rate of respiration of blowfly larvae. Background Knowledge The maggots involved in this investigation were blowflies at the larval stage of development, and they breathe through spiracles in the anterior and posterior segments. The respiratory tracts are not as developed at this stage, as the organism is not capable of flight, and so it respires less oxygen than an adult blowfly.

The results from the first study indicated that rats were capable of responding to the energetic demands of their thermal environment with metabolic compensations. Throughout development, warm-housed

The major conclusion from this study is that individual Drosophila larval ORN’s are differentially modulated by animal’s starved state. We conclude this based on the following experimental evidence: First, when we tested the olfactory responses of Drosophila larvae under starved conditions, using the two-choice assay (Monte, Woodard et al. 1989), (Kreher, Mathew et al. 2008) we observed changes in RI for only three out of the seven odorants tested. This experimental result supports previous work from Mathew et al., 2013, which demonstrated functional diversity among individual ORNs. Starved larvae had higher attractiveness to odorants acetal, pentyl acetate and 4, 5 dimethylthiazole. Each of these odorants elicit strong and

“Field active and laboratory preferred body temperatures and critical thermal limits were measured in six species of Kenyan chameleons: Chamaeleobitaeniatus, Chamaeleodilepis, Chamaeleoellioti, Chamaeleohohnelii, Chamaeleojacksonii, and Chamaeleoschubotzi. Given the opportunity, all six species are very competent heliothermicthermoregulators. Individuals typically spend the night low in shrubby vegetation with body temperatures equal to ambient air, and then climb to the top or edges of their bushes to bask when the sun shines. For most species, body temperatures quickly stabilize between 29 and 32 °C, which they maintain while the sun shines (except C. schubotzi at 19 °C). Preferred temperatures in the

In insects, the olfactory receptor neurons are located on the appendages, specifically, the antennae. In the presence of an ordant, the receptor proteins bind with the specific chemical and participate in a conformational change which