International audienceMost studies that have shown negative sublethal effects of the pesticide imidacloprid on honeybees concern behavioral effects; only a few concern physiological effects. Therefore, we investigated sublethal effects of imidacloprid on the development of the hypopharyngeal glands (HPGs) and respiratory rhythm in honeybees fed under laboratory conditions. We introduced newly emerged honeybees into wooden mesh-sided cages and provided sugar solution and pollen pastry ad libitum. Imidacloprid was administered in the food: 2 μg/kg in the sugar solution and 3 μg/kg in the pollen pastry. The acini, the lobes of the HPGs of imidacloprid-treated honeybees, were 14.5 % smaller in diameter in 9-day-old honeybees and 16.3 % smaller in 14-day-old honeybees than in the same-aged untreated honeybees; the difference was significant for both age groups. Imidacloprid also significantly affected the bursting pattern of abdominal ventilation movements (AVM) by causing a 59.4 % increase in the inter-burst interval and a 56.99 % decrease in the mean duration of AVM bursts. At the same time, the quantity of food consumed (sugar solution and pollen pastry) per honeybee per day was the same for both treated and untreated honeybees
We investigate the spontaneous contraction generated by the atria of a frog's heart isolated in a physiological solution. In the relaxation phase, the recorded time series for two different sampling rates possesses an intermittent component similar to the dynamics of the order parameter's fluctuations of a thermal critical system belonging to the mean field universality class. This behavior is not visible through conventional analysis in the frequency space due to the presence of Brownian noise dominating the corresponding power spectrum.
Two different test systems, one based on the isolated sciatic nerve of an amphibian and the other on a microbial eukaryote, were used for the assessment of herbicide toxicity. More specifically, we determined the deleterious effects of increasing concentrations of herbicides of different chemical classes (phenoxyacetic acids, triazines, and acetamides), and of 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP), a degradation product of the herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), on electrophysiological parameters and the vitality of the axons of the isolated sciatic nerve of the frog (Rana ridibunda) and on the growth curve of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae based on microtiter plate susceptibility assays. The no-observed-effect-concentration (NOEC), defined as the maximum concentration of the tested compound that has no effect on these biological parameters, was estimated. In spite of the different methodological approaches and biological systems compared, the NOEC values were identical and correlated with the lipophilicity of the tested compounds. The relative toxicity established here, 2,4-DCP > alachlor, metolachlor >> metribuzin > 2,4-D, 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (MCPA), correlates with the toxicity indexes reported in the literature for freshwater organisms. Based on these results, we suggest that the relatively simple, rapid, and low-cost test systems examined here may be of interest as alternative or complementary tests for toxicological assessment of herbicides.
Honeybees secrete 2-heptanone (2-H) from their mandibular glands when they bite. Researchers have identified several possible functions: 2-H could act as an alarm pheromone to recruit guards and soldiers, it could act as a chemical marker, or it could have some other function. The actual role of 2-H in honeybee behaviour remains unresolved. In this study, we show that 2-H acts as an anaesthetic in small arthropods, such as wax moth larva (WML) and Varroa mites, which are paralysed after a honeybee bite. We demonstrated that honeybee mandibles can penetrate the cuticle of WML, introducing less than one nanolitre of 2-H into the WML open circulatory system and causing instantaneous anaesthetization that lasts for a few minutes. The first indication that 2-H acts as a local anaesthetic was that its effect on larval response, inhibition and recovery is very similar to that of lidocaine. We compared the inhibitory effects of 2-H and lidocaine on voltage-gated sodium channels. Although both compounds blocked the hNav1.6 and hNav1.2 channels, lidocaine was slightly more effective, 2.82 times, on hNav.6. In contrast, when the two compounds were tested using an ex vivo preparation–the isolated rat sciatic nerve–the function of the two compounds was so similar that we were able to definitively classify 2-H as a local anaesthetic. Using the same method, we showed that 2-H has the fastest inhibitory effect of all alkyl-ketones tested, including the isomers 3- and 4-heptanone. This suggests that natural selection may have favoured 2-H over other, similar compounds because of the associated fitness advantages it confers. Our results reveal a previously unknown role of 2-H in honeybee defensive behaviour and due to its minor neurotoxicity show potential for developing a new local anaesthetic from a natural product, which could be used in human and veterinary medicine.
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