Tomographic Hard X-ray Phase Contrast Micro- and Nano-imaging at TOMCAT

Stampanoni, Marco; Marone, Federica; Modregger, Peter; Pinzer, B; Thüring, Thomas; Vila‐Comamala, Joan; Dávid, Christian; Siu, Karen Kit Wan

doi:10.1063/1.3478189

Cited by 32 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…We made µCT scans of the thorax of a female malaria mosquito using the Tomographic Microscopy and Coherent Radiology beamline (TOMCAT) of the Swiss Light Source at the Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland (Stampanoni et al, 2010), from which we reconstructed the 3D morphology of the leg and flight muscles. To prepare the specimen, we used a staining method developed for increasing contrast of non-mineralized tissues (Metscher, 2009).…”

Section: Leg and Flight Muscle Morphology In Malaria Mosquitoesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Escaping blood-fed malaria mosquitoes minimize tactile detection without compromising on take-off speed

Muijres

Chang

Veen

et al. 2017

Journal of Experimental Biology

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To escape after taking a blood meal, a mosquito must exert forces sufficiently high to take off when carrying a load roughly equal to its body weight, while simultaneously avoiding detection by minimizing tactile signals exerted on the host's skin. We studied this trade-off between escape speed and stealth in the malaria mosquito Anopheles coluzzii using 3D motion analysis of high-speed stereoscopic videos of mosquito take-offs and aerodynamic modeling. We found that during the push-off phase, mosquitoes enhanced take-off speed using aerodynamic forces generated by the beating wings in addition to leg-based push-off forces, whereby wing forces contributed 61% of the total push-off force. Exchanging legderived push-off forces for wing-derived aerodynamic forces allows the animal to reduce peak force production on the host's skin. By slowly extending their long legs throughout the push-off, mosquitoes spread push-off forces over a longer time window than insects with short legs, thereby further reducing peak leg forces. Using this specialized take-off behavior, mosquitoes are capable of reaching take-off speeds comparable to those of similarly sized fruit flies, but with weight-normalized peak leg forces that were only 27% of those of the fruit flies. By limiting peak leg forces, mosquitoes possibly reduce the chance of being detected by the host. The resulting combination of high take-off speed and low tactile signals on the host might help increase the mosquito's success in escaping from blood-hosts, which consequently also increases the chance of transmitting vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, to future hosts.

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Section: Leg and Flight Muscle Morphology In Malaria Mosquitoesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Escaping blood-fed malaria mosquitoes minimize tactile detection without compromising on take-off speed

Muijres

Chang

Veen

et al. 2017

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…The field of view (FOV) was adjusted to each sample in order to maximize resolution. HR SR-mCT at the Swiss Light Source of the Paul-Scherrer Institut (PSI; Villigen, Switzerland; beamline TOMCAT [13]) was done using a stable beam energy of 10 keV in absorption-contrast mode and with an energy of 20 keV in phase-contrast mode. We used the 20Â objective in order to realize a FOV of 0.83 Â 0.70 mm with a resulting pixel size of 0.325 mm 2 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this study, we used three complementary synchrotron microCT (SR-mCT) imaging set-ups [12][13][14] to investigate the mouthpart anatomy of Collembola and Diplura at high magnifications while entirely preserving the spatial mouthpart arrangement. The mouthpart morphology of these ancestral insects displays an unusual type of SMI, based on homologous structures of the mandibles and maxillae.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural mouthpart interaction evolved already in the earliest lineages of insects

et al. 2015

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In butterflies, bees, flies and true bugs specific mouthparts are in close contact or even fused to enable piercing, sucking or sponging of particular food sources. The common phenomenon behind these mouthpart types is a complex composed of several consecutive mouthparts which structurally interact during food uptake. The single mouthparts are thus only functional in conjunction with other adjacent mouthparts, which is fundamentally different to biting-chewing. It is, however, unclear when structural mouthpart interaction (SMI) evolved since this principle obviously occurred multiple times independently in several extant and extinct winged insect groups. Here, we report a new type of SMI in two of the earliest wingless hexapod lineagesDiplura and Collembola. We found that the mandible and maxilla interact with each other via an articulatory stud at the dorsal side of the maxillary stipes, and they are furthermore supported by structures of the hypopharynx and head capsule. These interactions are crucial stabilizing elements during food uptake. The presence of SMI in these ancestrally wingless insects, and its absence in those crustacean groups probably ancestral to insects, indicates that SMI is a groundplan apomorphy of insects. Our results thus contradict the currently established view of insect mouthpart evolution that biting-chewing mouthparts without any form of SMI are the ancestral configuration. Furthermore, SMIs occur in the earliest insects in a high anatomical variety. SMIs in stemgroup representatives of insects may have triggered efficient exploitation and fast adaptation to new terrestrial food sources much earlier than previously supposed.

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“…For example, flight in small insects such as the blowfly Calliphora vicina is dependent on reversible rearrangements in the internal power muscles, which deform the thorax and hence oscillate the wings. In their recent study, Walker and colleagues used the TOMCAT beamline at the Swiss Light Source (Stampanoni et al, 2010) in combination with stereo high-speed photogrammetry to visualise the repetitive movement of muscles and tendons of a living fly at sub-millisecond timescales and micron-scale spatial resolutions (Walker et al, 2014). Non-repetitive movements over longer timescales can also be visualised by microCT alone.…”

Section: Imaging Of Dynamic Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three-dimensional visualisation of soft biological structures by X-ray computed micro-tomography

Shearer

Bradley

Hidalgo‐Bastida

et al. 2016

Journal of Cell Science

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Whereas the two-dimensional (2D) visualisation of biological samples is routine, three-dimensional (3D) imaging remains a time-consuming and relatively specialised pursuit. Current commonly adopted techniques for characterising the 3D structure of non-calcified tissues and biomaterials include optical and electron microscopy of serial sections and sectioned block faces, and the visualisation of intact samples by confocal microscopy or electron tomography. As an alternative to these approaches, X-ray computed micro-tomography (microCT) can both rapidly image the internal 3D structure of macroscopic volumes at sub-micron resolutions and visualise dynamic changes in living tissues at a microsecond scale. In this Commentary, we discuss the history and current capabilities of microCT. To that end, we present four case studies to illustrate the ability of microCT to visualise and quantify: (1) pressure-induced changes in the internal structure of unstained rat arteries, (2) the differential morphology of stained collagen fascicles in tendon and ligament, (3) the development of Vanessa cardui chrysalises, and (4) the distribution of cells within a tissue-engineering construct. Future developments in detector design and the use of synchrotron X-ray sources might enable real-time 3D imaging of dynamically remodelling biological samples.

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Tomographic Hard X-ray Phase Contrast Micro- and Nano-imaging at TOMCAT

Cited by 32 publications

References 9 publications

Escaping blood-fed malaria mosquitoes minimize tactile detection without compromising on take-off speed

Escaping blood-fed malaria mosquitoes minimize tactile detection without compromising on take-off speed

Structural mouthpart interaction evolved already in the earliest lineages of insects

Three-dimensional visualisation of soft biological structures by X-ray computed micro-tomography

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