Endogenous opiates: 1998

This paper is the twenty-first installment of our annual review of research concerning the opiate system. It summarizes papers published during 1998 that studied the behavioral effects of the opiate peptides and antagonists, excluding the purely analgesic effects, although stress-induced analgesia is included. The specific topics covered this year include stress; tolerance and dependence; eating and drinking; alcohol; gastrointestinal, renal, and hepatic function; mental illness and mood; learning, memory, and reward; cardiovascular responses; respiration and thermoregulation; seizures and other neurologic disorders; electrical-related activity; general activity and locomotion; sex, pregnancy, and development; immunologic responses; and other behaviors.     

Phenotypic responses of lacustrine brook charr in relation to the intensity of interspecific competition

We investigated the structure of interindividual variations in the diet of brook charr (Salvelinus fontinalis) based on stomach contents data of 3776 charr captured in 69 lakes of the Canadian Shield (Québec, Canada); 29 of these contained allopatric brook charr populations, 24 contained brook charr and creek chub (Semotilus atromaculatus) and 16 contained brook charr and white sucker (Catostomus commersoni). In any given lake, some of the charr fed almost exclusively on benthic organisms (benthic specialists, i.e., mean percent weight of benthic prey >90%), others, almost exclusively on pelagic prey (pelagic specialists, i.e., mean percent weight of benthic prey <10%), and a lesser proportion were generalist feeders (i.e. mean percent weight of benthic prey between 10 and 90%). The proportion of benthic and pelagic specialists were respectively 41.3 and 18% in allopatric brook charr populations. These proportions fit remarkably well with those based on interindividual preferences in spatial distribution, identified through radio-telemetry in another study done in two lakes of the same area. The proportion of benthic specialists was related to competition for benthic organisms with creek chub and white sucker. The effect of white sucker on brook charr diet was more pronounced than that of creek chub: the proportion of benthic specialists among brook charr decreased from 41.3% in allopatry to 19.7% in sympatry with creek chub, and to 9.9% in sympatry with white sucker. Other response variables of brook charr populations also indicate that white sucker is a stronger competitor than creek chub in this system. Because sucker and chub were introduced in these lakes during the last century, phenotypic responses of brook charr to interspecific competition appear to be rapid. Furthermore, in addition to providing a strong field support to the current hypothesis that polymorphism is promoted by arelaxation of interspecific competition, our results also indicate that phenotypic response of brook charr (i.e. the proportion of each form in a given lake) is related to the intensity of this competition.     

A direct experimental test of founder-flush effects on the evolutionary potential for assortative mating

Founder-flush speciation models propose that population bottlenecks can enhance evolutionary potential for reproductive isolation. To test this prediction, we subjected bottlenecked (three-pair founder-flush) and nonbottlenecked populations of the housefly to 18 generations of selection for assortative mating. After the selection regime, we analysed videotaped courtship bouts in these lines to identify correlated responses to the selection protocol. The realized heritabilities for assortative mating for both the bottlenecked and nonbottlenecked treatments were very low, but still significant. The founder-flush populations had thus responded to selection as well as the nonbottlenecked populations, although not significantly greater (i.e. total increases in assortative mating were 9.6 and 8.6%, respectively). Multivariate analyses on the courtship repertoires found that, although both bottlenecked and nonbottlenecked treatments attained similar levels of assortative mating, the treatments exhibited different evolutionary solutions in their correlated responses. Specifically, the bottlenecked lines demonstrated a significantly more diverse set of evolutionary trajectories (i.e. significant shifts along the second principal component for courtship). This suggests that the bottlenecked lines had greater potential for the evolution of novel phenotypes as predicted by founder-induced speciation models. Our results, however, cannot distinguish whether the more variable evolutionary responses resulted from increased heritabilities in courtship components, reduced potential to follow the convergent evolutionary trajectories noted for the nonbottlenecked lines, or some combination of both general processes in determining the resultant multivariate phenotype.     

Compromised calnexin function in calreticulin-deficient cells

Calnexin and calreticulin are molecular chaperones, which are involved in the protein folding, assembly, and retention/retrieval. We know that calreticulin-deficiency is lethal in utero, but do not understand the contribution of chaperone function to this phenotype. Here we studied protein folding and chaperone function of calnexin in the absence of calreticulin. We show that protein folding is accelerated and quality control is compromised in calreticulin-deficient cells. Calnexin-substrate association is severely reduced, leading to accumulation of unfolded proteins and a triggering of the unfolded protein response (UPR). PERK and Ire1alpha and eIF2alpha are also activated in calreticulin-deficient cells. We show that the absence of calreticulin can have devastating effects on the function of the others, compromising overall quality control of the secretory pathway and activating UPR-dependent pathways.     

Resource-mediated impact of spider predation risk on performance in the grasshopper Ageneotettix deorum (Orthoptera: Acrididae)

In response to increased exposure to predators when searching for food, many prey increase the frequency of antipredator behaviors, potentially reducing foraging rate and food intake. Such direct, nonlethal interactions between predators and prey resulting in reduced food intake can indirectly influence lifecycle development through effects on growth, developmental rate, and survival. We investigated the general hypothesis that individual performance of a herbivorous insect can be negatively affected when exposed to nonlethal predation risk, and that the response can be mediated by food quality. This hypothesis was tested using the common rangeland grasshopper Ageneotettix deorum with and without exposure to common wolf spider predators (Lycosidae, Schizocosa spp.) on both untreated natural and fertilized vegetation. All spiders were rendered temporarily incapable of direct feeding by restricting function of the chelicerae with beeswax. Detectable responses by grasshoppers to spiders indicate indirect consequences for lifecycle development. Grasshopper performance was measured as hind femur growth, duration of nymphal lifecycle stages, and survivorship in a caged field experiment conducted over 2 years. Grasshoppers developed faster and grew 3–5% larger when allowed to forage on fertilized vegetation in the absence of risk from a spider predator. Failure-time analysis illustrated enhanced survival probability in response to elevated food quality and the negative effects of grasshopper susceptibility to nonlethal predation risk. Performance on food of relatively low, ambient quality with no predation risk equaled that of grasshoppers caged with high quality vegetation in the presence of a modified spider. Increased resource quality can clearly moderate the negative life history responses caused by the behavioral modification of grasshoppers when exposed to spider predation risk, a compensatory response.     

棉田棉铃虫寄生峰对常规棉及转Bt棉品种的趋性反应

连续4年采用人工定期释放棉铃虫卵、幼虫和定期回收法,研究了不同棉花品种与棉铃虫卵期、幼虫期寄生蜂种群数量变化的关系．通过对卵、幼虫寄生率反正弦转换后进行方差分析表明,无论是在棉铃虫卵期还是在其幼虫期,转基因棉田中棉铃虫卵和幼虫的被寄生率始终显著低于其亲本对照棉．运用“Y”型嗅觉仪测定转基因棉及其亲本对照棉对棉铃虫幼虫寄生蜂——中红侧沟茧蜂的选择性行为反应,用成对数据进行方差分析,并进行了“T”测验．结果表明,转基因棉对棉铃虫寄生蜂有较强的忌避反应,且取食转基因棉的棉铃虫幼虫与被害转基因棉两者的共同组合与单独被害棉之间对寄生蜂的忌避效应基本一致．     

Beneficial effects of taurine on serum lipids in overweight or obese non-diabetic subjects

Summary. Taurine has beneficial effects on lipid metabolism in experimental animals fed with high-cholesterol or high fat diets. Whether taurine benefits lipid metabolism in humans has rarely been investigated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of taurine on serum lipids in overweight or obese young adults. Thirty college students (age: 20.3±1.7 years) with a body mass index (BMI) 25.0kg/m², and with no evidence of diabetes mellitus were selected and assigned to either the taurine group (n=15) or the placebo group (n=15) by double-blind randomization. Taurine 3g/day or placebo was taken orally for 7 weeks. Triacylglycerol (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and plasma glucose were measured before and after supplementation. The atherogenic index (AI) was calculated as (TC–HDL-C)/HDL-C. There were no differences in any baseline parameter between the two groups. Taurine supplementation decreased TG and AI significantly. Body weight also reduced significantly in the taurine group. These results suggest that taurine produces a beneficial effect on lipid metabolism and may have an important role in cardiovascular disease prevention in overweight or obese subjects.