The trace amine para-tyramine is structurally and functionally related to the amphetamines and the biogenic amine neurotransmitters. It is currently thought that the biological activities elicited by trace amines such as p-tyramine and the psychostimulant amphetamines are manifestations of their ability to inhibit the clearance of extracellular transmitter and/or stimulate the efflux of transmi...

Aggregative and solitary behaviors are universal phenomena in animals. Interestingly, locusts (Locusta migratoria) can reversibly transit their behavior between gregarious and solitary phase through conspecific attraction and repulsion. However, the regulatory mechanism of neurotransmitters underlying attraction and repulsion among locusts remains unknown. In this study, we found gregarious and...

Butterflies have sophisticated color vision. While the spectral organization of the compound eye has been well characterized in the Japanese yellow swallowtail butterfly, Papilio xuthus, neural mechanisms underlying its color vision are largely unexplored. Towards a better understanding of signal processing in the visual system of P. xuthus, we used immunocytochemical techniques to analyze the ...

The interaction of l-nitroso-2-naphthol and tyrosine to yield a red compound has long been used as a test for this amino acid in biological extracts. This reaction has been used for the quantitative determination of tyrosine (l-3), but it is not satisfactory because the red derivative is unstable. Further investigation of the reaction in this laboratory has shown that the red compound derived f...

An outbreak of neonatal diarrhoea associated with large numbers of Streptococcus faecalis var. zymogenes is described.A follow-up survey showed that 23.3% of 347 healthy babies carried this organism without ill effect. The tyrosine decarboxylase activity of the streptococci from both sick and healthy babies was identically high. It is suggested that the tyramine-producing activity of these stre...

Like many behaviors, Caenorhabditis elegans egg laying alternates between inactive and active states. To understand how the underlying neural circuit turns the behavior on and off, we optically recorded circuit activity in behaving animals while manipulating circuit function using mutations, optogenetics, and drugs. In the active state, the circuit shows rhythmic activity phased with the body b...

An outbreak of the southern cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, (Canestrini), in the United States would have devastating consequences on the cattle industry. Tick populations have developed resistance to current acaricides, highlighting the need to identify new biochemical targets along with new chemistry. Furthermore, acaricide resistance could further hamper control of tick pop...

Memories formed early in life are particularly stable and influential, representing privileged experiences that shape enduring behaviors. We show that exposing newly hatched C. elegans to pathogenic bacteria results in persistent aversion to those bacterial odors, whereas adult exposure generates only transient aversive memory. Long-lasting imprinted aversion has a critical period in the first ...

Honey bees display a fascinating division of labor among foragers. While some bees solely collect pollen, others only collect nectar. It is assumed that individual differences in sensory response thresholds are at the basis of division of labor. Biogenic amines and their receptors are important candidates for regulating division of labor, because they can modulate sensory response thresholds. W...

Honey bees display a fascinating division of labour among foragers. While some bees solely collect pollen, others only collect nectar. It is assumed that individual differences in sensory response thresholds are at the basis of this division of labour. Biogenic amines and their receptors are important candidates for regulating the division of labour, because they can modulate sensory response t...