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Cockroaches exposed to one day of escapable shock prior to three days of inescapable shock did not become helpless on a shuttlebox-escape task. Like dogs and rats, cockroaches are immunized against learned helplessness by prior experience with escapable shock.
For three consecutive days, two groups of adult female cockroaches (Periplaneta americana) (ns = 10) received inescapable shock. 24 hr. later one group was exposed to 10 min. of forced exercise on a treadmill while the other group received no exercise. Both groups were then run in a shuttlebox escape task. The cockroaches exposed to forced exercise did not become helpless in the shuttlebox escape task.
The author carried out a study on the effectiveness of the boric acid as a stomach poison for German cockroach control from July to September 1971. The test was performed by the feeding method under conditions of 20 degrees C and 80 per cent relative humidity. The baits were composed of one control group and five different combination groups with boric acid and sugar as follows. 1)10 g sugar only(control group), 2)1 g powedered boric acid to 9 g sugar(1:9 poison baits), 3)2 g powdered boric acid to 8 g sugar(2:8 poison baits), 4)4 g powdered boric acid to 6 g sugar(4:6 poison baits), 5)5 g powdered boric acid to 5g sugar(5:5 poison baits), 6)10 g powdered boric acid only (10:0 poison baits). The insects were composed of 360 female adult German cockroaches collected by traps at the kitchens of restaurants and house holds in Seoul City. The results were as follows: 1.The total mortality by poison baits in 72 hours after treatment were: 1)44.3 % by 1:9 poison baits, 2)79.4 % by 2: poison baits, 3)96.7 % by 4:6 poison baits(the most effective poison baits), 4)88.3 % by 5:5 poison baits, 5)91.1 % by 10:0 poison baits. 2.The peak mortality by the treatment hours were: 1)Up to 21 hours: 23.3 % by 5:5 poison baits, 20.0 % by 10:10 poison baits, 2)From 24 to 48 hours: 71.1 % by 4:6 poison baits, 55.6 % by 10:0 poison baits, 3)From 48 to 72 hours: 21.9 % by 2:8 poison baits, 19.6 % by 1:9 poison baits. The most effective treatment hours was from 24 to 48 hours.
The results of the development of manufacturing technology for the preparation of allergen from the bodies of cockroaches and the physico-chemical characteristics of this allergen are presented. The complex allergological examination of patients with atopic bronchial asthma revealed that 69.3% of such patients were sensitized to house dust, and in 68.4% of them IgE antibodies to cockroach allergens were detected. Patients with atopic bronchial asthma, not sensitized to house dust, were found to have sensitization to Blatella germanica in 12.2% of cases.
The authors describe a series of experiments designed to determine the extent to which cross-resistance exists in insecticide-resistant strains of the German cockroach. The tests were conducted by exposing females from a DDT-resistant strain, a chlordane-resistant strain, and a non-resistant strain to varying concentrations of several insecticides. From these tests mortality data were obtained and are presented in the form of regression lines.The insecticides used were DDT, methoxychlor, chlordane, dieldrin, Prolan, malathion, allethrin, and Lethane; these were chosen so that a wide variety of chemical types would be represented.The results indicate that the DDT-resistant strain is highly resistant to DDT and to its analogue, methoxychlor, but not to any of the other insecticides tested. Similarly, the chlordane-resistant strain is highly resistant to chlordane and to its analogue, dieldrin, but is susceptible to the other toxicants listed.From these results, as well as those obtained by others, it appears that the picture of cross-resistance in the German cockroach is in essential agreement with that which is emerging for other insects throughout the world.
The objective of the study was to identify bacterial flora from external parts of German cockroaches caught in hospitals. The susceptibility of the bacteria to the most important groups of antimicrobial agents was also examined. 80 strains of bacteria were isolated, among them 34 strains of Gram-positive cocci and 31 strains of Gram-negative rods. One of isolated strains of Citrobacter freundii and two strains of Serratia liquefaciens showed ESBL mechanism of resistance and extended level of AmpC--type beta-lactamases. Two Staphylococcus strains (S. epidermidis and S. equorum) were resistant to erythromycin and clindamycin (MLSB mechanism of resistance). Such strains, resistant to antibiotics and chemiotherapeutics may be reservoirs of resistance genes which can be transmitted into other bacteria. Presence of such pathogens on the body surface of German cockroaches, very mobile insects, might create conditions for easy dissemination of them in hospital environment.
A diacylglycerol-carrying lipoprotein (DGLP) was isolated from the hemolymph of adult male and female American cockroaches, Periplaneta americana. The purification procedure involved dialysis against distilled water, precipitation at low ionic concentration at pH 6.6, and separation by column chromatography on DEAE-cellulose. The final preparation was homogeneous as judged by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and electron microscopy. The lipoprotein comprised over 50% of the total hemolymph protein. The DGLP molecule was almost globular in shape with a diameter of approximately 160 A. The molecular weight, determined by a sedimentation-equilibrium method, was approximately 600,000. Apoprotein of DGLP consisted of two subunits, heavy chain (mol wt 250,000) and light chain (mol wt 85,000). The total lipid content of DGLP amounted to about 50%. The lipids comprised diacylglycerol (15% of total lipid), hydrocarbons (28%), cholesterol (5%), and phospholipids (43%). n-Pentacosane, 3-methylpentacosane, and 6,9-heptacosadiene were identified as major hydrocarbons. Mannose(0.9%) and glucosamine (0.3%) were associated with apoprotein of DGLP. The capacity of the purified DGLP to accept diacylglycerol from both fat body and midgut was demonstrated in vitro; thus it was suggested that the same carrier molecule served to transport this lipid from storage site and absorption site. The possible multiple role of cockroach DGLP in transporting such lipids as diacylglycerol, cholesterol, and hydrocarbon from the site of storage, absorption, or synthesis is discussed.
To evaluate the role of allergens from Periplaneta fuliginosa, which is the most predominant cockroach species in homes in Tokyo areas, for asthma sensitization, we measured specific IgE antibodies to two cockroaches, P. fuliginosa and Blattella germanica, and to a mite, Dermatophagoides farinae, in 171 sera from children with asthma by Pharmacia's CAP system. We found that 16% of the sera had anti-P. fuliginosa IgE, whereas 9.9% had anti-B. germanica and 85% anti-D. farinae IgE. Further, we measured the levels of Per f I (Per a I equivalent) allergen in the house dust from living room, kitchen and bedding. We detected the allergen in eight of ten homes. The Per a I equivalent levels in kitchen were higher than in other sites, but they were much lower than Der I and Der II as Dermatophagoides allergens.
Insects and other arthropods use visual landmarks to remember the location of their nest, or its equivalent. However, so far, only olfactory learning and memory have been claimed to be mediated by any particular brain region, notably the mushroom bodies. Here we describe the results of experiments that demonstrate that the mushroom bodies of the cockroach (Periplaneta americana), already shown to be involved in multimodal sensory processing, play a crucial role in place memory. Behavioral tests, based on paradigms similar to those originally used to demonstrate place memory in rats, demonstrate a rapid improvement in the ability of individual cockroaches to locate a hidden target when its position is provided by distant visual cues. Bilateral lesions of selected areas of the mushroom bodies abolish this ability but leave unimpaired the ability to locate a visible target. The present results demonstrate that the integrity of the pedunculus and medial lobe of a single mushroom body is required for place memory. The results are comparable to the results obtained from hippocampal lesions in rats and are relevant to recent studies on the effects of ablations of Drosophila mushroom bodies on locomotion.
In the cockroach Diploptera punctata, sequencing of the cDNA for the insect myoinhibitory neuropeptide, leucomyosuppressin (LMS), has demonstrated that LMS is the only Phe-Met-Arg-Phe-amide (NH2) (FMRFamide)-related peptide to be encoded by this gene (Donly et al. [1996] Insect Biochem. Mol. Biol. 26:627-637). However, in the present study, high performance liquid chromatography analysis of brain extracts showed six discrete FMRFamide-like immunoreactive fractions, one of which co-eluted with LMS. This study compared the distribution of FMRFamide-related peptides visualized by immunohistochemistry with LMS mRNA expression demonstrated by in situ hybridization in D. punctata. Immunohistochemistry with a polyclonal antiserum generated against FMRFamide, but which recognizes extended RFamide peptides, demonstrated numerous RFamide-like immunoreactive cells and processes in both nervous and nonnervous tissues. RFamide-like immunoreactivity was found in cells and processes of the brain and optic lobes, the stomatogastric nervous system, including the frontal and ingluvial ganglia, and the suboesophageal ganglion. Immunoreactivity was also present in all ganglia of the ventral nerve cord and in the alimentary canal. Within the alimentary canal, positively stained processes were found in the crop, midgut, and hindgut, and immunoreactive endocrinelike cells were located in the midgut. In situ hybridization with a digoxigenin-labeled RNA probe spanning the entire LMS coding region showed cell bodies containing LMS mRNA in all ganglia studied, other than the ingluvial ganglion. Expression was most abundant in the brain and optic lobes and in the frontal and suboesophageal ganglia. LMS mRNA was also apparent, although less intensely, in all other ganglia of the ventral nerve cord. Within the alimentary canal, LMS mRNA-positive cells were only visible in the anterior portion of the midgut, in the endocrinelike cells. The appearance of LMS mRNA in the central nervous system, stomatogastric nervous system, and midgut suggests that LMS may play a central role in Diploptera and may be associated with feeding and digestion.
The mushroom body (MB), a conspicuous neuropil structure in the insect brain, is implicated in associative memory and in some aspects of motor control. Intrinsic neurons of the MB (Kenyon cells) extend dendrites into the calyx, and their axons run through the pedunculus and then bifurcate to form the alpha and the beta lobes. At the pedunculus and the lobes, Kenyon cells make synaptic connections with dendrites of extrinsic (output) neurons. Previously, we reported that the alpha lobe of the cockroach MB consists of repetitive modular subunits (Mizunami et al. [1997] Neurosci. Lett. 229:153-156). Each subunit is composed of a dark layer and a light layer, and the layers are refereed to as slabs. Each slab is composed of axons of a specific subset of Kenyon cells. In the present study, we examined serial sections of reduced silver preparations and found that each dark and light slab continues throughout the length of the pedunculus and the alpha and beta lobes. We also found that Golgi-impregnated Kenyon cells often exhibit a characteristic grouping, forming a thin sheet interlaced by dozens or hundreds of axons. The sheet is much thinner than the slab, and each sheet remains within a particular slab throughout the length of the pedunculus and the lobes. Thus, the sheet is a component forming the slab. In the pedunculus and the beta lobe, a class of Golgi-impregnated extrinsic neurons exhibit segmented dendritelike arbors that interact with every other slab, i.e., either with only dark or light slabs. Because each neuron of this class interacts with each particular set of dark or light slabs, we conclude that the slabs are units for transmitting output signals from the MB.
The purpose of this study was to examine the mitogenic effects of 20-hydroxyecdysone on neurogenesis in mushroom bodies of the adult cockroach, Diploptera punctata. The occurrence of neurogenesis was studied immunocytochemically after in vivo labeling with 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU). The number of BrdU-labeled cells in the mushroom bodies was high shortly after adult ecdysis, then gradually decreased, and proliferation ceased on day 8. 20-Hydroxyecdysone injection during the early adult stages significantly delayed the decrease in mitotic activity. Moreover, 20-hydroxyecdysone injection during the late stage stimulated quiescent mushroom body neuroblasts to initiate their mitotic activity in a dose-dependent manner. These results indicated that the mushroom body neuroblasts of this insect become quiescent in the maturing central nervous system, but retain the capacity for proliferation if exposed to appropriate environmental signals. We conclude that 20-hydroxyecdysone has a mitogenic effect on neurogenesis in mushroom bodies of this insect.
Immunoreactivity against peptides of the allatostatin family having a typical YXFGL-NH2 C-terminus has been localized in different areas of the central nervous system, stomatogastric nervous system and gut of the cockroach Blattella germanica. In the protocerebrum, the most characteristic immunoreactive perikarya are situated in the lateral and median neurosecretory cell groups. Immunoreactive median neurosecretory cells send their axons around the circumesophageal connectives to form arborizations in the anterior neuropil of the tritocerebrum. A group of cells in the lateral aspect of the tritocerebrum project to the antennal lobes in the deutocerebrum, where immunoreactive arborizations can be seen in the periphery of individual glomeruli. Nerve terminals were shown in the corpora allata. These terminals come from perikarya situated in the lateral neurosecretory cells in the pars lateralis and in the subesophageal ganglion. Immunoreactive axons from median neurosecretory cells and from cells positioned in the anteriormost part of the tritocerebrum enter together in the stomatogastric nervous system and innervate foregut and midgut, especially the crop and the valve between the crop and the midgut. The hindgut is innervated by neurons whose perikarya are located in the last abdominal ganglion. Besides immunoreactivity in neurons, allatostatin-immunoreactive material is present in endocrine cells distributed within the whole midgut epithelium. Possible functions for these peptides according to their localization are discussed.
A partial cDNA clone of the vitellogenin gene from the cockroach Blattella germanica has been isolated from a cDNA expression library using an anti-vitellin-vitellogenin antiserum probe. The analysis of cDNA inserts gave a sequence of 2,645 nucleotides corresponding to the 3' region. The deduced amino acid sequence is 825 residues long and is similar to the homologous portion of the vitellogenin of other insect species, especially that of the mosquito Aedes aegypti. RNA hybridization studies indicated that the vitellogenin gene expression is limited to the fat body of adult females. The pattern of expression during the first vitellogenic cycle was approximately parallel to that of vitellogenin production by the fat body previously described. The availability of a cDNA probe for the B. germanica vitellogenin gene represents a useful tool to study the molecular action of hormones affecting vitellogenin synthesis in this species.
Male German cockroaches possess secretory glands that secrete fluid into a pair of transverse depressions on the seventh and eighth abdominal tergites. We investigated the effects of altered juvenoid titer during the first part of the last instar on tergal gland secretory tissue development and the production of tergal gland secretion proteins. Male fifth (last) instar nymphs (1-3 days post-emergent) were topically treated with the JH analog pyriproxyfen. Light and transmission electron microscopy demonstrated that treatment with pyriproxyfen produced a visible decrease in the amount of tergal gland tissue present, a deformation of the overall shape of the gland located on tergite seven, and a less orderly arrangement of the secretory cells in the tissue. The protein fraction of tergal gland secretion was examined in pyriproxyfen-treated and control insects 1, 5, and 15 days after the insects molted to the adult stage. Amounts of all tergal secretion proteins were reduced in treated insects.
Taurine, glycine, glutamate, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) were all present in concentrations of greater than 1% of the total free amino acid content in the brain, thoracic, and abdominal ganglia of Leucophaea maderae. Hemolymph, subesophageal ganglia, and hindgut had substantial amounts of glutamate and glycine, but less than 0.3% taurine or GABA. Taurine, 3-aminopropanesulfonic acid (3-APS), cysteine-sulfinic acid (CSA), and GABA each had myotropic activity on the isolated cockroach hindgut, with 3-APS having the most consistent effect (ED50 = 0.63 mM), while taurine and CSA activities were similar to that of GABA on the hindgut. Both taurine and 3-APS had anti-arrhythmic effects on semi-isolated heart preparations of L. maderae, while GABA was inhibitory and induced arrhythmia. Bicuculline was antagonistic to the effects of GABA, taurine, and 3-APS on the hindgut, and induced arrhythmia in heart preparations; this arrhythmia was reversible by taurine, but not by GABA or 3-APS.
The binding of [3H]quinuclidinyl benzilate to a cockroach brain preparation was investigated. Specific binding was saturable with a Kd of 0.25 nM and Scatchard analysis indicated a Bmax of 604 pmol/mg protein. Kinetic analysis indicated that the ligand is binding in a complex fashion while dissociation followed a simple kinetic process. The pharmacology of the site was typical of muscarinic receptors but the site cannot be characterized in terms of vertebrate muscarinic-receptor subtypes. Affinity of the receptor for agonists was modulated by Mg2+ and guanylylimidodiphosphate but not by pertussis toxin indicating the involvement of a pertussis-toxin insensitive G-protein. Carbamylcholine did not inhibit basal or forskolin-stimulated adenylate cyclase activity. The binding site was localized autoradiographically and was restricted to the median and lateral calyces of the brain.
gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors were examined in the cockroach central nervous system (CNS) using the single fiber-oil gap method applied to an identified giant interneuron. Short-lasting pressure application of 10 mM GABA developed a multiphasic response composed of a fast hyperpolarization followed by a transient depolarizing component and a stable hyperpolarization. This triphasic characteristic shape of the response was modified according to the dose of GABA injected or bath-applied and to the precise localization of the injection within the dendritic area. The transient depolarizing phase showed a negative reversal potential of -70 mV. Both hyperpolarizing phases reversed at a more negative level ranging to -80 mV. A positive shift of these values was caused by a decrease in external chloride concentration. Bath-application of 0.1 mM picrotoxin (Ptx) decreased the depolarizing phase which was progressively replaced by a stable hyperpolarization. The transient depolarizing component desensitized quickly and was the most sensitive phase to Ptx action. The Ptx-resistant response reversed at a mean value of -100 mV close to the equilibrium potential for potassium ions (EK+), suggesting that it was generated by a K(+)-channel coupled receptor. Although baclofen was unable to mimic the Ptx-resistant GABA response, the compound CGA 147823, known to bind with a high specificity to vertebrate GABAB receptors, has been successfully used to reproduce the Ptx-resistant GABA response. It is suggested that, in addition to GABA receptors linked to chloride channels, the insect CNS possesses GABA receptors sharing ionic characteristics of GABAB receptors especially those located in the vertebrate CNS, although they are insensitive to baclofen.