[PDF] The Biology Of The Arthropod Cuticle eBook

Author : A.C. Neville
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 460 pages
File Size : 16,17 MB
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Science
ISBN : 3642809103

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Mention the words 'arthropod cuticle' to most biologists and they usually provoke a glazed expression. This is because the cuticle is commonly regarded as an inert substance. It is hoped that this book will dispel this fallacy. The study of cuticle in its proper context now involves many of the wider aspects of biology which are currently in vogue (e. g. how a hormone like ecdyson induces a specific enzyme like dopa decarboxylase; the unsolved major problem of cell gradient and polarity; the involvement of cyclic AMP in hormonal mechanisms; the extra cellular control of cuticular enzymes, of the mechanical proper ties of cuticle structural proteins, and of the orientation of fibrous molecules; and the relation of chromosome puffing to the synthesis of specific proteins). Studies on cuticle demand a variety of techniques, and examples of the following are illustrated in this book (fluorescence, phase contrast, polariza tion and Nomarski interference microscopy; infrared absorp tion; transmission and scanning electron microscopy; autora diography analyzed by electron microscopy; negative staining in the electron microscope; optical diffraction, high angle X-ray diffraction, low angle X -ray diffraction and selected area electron diffraction). I am well aware that the biophysical parts of this book are less incomplete than other aspects. A developmental biologist or a biochemist would have further elaborated other parts ofthe subject matter. Only one previous author, RICHARDS (1951)hasdevoted a book to arthropod cuticle.

Author : T. A. Miller
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 422 pages
File Size : 20,7 MB
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Science
ISBN : 1461260760

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Insects as a group occupy a middle ground in the biosphere between bac teria and viruses at one extreme, amphibians and mammals at the other. The size and general nature of insects present special problems to the student of entomology. For example, many commercially available in struments are geared to measure in grams, while the forces commonly en countered in studying insects are in the milligram range. Therefore, tech niques developed in the study of insects or in those fields concerned with the control of insect pests are often unique. Methods for measuring things are common to all sciences. Advances sometimes depend more on how something was done than on what was measured; indeed a given field often progresses from one technique to another as new methods are discovered, developed, and modified. Just as often, some of these techniques find their way into the classroom when the problems involved have been sufficiently ironed out to permit students to master the manipulations in a few laboratory periods. Many specialized techniques are confined to one specific research labo ratory. Although methods may be considered commonplace where they are used, in another context even the simplest procedures may save con siderable time. It is the purpose of this series (1) to report new develop ments in methodology, (2) to reveal sources of groups who have dealt with and solved particular entomological problems, and (3) to describe ex periments which might be applicable for use in biology laboratory courses.

Author : Alessandro Minelli
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 530 pages
File Size : 41,26 MB
Release : 2013-04-11
Category : Science
ISBN : 3642361609

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More than two thirds of all living organisms described to date belong to the phylum Arthropoda. But their diversity, as measured in terms of species number, is also accompanied by an amazing disparity in terms of body form, developmental processes, and adaptations to every inhabitable place on Earth, from the deepest marine abysses to the earth surface and the air. The Arthropoda also include one of the most fashionable and extensively studied of all model organisms, the fruit-fly, whose name is not only linked forever to Mendelian and population genetics, but has more recently come back to centre stage as one of the most important and more extensively investigated models in developmental genetics. This approach has completely changed our appreciation of some of the most characteristic traits of arthropods as are the origin and evolution of segments, their regional and individual specialization, and the origin and evolution of the appendages. At approximately the same time as developmental genetics was eventually turning into the major agent in the birth of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo), molecular phylogenetics was challenging the traditional views on arthropod phylogeny, including the relationships among the four major groups: insects, crustaceans, myriapods, and chelicerates. In the meantime, palaeontology was revealing an amazing number of extinct forms that on the one side have contributed to a radical revisitation of arthropod phylogeny, but on the other have provided evidence of a previously unexpected disparity of arthropod and arthropod-like forms that often challenge a clear-cut delimitation of the phylum.

Author : Stanislav S. N. Gorb
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 314 pages
File Size : 20,12 MB
Release : 2007-05-08
Category : Science
ISBN : 0306475154

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In 1974 when I published my book, Biological Mechanism of Attachment, not many pages were required to report on the attachment devices of insect cuticles. As in most fields of research, our knowledge on this specific subject has simply exploded. Dr. Stanislav N. Gorb now describes the present day level of our knowledge, to which he has personally contributed so much, and a research team working on biological microtribology has gradually developed, also. With modern methods of measurement it is possible to enter the structure – function relationship much more deeply, even down to a molecular level, which was not possible two and a half decades ago. It is a well known fact that, in biology, the more sophisticated the measuring method, the greater the achievement of biological fundamental research, and its resulting evidence. Our knowledge remains at a certain level until new methods once more permit a forward leap. Biological knowledge develops in the form of a stepped curve rather than linear, as reflected in the studies carried out on the attachment devices of insect cuticles.

Author : Stanislav Gorb
Publisher : Springer
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 44,67 MB
Release : 2014-03-14
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789401741323

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In 1974 when I published my book, Biological Mechanism of Attachment, not many pages were required to report on the attachment devices of insect cuticles. As in most fields of research, our knowledge on this specific subject has simply exploded. Dr. Stanislav N. Gorb now describes the present day level of our knowledge, to which he has personally contributed so much, and a research team working on biological microtribology has gradually developed, also. With modern methods of measurement it is possible to enter the structure – function relationship much more deeply, even down to a molecular level, which was not possible two and a half decades ago. It is a well known fact that, in biology, the more sophisticated the measuring method, the greater the achievement of biological fundamental research, and its resulting evidence. Our knowledge remains at a certain level until new methods once more permit a forward leap. Biological knowledge develops in the form of a stepped curve rather than linear, as reflected in the studies carried out on the attachment devices of insect cuticles.