The Cricket as a Model Organism

This book covers a broad range of topics about the cricket from its development, regeneration, physiology, nervous system, and behavior with remarkable recent updates by adapting the new, sophisticated molecular techniques including RNAi and other genome editing methods. It also provides detailed protocols on an array of topics and for basic experiments on the cricket.While the cricket has been one of the best models for neuroethological studies over the past 60 years, it has now become the most important system for studying basal hemimetabolous insects. The studies of Gryllus and related species of cricket will yield insight into evolutionary features that are not evident in other insect model systems, which mainly focus on holometabolous insects such as Drosophila, Tribolium, and Bombyx. Research on crickets and grasshoppers will be important for the development of pest-control strategies, given that some of the most notorious pests also belong to the order Orthoptera. At the same time, crickets possess an enormously high "food conversion efficiency", making them a potentially important food source for an ever-expanding human population.This volume provides a comprehensive source of information as well as potential new applications in pest management and food production of the cricket. It will inspire scientists in various disciplines to use the cricket model system to investigate interesting and innovative questions.

Auteur

Hadley Wilson Horch
Affiliation: Bowdoin College
Address: 6500 College Station, Brunswick, ME 04011, USA

Taro Mito

Affiliation: Tokushima University
Address: 2-1 Minami-jyosanjima-cho, Tokushima City 770-8506, Japan

Aleksandar Popadi

Affiliation: Wayne State University
Address: Biological Sciences Department, Detroit, MI 48202, USA

Hideyo Ohuchi

Affiliation: Okayama University, Department of Cytology and Histology
Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Address: 2-5-1 Shikata-cho, Kita-ku, Okayama City 700-8558, Japan

Sumihare Noji

Affiliation: Tokushima University
Address: 2-14 Shinkura-cho, Tokushiam City 770-8501, Japan

Contenu
Preface.- Part I Development and Regeneration.- 1 History of cricket biology.- 2 Early development and diversity of Gryllus appendages.- 3 Leg formation and regeneration.- 4 Eye development and photoreception of a hemimetabolous insect, Gryllus bimaculatus.- 5 An early embryonic diapause stage and developmental plasticity in the band-legged ground cricket Dianemobius nigrofasciatus.- Part II Physiology, Nervous System, and Behavior.- 6 Molecular approach to the circadian clock mechanism in the cricket.- 7 Hormonal circadian rhythm in the wing-polymorphic cricket Gryllus firmus: Integrating chronobiology, endocrinology and evolution.- 8 Plasticity in the cricket central nervous system.- 9 Learning and memory.- 10 Neurons and networks underlying singing behaviour.- 11 The cricket auditory pathway: neural processing of acoustic signals.- 12 Neuromodulators and the control of aggression in crickets.- 13 Fighting behaviorUnderstanding the mechanisms of group size-dependent aggression..- 14 Cercal system-mediated anti-predator behaviors.- 15 The biochemical basis of life history adaptation: Gryllus studies lead the way.- 16 Reproductive behavior and physiology in the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus .- Part III Experimental Approaches.- 17 Protocols for olfactory conditioning experiments.- 18 Optical recording methods--How to measure of neural activities with Calcium imaging.- 19 Trackball systems for analyzing cricket phonotaxis.- 20 Synthetic approaches for observing and measuring cricket behaviors.- 21 Protocols in the cricket.- BM Index.