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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Jul 2016Understanding animal terrestrialization, the process through which animals colonized the land, is crucial to clarify extant biodiversity and biological adaptation.... (Review)
Review
Understanding animal terrestrialization, the process through which animals colonized the land, is crucial to clarify extant biodiversity and biological adaptation. Arthropoda (insects, spiders, centipedes and their allies) represent the largest majority of terrestrial biodiversity. Here we implemented a molecular palaeobiological approach, merging molecular and fossil evidence, to elucidate the deepest history of the terrestrial arthropods. We focused on the three independent, Palaeozoic arthropod terrestrialization events (those of Myriapoda, Hexapoda and Arachnida) and showed that a marine route to the colonization of land is the most likely scenario. Molecular clock analyses confirmed an origin for the three terrestrial lineages bracketed between the Cambrian and the Silurian. While molecular divergence times for Arachnida are consistent with the fossil record, Myriapoda are inferred to have colonized land earlier, substantially predating trace or body fossil evidence. An estimated origin of myriapods by the Early Cambrian precedes the appearance of embryophytes and perhaps even terrestrial fungi, raising the possibility that terrestrialization had independent origins in crown-group myriapod lineages, consistent with morphological arguments for convergence in tracheal systems.This article is part of the themed issue 'Dating species divergences using rocks and clocks'.
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Biological Evolution; Ecosystem; Evolution, Molecular; Fossils; Phylogeny
PubMed: 27325830
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0133 -
Journal of Comparative Physiology. A,... Mar 2020
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Brain; Drosophila melanogaster; Feedback, Sensory; Vision, Ocular; Visual Pathways; Visual Perception
PubMed: 32036403
DOI: 10.1007/s00359-020-01407-9 -
Revue Scientifique Et Technique... May 2022The majority of worldwide trading in live arthropods is done by specialised companies that produce and distribute beneficial insects, mites and nematodes for...
The majority of worldwide trading in live arthropods is done by specialised companies that produce and distribute beneficial insects, mites and nematodes for augmentative biological control of pests on crops. These beneficial arthropods, predators or parasitoids of crop pests and some nuisance species, which are harmless to humans, plants and other animals, are mass-reared, transported and released in the target environment as a viable alternative to chemical pesticides. As such, they play a major role in achieving a more sustainable and regenerative agriculture. Thousands of international air shipments are performed yearly by up to 30 major companies. Over the decades that this industry has been active, no significant transport problems have arisen. This is due to stringent standards that the industry has generated, including designated departments to deal with quality control and logistics, as well as guides for each species concerning packaging, storage and transport conditions. In addition, transporters always adhere to the regulatory standards of the importing and exporting countries, which is attested to by the documents included by the companies with each shipment. Two major issues arise when shipping live arthropods: first, the need to maintain stable environmental conditions within the shipping units (maintaining a cool chain) and, second, minimising transport time (preventing delays). This paper discusses the procedures implemented by the companies to assure quality, the documents required and provided currently, and the challenges to the safe transportation of beneficial organisms.
Topics: Agriculture; Animals; Arthropods; Crops, Agricultural; Humans; Insecta; Pest Control, Biological
PubMed: 35925633
DOI: 10.20506/rst.41.1.3304 -
Microbiology Spectrum Oct 2018Arthropods are small invertebrate animals, among which some species are hematophagous. It is during their blood meal that they can transmit pathogenic microorganisms... (Review)
Review
Arthropods are small invertebrate animals, among which some species are hematophagous. It is during their blood meal that they can transmit pathogenic microorganisms that they may be harboring to the vertebrate host that they parasitize, which in turn will potentially develop a vector-borne disease. The transmission may occur directly through their bite, but also through contaminated feces. Zoonotic diseases, diseases that can naturally be transmitted between humans and animals, are a considerable part of emerging diseases worldwide, and a major part of them are vector-borne. Research and public attention has long been focused on malaria and mosquito-borne arboviruses, and bacterial vector-borne diseases remains today a neglected field of medical entomology. Despite the emphasis on Lyme disease in recent decades, and despite the major outbreaks caused by bacteria in the last few centuries, this field has in fact been poorly explored and is therefore relatively poorly known, other than the most famous examples such as the plague and epidemic typhus outbreaks. Here we propose to review the state of knowledge of bacterial agents transmitted by arthropod vectors.
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Bacteria; Bacterial Infections; Culicidae; Disease Outbreaks; Humans; Insect Vectors; Insecta; Lyme Disease; Phthiraptera; Siphonaptera; Typhus, Epidemic Louse-Borne
PubMed: 30306888
DOI: 10.1128/microbiolspec.MTBP-0017-2016 -
Frontiers in Cellular and Infection... 2020
Topics: Animals; Arthropod Vectors; Arthropods; Saliva; Ticks
PubMed: 33585290
DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2020.630626 -
Current Biology : CB Jun 2019Arthropods are the most diverse animal phylum, and their phylogenetic relationships have been debated for centuries. With the advent of molecular phylogenetics,... (Review)
Review
Arthropods are the most diverse animal phylum, and their phylogenetic relationships have been debated for centuries. With the advent of molecular phylogenetics, arthropods were found to be monophyletic and placed within a clade of molting animals, the ecdysozoans, with nematodes and six other phyla. Molecular phylogenetics also provided a new framework for relationships between the major arthropod groups, such as the clade Pancrustacea, which comprises insects and crustaceans. Phylogenomics based on second-generation genomics and transcriptomics has further resolved puzzles such as the exact position of myriapods or the closest crustacean relatives of hexapods. It is now broadly recognized that extant arthropods are split into chelicerates and mandibulates, and relationships within the two mandibulate clades (myriapods and pancrustaceans) are stabilizing. Notably, the phylogeny of insects is now understood with considerable confidence, whereas relationships among chelicerate orders remain poorly resolved. The evolutionary history of arthropods is illuminated by a rich record of fossils, often with exquisite preservation, but current analyses conflict over whether certain fossil groups are stem- or crown-group arthropods. Molecular time-trees calibrated with fossils estimate the origins of arthropods to be in the Ediacaran, while most other deep nodes date to the Cambrian. The earliest stem-group arthropods were lobopodians, worm-like animals with annulated appendages. Confidently placing some key extinct clades on the arthropod tree of life may require less ambiguous interpretation of fossil structures and better integration of morphological data into the phylogeny.
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Biological Evolution; Fossils; Genome; Phylogeny
PubMed: 31211983
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.057 -
Biochemistry Feb 2017Arthropods, especially ticks and mosquitoes, are the vectors for a number of parasitic and viral human diseases, including malaria, sleeping sickness, Dengue, and Zika,... (Review)
Review
Arthropods, especially ticks and mosquitoes, are the vectors for a number of parasitic and viral human diseases, including malaria, sleeping sickness, Dengue, and Zika, yet arthropods show tremendous individual variation in their capacity to transmit disease. A key factor in this capacity is the group of genetically encoded immune factors that counteract infection by the pathogen. Arthropod-specific pattern recognition receptors and protease cascades detect and respond to infection. Proteins such as antimicrobial peptides, thioester-containing proteins, and transglutaminases effect responses such as lysis, phagocytosis, melanization, and agglutination. Effector responses are initiated by damage signals such as reactive oxygen species signaling from epithelial cells and recognized by cell surface receptors on hemocytes. Antiviral immunity is primarily mediated by siRNA pathways but coupled with interferon-like signaling, antimicrobial peptides, and thioester-containing proteins. Molecular mechanisms of immunity are closely linked to related traits of longevity and fertility, and arthropods have the capacity for innate immunological memory. Advances in understanding vector immunity can be leveraged to develop novel control strategies for reducing the rate of transmission of both ancient and emerging threats to global health.
Topics: Animals; Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; Arthropod Proteins; Arthropod Vectors; Arthropods; Fertility; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Immunity, Innate; Insect Proteins; Peptide Hydrolases; Phagocytosis; Reactive Oxygen Species; Receptors, Pattern Recognition
PubMed: 28072517
DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.6b00870 -
Current Biology : CB Oct 2015
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Biological Evolution; Fossils; Invertebrates; Phylogeny
PubMed: 26439350
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.07.028 -
Scientific Reports Mar 2023Arthropods typically possess two types of eyes-compound eyes, and the ocellar, so called 'median eyes'. Only trilobites, an important group of arthropods during the...
Arthropods typically possess two types of eyes-compound eyes, and the ocellar, so called 'median eyes'. Only trilobites, an important group of arthropods during the Palaeozoic, seem not to possess median eyes. While compound eyes are in focus of many investigations, median eyes are not as well considered. Here we give an overview of the occurence of median eyes in the arthropod realm and their phylogenetic relationship to other ocellar eye-systems among invertebrates. We discuss median eyes as represented in the fossil record e.g. in arthropods of the Cambrian fauna, and document median eyes in trilobites the first time. We make clear that ocellar systems, homologue to median eyes and possibly their predecessors are the primordial visual system, and that the compound eyes evolved later. Furthermore, the original number of median eyes is two, as retained in chelicerates. Four, probably the consequence of a gene-dublication, can be found for example in basal crustaceans, three is a derived number by fusion of the central median eyes and characterises Mandibulata. Median eyes are present in larval trilobites, but lying below a probably thin, translucent cuticle, as described here, which explains why they have hitherto escaped detection. So this article gives a review about the complexity of representation and evolution of median eyes among arthropods, and fills the gap of missing median eyes in trilobites. Thus now the number of median eyes represented in an arthropod is an important tool to find its position in the phylogenetic tree.
Topics: Animals; Phylogeny; Biological Evolution; Arthropods; Crustacea; Fossils
PubMed: 36890176
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-31089-7 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... May 2016Aquaculture contributes more than one-third of the animal protein from marine sources worldwide. A significant proportion of aquaculture products are derived from marine... (Review)
Review
Aquaculture contributes more than one-third of the animal protein from marine sources worldwide. A significant proportion of aquaculture products are derived from marine protostomes that are commonly referred to as 'marine invertebrates'. Among them, penaeid shrimp (Ecdysozosoa, Arthropoda) and bivalve molluscs (Lophotrochozoa, Mollusca) are economically important. Mass rearing of arthropods and molluscs causes problems with pathogens in aquatic ecosystems that are exploited by humans. Remarkably, species of corals (Cnidaria) living in non-exploited ecosystems also suffer from devastating infectious diseases that display intriguing similarities with those affecting farmed animals. Infectious diseases affecting wild and farmed animals that are present in marine environments are predicted to increase in the future. This paper summarizes the role of the main pathogens and their interaction with host immunity, with a specific focus on antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and pathogen resistance against AMPs. We provide a detailed review of penaeid shrimp AMPs and their role at the interface between the host and its resident/pathogenic microbiota. We also briefly describe the relevance of marine invertebrate AMPs in an applied context.This article is part of the themed issue 'Evolutionary ecology of arthropod antimicrobial peptides'.
Topics: Animals; Anti-Infective Agents; Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; Invertebrates; Penaeidae
PubMed: 27160602
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0300