The hypopharyngeal gland (HPG) of the honeybee worker produces royal jelly (RJ) and has a developmental cycle closely related to the division of labor. In this study, we investigated to compare the HPG acini diameter of differently aged worker bees with high royal jelly producing colony (HRC) or less producing colony (LRC). Additionally, we also evaluated whether the fresh weight of the head is a reliable indicator of the developmental status of HPG. The HRC showed a significantly higher RJ production about two-times as compared with those of the LRC. We measured the HG-diameters on days 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15. The microscopic analysis revealed that the acini size of the HRC was significantly larger than the LRC. In addition, the acini diameter of HRC was 15% longer than the LRC on the first day after emerging. It was shown that the fastest development during 3 days which is preparing for nurse the brood. The HPG acini diameters increased in both colonies in a similar fashion until day 12 and then decreased. We also compared the fresh head weight of the experimental colonies, differences were similar to the development of HPG. Therefore, high royal jelly production may have a positive correlation between HPG acini size and the fresh head weight.

The centipede Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans has been a medically important arthropod species by using it as a traditional medicine for the treatment of various diseases. In this study, we derived a novel lactoferricin B like peptide (LBLP) from the whole bodies of adult centipedes, S. s. mutilans, and investigated the antifungal effect of LBLP. LBLP exerted an antifungal and fungicidal activity without hemolysis. To investigate the antifungal mechanism of LBLP, a membrane study with propidium iodide was first conducted against Candida albicans. The result showed that LBLP caused fungal membrane permeabilization. The assays of the three dimensional flow cytometric contour plot and membrane potential further showed cell shrinkage and membrane depolarization by the membrane damage. Finally, we confirmed the membrane-active mechanism of LBLP by synthesizing model membranes, calcein and FITC-dextran loaded large unilamellar vesicles. These results showed that the antifungal effect of LBLP on membrane was due to the formation of pores with radii between 0.74 nm and 1.4 nm. In conclusion, this study suggests that LBLP exerts a potent antifungal activity by pore formation in the membrane, eventually leading to fungal cell death.

The physiology of parasitic wasp control of their lepidopteran hosts' not only includes injecting their egg but also various factors such as symbiotic virus. This study was focused on the investigation of sophisticated interaction between parasitoid (Diadegma fenestrale) and their host (Plutella xylostella) in P. xylostella larva at transcriptome level, to check whether it is parasitized or not. Short-read deep sequencing method (Hiseq2000) was used for the transcriptome analysis. De novo assembly of cDNA sequence data generated 196,081 contigs between 201bp and 15,853bp in length. Some detoxification enzymes such as cytochrome P450 and Immune-related genes such as antimicrobial peptides were up-regulated after parasitism. Expression of symbiotic ichnovirus genes was detected in parasitized larvae with 55 contigs identified from five ichnovirus gene families including vankyrin, viral innexin, repeat elements, a cysteine-rich motif, and polar residue rich protein. This investigation provides a detailed information on differential expression of P. xylostella larval genes and symbiotic ichnovirus genes following parasitization.

Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP₃) plays an important role in the release of Cα²+ from intracellular stores into the cytoplasm in a variety of cell types. IP₃ translocation dynamics have been studied in response to many types of cell signals. However, the dynamics of cytosolic IP₃ in salivary acinar cells are unclear. A green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged pleckstrin homology domain (PHD) was constructed and introduced into a phospholipase C δ1 (PLC δ1) transgenic mouse, and then the salivary acinar cells were isolated. GFP-PHD was heterogeneously localized at the plasma membrane and intracellular organelles in submandibular gland and parotid gland cells. Application of trypsin, a G protein-coupled receptor activator, to the two types of cells caused an increase in GFP fluorescence in the cell cytoplasm. The observed time course of trypsin-evoked IP₃movement in acinar cells was independent of cell polarity, and the fluorescent label showed an immediate increase throughout the cells. These results suggest that GFP-PHD in many tissues of transgenic mice, including non-cultured primary cells, can be used as a model for examination of IP₃intracellular dynamics.