Sharing voxelwise neuroimaging results from rhesus monkeys and other species with Neurovault.

Animal neuroimaging studies can provide unique insights into brain structure and function, and can be leveraged to bridge the gap between animal and human neuroscience. In part, this power comes from the ability to combine mechanistic interventions with brain-wide neuroimaging. Due to their phylogenetic proximity to humans, nonhuman primate neuroimaging holds particular promise. Because nonhuman primate neuroimaging studies are often underpowered, there is a great need to share data amongst translational researchers. Data sharing efforts have been limited, however, by the lack of standardized tools and repositories through which nonhuman neuroimaging data can easily be archived and accessed. Here, we provide an extension of the Neurovault framework to enable sharing of statistical maps and related voxelwise neuroimaging data from other species and template-spaces. Neurovault, which was previously limited to human neuroimaging data, now allows researchers to easily upload and share nonhuman primate neuroimaging results. This promises to facilitate open, integrative, cross-species science while affording researchers the increased statistical power provided by data aggregation. In addition, the Neurovault code-base now enables the addition of other species and template-spaces. Together, these advances promise to bring neuroimaging data sharing to research in other species, for supplemental data, location-based atlases, and data that would otherwise be relegated to a "file-drawer". As increasing numbers of researchers share their nonhuman neuroimaging data on Neurovault, this resource will enable novel, large-scale, cross-species comparisons that were previously impossible.

International collaboration on Russian spacecraft and the case for free flyer biosatellites.

Animal research has been critical to the initiation and progress of space exploration. Animals were the original explorers of "space" two centuries ago and have played a crucial role by demonstrating that the space environment, with precautions, is compatible with human survival. Studies of mammals have yielded much of our knowledge of space physiology. As spaceflights to other planets are anticipated, animal research will continue to be essential to further reveal space physiology and to enable the longer missions. Much of the physiology data collected from space was obtained from the Cosmos (Bion) spaceflights, a series of Russian (Soviet)-International collaborative flights, over a 22 year period, which employed unmanned, free flyer biosatellites. Begun as a Soviet-only program, after the second flight the Russians invited American and other foreign scientists to participate. This program filled the 10 year hiatus between the last US biosatellite and the first animal experiments on the shuttles. Of the 11 flights in the Cosmos program nine of them were international; the flights continued over the years regardless of political differences between the Soviet Union and the Western world. The science evolved from sharing tissues to joint international planning and development, and from rat postmortem tissue analysis to in vivo measurements of a host of monkey physiological parameters during flight. Many types of biological specimens were carried on the modified Vostok spacecraft, but only the mammalian studies are discussed herein. The types of studies done encompass the full range of physiology and have begun to answer "critical" questions of space physiology posed by various ad hoc committees. The studies have not only yielded a prodigious and significant body of data, they have also introduced some new perspectives in physiology. A number of the physiological insights gained are relevant to physiology on Earth. The Cosmos flights also added significantly to flight-related technology, some of which also has application on our planet. In summary, the Cosmos biosatellite flights were extremely productive and of low cost. The Bion vehicles are versatile in that they can be placed into a variety of orbits and altitudes, and can carry radiation sources or other hazardous material which cannot be carried on manned vehicles. With recent advances in sensor, robotic, and data processing technology, future free flyers will be even more productive, and will largely preclude the need to fly animal experiments on manned vehicles. Currently, mammalian researchers do not have access to space for an unknown time, seriously impeding the advancement and understanding of space physiology during long duration missions. Initiation of a new, international program of free flyer biosatellites is critical to our further understanding of space physiology, and essential to continued human exploration of space.

Effects of cotton cultivar on fitness costs associated with resistance of pink bollworm (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) to Bt cotton.

Fitness costs associated with insect resistance to transgenic crops producing toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) reduce the fitness on non-Bt refuge plants of resistant individuals relative to susceptible individuals. Because costs may vary among host plants, choosing refuge cultivars that increase the dominance or magnitude of costs could help to delay resistance. Specifically, cultivars with high concentrations of toxic phytochemicals could magnify costs. To test this hypothesis, we compared life history traits of three independent sets of pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders), populations on two cotton cultivars that differed in antibiosis against this cotton pest. Each set had an unselected susceptible population, a resistant population derived by selection from the susceptible population, and the F1 progeny of the susceptible and resistant populations. Confirming previous findings with pink bollworm feeding on cotton, costs primarily affected survival and were recessive on both cultivars. The magnitude of the survival cost did not differ between cultivars. Although the experimental results did not reveal differences between cultivars in the magnitude or dominance of costs, modeling results suggest that differences between cultivars in pink bollworm survival could affect resistance evolution. Thus, knowledge of the interaction between host plants and fitness costs associated with resistance to Bt crops could be helpful in guiding the choice of refuge cultivars.

Chronoastrobiology: proposal, nine conferences, heliogeomagnetics, transyears, near-weeks, near-decades, phylogenetic and ontogenetic memories.

"Chronoastrobiology: are we at the threshold of a new science? Is there a critical mass for scientific research?" A simple photograph of the planet earth from outer space was one of the greatest contributions of space exploration. It drove home in a glance that human survival depends upon the wobbly dynamics in a thin and fragile skin of water and gas that covers a small globe in a mostly cold and vast universe. This image raised the stakes in understanding our place in that universe, in finding out where we came from and in choosing a path for survival. Since that landmark photograph was taken, new astronomical and biomedical information and growing computer power have been revealing that organic life, including human life, is and has been connected to invisible (non-photic) forces, in that vast universe in some surprising ways. Every cell in our body is bathed in an external and internal environment of fluctuating magnetism. It is becoming clear that the fluctuations are primarily caused by an intimate and systematic interplay between forces within the bowels of the earth--which the great physician and father of magnetism William Gilbert called a 'small magnet'--and the thermonuclear turbulence within the sun, an enormously larger magnet than the earth, acting upon organisms, which are minuscule magnets. It follows and is also increasingly apparent that these external fluctuations in magnetic fields can affect virtually every circuit in the biological machinery to a lesser or greater degree, depending both on the particular biological system and on the particular properties of the magnetic fluctuations. The development of high technology instruments and computer power, already used to visualize the human heart and brain, is furthermore making it obvious that there is a statistically predictable time structure to the fluctuations in the sun's thermonuclear turbulence and thus to its magnetic interactions with the earth's own magnetic field and hence a time structure to the magnetic fields in organisms. Likewise in humans, and in at least those other species that have been studied, computer power has enabled us to discover statistically defined endogenous physiological rhythms and further direct effects that are associated with these invisible geo- and heliomagnetic cycles. Thus, what once might have been dismissed as noise in both magnetic and physiological data does in fact have structure. And we may be at the threshold of understanding the biological and medical meaning and consequences of these patterns and biological-astronomical linkages as well. Structures in time are called chronomes; their mapping in us and around us is called chronomics. The scientific study of chronomes is chronobiology. And the scientific study of all aspects of biology related to the cosmos has been called astrobiology. Hence we may dub the new study of time structures in biology with regard to influences from cosmo- helio- and geomagnetic rhythms chronoastrobiology. It has, of course, been understood for centuries that the movements of the earth in relation to the sun produce seasonal and daily cycles in light energy and that these have had profound effects on the evolution of life. It is now emerging that rhythmic events generated from within the sun itself, as a large turbulent magnet in its own right, can have direct effects upon life on earth. Moreover, comparative studies of diverse species indicate that there have also been ancient evolutionary effects shaping the endogenous chronomic physiological characteristics of life. Thus the rhythms of the sun can affect us not only directly, but also indirectly through the chronomic patterns that solar magnetic rhythms have created within our physiology in the remote past. For example, we can document the direct exogenous effects of given specific solar wind events upon human blood pressure and heart rate. We also have evidence of endogenous internal rhythms in blood pressure and heart rate that are close to but not identical to the period length of rhythms in the solar wind. These were installed genetically by natural selection at some time in the distant geological past. This interpretive model of the data makes the prediction that the internal and external influences on heart rate and blood pressure can reinforce or cancel each other out at different times. A study of extensive clinical and physiological data shows that the interpretive model is robust and that internal and external effects are indeed augmentative at a statistically significant level. Chronoastrobiological studies are contributing to basic science--that is, our understanding is being expanded as we recognize heretofore unelaborated linkages of life to the complex dynamics of the sun, and even to heretofore unelaborated evolutionary phenomena. Once, one might have thought of solar storms as mere transient 'perturbations' to biology, with no lasting importance. Now we are on the brink of understanding that solar turbulences have played a role in shaping endogenous physiological chronomes. There is even documentation for correlations between solar magnetic cycles and psychological swings, eras of belligerence and of certain expressions of sacred or religious feelings. Chronoastrobiology can surely contribute to practical applications as well as to basic science. It can help develop refinements in our ability to live safely in outer space, where for example at the distance of the moon the magnetic influences of the sun will have an effect upon humans unshielded by the earth's native magnetic field. We should be better able to understand these influences as physiological and mechanical challenges, and to improve our estimations of the effects of exposure. Chronoastrobiology moreover holds great promise in broadening our perspectives and powers in medicine and public health right here upon the surface of the earth. Even the potential relevance of chronoastrobiology for practical environmental and agricultural challenges cannot be ruled out at this early stage in our understanding of the apparently ubiquitous effects of magnetism and hence perhaps of solar magnetism on life. The evidence already mentioned that fluctuations in solar magnetism can influence gross clinical phenomena such as rates of strokes and heart attacks, and related cardiovascular variables such as blood pressure and heart rate, should illustrate the point that the door is open to broad studies of clinical implications. The medical value of better understanding magnetic fluctuations as sources of variability in human physiology falls into several categories: 1) The design of improved analytical and experimental controls in medical research. Epidemiological analyses require that the multiple sources causing variability in physiological functions and clinical phenomena be identified and understood as thoroughly as possible, in order to estimate systematic alterations of any one variable. 2) Preventive medicine and the individual patients'care. There are no flat 'baselines', only reference chronomes. Magnetic fluctuations can be shown statistically to exacerbate health problems in some cases. The next step should be to determine whether vulnerable individuals can be identified by individual monitoring. Such vulnerable patients may then discover that they have the option to avoid circumstances associated with anxiety during solar storms, and/or pay special attention to their medication or other treatments. Prehabilitation by self-help can hopefully complement and eventually replace much costly rehabilitation. 3) Basic understanding of human physiological mechanisms. The chronomic organization of physiology implies a much more subtle dynamic integration of functions than is generally appreciated. All three categories of medical value in turn pertain to the challenges for space science of exploring and colonizing the solar system. The earth's native magnetic field acts like an enormous umbrella that offers considerable protection on the surface from harsh solar winds of charged particles and magnetic fluxes. The umbrella becomes weaker with distance from the earth and will offer little protection for humans, other animals, and plants in colonies on the surface of the moon or beyond. Thus it is important before more distant colonization is planned or implemented to better understand those magnetism-related biological- solar interactions that now can be studied conveniently on earth. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)

Three cadherin alleles associated with resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis in pink bollworm.

Evolution of resistance by pests is the main threat to long-term insect control by transgenic crops that produce Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins. Because inheritance of resistance to the Bt toxins in transgenic crops is typically recessive, DNA-based screening for resistance alleles in heterozygotes is potentially much more efficient than detection of resistant homozygotes with bioassays. Such screening, however, requires knowledge of the resistance alleles in field populations of pests that are associated with survival on Bt crops. Here we report that field populations of pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella), a major cotton pest, harbored three mutant alleles of a cadherin-encoding gene linked with resistance to Bt toxin Cry1Ac and survival on transgenic Bt cotton. Each of the three resistance alleles has a deletion expected to eliminate at least eight amino acids upstream of the putative toxin-binding region of the cadherin protein. Larvae with two resistance alleles in any combination were resistant, whereas those with one or none were susceptible to Cry1Ac. Together with previous evidence, the results reported here identify the cadherin gene as a leading target for DNA-based screening of resistance to Bt crops in lepidopteran pests.

Monitoring lab animal feeding by using subcutaneous microchip transponders: validation of use with group-housed rats.

Groups of three rats were fitted with subcutaneous microchip transponders typically used for animal identification. Each group was housed in a custom-designed plastic cage, which contained a pellet feeder tunnel instrumented with a ring-type sensor. The animals were continuously videorecorded for 24 h by using illumination invisible to them during the dark cycle. We performed four experiments in which video confirmation of feeding (i.e., pellet dispensing) was compared to identification of a specific animal by the automated microchip scanning system. When the system was optimized in two experiments, the accuracy of feeding with detection was 96% and 99%. These figures represent 420 pellets dispensed per 24 h in one study and 252 pellets dispensed per 24 h in the other. The use of subcutaneous microchip transponders is an effective method to monitor the individual feeding behaviors of rats housed in groups.