Ambrosia grayi as a new alien causal species in Israel: plant biology and chemical management.

Background: Ambrosia grayi is a perennial weed native to northern Mexico, which can also be found in the Great Plains of the US. Outside the Americas, A. grayi has only been documented in Israel, where it is currently categorized as a casual species at advanced eradication stages.

From Motor-Output to Connectivity: An In-Depth Study of Rhythmic Patterns in the Cockroach .

The cockroach is an established model in the study of locomotion control. While previous work has offered important insights into the interplay among brain commands, thoracic central pattern generators, and the sensory feedback that shapes their motor output, there remains a need for a detailed description of the central pattern generators' motor output and their underlying connectivity scheme. To this end, we monitored pilocarpine-induced activity of levator and depressor motoneurons in two types of novel cockroach preparations: isolated thoracic ganglia and a whole-chain preparation comprising the thoracic ganglia and the subesophageal ganglion.

Endogenous rhythm and pattern-generating circuit interactions in cockroach motor centres.

Cockroaches are rapid and stable runners whose gaits emerge from the intricate, and not fully resolved, interplay between endogenous oscillatory pattern-generating networks and sensory feedback that shapes their rhythmic output. Here we studied the endogenous motor output of a brainless, deafferented preparation. We monitored the pilocarpine-induced rhythmic activity of levator and depressor motor neurons in the mesothoracic and metathoracic segments in order to reveal the oscillatory networks' architecture and interactions.

Proprioceptive feedback reinforces centrally generated stepping patterns in the cockroach.

The relative importance of sensory input for the production of centrally generated motor patterns is crucial to our understanding of how animals coordinate their body segments to locomote. In legged locomotion, where terrain heterogeneity may require stride-by-stride changes in leg placement, evidence suggests that sensory information is essential for the timing of leg movement. In a previous study we showed that in cockroaches, renowned for rapid and stable running, a coordinated pattern can be elicited from the motor centres driving the different legs in the absence of sensory feedback.