Motile cilia create fluid-mechanical microhabitats for the active recruitment of the host microbiome.

We show that mucociliary membranes of animal epithelia can create fluid-mechanical microenvironments for the active recruitment of the specific microbiome of the host. In terrestrial vertebrates, these tissues are typically colonized by complex consortia and are inaccessible to observation. Such tissues can be directly examined in aquatic animals, providing valuable opportunities for the analysis of mucociliary activity in relation to bacteria recruitment.

Maternal and nourishment factors interact to influence offspring developmental trajectories in social wasps.

The social and nutritional environments during early development have the potential to affect offspring traits, but the mechanisms and molecular underpinnings of these effects remain elusive. We used paper wasps to dissect how maternally controlled factors (vibrational signals and nourishment) interact to induce different caste developmental trajectories in female offspring, leading to worker or reproductive (gyne) traits. We established a set of caste phenotype biomarkers in females, finding that gyne-destined individuals had high expression of three caste-related genes hypothesized to have roles in diapause and mitochondrial metabolism.

Force-displacement measurements of earlywood bordered pits using a mesomechanical tester.

The elastic properties of pit membranes are reported to have important implications in understanding air-seeding phenomena in gymnosperms, and pit aspiration plays a large role in wood technological applications such as wood drying and preservative treatment. Here we present force-displacement measurements for pit membranes of circular bordered pits, collected on a mesomechanical testing system. The system consists of a quartz microprobe attached to a microforce sensor that is positioned and advanced with a micromanipulator mounted on an inverted microscope.

Effects of shell morphology on mechanics of zebra and quagga mussel locomotion.

Although zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) initially colonized shallow habitats within the North American Great Lakes, quagga mussels (Dreissena bugensis) are becoming dominant in both shallow- and deep-water habitats. Shell morphology differs among zebra, shallow quagga and deep quagga mussels but functional consequences of such differences are unknown. We examined effects of shell morphology on locomotion for the three morphotypes on hard (typical of shallow habitats) and soft (characteristic of deep habitats) sedimentary substrates.

A mechanical signal biases caste development in a social wasp.

Understanding the proximate mechanisms of caste development in eusocial taxa can reveal how social species evolved from solitary ancestors. In Polistes wasps, the current paradigm holds that differential amounts of nutrition during the larval stage cause the divergence of worker and gyne (potential queen) castes. But nutrition level alone cannot explain how the first few females to be produced in a colony develop rapidly yet have small body sizes and worker phenotypes.

Developmental plasticity of shell morphology of quagga mussels from shallow and deep-water habitats of the Great Lakes.

The invasive zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) has quickly colonized shallow-water habitats in the North American Great Lakes since the 1980s but the quagga mussel (Dreissena bugensis) is becoming dominant in both shallow and deep-water habitats. While quagga mussel shell morphology differs between shallow and deep habitats, functional causes and consequences of such difference are unknown. We examined whether quagga mussel shell morphology could be induced by three environmental variables through developmental plasticity.