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  • 1
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Journal of comparative physiology 176 (1995), S. 551-562 
    ISSN: 1432-1351
    Keywords: Hawk moth ; Visually guided behaviour ; Drift compensation ; Velocity response ; Gain-frequency relationship
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Medicine
    Notes: Abstract 1. The European hawk moth Macroglossum stellatarum, while collecting nectar in hovering flight in front of flowers, follows moving stripe patterns in the lateral visual field. This response counteracts a second one, that is the animals' effort to stabilize their distance from dummy flowers. We investigated the response to motion stimuli in the lateral visual field using sinusoidally oscillating stripe patterns (Fig. 1), as well as its interaction with the distance stabilizing response. 2. In both responses moths attempt to compensate for image speed. The balance between the two depends on the number of elementary motion detectors stimulated by the dummy flower and the stripe pattern, respectively. Increasing the diameter of the dummy flower (Figs. 2 to 4) or the spatial frequency of the stripe pattern (Fig. 7) shifts the balance in favour of distance stabilization. The reverse is true when the length of the stripes in the pattern (Fig. 5) or their number is increased (Fig. 6). It does not matter whether the stripe pattern is presented in the lateral (Fig. 4A) or in the dorsal and ventral visual field (Fig. 4B). 3. The gain-frequency relations of the response to the lateral stripe pattern obtained with dummies in two different positions within the drum have their maxima around 3 Hz and decline rapidly towards lower and higher frequencies like the response of a bandpass filter. The distance stabilizing response also has bandpass properties, but with a broad plateau between 0.15 and 5 Hz (Fig. 8). The most likely explanation for this difference is that there is a regional or direction-dependent variation of motion detector properties. 4. The responses to ramp-like stimuli are phasic in accordance with the amplitude frequency characteristics, but the responses to progressive (front to back) and regressive motion of the pattern differ (Figs 9, 10). 5. The response appears to depend on the azimuthal position of the stripe pattern within the visual field (Fig. 11). It is strongest when the pattern covers equally large parts of the frontal and caudal visual fields. The optomotor sensitivity to translational pattern motion is higher in the frontal than in the caudal visual field (Fig. 12, Table 1). 6. When the stripe pattern on one side is removed, the response amplitude is halved. There is no detectable turning response around the vertical axis to the oscillation of the stripe pattern (Fig. 13, Table 2). 7. The possible role of the response to pattern movements parallel to the longitudinal body axis under natural conditions is discussed.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
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  • 2
    ISSN: 1432-2285
    Keywords: Citric acid ; Clusia ; Crassulacean acid metabolism ; Malic acid ; Tropics ; Venezuela
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition
    Notes: Summary The performance of crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) by dicotyledonous trees of the genusClusia sampled at three sites in the state of Falcon in northern Venezuela is characterized.Clusia leaves have a somewhat succulent appearance. Unlike leaves of many other CAM plants, which are uniformly built up of very large isodiametric cells, there are distinct layers of palisade and spongy mesophyll, with individual cells being smaller. There is no specialized water storage tissue. δ13C values indicate thatC. multiflora in the elfin-cloud forest on top of Cerro Santa Ana, at ∼800 m altitude, performs C3 photosynthesis (δ13 −27.1‰). However,C. rosea in the tall cloud forest on Cerro Santa Ana (∼600m altitude), andC. rosea andC. alata in the dry forest on Serrania San Luis (∼900 m altitude) perform CAM (δ13C −14.1 to −19.2‰). InC. alta andC. rosea there were large day-night changes in the levels of malic and citric acids ranging from 63 to 240 mmol 1−1 for malid acid and from 35 to 112 mmol 1−1 for citric acid. The sum of the changes in malate and citrate levels accounts for the changes of titratable protons measured. With a day-night change of titratable protons of 768 mmol 1−1 in one of the analyses,C. rosea showed the highest value yet encountered in a CAM plant. Oscillations of free sugars (fructose, glucose, sucrose) and of starch were also analysed in the CAM performingClusia species. Carbon skeletons of the precursors involved in nocturnal malate and citrate synthesis largely derive from free sugars and not from polyglucan. Unlike some other CAM plants, there is no clear and quantitative correlation between day-night changes of organic acid levels and cell sap osmolality.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
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  • 3
    ISSN: 1432-2048
    Keywords: Aloe ; Crassulacean acid metabolism ; CO2 fixation ; Phosphoenolpyruvate-carboxylase ; Water tissue
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract In the succulent leaves of Aloe arborescens Mill diurnal oscillations of the malic acid content, being indicative of Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM), were exhibited only by the green mesophyll. In contrast, the malic acid level of the central chloroplast-free water-storing tissue remained constant throughout the day-night cycle. Apart from malate, the green tissue contained high amounts of isocitrat which was lacking in the water tissue. There was no significant transfer from the green mesophyll to the water tissue of 14C fixed originally via dark 14CO2 fixation in the mesophyll. Both isolated mesophyll and water tissue were capable of dark CO2 fixation yielding mainly malate as the first stable product. Both tissues have phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase. However, the enzymes derived from the both sources could be distinguished by their molecular weights and by their kinetic properties, suggesting different phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase proteins. The conclusion drawn from the experiments is that in a. arborescens the CAM cycle proceeds exclusively in the green mesophyll and that the water tissue, though capable of malate synthesis via β-carboxylation of phosphoenolpyruvate, behaves as an independent metabolic system where CAM is lacking. This view is supported by the finding that the cell walls bordering the green mesophyll from the water tissue lack plasmodesmata, hence conveniant pathways of metabolite transport.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
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