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Functional Morphology - Science topic
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I am looking to model how expression of a target gene from a state of dysfunction (i.e., knockout; CRISPR-Cas9 induced) to overexpression may influence aspects of neuronal functioning/morphology using patient-derived hiPSCs. The gene itself is associated with several neurodevelopmental phenotypes, so I would like to measure the effects from the iPS cell state -> NPCs -> neuronal state to try and capture whether the degree of expression influences the ability of the cells to mature into neurons.
The target gene itself is quite large (>195kb), so it was suggested to me to apply CRISPRa to achieve overexpression as this makes use of endogenous transcriptional machinery to upregulate the target. However, I have not come across any published articles where (1) gene upregulation is initiated prior to and sustained throughout the differentiation process (i.e., the CRISPRa system is introduced once the cells are at the desired cellular phenotype), or (2) upregulation is maintained over an extended time course. The latter may be necessary to allow me to measure functional outputs of interest. I am thinking an inducible system approach would be useful here, but am open to suggestions!
I am very green in this area of research, and CRISPRa has not been previously attempted in my lab, so would immensely appreciate any advice/recommendations on how I might approach this!
Thanks :)
I want to do research on some insects organs association of functional morphology, there I want steps and procedure to make research. Please help me. Here I have attached pictures for reference
The mitochondria present in heart, liver, kidney and brain cells, are they all the same?
Do they have any difference in function, morphology?
I'm aware of quite a few sites out there (e.g. morphobrowser, morphosource, nespos, evans) but I'm always looking for more.
In particular, I'm looking for ones that have CT scans high quality enough to do research with...i.e. the Digital Morphology Museum, KUPRI has a TON of amazing primate CT scans for free download. However, they're not particularly high quality, making it difficult to use for anything other than gross geometric measurements and/or teaching.
Dear colleagues,
For our current project into the functional morphology and evolution of leaping in small new world monkeys, we are looking for postcranial material of the tamarins and marmosets (Primates: Callitrichidae). Specifically, we are looking for museum collections that house lots of (preferentially) disarticulated limb long bones that we could either borrow or CT scan at the location of the collection, if facilities allow. Which collections are worth visiting?
We are also very much interested in getting access to cadavers (fresh and frozen – not formalin fixated), to analyze muscle architectural properties.
We appreciate your help.
Kind regards from Berlin,
John Nyakatura (also on behalf of Patricia Berles and Léo Botton-Divet)
In the backdrop of Functional Morphology, what possible advantages these Bees must be having to build a Hive of equable spiral configuration.
I am trying to find out whether some morphometric data of land planarians (for now, especially position of the dorsal insertion of the pharynx and position of the mouth) can predict their diet, but I am not quite sure about how I could compare the morphometry with the diet.
For now I have two measurements:
1. Relative position of the dorsal insertion of the pharynx in the pharyngeal pouch (which determines the shape of the pharynx);
2. Relative position of the mouth on the pharyngeal pouch.
I also have data on what organisms (prey species) are consumed by some of the species from which I took measurments. I separated the prey into 7 groups: woodlice, harvestmen, earthworms, snails, veronicellid slugs, agriolimacid slugs and other land planarians.
Does anyone have suggestions on how to deal with these data? Thanks in advance!
I'm searching papers about functional morphology of mammals skull.
Can anyone help me? Thanks Armando
Can anyone give a short explanation about the functional role of cheilocystidia? In several genera of the higher fungi, they have thick walls, or/and encrusted apex. Anyway, what is the function of this formations?
The presence of Permanent successor may be interfering for testing
Curious on the functional role of shell carina in freshwater gastropods
Lateral, anterior and posterior Fontanelles, which are gapes in the skull of catfishes, covered by tough membrane, what are the functions of these gaps?
I am currently studing functional morphology about Ponera (Hymenoptera:Formicidae). What would you suggest is a key issue about the sub-petioler fenestra, that function may be relative hunting, glands or feeding larva etc...? Anyone could give me ideas for your observation or experience?
In his 1993 Implied Weights paper (Cladistics 9:83, doi:10.1111/j.1096-0031.1993.tb00209.x), Goloboff states that "Farris et al (at the VIII Meeting of the Society, 1989) show that characters with fewer incompatibilities may nonetheless be more homoplastic". Would anyone know whether this observation has been published, and where I might find it?
Could anybody suggests any papers where authors describe an algorithm for construction Rapana species 3D models? Or other similar Gastropoda species?
With two colleagues, I have just finished taxonomic revision of the genera hitherto included in the subfamily Discotettiginae (Orthoptera: Caelifera: Tetrigidae), id est genera Discotettix, Phaesticus, Arulenus, Kraengia, Rosacris, Flatocerus, Hirrius and a new genus. We found out that Discotettiginae is paraphyletic taxon composed of genera that share unique antennal morphology - basal segments (I-VI) usually filiform, while subapical/anteapical (VII-IX/X) are foliaceous - flattened. The same antennal morphology can be observed in Hemipteran geus Dalader. Furthermore, the coloration of antennae in Dalader is the same as one found in e.g. Phaesticus and Rosacris. Since both taxa occur in SE Asia, I am interested if anybody has any idea about purpose/function of such morphology. I would be very grateful if somebody can provide also more examples of this and suggest if their function could be mimicry (to what?) or something else. Thank you in advance.
There seems to be no well-published detailed research on the haired snails except Pfenninger et al., 2005 ("Why do snails have hairs?..."), but this work is not morphological... I know also an older work on Trochulus hispidus (Trichia hispida) - Kaiser, 1966.
Many extant birds use mechanical sounds, or sonations, intentionally as communicative signals; most often in the context of courtship, and usually made by the wings or other feathers.
Behaviour does not fossilize particularly well, so we are pretty clueless about what the courtship displays of avian ancestors and primitive birds may have sounded like, or been produced by. But for fun, does anyone think that wings (and other feathers) could have been used to produce acoustic signals during courtship? What might they have sounded like? What might this tell us about the use of sonations, and evolution of vocalization and vocal learning among other reptiles and birds respectively?
Let's say, I have landmark data for three different structures (A,B,C; e.g. three different teeth along the tooth row or fingers on one hand) for one sample of specimens and I would like to know whether structure A is stronger integrated with structure B than structure B with structure C. Is it possible to compare RV-coefficients calculated for the A-B and B-C interaction and would the resulting difference be valid to make inferences on relative integration strengths?
I have already asked some colleagues about the problem but got somewhat contradicting answers. So I am curious about your opinons. Maybe comparing the values would be possible under the condition of the same landmark number on all structures?!
Best regards,
Stefan
I am doing a research project that compares the insulative properties of different feather coats (using specimens). However, in order to do this, I need a small heat plate (i.e. less than 7x7 cm) in which I can control the temperature very precisely. I cannot seem to find anything that suits my needs doing a quick search and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas, or if anyone has used any products that fit this description. Thanks in advance!
I know that in years past, it has often been suggested that predatory maniraptoran dinosaurs (mainly troodontids and dromaeosaurids) used their forelimbs to catch food. Indeed, Ostrom originally suggested that flapping behavior began as an extrapolation of the prey catching stroke. However, now that we know more about the anatomy of these predatory dinosaurs, specifically that many forms had large secondary and primary feathers on their arms and were incapable of pronating their hands, I am having a hard time seeing how the forelimbs could have been of any use in predatory behavior. There doesn't seem to be any way that they could have been rotated to grab prey, nor slash at conspecifics or larger prey items. Yet there has to have been some function for having flexible clawed digits in maniraptorans, as nearly all maniraptorans have well-developed hands, and indeed many early birds still had well-developed digits.
Hi! I have a 3D-GMM data set of carnivore skulls and I would like to calculate the Procrustes distance of every individual specimen to a predefined shape after the Procrustes superimposition. In which (open source) software can I do that relatively straightforward and how? Thanks in advance!
I am looking for data on bite forces of extant Artidactyla and Perissodactyla. Anything is welcome, like experimental data or FEM calculations.
While forming spherical Ag NPs they converted into fibre like structure. I was reducing AgNo3 with NaBH4 using tri sodium as capping agent.
So, as many of you are probably aware, there are several living groups of fish which are able to use electroreception to some degree to either passively sense the world around them or, in some cases, actually stun or kill other animals. In particular, I'm thinking of members of the Gymnotiformes (including the electric eel), the electric catfish (Malapteruridae), the torpedo rays (Torpediniformes) and several families of the Osteoglossiformes (Mormyridae and Gymnarchidae).
I was wondering if anyone knew of any evidence that a now totally-extinct group of fish may have possessed similar electroreceptive/generative abilities (that is to actually generate electric fields, rather than sense them as in sharks or paddlefish). I know that in South American knifefish (Gymnotiformes), the development of an electricity-generating system has strongly constrained the development of their locomotion, which makes me wonder whether a similar morphology among extinct fish (say, xenacanth sharks) might be indicative of such behavior.
I have microCT scans of different feather shafts (non-circular, not really hollow, with clear heterogeneity in material composition); I want to get accurate calculations of the 2nd moment of area without the standard assumptions of regular geometry. I'm leaning towards the BoneJ plugin for ImageJ, and would love thoughts on this or any other suggestions.
Because there are also differences in resolution between feathers (feathers of different sizes were scanned in the same container), I am also wondering if relatively lower resolution of the smaller diameter feathers is a limitation for either calculating or automating.
How the environment the prey has been caught in, and prey itself can affect snake’s cranial morphology? Which bones and their features (length, width, height) affect snakes adaptation (fitness)? I'm particularly interested in data on the core Macrostomata group (pythons and boas).
I'm currently working on a project that compares the skull morphology of populations of white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) based on geographic location. I've been using a copy stand on campus to take images of each skull, but I'm having problems getting crisp, clean images that I can use to clearly identify landmarks. For example, in the attached image the sutures of the skull are difficult to make out. In ventral images differentiating one region form the next has proven very difficult, especially for landmarks at the base of the brain case.
How should I manipulate the light and camera settings to get a high quality image with well defined landmarks? Also, is there a better way to mount skulls for imaging? In the attached image I simply let the skull rest on the block with the incisors hanging over the edge. Finally, for taking lateral and ventral photos of the skull what mounting techniques should I use?
I realize that this question basically boils down to "which species had the brain that was least small", but given the amount of geological time and diversity present in these animals, one would think that there would be at least some variation in the group. More specifically, I have been trying to see if the size and shape of the braincase have any effect on the morphology of the sauropod skull (i.e., in the position of the eyes, etc.). Hence brain-to-skull size, rather than "largest brain relative to body size" If anyone knows which diplodocoid taxa is known to have the largest brain relative to its skull size, that would be a huge help too.
I am interested in calculating the second (and polar) moment of area for some cross-sections of appendicular bones that do not have standard hollow, circular geometries, and heard that there could be some complications to interpreting the second moment of area based on more complex geometries. Could anyone recommend any references that discuss calculating the second moment of area from geometries that may not follow standard beam theory? Or modifications to standard beam theory?
Thank you in advance!
I am wondering if it would be possible for a ruminant to grow as large as some of the largest land mammals to have lived. If it is not possible, one of the constraints might be the functionality of such a large rumen. Or what other factors are there to consider as well?
Is there a direct advantage in having a non-localized respiratory system (tracheae) instead of lungs (in Arachnida)?
Can anyone help me with the identification keys (morphology) of AMF spores?
I have recently seen a Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) with an odd beak. It was seen in a polluted mangrove area near Rio de Janeiro. Its beak was longer and curvier than of others. So this intriguingly-shaped beak made me think of the reasons that some individuals would devolop and survive into adulthood with malformed beaks in general.
Especially for complex terms such as 'postero-dorsal rim of pygophore [genital chamber]'. Is there a general reference or a set of guidelines to look up?
I'm curious about the type of life that saber toothed animals had and what was their teeth main function. Watching cranial anatomy it seems that their teeth had a very important function. This feature evolved independently over the geological time and in different animal orders.
