We discuss 46 species of North American leaf-mining leaf beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae, Megalopodidae), plus one external feeder observed to spin its cocoon within the leaf mine of another insect. For each species, we review previous records of larval and adult hosts and associated hymenopteran parasitoids, augmenting these with our own observations, including the first accounts of oviposition and larval habits for many species. We present the first rearing records for 12 of these species:...

To minimize the risk to bees and other beneficial insects, plant protection chemicals are typically applied to pollinator-dependent crop plants when flowers are absent or unopened. However, this approach does not entirely remove the risk of pollinator exposure. Much research has focused on negative effects of systemic insecticides (e.g., seed treatments) on pollinators, but less is known about the level of hazard posed by translocation of non-systemic foliar-applied pesticides to pollen and...

Mammalian lung development depends on growth and differentiation of both endothelial and epithelial subpopulations to allow for gas exchange. Premature infants are born with developmentally immature lungs and often require supplemental oxygen (O(2)) to survive. Excess O(2) can lead to oxidative stress which damages the pulmonary vasculature and contributes to bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Selenoproteins are critical for detoxifying reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI). Selenoprotein...

Renal microvascular injury occurs in most patients with hypertension-induced nephropathy (HN). We have shown that overexpression of adaptor protein p66Shc is implicated in the loss of renal microvascular reactivity in hypertensive rats. Since sulfur heteroarotinoid A2 (SHetA2) modulates p66Shc, we tested whether SHetA2 would restore renal microvascular reactivity and mitigate kidney injury in a rat HN model. Dahl salt sensitive and p66Shc knockout (p66Shc-KO) rats were used in a well-established...

Self-splicing group I and II introns are selfish genetic elements that are widely yet patchily distributed across the tree of life. Their selfish behavior comes from super-Mendelian inheritance behaviors, collectively called 'homing', that allow them to rapidly spread within populations to the specific genomic sites they home into. Observations of self-splicing intron evolutionary dynamics have led to the formulation of an intron 'lifecycle' model where, once fixed in a population, the introns...