#Galleria mellonella

[moths-daily]

Moth Of The Day #47

Greater Wax Moth / Honeycomb Moth

Galleria mellonella

From the pyralidae family. They have a wingspan of 30-41mm. They tend to inhabit whatever place they find with beehives, as they feed from beeswax. They can be found in Asia, North Africa, Great Britain, North America, New Zealand, and certain parts of Europe.

[drjayaramreddy]

Plastic eating worm Galleria mellonella| Eats up plastic in 30 days| Pla...

[entomoblog]

Des larves de papillon pour remplacer les mammifères dans les tests de toxicité ?

See on Scoop.it - EntomoScience

Des scientifiques travaillant sur les larves d’un papillon de nuit ont reçu des fonds afin de déterminer si ce modèle animal peut être utilisé à la place des mammifères pour les études de toxicité de nouvelles molécules thérapeutiques. Détails et éclairage.

  Des larves de papillon pour les tests de toxicité ? (février 2017)

Hélène Bour

via Gircor, recherche animale et alternatives sur X, 16.11.2023

  "Durant ces deux dernières années, des scientifiques de l’Université d’Exeter (Royaume-Uni) se sont attelés à travailler sur des larves de fausse teigne de la cire (Galleria mellonella), une espèce de papillons de nuit, y voyant là un modèle animal intéressant, peu cher et efficace pour mener à bien des tests toxicologiques. Ils ont ainsi fondé BioSystems Technologies Ltd, une start-up dont le but principal est d’approvisionner les chercheurs en larves de fausses teignes afin qu’ils s’approprient ce nouveau modèle."

(...)

  Sources et informations complémentaires

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_565429_en.html

http://www.nc3rs.org.uk/news/new-crack-it-solution-funding-using-moth-larvae-advance-3rs

https://www.crackit.org.uk/trularv-galleria-mellonella-model-host-infection-studies-toxicity-testing-and-drug-development

  -------

NDÉ

Liens ci-dessus

  → Featured news - Mammal testing could be cut by moth larvae - University of Exeter https://news-archive.exeter.ac.uk/featurednews/title_565429_en.html

  → New CRACK IT Solution funding: using moth larvae to advance the 3Rs | NC3Rs https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/news/new-crack-it-solution-funding-using-moth-larvae-advance-3rs

  → TruLarv Galleria mellonella - a model host for infection studies, toxicity testing and drug development (Partnering with Envigo) | NC3Rs https://nc3rs.org.uk/our-portfolio/trularv-galleria-mellonella-model-host-infection-studies-toxicity-testing-and-drug

  Allegra L et al. (2018). Galleria mellonella larvae allow the discrimination of toxic and non-toxic chemicals. Chemosphere 198:469-472. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.01.175

  [Image] Dre Olivia Champion - University of Exeter "The number of mammals used in animal testing could be cut dramatically and replaced with moth larvae."

[yeast-papers]

Hortaea werneckii isolates exhibit different pathogenic potential in the invertebrate infection model Galleria mellonella

Pubmed: http://dlvr.it/SwcTrX

[jhavelikes]

Microbiomes have been the focus of a substantial research effort in the last decades. The composition of microbial populations is normally determined by comparing DNA sequences sampled from those populations with the sequences stored in genomic databases. Therefore, the amount of information available in databanks should be expected to constrain the accuracy of microbiome analyses. Albeit normally ignored in microbiome studies, this constraint could severely compromise the reliability of microbiome data. To test this hypothesis, we generated virtual bacterial populations that exhibit the ecological structure of real-world microbiomes. Confronting the analyses of virtual microbiomes with their original composition revealed critical issues in the current approach to characterizing microbiomes, issues that were empirically confirmed by analyzing the microbiome of Galleria mellonella larvae. To reduce the uncertainty of microbiome data, the effort in the field must be channeled towards significantly increasing the amount of available genomic information and optimizing the use of this information.

The virtual microbiome: A computational framework to evaluate microbiome analyses | PLOS ONE

[fruit-worm-papers]

Regulation and Functionality of a Holin/Endolysin Pair Involved in Killing of Galleria mellonella and Caenorhabditis elegans by Yersinia enterocolitica

http://dlvr.it/Sp4ScD

[lepodaria]

Moths around the world

In traditions around the world moths are often seen as dark and connected to death this is die to there suicidal flight tendencies and how they fly straight into the flames. I think that they beauty of moths is that they are creatures they are constantly exploring, they hide through the day but once the night comes they journey towards any light that they can find.

Moths have always been shown in art and cultures through all of time and this dates all the way back to 1350 BCE, to current date this has been the furthest back depiction of butterfly’s and was most likely an African monarch.

Butterflies have always been seen as the supreme version of the moth with there bright colours and how they are usually seen in the day. Butterflies spend a lot of time around flowers so they have been given the idea that they are lucky magical creatures compared to moths, a lot of the time in art the two are placed side by side to represent the juxtaposition of good and bad. When moths are going through metamorphosis and emerge. It said to be like birth after death.

Moths play a huge part in developing in ecosystem as they help with flowers which bloom in the night. And also are sufficient food for animals that hunt in the night like bats. Some moths have a more diverse diet for example the greater wax moth or as it’s scientific name the Galleria mellonella larva can digest plastic which in the current position that we are in with the environment this could be a sufficient solution to excess plastic pollution

[aquitainequeen]

Plastic degradation by biological systems with re-utilization of the by-products could be a future solution to the global threat of plastic waste accumulation. Here, we report that the saliva of Galleria mellonella larvae (wax worms) is capable of oxidizing and depolymerizing polyethylene (PE), one of the most produced and sturdy polyolefin-derived plastics. 

Read more...

[moth-a-day]

Galleria mellonella

Img credit: Wikipedia

[intelligentliving]

The wax moth is very destructive and can destroy beehives and entire bee colonies. The moths lay their eggs inside the hive and then the larvae that hatch create tunnels through the honeycombs that contain honeybee larva and their honey stores. These tunnels they build result in massive destruction of...

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Wax worm saliva contains enzymes capable of breaking down plastics

A team of CSIC researchers has discovered that wax worm saliva degrades plastic; a discovery with numerous applications for treating or recycling plastic waste. Back in 2017, the team discovered that this worm species (the lepidopteran Galleria mellonella) is able to break down plastic (polyethylene), and now they have discovered just how it does this: its saliva contains enzymes (pertaining to the phenol oxidase family) that can rapidly set off polyethylene degradation at room temperature. These enzymes are the first and only known enzymes capable of degrading polyethylene plastic without requiring pre-treatment, according to Federica Bertocchini, a CSIC researcher at the CIB-CSIC (Centre for Biological Research) who led the study. The results of the work, pending review, have been published in preprint in the BioRxiv online archive.

"For plastic to degrade, oxygen must penetrate the polymer (the plastic molecule). This is the first step in oxidation, which is usually a result of exposure to sunlight or high temperatures, and represents a bottleneck that slows down the degradation of plastics like polyethylene, one of the most resistant polymers," explains Bertocchini. "That is why, under normal environmental conditions, plastic takes months or even years to degrade," she adds.

"Now we have found out that enzymes in the wax worm's saliva perform this crucial step: they oxidize the plastic. This means they can overcome the bottleneck in the plastic degradation process and accelerate its decomposition," she adds.

Read more.

[yeast-papers]

Probiotic Properties and Safety Evaluation in the Invertebrate Model Host Galleria mellonella of the Pichia kudriavzevii YGM091 Strain Isolated from Fermented Goat Milk

Pubmed: http://dlvr.it/SrKXYT

[knights-unwelcommentary]

How do you think rainbow drinkers work? If we assume that the "DEAD" text is always accurate, Kanaya died before she became a rainbow drinker. Do you think there are certain circumstances that have to happen for them to come back to life? What do you think they have to do after that to stay alive? Are all jadebloods able to become rainbow drinkers or just certain ones? idk but I know that you're a person with Ideas and I'd love to hear them

Let's go with what we know for certain first

Unconfirmed rainbow drinker lore:

-Unknown number of constants with human vampire myths

-Immortal

-Traditionally wield chainsaws. Hinting towards a shared community or culture

-Only Jadebloods can become one and there might be genetic predisposition

-Their societal role is killing shadow droppers (troll zombies). Hinting towards immunity to zombification

Rainbow drinker confirmed facts:

-Are immune to the Alternian sun even while alive (from Kanaya predilection for daylight and her walk outside with her lusus)

-Find blood as disgusting to the taste as any other troll while alive (from Kanaya's reaction to the mother grub's being exactly the same as Terezi's to Tavros')

-Revive no sooner than ten minutes but no later than a few hours after death and go on a feeding frenzy

-Crave blood enough to be compared to an addiction (from Kanaya and Karkat’s experience right before Game Over)

-Bioluminesce at will, but default to having it on right after becoming one and must practice to control it (from Porrim's explanation)

-Have supernatural speed and strength

Now, from homestuck's tendency to mix nature with the metaphysical we could assume we're looking at something of the sort here. From the luminescence thing we can immediately look for culprits and from the boost in abilities we can assume that symbiosis is involved somewhere. Let's look for ideas in the webz (and isn't it funny I've made ideas my personal brand? lol)

-Maybe what causes rainbow drinkers is not exclusive to jade bloods, they're just exposed to something underground for a much longer time (enough to become a host) and pass it on to their descendants but the thing can only continue to survive in a host similar to the initial one, then it evolves to be better suited to jade bloods it could also have evolved some sort of symbiosis with trolls. If that's the case, any troll that spends longer than their youth in the caves could potentially become a rainbow drinker

-There's a nematode that kills insects by releasing a luminescent bacteria inside them. Maybe this is a version that troll's immune system renders harmless since troll are also part marine animal, so instead of killing them it just remains asleep until the troll dies and then it releases the compound and maybe it has the opposite effect (like an injection of adrenaline on a recently flat lined person?). It could also be competing/combining with the shadow dropper infection resulting in an undead person that remains in control of their faculties and the combination of both infections results in requiring blood as sustenance

"Experiments with Galleria mellonella infected larvae supports the hypothesis that the compound has antibiotic properties that help minimize competition from other microorganisms and prevents the putrefaction of the nematode-infected insect cadaver.[4]"

"It has been reported that infection by this bacterium of the wounds of soldiers in the American Civil War at the Battle of Shiloh caused the wounds to glow, and that this aided the survival of the soldiers due to the production of antibiotics by P. luminescens.[5][6] This led to the phenomenon's nickname "Angel's Glow."[7]"

Side note, I'm extremely amused by finding out there's a gene called "makes caterpillars floppy"

[usgsbiml]

Galleria mellonella - The waxworm.  The rather muscular and chiseled form of an introduced pest of bees nests.  In this case this bad boy was  found in a bumble bee nest that was built in a chickadee nest that the bumble bee queen had kicked out of the nestbox in suburban Maryland.  So it goes in nature.  Picture by Wayne Boo.  Waxworm wrangling by Desiree Narango.

[scientificpokedex]

Requested anonymously

Audino is designated as the “hearing pokémon”, for good reason! According to the pokédex, it cant hear faint sounds from over a mile away, and uses the feelers on its ears to sense emotions and heartbeats. How does that work?

Sound is measured in frequency, typically in units of Hertz. High-pitched sounds have high frequency, and low-pitched sounds have lower frequency. Humans can hear sounds between 20 and 20,000 Hz - but as far as the animal kingdom is concerned, humans have pretty bad hearing. There are lots of animals that can hear sounds that we can’t, just like there are animals that can see colors that we can’t. Bats, owls, dolphins, dogs, and cats are among the animals that have the best hearing in our world, but as it turns out the creature with the absolute best hearing in the world doesn’t even have ears! Let me introduce you to the Greater Wax Moth, galleria mellonella:

The Greater Wax Moth can hear sounds from 7 Hz all the way up to 300,000 Hz, higher than any other animal known! Researchers think that they evolved this ability to help evade their natural predator, the bat, who of course emits high-frequency sounds with echolocation to “see” its surroundings.

The Greater Wax Moth doesn’t have ears, but it does have a sound-detecting organ called a tympanic membrane. The moth’s tympanic membrane is located on its stomach, and it is a small (about 0.5 mm), thin barrier that is extremely sensitive to vibrations, kind of like the human’s eardrum. On a physical level, sound is simply vibrations through the air, so the more sensitive an organ is to vibrations, the better the hearing the creature has. There’s also some evidence that this moth also uses its antenna to sense vibrations, giving it another form of “hearing”. Just like Audino’s ear feelers!

In fact, several of the best listeners in the animal kingdom use more than one part of their body to detect sounds. Elephants, for example, actually use their feet! In addition to their famous large ears, elephants can “hear” with their feet. They have extremely sensitive foot pads, which allow them to feel very faint vibrations in the ground. An elephant can hear the roar of another elephant from over 5 miles away by sensing the vibrations in the ground with its feet.

This has an added benefit, too: sound travels about 4 times faster through solid objects, than it does through air. You can test this yourself by putting your ear on your desk, and softly tapping on the other end - the sound will come more clearly through the desk than it does through the air, with your head up. This is why Audino’s feelers are extremely powerful: by directly touching an object with its feelers, Audino’s sensors can detect even the faintest of vibrations.

That is how Audino can sense emotions, too! Your heart beats faster when you are scared or excited, and your breathing might slow down when you’re relaxed. All of these are sounds that your body makes that Audino can detect! Similarly, it can detect when an egg is close to hatching by feeling the vibrations of the pokémon inside the egg. 

Audino has two organs for hearing, its ears and its feelers. Its feelers can pick up very faint vibrations in whatever object they touch, sensing many sounds outside the range of human ears.

[nasa]

Get to Know the 5 College Teams Sending Their Experiments to Space!

Did you know that YOU (yes you!), can send science experiments to the International Space Station? 

To celebrate 20 years of continuous human presence on the International Space Station, NASA STEM on Station is sending five student experiments to the space station through Student Payload Opportunity with Citizen Science (SPOCS). Selected teams will also engage K-12 students as a part of their experiment through citizen-science.

Get to know the 5 college teams sending their experiments to space!

Arkansas State University 

Team: A-State Science Support System

Experiment Title: Microgravity Environment Impact on Plastic Biodegradation by Galleria mellonella

Experiment Description: Discover the ability of wax worms to degrade plastics in space.

Why did you propose this experiment?

Our team’s passion for sustainability developed into novel ideas for space travel through biodegradation of plastics. 

How will the experiment benefit humankind or future space exploration?

If our experiment is successful, it will “launch” us closer to understanding how to reduce humankind’s plastic footprint on Earth and allow us to safely push farther into unknown planetary habitats.

How have you worked together as a team during the pandemic?

Unknown to each other before the project, our interdisciplinary team formed through virtual communication.

What science fiction character best represents your team and why?

The sandworms of Dune represent our team perfectly considering their importance in space travel, the natural ecological service they provide, and their sheer awesomeness

Columbia University

Team: Columbia Space Initiative

Experiment Title: Characterizing Antibiotic Resistance in Microgravity Environments (CARMEn)

Experiment Description: Discover the impact of mutations on bacteria in microgravity when grown into a biofilm with fungus.

Why did you propose this experiment?

As a highly interdisciplinary team united by our love of outer space, SPOCS was the perfect opportunity to fuse biology, engineering, and education into a meaningful team project.

How will the experiment benefit humankind or future space exploration?

Studying how different microorganisms interact with each other to develop bacterial resistance in space will help improve antibiotic treatments for future Artemis astronauts.

How have you worked together as a team during the pandemic?

Most of our team actually hasn’t ever met in person—we’ve been videoconferencing weekly since May!

What science fiction character best represents your team and why?

Our team is definitely Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story, because we strive to reach infinity (or at least the International Space Station) and beyond!

Stanford University

Team: Stanford Student Space Initiative

Experiment Title: Biopolymer Research for In-Situ Capabilities (BRIC)

Experiment Description: Determine how microgravity impacts the solidification of biobricks.

Why did you propose this experiment?

We have an ongoing project to design and build a machine that turns lunar or Martian soil into bricks, and we want to learn how reduced gravity will impact the process.

How will the experiment benefit humankind or future space exploration?

We are studying an environmentally-friendly concrete alternative that can be used to make structures on Earth and other planets out of on-site, readily available resources.

How have you worked together as a team during the pandemic?

We transitioned our weekly meetings to an online format so that we could continue at our planned pace while maintaining our community.

What science fiction character best represents your team and why?

Like our beloved childhood friend WALL-E, we craftily make inhospitable environments suitable for life with local resources.

University of Idaho

Team: Vandal Voyagers I

Experiment Title: Bacteria Resistant Polymers in Microgravity

Experiment Description: Determine how microgravity impacts the efficacy of bacteria resistant polymers.

Why did you propose this experiment?

The recent emphasis on surface sterility got us thinking about ways to reduce the risk of disease transmission by surfaces on the International Space Station.

How will the experiment benefit humankind or future space exploration?

If successful, the application of proposed polymers can benefit humankind by reducing transmission through high contact surfaces on and off Earth such as hand rails and door handles.

How have you worked together as a team during the pandemic?

We are allowed to work collaboratively in person given we follow the current university COVID guidelines.

What science fiction character best represents your team and why?

Mark Watney from The Martian because he is willing to troubleshoot and problem solve on his own while collaborating with NASA from afar.

University of New Hampshire at Manchester

Team: Team Cooke

Experiment Title: Novel Methods of Antibiotic Discovery in Space (NoMADS)

Experiment Description: Determine how microgravity impacts the amount of bacterium isolates that produce antibiotic metabolites.

Why did you propose this experiment?

To contribute to the limited body of knowledge regarding bacterial resistance and mutations in off-Earth conditions.

How will the experiment benefit humankind or future space exploration?

Understanding how bacteria in the human microbiome and on spacecraft surfaces change can ensure the safe and accurate treatment of bacterial infections in astronauts.

How have you worked together as a team during the pandemic?

Our team continued to evolve our communication methods throughout the pandemic, utilizing frequent remote video conferencing, telecommunications, email, and in-person conferences.

What science fiction character best represents your team and why?

Professor Xavier, the founder of the X-Men, because he also works with mutants and feels that while they are often misunderstood, under the right circumstances they can greatly benefit the world.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.