Gestation is the period of development during the carrying of an embryo, and later fetus, inside viviparous animals. It is typical for mammals, but also occurs for some non-mammals. Mammals during pregnancy can have one or more gestations at the same time, for example in a multiple birth.
Onychophora, commonly known as velvet worms or more ambiguously as peripatus, is a phylum of elongate, soft-bodied, many-legged panarthropods. In appearance they have variously been compared to worms with legs, caterpillars, and slugs. They prey upon other invertebrates, which they catch by ejecting an adhesive slime. Approximately 200 species of velvet worms have been described, although the true number of species is likely greater. The two extant families of velvet worms are Peripatidae and Peripatopsidae. They show a peculiar distribution, with the peripatids being predominantly equatorial and tropical, while the peripatopsids are all found south of the equator. It is the only phylum within Animalia that is wholly endemic to terrestrial environments, at least among extant members. Velvet worms are generally considered close relatives of the Arthropoda and Tardigrada, with which they form the proposed taxon Panarthropoda. This makes them of palaeontological interest, as they can help reconstruct the ancestral arthropod. In modern zoology they are particularly renowned for their curious mating behaviours and the bearing of live young in some species.
Arachnida is a class of joint-legged invertebrate animals (arthropods), in the subphylum Chelicerata. Arachnida includes, among others, spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, camel spiders, whip spiders and vinegaroons.
Prolactin (PRL), also known as lactotropin, is a protein best known for its role in enabling mammals to produce milk. It is influential in over 300 separate processes in various vertebrates, including humans. Prolactin is secreted from the pituitary gland in response to eating, mating, estrogen treatment, ovulation and nursing. It is secreted heavily in pulses in between these events. Prolactin plays an essential role in metabolism, regulation of the immune system and pancreatic development.
A mammary gland is an exocrine gland in humans and other mammals that produces milk to feed young offspring. Mammals get their name from the Latin word mamma, "breast". The mammary glands are arranged in organs such as the breasts in primates, the udder in ruminants, and the dugs of other animals. Lactorrhea, the occasional production of milk by the glands, can occur in any mammal, but in most mammals, lactation, the production of enough milk for nursing, occurs only in phenotypic females who have gestated in recent months or years. It is directed by hormonal guidance from sex steroids. In a few mammalian species, male lactation can occur. With humans, male lactation can occur only under specific circumstances.
Among animals, viviparity is development of the embryo inside the body of the mother. This is opposed to oviparity which is a reproductive mode in which females lay developing eggs that complete their development and hatch externally from the mother.
A germ layer is a primary layer of cells that forms during embryonic development. The three germ layers in vertebrates are particularly pronounced; however, all eumetazoans produce two or three primary germ layers. Some animals, like cnidarians, produce two germ layers making them diploblastic. Other animals such as bilaterians produce a third layer between these two layers, making them triploblastic. Germ layers eventually give rise to all of an animal’s tissues and organs through the process of organogenesis.
Octopamine (molecular formula C8H11NO2; also known as OA, and also norsynephrine, para-octopamine and others) is an organic chemical closely related to norepinephrine, and synthesized biologically by a homologous pathway. Octopamine is often considered the major "fight-or-flight" neurohormone of invertebrates. Its name is derived from the fact that it was first identified in the salivary glands of the octopus.
engrailed is a homeodomain transcription factor involved in many aspects of multicellular development. First known for its role in arthropod embryological development, working in consort with the Hox genes, engrailed has been found to be important in other areas of development. It has been identified in many bilaterians, including the arthropods, vertebrates, echinoderms, molluscs, nematodes, brachiopods, and polychaetes. It acts as a "selector" gene, conferring a specific identity to defined areas of the body, and co-ordinating the expression of downstream genes.
Lactation describes the secretion of milk from the mammary glands and the period of time that a mother lactates to feed her young. The process naturally occurs with all sexually mature female mammals, although it may predate mammals. The process of feeding milk in all animals is called nursing, and in humans it is also called breastfeeding. Newborn infants often produce some milk from their own breast tissue, known colloquially as witch's milk.
Thermonectus marmoratus is a relatively colorful North American species of diving beetle known by the common names sunburst diving beetle and spotted diving beetle. The behavior of this diving beetle has been compared to a scuba diver, since it carries with it a bubble of air as it dives down into the water. The beetle has recently become notable when it was discovered that its aquatic larval stage is the first ever recorded use of bifocal technology in the animal world. The beetle uses in its principal eyes two retinas and two distinct focal planes that are substantially separated, in the manner of bifocals to switch their vision from up-close to distance, for easy and efficient capture of their prey.
Diploptera, also known as the beetle cockroach, is a genus of blaberid cockroaches. Cockroaches of this genus resemble beetles, with hardened tegmina and cross-folded hindwings. They live in tropical forests in South China and Southeast Asia, and Pacific islands including Hawaii. They are viviparous cockroaches and are therefore used for insect endocrinological studies. There are eight known species and two subspecies.
The halloween genes are a set of genes identified in Drosophila melanogaster that influence embryonic development. All of the genes code for cytochrome P450 enzymes in the ecdysteroidogenic pathway (biosynthesis of ecdysone from cholesterol). Ecdysteroids such as 20-hydroxyecdysone and ecdysone influence many of the morphological, physiological, biochemical changes that occur during molting in insects.
Allometric engineering is the process of experimentally shifting the scaling relationships, for body size or shape, in a population of organisms. More specifically, the process of experimentally breaking the tight covariance evident among component traits of a complex phenotype by altering the variance of one trait relative to another. Typically, body size is one of the two traits. The measurements of the two traits are plotted against each other and the scaling relationship can be represented as: . Manipulations of this sort alter the scaling relationships either by shifting the intercept (b), slope (m) or both to create novel variants (see: Allometry, for more details). These novel variants can then be tested for differences in performance or fitness. Through careful testing, one could sequentially test each component of a trait suite to determine how each part contributes to the function of the entire complex phenotype, and ultimately the fitness of the organism. This technique allows for comparison within or among biological groups differing in size by adjusting morphology to match one another and comparing their performances.
The initial acquisition of microbiota is the formation of an organism's microbiota immediately before and after birth. The microbiota are all the microorganisms including bacteria, archaea and fungi that colonize the organism. The microbiome is another term for microbiota or can refer to the collected genomes.
In Embryology a phylotypic stage or phylotypic period is a particular developmental stage or developmental period during mid-embryogenesis where embryos of related species within a phylum express the highest degree of morphological and molecular resemblance. Recent molecular studies in various plant and animal species were able to quantify the expression of genes covering crucial stages of embryo development and found that during the morphologically defined phylotypic period the evolutionary oldest genes, genes with similar temporal expression patterns, and genes under strongest purifying selection are most active throughout the phylotypic period.
Ramaswamy S is an Indian-American structural biologist of Indian origin. He is currently Professor of Biological Sciences, Professor at the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Bindley Bioscience Center at Purdue University. He was a senior professor at Institute of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine (inStem) from 2009 to 2019. Ramaswamy S also abbreviated as "Rams" by his students and colleagues, held the founding dean's position at inStem from May 2009. He was also the founding CEO of Center for Cellular and molecular platforms (C-CAMP), Bangalore-Biocluster from May 2009 to May 2016. His major role at National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS) was to bridge the gap between research and application. He works in close coordination with Department of Biotechnology (DBT), and other ministries of the Government of India.
Cockroach farming is a specific type of insect farming that involves the breeding of cockroaches as livestock in controlled facilities. Such farming is a sizable industry in China, where large buildings are home to millions of insects. They can be raised as a food source for humans, as feed for non-human animals such as lizards, or sold to the pharmaceutical industry for use in medicine. The cockroaches are often killed in vats of boiling water before being dried, and, depending on their purpose, they may be crushed, ready for processing. Prospective farmers are able to obtain how-to kits to begin their farming venture, while larger companies are able to produce billions of cockroaches every year.
Galactogen is a polysaccharide of galactose that functions as energy storage in pulmonate snails and some Caenogastropoda. This polysaccharide is exclusive of the reproduction and is only found in the albumen gland from the female snail reproductive system and in the perivitelline fluid of eggs.
Cytochrome P450, family 15, also known as CYP15, is an animal cytochrome P450 family found in insect genome, involved in juvenile hormone biosynthesis. The first gene identified in this family is the DpCYP15A1 from the Diploptera punctata, encodes an epoxidase of methyl farnesoate, a precursor of juvenile hormone, alone with its ortholog TcCYP15A1 in Tribolium castaneum.
