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Gilmour KM, Daley MA, Egginton S, Kelber A, McHenry MJ, Patek SN, Sane SP, Schulte PM, Terblanche JS, Wright PA, Franklin CE. Through the looking glass: attempting to predict future opportunities and challenges in experimental biology. J Exp Biol 2023; 226:jeb246921. [PMID: 38059428 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.246921] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/08/2023]
Abstract
To celebrate its centenary year, Journal of Experimental Biology (JEB) commissioned a collection of articles examining the past, present and future of experimental biology. This Commentary closes the collection by considering the important research opportunities and challenges that await us in the future. We expect that researchers will harness the power of technological advances, such as '-omics' and gene editing, to probe resistance and resilience to environmental change as well as other organismal responses. The capacity to handle large data sets will allow high-resolution data to be collected for individual animals and to understand population, species and community responses. The availability of large data sets will also place greater emphasis on approaches such as modeling and simulations. Finally, the increasing sophistication of biologgers will allow more comprehensive data to be collected for individual animals in the wild. Collectively, these approaches will provide an unprecedented understanding of 'how animals work' as well as keys to safeguarding animals at a time when anthropogenic activities are degrading the natural environment.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Monica A Daley
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Stuart Egginton
- School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
| | - Almut Kelber
- Department of Biology, Lund University, 22362 Lund, Sweden
| | - Matthew J McHenry
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Sheila N Patek
- Biology Department, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Sanjay P Sane
- National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, GKVK Campus, Bellary Road, Bangalore, Karnataka 560065, India
| | - Patricia M Schulte
- Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - John S Terblanche
- Center for Invasion Biology, Department of Conservation Ecology & Entomology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7602, South Africa
| | - Patricia A Wright
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Craig E Franklin
- School of the Environment, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane 4072, Australia
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Ando N, Kanzaki R. Using insects to drive mobile robots - hybrid robots bridge the gap between biological and artificial systems. ARTHROPOD STRUCTURE & DEVELOPMENT 2017; 46:723-735. [PMID: 28254451 DOI: 10.1016/j.asd.2017.02.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2016] [Revised: 02/21/2017] [Accepted: 02/21/2017] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
The use of mobile robots is an effective method of validating sensory-motor models of animals in a real environment. The well-identified insect sensory-motor systems have been the major targets for modeling. Furthermore, mobile robots implemented with such insect models attract engineers who aim to avail advantages from organisms. However, directly comparing the robots with real insects is still difficult, even if we successfully model the biological systems, because of the physical differences between them. We developed a hybrid robot to bridge the gap. This hybrid robot is an insect-controlled robot, in which a tethered male silkmoth (Bombyx mori) drives the robot in order to localize an odor source. This robot has the following three advantages: 1) from a biomimetic perspective, the robot enables us to evaluate the potential performance of future insect-mimetic robots; 2) from a biological perspective, the robot enables us to manipulate the closed-loop of an onboard insect for further understanding of its sensory-motor system; and 3) the robot enables comparison with insect models as a reference biological system. In this paper, we review the recent works regarding insect-controlled robots and discuss the significance for both engineering and biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noriyasu Ando
- Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan.
| | - Ryohei Kanzaki
- Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan
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Affiliation(s)
- Barbara Webb
- University of Edinburgh, Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour, School of Informatics, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
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Nagaya N, Mizumoto N, Abe MS, Dobata S, Sato R, Fujisawa R. Anomalous diffusion on the servosphere: A potential tool for detecting inherent organismal movement patterns. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0177480. [PMID: 28570562 PMCID: PMC5453419 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177480] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2017] [Accepted: 04/27/2017] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Tracking animal movements such as walking is an essential task for understanding how and why animals move in an environment and respond to external stimuli. Different methods that implemented image analysis and a data logger such as GPS have been used in laboratory experiments and in field studies, respectively. Recently, animal movement patterns without stimuli have attracted an increasing attention in search for common innate characteristics underlying all of their movements. However, it is difficult to track the movements in a vast and homogeneous environment without stimuli because of space constraints in laboratories or environmental heterogeneity in the field, hindering our understanding of inherent movement patterns. Here, we applied an omnidirectional treadmill mechanism, or a servosphere, as a tool for tracking two-dimensional movements of small animals that can provide both a homogenous environment and a virtual infinite space for walking. To validate the use of our tracking system for assessment of the free-walking behavior, we compared walking patterns of individual pillbugs (Armadillidium vulgare) on the servosphere with that in two types of experimental flat arenas. Our results revealed that the walking patterns on the servosphere showed similar diffusive characteristics to those observed in the large arena simulating an open space, and we demonstrated that our mechanism provides more robust measurements of diffusive properties compared to a small arena with enclosure. Moreover, we showed that anomalous diffusion properties, including Lévy walk, can be detected from the free-walking behavior on our tracking system. Thus, our novel tracking system is useful to measure inherent movement patterns, which will contribute to the studies of movement ecology, ethology, and behavioral sciences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Naohisa Nagaya
- Department of Intelligent Systems, Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, Kyoto Sangyo University, Motoyama, Kamigamo, Kita-ku, Kyoto-City, Japan
- * E-mail: (NN); (RF)
| | - Nobuaki Mizumoto
- Laboratory of Insect Ecology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-oiwakecho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Masato S. Abe
- National Institute of Informatics, 2-1-2 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
- ERATO Kawarabayashi Large Graph Project, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Hitotsubashi 2-1-2, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Shigeto Dobata
- Laboratory of Insect Ecology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-oiwakecho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Ryota Sato
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hachinohe Institute of Technology, Ohbiraki, Myo, Hachinohe, Aomori, Japan
| | - Ryusuke Fujisawa
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hachinohe Institute of Technology, Ohbiraki, Myo, Hachinohe, Aomori, Japan
- * E-mail: (NN); (RF)
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Information flow through neural circuits for pheromone orientation. Nat Commun 2014; 5:5919. [DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6919] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2014] [Accepted: 11/20/2014] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
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High-speed odor transduction and pulse tracking by insect olfactory receptor neurons. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2014; 111:16925-30. [PMID: 25385618 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1412051111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Sensory systems encode both the static quality of a stimulus (e.g., color or shape) and its kinetics (e.g., speed and direction). The limits with which stimulus kinetics can be resolved are well understood in vision, audition, and somatosensation. However, the maximum temporal resolution of olfactory systems has not been accurately determined. Here, we probe the limits of temporal resolution in insect olfaction by delivering high frequency odor pulses and measuring sensory responses in the antennae. We show that transduction times and pulse tracking capabilities of olfactory receptor neurons are faster than previously reported. Once an odorant arrives at the boundary layer of the antenna, odor transduction can occur within less than 2 ms and fluctuating odor stimuli can be resolved at frequencies more than 100 Hz. Thus, insect olfactory receptor neurons can track stimuli of very short duration, as occur when their antennae encounter narrow filaments in an odor plume. These results provide a new upper bound to the kinetics of odor tracking in insect olfactory receptor neurons and to the latency of initial transduction events in olfaction.
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Voges N, Chaffiol A, Lucas P, Martinez D. Reactive searching and infotaxis in odor source localization. PLoS Comput Biol 2014; 10:e1003861. [PMID: 25330317 PMCID: PMC4211930 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003861] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2014] [Accepted: 08/15/2014] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Male moths aiming to locate pheromone-releasing females rely on stimulus-adapted search maneuvers complicated by a discontinuous distribution of pheromone patches. They alternate sequences of upwind surge when perceiving the pheromone and cross- or downwind casting when the odor is lost. We compare four search strategies: three reactive versus one cognitive. The former consist of pre-programmed movement sequences triggered by pheromone detections while the latter uses Bayesian inference to build spatial probability maps. Based on the analysis of triphasic responses of antennal lobe neurons (On, inhibition, Off), we propose three reactive strategies. One combines upwind surge (representing the On response to a pheromone detection) and spiral casting, only. The other two additionally include crosswind (zigzag) casting representing the Off phase. As cognitive strategy we use the infotaxis algorithm which was developed for searching in a turbulent medium. Detection events in the electroantennogram of a moth attached to a robot indirectly control this cyborg, depending on the strategy in use. The recorded trajectories are analyzed with regard to success rates, efficiency, and other features. In addition, we qualitatively compare our robotic trajectories to behavioral search paths. Reactive searching is more efficient (yielding shorter trajectories) for higher pheromone doses whereas cognitive searching works better for lower doses. With respect to our experimental conditions (2 m from starting position to pheromone source), reactive searching with crosswind zigzag yields the shortest trajectories (for comparable success rates). Assuming that the neuronal Off response represents a short-term memory, zigzagging is an efficient movement to relocate a recently lost pheromone plume. Accordingly, such reactive strategies offer an interesting alternative to complex cognitive searching.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole Voges
- CNRS, LORIA, UMR 7503, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France
- * E-mail:
| | | | - Philippe Lucas
- INRA, UMR 1392, Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences of Paris, Versailles, France
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Rössler W, Stengl M. Insect chemoreception: a tribute to John G. Hildebrand. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol 2013; 199:875-7. [PMID: 24114616 DOI: 10.1007/s00359-013-0857-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2013] [Accepted: 09/19/2013] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Wolfgang Rössler
- Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology (Zoology II), Biozentrum, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074, Würzburg, Germany,
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