Analyzing wing socket cells in the moth, Manduca sexta to detect allometric differences following tissue damage.
By: Leslie Flores
Department: Physiology
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Megumi Fuse
In nature, animals must maintain proper appendage proportions, called body allometry, to best survive in the wild. In humans, disorders such as cardiomegaly or microcephaly are the result of improper allometry. The effects of tissue damage on allometry can be investigated in the insect model Manduca sexta. Recent literature suggests that selective tissue damage in this insect is responsible for delayed development, putatively to provide time for tissues to regenerate to proper proportions. Thus the model can be used to determine a correlation between cell and tissue regeneration following tissue damage. The delays may occur to permit conservation of its body allometry. To examine this, M. sexta tissues were damaged by radiation causing developmental delays. Subjects received different irradiation doses, and the regenerated wing cells were stained with phalloidin, an actin filament-specific fluorescent stain. Cell area, cell perimeter, and cell count were analyzed from the fluorescent images using the image processing software, ImageJ. No significant differences were found in the overall average area, perimeter, or cell count between the control and irradiated groups. However, when comparing the difference in area and perimeter between the right and left wings of each animal, differences were noted after irradiation compared to controls. This suggests that the developmental delays may not have been sufficient for full tissue repair. Future directions include increasing the sample size and measuring whole wing samples to further investigate body allometry following tissue damage.