The small Antarctic mosquito, the only kind of known insect originally from the icy continent, fixes them with icy temperatures with unique latency strategies.
An international research team led by the Metropolitan University of Osaka has discovered that the mosquito adapts to the stations during its two -year life cycle by experiencing inactivity in its first year and forced diapause in its second. The research has been published in Scientific Reports.
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Inactivity is a form of latency in immediate response to adverse conditions, and when conditions improve, the body is activated again. The forced diapause is a naturally induced lethargy period at a fixed time of the life cycle of an organism, a rare form that is observed in the insects of the temperate regions.
“We were able to establish a method to raise the Antarctic mosquito for a period of six years to discover some of its environmental adaptation mechanisms,” said Mizuki Yoshida, a postgraduate student at the time of research at the time of the investigation, which is now A postdoctorate at the University of Ohio State.
Half development waiting for good weather
The team discovered that the Antarctic mosquito larvae generally grow up to their second stage in the first winter and enter into a state of inactivity to quickly resume their development at any time when suddenly makes more heat.
As the second winter approaches, the larvae reach the fourth final stadium, but do not transform into pupae. Instead, they enter Diapause forced so that they all emerge as adults when summer arrives. As adults, they only have a few days of life and need to find one couple, so this synchronization mechanism is key to their survival.
“We have determined that, in the case of the Antarctic mosquito, the obligatory diapause ends with the arrival of the low temperatures in winter, so that all the larvae are transformed into pupae at the same time and emerge as adults at the same time,” said the Professor Shin G. Goto, who directed the research.
“Although seasonal adaptation strategies have not been described that involve spending the winter several times using both inactivity and forced diapause in other organisms, we believe that insects that inhabit hostile environments such as the Arctic and great altitudes could be using similar strategies ”