[Odonata-l] Josh Web Link Revision

[Roy J. Beckemeyer]

Whoops, sorry, that was a link to a paper on stoneflies by Marden and co-authors.

The one cited in the link Josh sent us is titled: "Metabolic syndrome and obesity in an insect," by Schilder and Marden, and it demonstrates that the presence of the gregarine gut-parasite protozoan Hoplorynchus, found in the mid-gut of Libellula pulchella, can cause "reduced flight muscle performance, and inability to metabolize lipid in their muscles" and in the accumulation of fat in their thorax.  Apparently secretions or ecretions of the gregarines cause an imflammatory repsonse in the dragonfly.  The authors propose using the odonates as model organisms in studying metabolic diseases.  Quite a fascinating article.  

PNAS articles are eventually made available for free as pdf files, but this one is recent enough that it is only for sale or available to those with a subscription.  The citation is: PNAS: 103(49):18805-18809.

Sorry about the earlier incorrect citation, but it is also an interesting paper, too.

Roy Beckemeyer
royb at southwind.net

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