- Email: [email protected]
Invertebrate neuropeptides IX
Peptides 30 (2009) 445–448
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Peptides journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/peptides
Introduction
Invertebrate neuropeptides IX
This special issue of Peptides represents the ninth in a series dedicated to invertebrate neuropeptides [see also Peptides 29 (2) 2008, Peptides 28 (1) 2007; Peptides 27 (3) 2006; Peptides 26 (1) 2005; Peptides 24 (10) 2003; Peptides 23 (11) 2002; Peptides 23 (4) 2002; and Peptides 22 (2) 2001] and chronicles recent advances in the field as presented in the Invertebrate Neuropeptide Conference 2008 (INC2008). I wish to thank Editor-in-Chief Abba Kastin for the invitation to serve as guest editor for this issue. The INC 2008 took place in the rainforest of Soberania National Park, Gamboa, Panama´, watershed for the Panama´ Canal, and featured leading researchers in the field of invertebrate neuropeptides representing 8 countries and 3 continents. The papers in this issue address a number of aspects of invertebrate neuropeptides, including a paper on comparative peptidomics of two species of nematode, providing a promising basis for further ebolutionary comparisons (Husson et al.). Two other papers by Aguilar et al. report on the structural characterization of d-conotoxin isomorphs that feature post-translational modifications from the marine snail Conus delesserti from the Caribbean and isolation of a new peptide (pal9a) from the venom of the turrid snail Polystira albida from the Gulf of Mexico. Several other reports deal with the use of state-of-the-art mass spectrometric techniques to identify the first neuropeptide from the insect order Megaloptera (Gade et al.), the allatotropin-related and tachykinin-related neuropeptides in four species of Heteroptera and one species each of Lygaeidae and Pyrrhocoridae (Neurpert et al.), and an allatotropin-related peptide, with CNS mapping data, in two species of cockroaches (Neurpert et al.). Stay and coworkers describe the identification of a new allatostatin immunocytochemical mapping in neural tissue from the termite Reticulitermes flavipes. Nagasawa and coworkers describe a new bacterial expression method for the preparation of recombinant CHH of the karuma prawn Marsupeneus japonicus. Denlinger and coworkers find that neuropeptide-like precursor 4 is expressed only during pupal diapause in the flesh fly Neobellieria bullata and Verleyen et al. clone the gene for neuropeptide-like precursor 1 (NPLP 1) in the flesh fly and identify three encoded NPLP 1 peptides in CNS extracts. Two other papers by Di Cristo et al. describe the cloning of the gene for a GnRH isoform and present immunocytochemical mapping in neural tissue of the cephalopod Sepia officinalis and demonstrate that N-methyl-d-aspartate enhaces the expression of GnRH mRNA in the mollusk Octopus vulgaris. Poels et al. report on the characterization and distribution of NKD, a receptor for tachykinin-relateed peptide 6 in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Jackson et al. studied the solution conformation of the cyclic neuropeptide crustacean cardioactive peptide (CCAP) whereas Audsley et al. investigate the degradation of leucomyosuppressin by enzymes in the midgut and hemolymph of two lepidopteran species. Isaac and coworkers describe the locomotor and geotactic behavior of Drosophila mutants over-expressing the peptidase neprilysin-2 and Smagghe and coworkers evaluate the use of bioinformatics as a tool to find peptides that inhibit the peptidase ACE. Pacheco et al. demonstrate that enhancement of the insecticidal activity of Bt Cry1A toxins by fragments of a toxin-binding cadherin can be correlated with the formation of oligomers and Fernandez et al. employ phage display to investigate the mode of action of Bt Cry toxins. Denlinger and coworkers probe conformational aspects of the interaction of diapause hormone for termination of pupal diapause in the corn earworm Heliothis zea and identify several hyperpotent agonists that may provide leads for pest management agents capable of manipulating the state of diapause. Kaskani et al. investigate the biological activity of linear and cyclic analogs of two diuretic peptides of the cockroach Diploptera punctata. Two papers by Nachman et al. describe agonist and antagonist properties of biostable b-amino acid analogs of the pyrokinin/PBAN neuropeptide class and the development of an amphiphilic pyroknin/PBAN analog as a selective pheromonotropic antagonist capable of penetrating the cuticle of a heliothine insect; all of which represent significant additions to the arsenal of tools available to arthropod endocrinologists studying the endogenous mecahanisms of pyrokinin/PBAN regulated processes. The special issue concludes with a review (Vanden Broeck and coworkers) of structural and functional characteristics of the pacifastin-related peptides, which feature serine peptidase-inhibition activity. I wish to thank the invited authors for their interesting and insightful contributions, and look forward to a new set of advances in the invertebrate neuropeptide field to be revealed at INC2009, scheduled for January 11-15, 2009 in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Khajuraho, India. 1. The INC Invertebrate Neuropeptide award The INC Invertebrate Neuropeptide award has been created under the umbrella of The International Neuropeptide Society with an emphasis on outstanding lifetime achievement in the field of invertebrate neuropeptides. It will be represented as a crystal award and features a globe that underscores its international scope. The first recipient was Prof. Arnold DeLoof (Catholic University/Leuven, Belgium) in 2007. The second and third recipients of this award are Profs. Barbara Stay of the University of Iowa (USA) and Geoffrey Coast of Birkbeck College, University of London (UK); to whom we dedicate this issue of Peptides. Their impact and legacy as pioneers in the field are 0196-9781/$ – see front matter ß 2009 Published by Elsevier Inc. doi:10.1016/j.peptides.2009.01.001
446
Introduction / Peptides 30 (2009) 445–448
summarized in the following two sections by colleagues in the field of invertebrate neuroendocrinology – Profs. Stephen Tobe and Ian Orchard of the University of Toronto. Guest Editor Ronald J. Nachman * Peptides, Areawide Pest Management Research Unit, USDA ARS Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center, 2881 F/B Road, College Station, TX 77845, USA *Tel.: +1 979 260 9315; fax: +1 979 260 9377 E-mail address: [email protected]
2. A tribute to Barbara Stay: morphologist, experimentalist, endocrinologist and improbable peptide biologist The career of Barbara Stay has spanned almost 60 years. Few of us can contemplate, let alone, expect to contribute to the knowledge and development of our chosen fields over such an interval. This is testament, not only to Barbara’s patience and endurance but also her devotion to the field of insect biology. Barbara’s career has undergone a number of zigs and zags during the course of her academic life. She began her career as a morphologist in her Radcliffe-Harvard years, while completing her Ph.D. under the supervision of A.B. Dawson. A Fulbright Scholarship, following the completion of the Ph.D. at Harvard, took her to Australia, to work in the lab of D.F. Waterhouse at CSIRO, Canberra. Here, Barbara continued her work on the histology and histochemistry of the midgut of the blowfly during larval development. In fact, Barbara’s first publication was with Waterhouse, detailing the functional differences in the midgut of the fly larvae. Following Barbara’s time in Australia, she returned to the USA and for the next five years, she worked at the Natick, MA Army Research Center, with Louis Roth. Lou’s specialty was cockroaches, in all of their glory, and Barbara enthusiastically ‘embraced’ these new experimental animals. She initially continued on morphological studies of various cockroach species but soon turned to more physiological studies. Throughout her career, Barbara has integrated morphology with physiology (functional morphology) and has continued such studies to the present. In Roth’s lab, she was introduced to Diploptera punctata and quickly realized the uniqueness of this fascinating cockroach species. It became her lifelong ‘Manduca’ or white rat—a model insect par excellence. To date, this remains the only truly viviparous cockroach known. It was also at this point that Barbara’s interest in insect reproduction began, since Roth himself was studying the various modes of reproduction across the cockroaches and a number of important contributions were published during this period, including a paper in Science on the control of reproduction in two cockroach species. This paper provided one of the first clues that factors from the brain regulated the corpora allata and hence, the production of juvenile hormone and represents a point of departure for the study of neurosecretory regulation of endocrine glands in insects (along with the work of Berta Scharrer and of Franz Engelmann). Following her departure from the Army Research Center, Barbara spent a further year back at Harvard as a Fellow, and then ultimately moved to the University of Pennsylvania as an Assistant Professor. She left Penn in 1967 for the University of Iowa where she remains to the present. Throughout this time, Barbara continued her work on cockroach reproduction and its endocrine regulation. Barbara and I began our collaborative studies in the mid seventies after a chance meeting at a conference on insect reproduction in Czechoslovakia. Because Grahame Pratt and I had just developed our radiochemical assay for the measurement of juvenile hormone production by isolated corpora allata, we decided to combine forces, bringing Barbara’s extensive knowledge of the reproductive processes in this unusual cockroach, and our radiochemical assay. I had previously been studying reproduction in another viviparous insect (Glossina, the tsetse fly), and extending my work to another insect species that was less troublesome to rear and that offered the possibility of high rates of biosynthesis of JH was intriguing. Barbara was eager to try the radiochemical assay on ‘her’ insect and the rest of the story is history Thus began our collaboration which continues to this day. Barbara immediately embraced the new assay and with her superb microsurgical techniques and keen experimental acumen, set out a series of experiments that would provide answers to such long-standing questions as 1. the role of JH in initiating and maintaining oocyte production; 2. the effect of various nerve transections on the activation or inhibition of the corpora allata; and 3. the ability of corpora allata to compensate for the removal of one member of the pair or for the implantation of additional corpora allata. These latter two experiments set the stage for the discovery of the novel allatostatin (FGLamide) peptide family, which subsequently occupied much of the research effort in Barbara’s laboratory. Along the way, Barbara and her lab addressed a large number of important physiological questions, including the role of the ovary in the regulation of JH production, regulation of JH production in larval insects, a classic study on the ultrastructure of corpora allata and its correlation with biosynthetic activity, a ground-breaking study on the endocrine control of vitellogenin production, a seminal study on the effect of JH analogs on modulation of JH biosynthesis in vivo (and an understanding of how JH analogs probably work) and an investigation of the role of ecdysteroids in regulating the production of JH in adult insects. All of these studies were performed while working on identity of the allatostatins. After a decade a work and tens of thousands of animals (and dissections), the sequence of four of the allatostatins was finally published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in 1989. This was a remarkable feat in that neither Barbara nor her laboratory had a background in chemistry or biochemistry and yet they were able to generate clean sequence from HPLC-purified material. The allatostatins remain a unique invertebrate peptide family, with a surprisingly wide range of distributions and functions in the invertebrates. In terms of invertebrates, they truly appear to be ubiquitous and it was Barbara’s dogged determination that was largely responsible for their isolation, identification and understanding of their mode of action. Subsequent work in Barbara’s laboratory has provided important and fundamental insights into the regulation of cockroach reproduction, including oocyte development, embryonic development and nutrition of offspring. Combined with her beautiful morphological studies, her work has been pivotal in our understanding of the role of the allatostatins in the regulation of juvenile hormone biosynthesis. More recently, Barbara and her laboratory have focused on the identification of allatostatins in termites. Some authors consider the termites ‘social cockroaches’ and have included them in the cockroach order. Despite their small size and difficulty in maintaining
Introduction / Peptides 30 (2009) 445–448
447
reproductive colonies, she has been able to not only identify these peptides in one termite species, but also to clone the gene encoding them. The peptides encoded by the gene confirm a very close phylogenetic relationship to the cockroaches. Not only has she been a patient teacher, motivator and mentor to her own graduate students, but to my students as well. Her regular visits to Toronto were always greatly anticipated by them and her fresh viewpoint invariably provided guidance and innovation to their research programs. It has been an honour and a privilege to have Barbara as a friend, a colleague and a collaborator for the past 35 years. It has been an incredible ride! Hopefully, Barbara, will not be ‘hanging up’ her forceps anytime soon. Stephen S. Tobe Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3G5 Canada. Fax: +1 416 9783522, email: [email protected]
Prof. Barbara Stay (University of Iowa, USA), recipient of the ‘INC Invertebrate Neuropeptide award’. 3. Invertebrate neuropeptides and the legacy of Geoffrey Coast Geoff Coast did his undergraduate and post-graduate degrees during the ‘‘swinging sixties’’ at Chelsea College situated on the King’s Road and now part of King’s College, United Kingdom. These were the days, described by Geoff, of flower power and mini skirts, with Chelsea being considered at the center of this culture. Choosing academia over snooker (Geoff played against the likes of Alex Higgins and Jimmy White, World Champion snooker players), Geoff joined Birkbeck College as Lecturer in Zoology prior to actually completing his Ph.D. Whilst finalizing the writing of his Ph.D. and within a year of joining Birkbeck, two comparative physiologists left Birkbeck and thereby left Geoff in charge of running a very popular M.Sc. in Comparative Physiology, and assisting Reg Chapman in running an M.Sc. in Entomology! This busy time became busier when Geoff redesigned the undergraduate program to fit a new degree structure. Catching the attention of the College administration and fellow Faculty members, Geoff became a Governor of the College with heavy committee responsibilities, whilst at the same time teaching 4 to 5 nights a week. Birkbeck is a College for part-time students; those with jobs during the day but seeking a degree in the evening. Geoff is a wonderful teacher and mentor and took pride and joy in teaching this rich diversity of part-time evening students. Returning to research after this enormously busy and diverse part of his career, Geoff developed the Ramsay assay for cricket, then locust, Malpighian tubules. Collaborating with a wonderful group of colleagues, he began to isolate and characterize the diuretic hormones from a variety of insects. Thus, Geoff’s research interests lie within the field of insect neuroendocrinology, and particularly with the endocrine control of the excretory process. His research career spans through a series of outstanding publications in this specialized area and the sum of these publications are considered a ‘‘tour de force’’ within the discipline. These publications examine diuretic hormone action at the cellular level; their physiological release and degradation; their effects on secretion of primary urine by isolated Malpighian tubules; and on fluid secretion in the intact insect. Numerous major advances have been made by Geoff and his collaborators, including the identification and isolation of the first member of the CRF-related family of diuretic peptides in insects, the description of their true hormonal nature, and the identification of the mosquito natriuretic peptide as the calcitonin-like neuropeptide. Geoff has contributed numerous reviews to the field, and is very active in contributing to, and participating at, International meetings. Indeed, with regard to the endocrinology of salt and water balance in insects, he is the ‘‘go-to guy’’ for state-of-the-art lectures and keynote addresses. Recent examples of this include the 21st Conference of European Comparative Endocrinologists (Bonn, 2002), 22nd Conference of European Comparative Endocrinologists (Uppsala, 2004), 23rd Conference of European Comparative Endocrinologists (Manchester, 2006), Vth International Conference on Arthropods (Zakopane, 2007), and the Society for Experimental Biology (Marseilles, 2008). I note that Geoff not only contributes, but participates, at International meetings. Geoff is well known for asking probing questions of presenters, and of
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Introduction / Peptides 30 (2009) 445–448
taking copious notes. If asked, he will let you know he brings these new discoveries and insights back to the classroom, advancing not only his own knowledge, but that of his undergraduate students. Geoff retired in 2008, having finished a term as Head of the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Birkbeck College. He has become Emeritus (i.e. without pay) Reader in Comparative Endocrinology, Birkbeck College. He has not, however, retired from the scholarship / research he loves. He continues to collaborate worldwide (have Ramsay assay, will travel), is President of the European Society of Comparative Endocrinologists, and remains a keynote speaker at numerous conferences. Geoff is most deserving of the ‘‘INC Invertebrate Neuropeptide award’’, and those of us who have benefitted from his mentorship, collaboration, advice, and especially his great humor, are proud to consider him a friend and colleague. The discipline is far more advanced because of his scholarship. Ian Orchard Vice-President University of Toronto Principal, University of Toronto Mississauga and professor of Biology 3359 Mississauga Road Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6 Fax: +905 569 4349, e-mail: [email protected]
Prof. Geoffrey Coast (Birkbeck College, University of London, UK), recipient of the ‘INC Invertebrate Neuropeptide award’.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Peptides journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/peptides
Introduction
Invertebrate neuropeptides IX
This special issue of Peptides represents the ninth in a series dedicated to invertebrate neuropeptides [see also Peptides 29 (2) 2008, Peptides 28 (1) 2007; Peptides 27 (3) 2006; Peptides 26 (1) 2005; Peptides 24 (10) 2003; Peptides 23 (11) 2002; Peptides 23 (4) 2002; and Peptides 22 (2) 2001] and chronicles recent advances in the field as presented in the Invertebrate Neuropeptide Conference 2008 (INC2008). I wish to thank Editor-in-Chief Abba Kastin for the invitation to serve as guest editor for this issue. The INC 2008 took place in the rainforest of Soberania National Park, Gamboa, Panama´, watershed for the Panama´ Canal, and featured leading researchers in the field of invertebrate neuropeptides representing 8 countries and 3 continents. The papers in this issue address a number of aspects of invertebrate neuropeptides, including a paper on comparative peptidomics of two species of nematode, providing a promising basis for further ebolutionary comparisons (Husson et al.). Two other papers by Aguilar et al. report on the structural characterization of d-conotoxin isomorphs that feature post-translational modifications from the marine snail Conus delesserti from the Caribbean and isolation of a new peptide (pal9a) from the venom of the turrid snail Polystira albida from the Gulf of Mexico. Several other reports deal with the use of state-of-the-art mass spectrometric techniques to identify the first neuropeptide from the insect order Megaloptera (Gade et al.), the allatotropin-related and tachykinin-related neuropeptides in four species of Heteroptera and one species each of Lygaeidae and Pyrrhocoridae (Neurpert et al.), and an allatotropin-related peptide, with CNS mapping data, in two species of cockroaches (Neurpert et al.). Stay and coworkers describe the identification of a new allatostatin immunocytochemical mapping in neural tissue from the termite Reticulitermes flavipes. Nagasawa and coworkers describe a new bacterial expression method for the preparation of recombinant CHH of the karuma prawn Marsupeneus japonicus. Denlinger and coworkers find that neuropeptide-like precursor 4 is expressed only during pupal diapause in the flesh fly Neobellieria bullata and Verleyen et al. clone the gene for neuropeptide-like precursor 1 (NPLP 1) in the flesh fly and identify three encoded NPLP 1 peptides in CNS extracts. Two other papers by Di Cristo et al. describe the cloning of the gene for a GnRH isoform and present immunocytochemical mapping in neural tissue of the cephalopod Sepia officinalis and demonstrate that N-methyl-d-aspartate enhaces the expression of GnRH mRNA in the mollusk Octopus vulgaris. Poels et al. report on the characterization and distribution of NKD, a receptor for tachykinin-relateed peptide 6 in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Jackson et al. studied the solution conformation of the cyclic neuropeptide crustacean cardioactive peptide (CCAP) whereas Audsley et al. investigate the degradation of leucomyosuppressin by enzymes in the midgut and hemolymph of two lepidopteran species. Isaac and coworkers describe the locomotor and geotactic behavior of Drosophila mutants over-expressing the peptidase neprilysin-2 and Smagghe and coworkers evaluate the use of bioinformatics as a tool to find peptides that inhibit the peptidase ACE. Pacheco et al. demonstrate that enhancement of the insecticidal activity of Bt Cry1A toxins by fragments of a toxin-binding cadherin can be correlated with the formation of oligomers and Fernandez et al. employ phage display to investigate the mode of action of Bt Cry toxins. Denlinger and coworkers probe conformational aspects of the interaction of diapause hormone for termination of pupal diapause in the corn earworm Heliothis zea and identify several hyperpotent agonists that may provide leads for pest management agents capable of manipulating the state of diapause. Kaskani et al. investigate the biological activity of linear and cyclic analogs of two diuretic peptides of the cockroach Diploptera punctata. Two papers by Nachman et al. describe agonist and antagonist properties of biostable b-amino acid analogs of the pyrokinin/PBAN neuropeptide class and the development of an amphiphilic pyroknin/PBAN analog as a selective pheromonotropic antagonist capable of penetrating the cuticle of a heliothine insect; all of which represent significant additions to the arsenal of tools available to arthropod endocrinologists studying the endogenous mecahanisms of pyrokinin/PBAN regulated processes. The special issue concludes with a review (Vanden Broeck and coworkers) of structural and functional characteristics of the pacifastin-related peptides, which feature serine peptidase-inhibition activity. I wish to thank the invited authors for their interesting and insightful contributions, and look forward to a new set of advances in the invertebrate neuropeptide field to be revealed at INC2009, scheduled for January 11-15, 2009 in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Khajuraho, India. 1. The INC Invertebrate Neuropeptide award The INC Invertebrate Neuropeptide award has been created under the umbrella of The International Neuropeptide Society with an emphasis on outstanding lifetime achievement in the field of invertebrate neuropeptides. It will be represented as a crystal award and features a globe that underscores its international scope. The first recipient was Prof. Arnold DeLoof (Catholic University/Leuven, Belgium) in 2007. The second and third recipients of this award are Profs. Barbara Stay of the University of Iowa (USA) and Geoffrey Coast of Birkbeck College, University of London (UK); to whom we dedicate this issue of Peptides. Their impact and legacy as pioneers in the field are 0196-9781/$ – see front matter ß 2009 Published by Elsevier Inc. doi:10.1016/j.peptides.2009.01.001
446
Introduction / Peptides 30 (2009) 445–448
summarized in the following two sections by colleagues in the field of invertebrate neuroendocrinology – Profs. Stephen Tobe and Ian Orchard of the University of Toronto. Guest Editor Ronald J. Nachman * Peptides, Areawide Pest Management Research Unit, USDA ARS Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center, 2881 F/B Road, College Station, TX 77845, USA *Tel.: +1 979 260 9315; fax: +1 979 260 9377 E-mail address: [email protected]
2. A tribute to Barbara Stay: morphologist, experimentalist, endocrinologist and improbable peptide biologist The career of Barbara Stay has spanned almost 60 years. Few of us can contemplate, let alone, expect to contribute to the knowledge and development of our chosen fields over such an interval. This is testament, not only to Barbara’s patience and endurance but also her devotion to the field of insect biology. Barbara’s career has undergone a number of zigs and zags during the course of her academic life. She began her career as a morphologist in her Radcliffe-Harvard years, while completing her Ph.D. under the supervision of A.B. Dawson. A Fulbright Scholarship, following the completion of the Ph.D. at Harvard, took her to Australia, to work in the lab of D.F. Waterhouse at CSIRO, Canberra. Here, Barbara continued her work on the histology and histochemistry of the midgut of the blowfly during larval development. In fact, Barbara’s first publication was with Waterhouse, detailing the functional differences in the midgut of the fly larvae. Following Barbara’s time in Australia, she returned to the USA and for the next five years, she worked at the Natick, MA Army Research Center, with Louis Roth. Lou’s specialty was cockroaches, in all of their glory, and Barbara enthusiastically ‘embraced’ these new experimental animals. She initially continued on morphological studies of various cockroach species but soon turned to more physiological studies. Throughout her career, Barbara has integrated morphology with physiology (functional morphology) and has continued such studies to the present. In Roth’s lab, she was introduced to Diploptera punctata and quickly realized the uniqueness of this fascinating cockroach species. It became her lifelong ‘Manduca’ or white rat—a model insect par excellence. To date, this remains the only truly viviparous cockroach known. It was also at this point that Barbara’s interest in insect reproduction began, since Roth himself was studying the various modes of reproduction across the cockroaches and a number of important contributions were published during this period, including a paper in Science on the control of reproduction in two cockroach species. This paper provided one of the first clues that factors from the brain regulated the corpora allata and hence, the production of juvenile hormone and represents a point of departure for the study of neurosecretory regulation of endocrine glands in insects (along with the work of Berta Scharrer and of Franz Engelmann). Following her departure from the Army Research Center, Barbara spent a further year back at Harvard as a Fellow, and then ultimately moved to the University of Pennsylvania as an Assistant Professor. She left Penn in 1967 for the University of Iowa where she remains to the present. Throughout this time, Barbara continued her work on cockroach reproduction and its endocrine regulation. Barbara and I began our collaborative studies in the mid seventies after a chance meeting at a conference on insect reproduction in Czechoslovakia. Because Grahame Pratt and I had just developed our radiochemical assay for the measurement of juvenile hormone production by isolated corpora allata, we decided to combine forces, bringing Barbara’s extensive knowledge of the reproductive processes in this unusual cockroach, and our radiochemical assay. I had previously been studying reproduction in another viviparous insect (Glossina, the tsetse fly), and extending my work to another insect species that was less troublesome to rear and that offered the possibility of high rates of biosynthesis of JH was intriguing. Barbara was eager to try the radiochemical assay on ‘her’ insect and the rest of the story is history Thus began our collaboration which continues to this day. Barbara immediately embraced the new assay and with her superb microsurgical techniques and keen experimental acumen, set out a series of experiments that would provide answers to such long-standing questions as 1. the role of JH in initiating and maintaining oocyte production; 2. the effect of various nerve transections on the activation or inhibition of the corpora allata; and 3. the ability of corpora allata to compensate for the removal of one member of the pair or for the implantation of additional corpora allata. These latter two experiments set the stage for the discovery of the novel allatostatin (FGLamide) peptide family, which subsequently occupied much of the research effort in Barbara’s laboratory. Along the way, Barbara and her lab addressed a large number of important physiological questions, including the role of the ovary in the regulation of JH production, regulation of JH production in larval insects, a classic study on the ultrastructure of corpora allata and its correlation with biosynthetic activity, a ground-breaking study on the endocrine control of vitellogenin production, a seminal study on the effect of JH analogs on modulation of JH biosynthesis in vivo (and an understanding of how JH analogs probably work) and an investigation of the role of ecdysteroids in regulating the production of JH in adult insects. All of these studies were performed while working on identity of the allatostatins. After a decade a work and tens of thousands of animals (and dissections), the sequence of four of the allatostatins was finally published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in 1989. This was a remarkable feat in that neither Barbara nor her laboratory had a background in chemistry or biochemistry and yet they were able to generate clean sequence from HPLC-purified material. The allatostatins remain a unique invertebrate peptide family, with a surprisingly wide range of distributions and functions in the invertebrates. In terms of invertebrates, they truly appear to be ubiquitous and it was Barbara’s dogged determination that was largely responsible for their isolation, identification and understanding of their mode of action. Subsequent work in Barbara’s laboratory has provided important and fundamental insights into the regulation of cockroach reproduction, including oocyte development, embryonic development and nutrition of offspring. Combined with her beautiful morphological studies, her work has been pivotal in our understanding of the role of the allatostatins in the regulation of juvenile hormone biosynthesis. More recently, Barbara and her laboratory have focused on the identification of allatostatins in termites. Some authors consider the termites ‘social cockroaches’ and have included them in the cockroach order. Despite their small size and difficulty in maintaining
Introduction / Peptides 30 (2009) 445–448
447
reproductive colonies, she has been able to not only identify these peptides in one termite species, but also to clone the gene encoding them. The peptides encoded by the gene confirm a very close phylogenetic relationship to the cockroaches. Not only has she been a patient teacher, motivator and mentor to her own graduate students, but to my students as well. Her regular visits to Toronto were always greatly anticipated by them and her fresh viewpoint invariably provided guidance and innovation to their research programs. It has been an honour and a privilege to have Barbara as a friend, a colleague and a collaborator for the past 35 years. It has been an incredible ride! Hopefully, Barbara, will not be ‘hanging up’ her forceps anytime soon. Stephen S. Tobe Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3G5 Canada. Fax: +1 416 9783522, email: [email protected]
Prof. Barbara Stay (University of Iowa, USA), recipient of the ‘INC Invertebrate Neuropeptide award’. 3. Invertebrate neuropeptides and the legacy of Geoffrey Coast Geoff Coast did his undergraduate and post-graduate degrees during the ‘‘swinging sixties’’ at Chelsea College situated on the King’s Road and now part of King’s College, United Kingdom. These were the days, described by Geoff, of flower power and mini skirts, with Chelsea being considered at the center of this culture. Choosing academia over snooker (Geoff played against the likes of Alex Higgins and Jimmy White, World Champion snooker players), Geoff joined Birkbeck College as Lecturer in Zoology prior to actually completing his Ph.D. Whilst finalizing the writing of his Ph.D. and within a year of joining Birkbeck, two comparative physiologists left Birkbeck and thereby left Geoff in charge of running a very popular M.Sc. in Comparative Physiology, and assisting Reg Chapman in running an M.Sc. in Entomology! This busy time became busier when Geoff redesigned the undergraduate program to fit a new degree structure. Catching the attention of the College administration and fellow Faculty members, Geoff became a Governor of the College with heavy committee responsibilities, whilst at the same time teaching 4 to 5 nights a week. Birkbeck is a College for part-time students; those with jobs during the day but seeking a degree in the evening. Geoff is a wonderful teacher and mentor and took pride and joy in teaching this rich diversity of part-time evening students. Returning to research after this enormously busy and diverse part of his career, Geoff developed the Ramsay assay for cricket, then locust, Malpighian tubules. Collaborating with a wonderful group of colleagues, he began to isolate and characterize the diuretic hormones from a variety of insects. Thus, Geoff’s research interests lie within the field of insect neuroendocrinology, and particularly with the endocrine control of the excretory process. His research career spans through a series of outstanding publications in this specialized area and the sum of these publications are considered a ‘‘tour de force’’ within the discipline. These publications examine diuretic hormone action at the cellular level; their physiological release and degradation; their effects on secretion of primary urine by isolated Malpighian tubules; and on fluid secretion in the intact insect. Numerous major advances have been made by Geoff and his collaborators, including the identification and isolation of the first member of the CRF-related family of diuretic peptides in insects, the description of their true hormonal nature, and the identification of the mosquito natriuretic peptide as the calcitonin-like neuropeptide. Geoff has contributed numerous reviews to the field, and is very active in contributing to, and participating at, International meetings. Indeed, with regard to the endocrinology of salt and water balance in insects, he is the ‘‘go-to guy’’ for state-of-the-art lectures and keynote addresses. Recent examples of this include the 21st Conference of European Comparative Endocrinologists (Bonn, 2002), 22nd Conference of European Comparative Endocrinologists (Uppsala, 2004), 23rd Conference of European Comparative Endocrinologists (Manchester, 2006), Vth International Conference on Arthropods (Zakopane, 2007), and the Society for Experimental Biology (Marseilles, 2008). I note that Geoff not only contributes, but participates, at International meetings. Geoff is well known for asking probing questions of presenters, and of
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Introduction / Peptides 30 (2009) 445–448
taking copious notes. If asked, he will let you know he brings these new discoveries and insights back to the classroom, advancing not only his own knowledge, but that of his undergraduate students. Geoff retired in 2008, having finished a term as Head of the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Birkbeck College. He has become Emeritus (i.e. without pay) Reader in Comparative Endocrinology, Birkbeck College. He has not, however, retired from the scholarship / research he loves. He continues to collaborate worldwide (have Ramsay assay, will travel), is President of the European Society of Comparative Endocrinologists, and remains a keynote speaker at numerous conferences. Geoff is most deserving of the ‘‘INC Invertebrate Neuropeptide award’’, and those of us who have benefitted from his mentorship, collaboration, advice, and especially his great humor, are proud to consider him a friend and colleague. The discipline is far more advanced because of his scholarship. Ian Orchard Vice-President University of Toronto Principal, University of Toronto Mississauga and professor of Biology 3359 Mississauga Road Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6 Fax: +905 569 4349, e-mail: [email protected]
Prof. Geoffrey Coast (Birkbeck College, University of London, UK), recipient of the ‘INC Invertebrate Neuropeptide award’.