In insects, gustatory neurons sense chemicals upon contact and directly inform many behaviors critical for survival and reproduction, including biting, feeding, mating, and egg laying. However, the taste sensory system is underexplored in many anthropophilic disease vectors such as mosquitoes, which acquire and transmit human pathogens during blood feeding from human hosts. This results in a big gap in vector biology—the study of organisms that spread disease by transmitting pathogens—because insect vectors closely interact with humans while selecting suitable individuals and appropriate bite sites for blood meals. Human sweat and skin-associated chemistries are rich in nonvolatile compounds that can be sensed by the mosquito's taste system when she lands on the skin. Taste sensory units, called sensilla, are distributed in many organs across the mosquito body, including the mouthparts, legs, and ovipositors (female-specific structures used to lay eggs). Each sensillum is innervated by as many as five taste neurons, which allow detection and discrimination between various tastants such as water, sugars, salts, amino acids, and plant-derived compounds that taste bitter to humans. Single-sensillum recordings provide a robust way to survey taste responsiveness of individual sensilla to various diagnostic and ecologically relevant chemicals. Such analyses are of immense value for understanding links between mosquito taste responses and behaviors to specific chemical cues and can provide insights into why mosquitoes prefer certain hosts. The results can also aid development of strategies to disrupt close-range mosquito–human interactions to control disease transmission. Here we describe a protocol that is curated for electrophysiological recordings from taste sensilla in mosquitoes and sure to yield exciting results for the field.

The technique of visualizing axon pathways in the embryonic ventral nerve cord using antibody labeling has been fundamental to our understanding of the genetic and developmental mechanisms underlying nervous system wiring in Drosophila. High-resolution microscopic examination of the ventral nerve cord remains an essential component of many experiments in Drosophila developmental neuroscience. Although it is possible to examine the ventral nerve cord in intact whole-mount embryos, to collect the highest-quality images it is often useful to isolate the nervous system away from the other embryonic tissues through embryo dissection. This protocol describes methods for dissecting ventral nerve cords from Drosophila embryos that have been fixed and stained via immunofluorescence or horseradish peroxidase (HRP) immunohistochemistry. The process of making fine dissection needles for this purpose from electrolytically sharpened tungsten wire is also described. Dissected and mounted ventral nerve cords can be examined and imaged using a variety of microscopy techniques including differential interference contrast (DIC) optics, epifluorescence, or confocal microscopy.

In insects, oocyte resorption (oosorption) or follicular atresia is one of the key physiological processes and evolutionary strategies used to optimize reproductive fitness. Mosquitoes are ideal model organisms for studying egg maturation in arthropods, as their follicle development is initiated only following the ingestion of a blood meal, followed by a carefully orchestrated series of hormonally regulated events leading to egg maturation. A cohort of approximately 100 follicles per mosquito ovary begin developing synchronously. However, a significant fraction of follicles ultimately undergo apoptosis and oosorption, especially when available resources from the blood meal are limited. Therefore, simple, rapid, and reliable techniques to accurately evaluate follicular atresia are necessary to understand mechanisms underlying follicle development in insects. This protocol describes how to detect apoptotic follicle cells within the Aedes aegypti mosquito ovaries using a commercially available fluorescent-labeled inhibitor of caspases (FLICA). Caspases are key players in animal apoptosis. In this assay, the FLICA reagent enters the intracellular compartment of follicles in dissected mosquito ovaries and covalently binds to active caspases. The bound reagent remains within the cell and its fluorescent signal can be observed by confocal microscopy. Although this method was specifically developed for visualizing apoptotic ovarian follicles during Ae. aegypti mosquito egg development, it should be applicable to other mosquito tissues that undergo caspase-mediated program cell death in a time-dependent manner.

A Two-Day Festival in the historic Arts & Industries Building brings community, artists and scholars together for a “Culture Lab”

On this episode of Generation Anthropocene, we dive into one of the most underappreciated elements on the periodic table

The ancient burial structures, strikingly similar all across Europe and the mediterranean, have puzzled scientists and historians for centuries

By raising her son to be curious about the natural world, this mother helped shape the trajectory of the National Museum of Natural History

The Northwest Territories Power Corporation expects that by the end of March it will have generated 72 per cent of power for the North Slave region using hydro, and 28 per cent from diesel. Last year, about half the region's power was from diesel because of low water levels.

More than 50 Norman Wells residents gathered at the Royal Canadian Legion on Thursday night to voice frustrations over high heating fuel prices.

Tammy Roberts, Home Base's executive director, said before these services launched, there was "no place for youth to go" other than the emergency room or to RCMP cells. 

In opening remarks at the Inuit-Crown partnership committee meeting in Ottawa on Friday, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree said the government is preparing to deliver an apology in Nunavik — the Inuit region of northern Quebec.

Former Dawson City Mayor Bill Kendrick has filed his defence against the town's encroachment violation lawsuit.

With president-elect Donald Trump promising to drill in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Gwich'in are preparing to fight for the Porcupine caribou herd.

Yukon appeal court Justice Karen Horsman granted a temporary stay of the requirement on Friday, the latest development in an ongoing legal battle over the property between the territorial government, cabin-owner Len Tarka and tenant Eric DeLong. 

As people across the country mourn the Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair, some in the Northwest Territories justice system are reflecting on his contributions to the country — one of those being Gladue principles. 

A Whitehorse homeowner has been charged in connection with an explosion last year that destroyed his home and killed a man in a neighbouring house. 

Hay River RCMP say they believe two weekend incidents, including one in which a person was shot, are linked to drugs and organized crime.

In Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., work is underway on a modular home construction centre that local leaders say will help the community meet housing and employment goals.

Historians say that Sarah Emma Edmonds exaggerated many aspects of her wartime experiences. Still, she bravely served in the Union Army, becoming one of hundreds of women who fought in the conflict in secret

Newspaper editor Horace Greeley unsuccessfully ran against incumbent Ulysses S. Grant in November 1872. Twenty-four days later, he died of unknown causes at a private mental health facility

In a new biopic starring Kate Winslet, Miller's many lives—as an artist, model, muse, cook and war correspondent—need little embellishment

In the early 1990s, historians and the public alike questioned how Disney's America would accurately and sensitively document the nation's thorny past

Fifty years ago, on October 5, 1974, David Kunst completed the first verified circumnavigation of the globe on foot. Along the way, he met Princess Grace of Monaco, raised money for UNICEF and lost a brother to bandits

The bronze wreath immortalized the moment when the members of the Honor Guard removed their hats and placed them on the president's grave during his burial

A new film revisits the 90 minutes before the first episode of "Saturday Night Live" premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975

The British explorer named dozens of geographical features and sites in the region, ignoring the traditions of the Indigenous peoples who’d lived there for millennia

As a child, the future president acquired a marine animal's skull, which became the first specimen in his natural history collection

During and after the Civil War, inventive illustrations allowed Democrats and Republicans to turn American ballots into powerful propaganda

When the U.S. Army massacred a Lakota village at Blue Water, dozens of plundered artifacts ended up in the Smithsonian. The unraveling of this long-buried atrocity is forging a path toward reconciliation

A new exhibition at the British Library explores the public, private and spiritual lives of such figures as Joan of Arc, Christine de Pizan and Hildegard of Bingen

After he was forced off the German stage in 1934 by antisemitic hecklers, Leo Reuss found a daring way to hide in plain sight

Texts like the "Sortes Astrampsychi" promised insights on clients' love lives, career prospects, financial woes and families

In the Jim Crow South, activists became martyrs at the hands of white racists, all for the just cause of using the vote to fight for equality and freedom

Before fitness influencers made getting your steps in a trend, pedestrianism had the nation on their feet

The 1898 Wilmington massacre left dozens of Black North Carolinians dead. Conspirators also forced the city's multiracial government to resign at gunpoint

A Romare Bearden print served as a starting point for the American playwright's 1987 drama, which follows a Black family's struggle to decide the fate of an ancestral heirloom

Families of Norton Elementary School won’t be seeing their kids return anytime soon. Repairs are going to take longer than expected and students are expected to be back in the school by the start of the next school year.

The New Brunswick Military History Museum is in possession of a unique piece of history that was once used to raise money for frontline soldiers.

Interim PC Leader Glen Savoie urged members to find a common purpose rather than blame former leader Blaine Higgs.

From bravery on the field of battle to stoicism behind the lines, New Brunswickers of all backgrounds made their marks.

Atlantic salmon returns were at their lowest level ever this year, say researchers, who are nevertheless refusing to give up hope that the population can rebound.

An opioid replacement program in downtown Fredericton will continue to operate at the River Stone Recovery Centre until March 2025 after it got a one-year extension from Health Canada, despite increased opposition to the clinic.

Eight years ago, a woman filed a complaint about two RCMP constables in Moncton. She accused them of having "an improper and racist attitude" and of discriminating against her and her husband during an investigation into a stolen truck and trailer. 

A Fredericton judge suggested a joint sentencing proposal Tuesday was too lenient in the case of a former peace officer who left a loaded gun in the house while his children were home.

New Brunswick’s Court of Appeal has reserved judgment in the case of a man found guilty of criminal negligence in the death of Fredericton teenager in 2018.

The apartment once occupied by the author of Les Miserables is now a museum dedicated to his life and to 19th century Paris

Families are grappling with the consequences of growing gun violence in Hamilton and across the Greater Toronto Area this year. Several of the region's police forces have warned of an alarming rise in shootings since January.

With Remembrance Day and Indigenous Veterans Day coming up, many people start to reflect on their family's wartime stories by looking through mementos saved by former generations. Ron Kanutski of Thunder Bay, Ont., joins the CBC's Mary-Jean Cormier to talk about his family's military history.

Even as they fundraise for other community organizations, some legions across Canada are having trouble keeping their own lights on amid rising inflation and maintenance costs.

The union for wildland firefighters says a recently passed Ontario bill that makes them eligible for presumptive cancer care under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board doesn't go far enough.