CUBE Chatshaala:- The Causerie will still be on!

drishtantmkawale · May 29, 2020, 10:35am

Summary- CUBE Room Webinar
Thursday, May 28th 2020

Moina-A brief discussion

The discussion started with the freshwater-crustacean Moina. I updated everyone about the Moina cultures at my home lab.
Then, I shared the breaking news of observing yellowish-green colour on the base and walls of the bottles.
I suspect that it is Algae which is taking over in the Yeast bottles. I added that once I see more greenish growth, I will add ~10 Moinas in both the bottles.
@KiranKalakotiR and Abhijeet Singh asked that how will the Moinas survive in those bottles? If we look at their natural environment which is ponds and lakes, the Moinas feed on Algae, Bacteria and Fungi (Yeast and others) present in the fresh-water bodies there.*

It will be interesting to know about their feeding mechanism on Algae and Fungi.

Abhijeet Singh asked about my Research Question and how am I working on that.
Research Question: How do the Moinas undergo colour change (colourless to coloured and vice versa) in less-oxygen condition or hypoxia and is it due to Histone modifications?

I said that it is very simple to induce hypoxia and observe the colour change of the Moinas. Everyone (if they have Moinas at their place) can do it in their home labs and the first possible colour change would be noticed by them in 72 hours!

And once the Moinas become coloured ones, we can turn them back into colourless Moina.
How!!?
By again keeping them back in Normal oxygen condition or Normoxia.
Here too, after a day i.e. ~24 hours or less than that, the 3rd day Pale Yellow or coloured Moinas will turn into colourless Moinas.

So we see that such simple experiments which can be done at home are the base of understanding the complex mechanisms like Histone acetylation/deacetylation, Remodeling and others.

Yesterday, a major goof-up happened by me that I burdened everyone present in the Webinar by explaining these complex mechanisms (without the help of any diagrams as such) instead of starting with the basics and explaining it simply!

My Apologies to everyone

I learnt that evidence based research is essential in explaining a complex system.
I have data, so I am able to explain.

Later, many others questions were asked.
Let us discuss them here. CUBists please repost the questions here.

Then, there came an issue of misunderstanding Milk as a Mutagen!!
@Vaibhavib99 and later @Shalu added that many people assume that the colour change of the Moinas from colourless to coloured ones and vice versa is due to mutations and reverse mutations respectively!

How is that even possible?
Does that mean many of us are consuming a mutagen?
No way!

Mutations take place when there is a change in base-pair sequence of the DNA.
They take time to get expressed.

And as I mentioned earlier, only the configuration of DNA and Histone is changed and rest all remains the same.
THE DNA SEQUENCE DOES NOT CHANGE!

So milk in any form, is not a mutagen which will cause mutations in Moinas!!
This is where we go wrong in understanding the TEXTBOOKISH things!

Instead of ending it here, we took it somewhere else.

Fruitflies-the flies on demand

We discussed about the current status of the fruitfly cultures maintained by @saswathy679 at her home lab in Thrissur, Kerala and @Hinaiqbal_Mudgal too, at her home lab in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.

As they are having many bottles with as many flies in them, all of us suggested that they should start with the identification of the dead frutiflies in their bottles.
Even if they do not belong to a single line culture of flies, any random fly can be used just as a warm-up for identification.

Starting with the family identification and moving further on.
Yash, Aswathy , @Lydia and others please add to this and let us start with the identification procedure and its design!

Shedding some light on the slow-mo guys: Snails
As we were wrapping up, we came upon the Snails which are maintained by @Anjani from CUBE Elphinstone, Mumbai, in his home lab.
His collaborators Manasi Prasad, Nishmita Amin, Nikita Dhuri updated that one of his snails died.
How do we know that a Snail has died? It may be that the snail must be inactive or sleepy!

They said that a stench was coming from that snail.
Was that a result of any bacterial, fungal infection?

Zahra Risalawala said that she had read a paper (please share that!) where it was saying that the excess of salt can harm the Snails.
Is it?
What will happen if we take a mouthful of salt?
What happens when our fellow Earthworm is exposed to high salinity.
I have seen that the earthworm tries to move away from it.
It may shrink too.

Why?
Does dehydration take place?

Nishmita Amin said that it is osmosis taking place.
What is osmosis? Do we really understand it?

We can simply start saying that because there is high salt concentration outside and low/normal salt concentration inside the body cells of the Earthworm, the salt will try to diffuse inside and in the process, it will dehydrate the Earthworm as more salt would be present inside which is harmful.

Why is it harmful?
Is it not a CONTEXT TO CURRICULUM question?

Let us solve it!

Arunan · May 29, 2020, 11:11am

Which curricular questions are being addressed here? @drishtantmkawale Please like at them with an one line description.

Kunal_Kadam · June 2, 2020, 2:38pm

Nematodes are generally found in soil , garbages, etc. So following the procedure of placing the soil sample on the periphery of 2% Agar surface and then adding the feed at the centre and thus isolating the nematodes is possible. But during the Lockdown some requirements such as :-

Dissecting Microscope.
Agar .
Petri Plates ,etc. Are not present at home. So the isolation and identification of the nematodes might be a problem. Even the foldscope would just show an organism like a nematode but it can’t be proved as the Characteristic features won’t be visible through it.
I guess isolation or even culturing nematodes during a lockdown would be difficult at Home labs without the instruments or material mentioned above.
I am still searching for alternatives that can be used to observe the nematodes and a culture/surface media that can be made at home instead of using agar . Will come up with some idea ! Others can also look for some ideas that can ensure the idea of culturing and identifying the Nematodes at our home labs. This would come up with a great result and create new alternatives for the species to work upon from Home Labs.
@Anshu_kadam_2813 @Arunan @bivasnag @Bunny @Shivamkumar_Sriwas @Ritam007 @Garima_kalakoti @jaikishan @drishtantmkawale

drishtantmkawale · June 2, 2020, 3:05pm

I would like to contradict you @Kunal_Kadam.
You must be familiar with the current happenings in the CUBE Fruitfly Model Organism group.
We are doing fantastic work there. A home-made fruitfly medium has been devised (incomparison with the Standard Cornmeal Medium) to culture fruitflies at home and it is working incredibly well!

Why not we think of doing the same here?
I bet no one in the world must be doing things at home which CUBists do!!

Not even isolate, but can’t we just look for nematodes or even soil worms.
Dissecting Microscope is too sophisticated! Our phone camera shall do the trick.

Well, we can find alternatives for Agar! As the lockdown is easing now, we can make a search for agar alternatives and then start with it!
Agar, if we see is used as a solidifying agent or gelling agent (the lab one’s are too expensive!).

As mentioned earlier, the Fruitfly guys have found out Rava/Semolina/Suji as an alternative for agar.

Petri plates can be replaced by transparent lids or plates maybe.

Pinning Prof. Obaid Siddiqi’s Quote

"Sophistication should be in mind, not in lab"

Kunal_Kadam · June 2, 2020, 5:12pm

@drishtantmkawale
Here you are comparing two Different Model Organisms !! They are different in Size , Characteristic and even feed and substrate . Keeping in mind the size of the single Adult Nematode is 1mm approx. The mobile phone cannot zoom in to that level as it does help in case of the drosophila as it is visible through the naked eyes too… Now talking about the isolation of the nematodes - the nematodes are found in soil , it is very tidious to islolate them from the soil.
The media on which we would place the soil should not get affected by the soil itself. And the media should not get affected by the bacterial feed too . If we compare the transferring of the nematodes from one media to another would be more tidious work to do… As in drosophila the bottle transfer is done by the drosophila otself by flying to the other Bottle.
Soo it’ll be little difficult to find an alternative but not impossible !!! If everyone put forth their views or thoughts on this !!! It’ll be easy , not that difficult to find alternative for all and start with nematode isolation at home!!!

@Anshu_kadam_2813 @Bunny @bivasnag @Arunan @jaikishan@ @Ritam007 @Garima_kalakoti

Lydia · June 8, 2020, 9:05am

Combined summary of all the CUBists who gave a summary of 3rd June webinar…for all those who missed out the summary.

[03/06, 10:54 pm] Prathamesh:
Summary — CUBE Webinar , Wednesday 3rd of June, 2020
Today’s discussion was based on viruses. The discussion was started as I have raised the question that how the first person got infected with the dengue virus; i.e. if we search for the cycle of the dengue virus, it starts from an human who is infected by the dengue virus and when the aedes aegypti i.e. the species of mosquito which is capable to carry dengue virus bites that infected person , these mosquitoes carry these virus in their salivary glands and then it spreads to the other person. So like this the discussion started and then Ashutosh connected this dengue virus with currently spreading coronavirus and we further discussed on this topic , that how the first person of this covid would got infected with this virus . So Rahul gave me some informative clues about viral transmission and structure of virus. Saida and others also joined and discussed on the raised question . As virus contains a protein coat and inside it there is DNA or RNA present . So we thought that covid is because of bats and this virus has been mutated in the bats and at last it was cleared that the first person of covid eould be infected by the mutated virus in the bats as in china people sells and consumes the bat .
So we reached at that point of coronavirus and further this coronavirus is transmitted through human to human , but the question of dengue remained unsolved may be because I was not able to connect the links given by Arunan sir and Rahul or may be some another reason .
But then too, I will think and search on it, that how the first person got infected with this dengue virus.
We all should search about it and discuss on this question and put forward our thoughts.
Thank you:blush:

[03/06, 11:48 pm] @khushdeep :
In today’s webinar, there was a discussion on the Corona Virus.
We were discussing that how did the virus got transferred from bats to humans?

My question here is,
Did they eat the bat raw or they cooked it?
If they would’ve cooked the bat, then the virus would’ve got killed there itself.

How did it transmit then?
@ Arunan Sir⁩ @drishtantmkawale @⁨Prathamesh Elph CUBE, Lydia, @KiranKalakotiR and others member…

[04/06, 12:34 am] Prathamesh:
Mutation is not a sudden change, it takes years to get mutate and so now it would be mutated at that level where it can replicate in humans and spread the disease
And another reason for it can be the dormant state of a virus i.e. to undergo dormancy until the specific conditions or suitable environment is available

[04/06, 10:13 am] @Hinaiqbal_Mudgal :
Last evening s ROOM WEBINAR discussion DT 3.06.20.
RAHUL PUT UP STRONG ASSERTIVE QUESTIONS…
How viruses who live in animals ,like bats, cats, or dogs, have started INFECTING HUMANS OR AFFECTING HUMANS
WHAT COULD HAVE CAUSED THIS INFECTING/ AFFECTING CHANGE ?
IS IT MUTATION?
CUBIST SAIDA MENTIONED RANDOM MUTATION,
HOW DID THIS VIRUS FIRST BECOME ACTIVE IN HUMANS.
TERMS LIKE DORMANCY, LYSOGENIC, RANDOM MUTATION WERE DISCUSSED…
IT WAS A STEAMING FLOW OF ANALYSTS, BIOLOGIST. WHO SHARED THEIR VIEW IN THE SUBJECT.
***INDEED SARS. COVID - 19, MERS, BIRD FLU, SWINE FLU ARE THEY VARIANTS??? MUTANTS??
WHAT HAS CAUSED THIS SPECIATION @ hina cube kanpur

[04/06, 11:03 am] @saida786110 :
Summary of yesterday’s discussion
@Prathamesh Suryavanshi questioned how does dengue spread in first human
and to answer that question @Aashu Sir tried to relate it with covid-19 how did that virus started affecting human? @Rahul kushwaha added this virus was in bats or some other mammals
Is it that one day decides to affect humans?
several cubist answer it to be mutation. mutation must have occurred in covid-19 virus such that the outer protein is transformed which helped the virus to get inside human cells
so in the case of covid-19 the virus was supposing in bats and it got muted and when came in contact with humans it started to affect humans. so earlier when humans were in contact with bats the protein of this virus was not mutated as such that it could affect humans. but then the question arose where did the mutation took place? probably in bats as the virus was living inside the bats cells but what happens in the case of dengue virus. because there mosquito is just a carrier. so is it that the virus would have remain dormant until human life? certainly not @Prathamesh Suryavanshi added that even monkeys were affected by dengue virus so that could be a possibility that this virus got mutated in monkeys and and with the help of mosquitoes got transmitted to humans and started affecting humans.
@ Arunan Sir⁩ connecting it to drosophila work done by cubist Lydia and @yash_sheregare. Lydia and Yash sheregare with several other cubist want to compare CsBz drosophila melanogaster cultured in labs for more than 60 years to drosophila melanogaster found in native.
Lydia added that they are looking at the olfaction of the flies and expecting different kinds of olfaction in CsBz flies. meaning flies with good olfaction moderate olfaction not so good olfaction where as in the nature they will find flies with good olfaction because of natural selection
@Hinaiqbal_Mudgal added that in CsBz flies which are cultured in lab for more than 60 years if mutation must have occurred in it, won’t be naturally selected because the environment in the bottle is such that the food is already present at all times so the flies with good olfaction will also survive and flies with weak olfaction will also survive

[04/06, 1:42 pm] @magpie :
Take away points w.r.t Context to Curriculum
Yesterday’s Causerie where Cubist Rahul Kushawa from Delhi steered the causerie with Suryavanshi ,Saida and other cubists on how did the first human get infected with dengue or Covid.

We are exposed to microbes all the time from animals birds around us just as humans they shed their virus through bites,droppings,feathers,animals sneezing, physical handling etc.
We develop an infection when the virus/bacteria multiplies in our body.
We develop a disease when the viral/bacterial multiplication is not controlled effectively by our immune system.
To gain entry into our cells the pathogen has to cross the cell membrane. There are receptors on the membrane made of glycoproteins binding to which can help it to enter.
The Covid 19 virus has a mutation in its spike protein which helps it fit snugly to the ACE 2 receptor protein, which helps it enter our cells easily.
How do we know there has been a mutation by comparing genetic sequences with other viruses of Coronavirus family.

Causerie is moderated by Dr Arunan

Lydia · June 8, 2020, 9:28am

Hello everyone
4th June Webinar Summary

We had a deep discussion on the model system FRUITFLY.

A hypothesis was made at the very beginning which said that the standard CsBz flies (which are lab bred for the past 80 years) would have a deprived olfaction as compared to the flies present in the wild environment

Another hypothesis or statement was that the CsBz flies which are inside the bottle will have all sorts of sensitivity of olfaction i.e. low, moderate and high sensitivity of olfaction.
@Rahul CUBE TIFR thought of trapping those CUBists with this hypothesis into a bait (question) that he thought of.

The trap bait question was that “In a single line culture of flies belonging to a one single mother inside a bottle, what would be the outcome”
Will there be different sensitivities of olfaction?

@Hina Ma’am CUBE Kanpur wanted to help those who were in the trap by asking a question… “Do all the siblings belonging to a parent look alike”
So this question helped…
Some of our CUBists then gave an answer saying that there would be all kinds of olfaction (low, moderate & high).
The reason for such an answer was that the female gravid fly must have mated with a male…so variations are expected.

@Aashutosh Sir wanted to put forth one question in 2 different cases or in 2 different conditions.
2 out of 100 flies have good olfaction…what would be the condition or the percentage of flies having good olfaction after 100 generations? Will there be a difference?

1st case: Inside the bottle???
“After 100 generations, there won’t be much of a difference in the number of flies having good olfaction… because all are surviving in the bottle (as food is readily available) the ones with low olfaction, moderate olfaction…” was the answer of the people in the trap.

2nd case: In the wild environment???
After 100 generations, the ones having good olfaction will survive as they will be able to smell and reach the food while the ones with low olfaction won’t be able to reach the food and hence starve and die…the ones with low olfaction won’t die immediately but will die gradually.

We had @Suman sir with us.
He was not much familiar with all of this…and hence he asked questions which cleared some basic doubts that a common man would have…
What are single line cultures?
How to identify a gravid fly for making a single line culture?

The main important question by sir which is our objective of our research question
How can we say that the wild environment flies would have a better sensitivity olfaction than the flies that are being bred in a bottle for 80 years?!!
On what basis??
Here we had to explain the design of the experiment that we do to prove such a hypothesis.

Olfactory assay was explained by @yash_sheregare .
(Yash will give a summary of the design of the olfactometer that we had discussed yesterday.)

What are we actually finding out by doing this whole experiment thing?
(@Arunan Sir helped in building up the whole thing so that everyone could understand.)

We are finding out, that which is the lowest concentration of the banana essence chemical [(IAA: Iso amyl acetate) (used in the experimental olfactometer)] where maximum number of the CsBz larvae are not able to smell or get attracted to the attractant that is kept.

There are 2 scenes here that are being compared which connects to our hypothesis.

Scene 1:
The lowest concentration of the banana essence (10^-6 conc.) chemical which attracts CsBz larvae towards it and then after which (10^-7 conc.) maximum number of the larvae is not able to smell the attractant.

Scene 2:
The lowest concentration of the banana essence (10^-7) chemical where maximum number of the CsBz larvae is not able to smell the attractant but the wild environment larvae are able to smell much more lower concentration (10^-7, 10^-8 conc.)

The difference in the 2 scenes here is compared and hence such a hypothesis that,
Standard CsBz flies (which are lab bred for the past 80 years) would have a deprived olfaction as compared to the flies present in the wild environment.

I hope I’m making things clear. If not please ask. Because of our discussions and the doubts raised during the webinar help us in getting some of our concepts clear.

Lydia · June 8, 2020, 9:34am

5th June Webinar Summary

We had a brief discussion on viruses, vaccines, bacteria and all.
@Saida Elph CUBE @Aashutosh Sir and others were taking part in the discussion
How do viruses enter?
What is the overall mechanism?
When there was a discussion that vaccines are used for treating viruses…we had Suma Swarajya from Arunachal Pradesh asking a question that
Why are we using only vaccines against viruses and not antibiotics?
Reply was
Antibiotics is used only for treating against bacteria and vaccines for viruses.
@Aashutosh Sir asked…why is it like that?
Reply from our CUBist was that bacteria has a cell wall and viruses just have a protein cell coat. And that antibiotics are used against the cell wall of the bacteria.

Again…why can’t an antibiotic be used against a protein coat of the virus?

Then we had to discuss what is a virus what is a bacteria.
How is it attacking the body?
Then how do we gain immunity against it?
How does the body recognise a virus previously attacked?
What are memory cells?
What are T cells, B cells?
How are these attacks being recorded or memorised in the body by the cells?
All these questions were asked by @Aashutosh Sir to build up the concept in everyone’s mind.

We had @Hina Ma’am CUBE Kanpur then joining us…
She explained about the innate immune, acquired immunity, herd immunity… different types of immunity.
Different types of antibodies?
Everything was explained by @Hina Ma’am CUBE Kanpur.

In this way we had this discussion about viruses, bacteria, immunization…

Lydia · June 8, 2020, 9:51am

6th June Webinar summary

We had a great discussion on the topic circadian rhythm in fruit flies. We had almost 10-12 CUBists who had worked on circadian rhythm activity.
And by this activity, we got 2 peaks at some particular time.
We had a detailed discussion about the PER and the TIM genes and proteins involved in this circadian rhythm of fruit flies.
@Saida Elph CUBE gave a detailed explanation on what happens exactly or what is the mechanism of this rhythm!!?
What would happen if there would be mutations in these genes …and what would happen if there is no light?
Then how would this rhythm work?
We related the circadian rhythm of fruit flies with plants like cardamine, Phyllanthus…
@Saida Elph CUBE & all those who were there yesterday please elaborate and discuss on the questions mentioned above.

Then we moved on to @Hina Ma’am CUBE Kanpur ma’am and her news or updates of her fruit fly cultures.
She was surprised to see the larvae moving above the media and towards the cotton plug near the mouth of the bottle thinking that they are trying to escape…
But that was normal for some of us.
We had an experience of an abnormal behaviour of the larva and pupa in CUBE HBSCE.
We related this to the NS-PGeo flies… Native Single line - Positive Geotactic flies.
These flies as the name suggests had an abnormal behaviour where the larvae and pupae where in the media and near the media.
Here came the genetic drift where @deepika CUBE Bangalore started explaining this with examples.

@kavyahonnavad is having difficulty in identifying a fruit fly or distinguishing between a fruit fly and a house fly. @Drishtant gave a brief description of the distinguishing features between a fruit fly, butterfly, lion, house fly, moina.

Short summary by Abhijeet Singh:
[8:48 am, 07/06/2020] @abhijeet singh :
Heyy everyone,
When I joined last there was the discussion going on between how does the pupa turns into fly. There was a discussion between Mayur bhaiya and Ashwathy and hina Ma’am on this topic and they came up with some amazing stuff like imaginal disc and all. And I think ashwathy has got some 1st generation flies from the pupae. So @Aswathy CUBE Thriprayar, Nattika and rest all working on drosophila model organism and can go further with this thing? More questions are be answered on development of flies from pupa. Did you started checking out how does this imaginal disc thing works? And how actually it forms.
We need an update on this topic as it is very interesting and important!!

drishtantmkawale · June 9, 2020, 12:59pm

Summary - 8th June 2020, CUBE Room Webinar

As usual😬, we started with the Fruitflies!
@Saida786110 from Mumbai shared about her latest experimental setup for the study of Circadian Rhythm (Activity Pattern) of Fruitflies in her home lab. She has kept a tomato bait like an attractant for the fruitflies and will be observing it at a two-hour interval.
What is the significance of studying the Activity Pattern of these mere flies?
Looking forward to getting photos and videos along with the data in a statistical manner!

Then, Hina Ma’am came up with her new findings. She had found pupae (from the single line culture) stuck on the cotton plug.
What can be done with that? We shall look forward to getting the exciting studies which can be done with the pupae with cotton as we had discussed it in the Webinar!
(I won’t unravel everything here )
And also, please share with us the cat conspiracy story which led to some wonderful identification!

Expect the unexpected!!
There is some interesting thing going on with the Moinas in my home lab.

My research objective is to study the colour change in the Moinas when placed in low oxygen conditions, but this thing which is happening right now is totally different and yesterday’s discussion has taught me and has yielded a lot!

There is a history behind this interesting thing!
But before that, I will give a short-call to what is happening right now.
I have two bottles A1 and A2 (500mL of dechlorinated water) which has around 60 Moinas as of now.
These bottles have greenish-coloured algae growing in them which I have been seeing since 28th May 2020.

I had transferred ~10 Moinas in both the bottles on 5th June 2020 in the afternoon (along with which I had made 5 control bottles having 500mL of DC water + ~10 Moinas + 2 drops of milk, this is also my stock culture of Moinas) and when I saw them in the evening, there were ~20 Moinas in both the bottles A1 and A2.
On this observation, I thought that the 10 Moinas which were transferred initially, were mature adults as well as gravid because of which they gave the progenies!

On the next day i.e. 6th June 2020, there were around 50 Moinas in both the bottles! (They got doubled in 24 hours!!)

This was interesting to me!
The control bottles had ~20 Moinas on 6th June 2020, when compared with their counterparts i.e. the bottles with algal growth, the former had ~50 Moinas in both the bottles in spite of both being prepared on the same day with the similar volume of water, with the same number of Moinas initially, just their feed being different!

Why this!!?
Again, I thought (assuming as previously) that as the initially transferred Moinas must be mature/about to give birth, I saw such numbers in A1 and A2.

Does algae enhance the growth of the crustaceans!!?

But hey, there is a twist in the story!
The history traces back to 18th May 2020.
I had prepared the culture medium in these two bottles Y1 and Y2 (now they are A1 and A2 respectively) with 500mL of dechlorinated water + ~10 Moinas and my idea was to feed them with live Yeast (in the form of granules, whose suspension was poured into the water).
Moina feed on bacteria, yeast, algae as well as decaying matter. So I thought why not give it (yeast) a try?
The timeline of these bottles: 18th May-~10 Moinas, 19th-~15, 20th-~5, 21st-0 Moinas.

Rahul Kushwaha questioned that was I not worried that the number decreased on the second day?
No, I thought that from ~5 Moinas, they shall increase further on, which didn’t happen.

So, I kept the bottles like that only, for a week. The actual stardom of the bottles started to develop in the last week of May from 21st May to 28th May. I didn’t observe them much.

What caught my eye on 28th May 2020, is the greenish colour which was visible in both the bottles in the form of a reflection (I keep the bottles in the window side).
I suspected this greenish growth to be algae. To confirm this, I kept the bottles in the window and expected that the growth shall increase over the days and it did increase!
That means the bottles Y1 and Y2 (Y=Yeast) which are now A1 and A2 (A=Algae) respectively, had 500mL of DC water + algae growing in them all these days.

I didn’t change the water of the bottles! It is the same.

So, coming back to the present, I transferred ~10 Moinas on 5th June 2020 and the rest we know.

Apart from the possible explanation which I gave for the sudden increase in the number of Moinas, the interesting thing which came out of this is, there must be a parallel phenomenon taking place after the death of Moinas.

What is it?
Dormant eggs!!

Normally, when there is a favourable condition in which everything is good, everything in the sense food, oxygen is adequate, the female Moinas reproduce asexually (parthenogenetically) where they give 8-12 direct/live progenies.
But in unfavourable conditions like less oxygen availability, food scarcity, toxicity or crowding, the Moinas changes it’s mode of reproduction to the sexual mode.

Here, the female Moina forms an unfertilized egg in its body, which is fertilized by the male Moina existing in the population. Upon fertilization, the pouch containing the two eggs (as a whole) gets detached from the female Moina. This pouch containing the dormant egg is called ephippia (singular: ephippium).

What happens to this dormant egg; ephippia?
On the onset of favourable conditions, these dormant eggs hatch and give out Moinas. Now, the Moinas that will come out can be both females, both males or one female one male because here, the chromosomes of both the parents are involved in the production of the offsprings.

Interesting! Isn’t it?
The lack of expectation from my side has led to such Alexandar Fleming kind of discovery!

But why do Moinas reproduce through the sexual mode of reproduction?
It consumes a lot of energy if we compare with asexual reproduction! Why then?
After multiple inputs from @Arunan, Dr Subhojit, @Hinaiqbal_Mudgal, Saida, Rahul Kushwaha, @KiranKalakotiR, @Lydia and @yash_sheregare we came to a conclusion.

First of all. we should not humanise this concept that the Moina thinks that it should change the mode of reproduction from asexual to sexual. It is the conditions which influence the change in the organism
As I said, they reproduce sexually in unfavourable conditions although it is energy as well as time-consuming, it facilitates the organism too.
As the unfavourable condition shall wipe out all the members of the population, the organism will try to save itself or at least its future generation from getting wiped out (I know this is contradictory to the statement which I mentioned a few lines above, but this is a simple explanation of why that happens).

As sexual reproduction involves two parents one male and the other female, the crossing over of chromosomes occurs. Crossing over can be defined as the recombination (coming together) of the homologous (similar) pair of genes when they come close. This recombination occurs in the Meiosis stage of the cell cycle.

Recombination leads to variations.
What variations?
The offsprings produced by sexual reproduction are different from their parents.
It will enable to organism to survive and adapt to the changing organism.
As said earlier, it will prevent complete extinction.

An excellent example was taken yesterday, that if a toxin is introduced in the culture, the Moinas which reproduce asexually will produce offsprings which are totally similar to them.
Why?
In asexual reproduction involves just a single parent, there is no chance of crossing over of the genes from the other parent because of which there is no variation. So, the whole population will be affected by the toxin and they might die.
On the contrary, the sexually reproducing Moinas will produce dormant eggs which shall settle down in the culture and is saved from the toxin!
The individuals who will come out from the eggs will be better adapted to their environment than others. Those individuals who are not well adapted to their environment are less likely to survive and reproduce.

This is how it went!
I know this is going too long…

Later, we again discussed the breaking news from Aswathy Suresh, Hina and Deepika.

Dr Subhojit Sen from CEBS, University of Mumbai, added a crucial point that CUBists are working on the identification of fruitflies, that is good, but what if we won’t get the desired result?
Are we going to discard what we have got?

We should not!
All closely related organisms have more or less the same mechanism of molecularity. If someone has done work on Drosophila melanogaster, we shall proceed on what we have got!
The same applies to the findings of @Manasi from Mahad, where she got some new species of snails other than what she has been working on!
Also, @Lydia sent some pictures and a video of tiny snails from her plant pots.

Everyone doing the same thing won’t result in anything new! We should hunt for new!

In the end, the discussion went on with Deepika Iyyangar from Bangalore telling us her research objective and inferences theoretically.

We are promoting homegrown science through our homegrown methods!

Everyone, please add to this and I encourage everyone to join the Webinar and contribute!!
Apologies for the extra-long summary!

Lydia · June 24, 2020, 1:59pm

A short summary by Deepika Iyyangar from Bangalore in our CUBE WhatsApp group:

Summary of discussion 08/06/2020
Our Long term objective was to test genetic drift in a population .here we would take a small population .
Genetic drift : The change in the relative frequency of Alleles say dominant or recessive observed in a small population .
Genetic drift occurs randomly by chance with sharp reduction in size of population.
In other words when the allele present in a population is not responsible for its change ( as genetic drift occurs randomly ) in frequency in a population then we say genetic drift has acted upon that population.
Yesterday we discussed on how to get alllele frequency of a population . The example taken is XbX , XbY for bar eyed drosophila mutant flies, XY , XX for wild type Drosophila flies .
If I take bottle A with 10 wild type flies and 10 bar eyed mutants.,and bred for 2 generations, the resulting progenies will have XbX , XbY , XX and XY which would be in the same frequency .say the no. If flies is 100 the frequency of
XY -25%
XX - 25%
XbX -25%
XbY -25%

And then if we randomly remove 10 flies from this bottle A n transfer to bottle B, then take 5 flies randomly from bottle A and transfer to bottle C.
Here in bottle A is the original population ( 100)
Bottle B with ( 10 flies) progeny flies - 100
The Allele frequency of the resulting progenies will be the same as observed in bottle A .
Bottle C with ( 5 flies )
Progeny flies- 50
The Allele frequency of the resulting progenies will have somewhat different proportions of the discussed phenotypes.

To quantify Allele frequency : we are seeing the phenotypes of bar eyed and phenotypes of wild type flies :
The wild type has a compound eye , the bar eyed will have a kidney shaped eye , if it’s homozygous it will result in a ultra bar eye with sickle shaped eye .
Since the flies are randomly picked from bottle A and transferred to Bottle B and C the phenotype observed in bottles B,C will have XX, XY,XbX , XbY , XbXb in its Population.
Again it’s by chance that we can observe a genetic drift in bottle C as it’s a small population started with 5 flies randomly picked from bottle A .
The drift here would be due to the reduction in population size ,that will in turn have either the dominant or recessive allele frequency more .or less in number.
That’s is reduction in population size will decrease the variation to be observed in a population.
Allele frequency : is the number of times a Allele is observed in a population.

I hope this is helpful to others in the group.

Lydia · June 24, 2020, 2:19pm

SUMMARIES OF 10th June 2020 by our CUBists in CUBE WhatsApp groups:

A short summary by @saswathy679 in our CUBE WhatsApp group:
" How to identify wing vein pattern of fruit flies in our Home Lab…?
Arunan sir suggested to what is in your hand that is maximum use to identify a wing vein pattern. If you have a phone to maximum try to get identify.

Subhojit sir suggested if we identified wings veins pattern we must be take sure well experienced persons that wing pattern which flies are they. Then we can easily to identified which family are they or which species also easily to identify."

A short summary by Deepika Iyyangar from Bangalore in our CUBE WhatsApp group:
"Summary of discussion
10/06/2020
Objective to identify the species of fruit flies in the trap bottle with Tomato pieces as bait having new generation flies was optimised.
Plan of work
To take the gravid female flies from the new generation flies and separately transfer them to different bottles with Tomato Rava Sugar Vinegar media.
This is done to get a single line culture of fruit flies to make identification of species easy.

Further discussion on
Allelic frequency, with a simple example
Bacteria A (survives at 32°c ) and Bacteria B (survives at 42°c) which have emerged from a common ancestor (bacteria)which survives at 32°c .
The progenies count ( Allele frequency) of bacteria B will be varied from the original ancestor, the bacteria A .
This is the variation in Allele frequency which can be observed in the population of bacteria A and B .
The evolution of species mainly depends on factors such as adaptation, population structure the size , the environment at which the organism survives.
Why Population Genetics is important? What is the concept of evolution in population genetics?"

Lydia · June 24, 2020, 2:24pm

Summary of 13th June 2020 by @KiranKalakotiR on CUBE WhatsApp group:

"Summary of Yesterday’s Cube chatshaala
13.06.2020

Vedant from cube Elphinstone College joined us yesterday, he started discussing about Saida’s work of circadian rhythm in fruit flies, he decided that he’ll also start observing sleep wake cycle of fruit flies by inspiring of Saida’s efforts.

@ vedant please post your design of set up in order to study sleep wake pattern of fruit flies.

After that we discussed about C.elegans/soil nematodes, how to isolate or what’s the best method to isolate soil Nematodes at home by using boiled potato slice as medium and curd/milk as source of bacteria.
We also discussed how to identify soil nematodes??
We discussed a lot on this question but lots of doubts needs to be clear.

Design to isolate soil Nematodes was made by Anshu, its good that she tried but later on she concluded that the design that she made will have to be redesign as control was not included in her previous design.
@Anshu Ratnam CUBE has already posted her another Design of set up to isolate soil Nematodes using boiled potato slices in place of 2%agar medium.

Rafikh has been observing and recording koil(cuckoo) voice, and he had also shared how to record and how to analyse cuckoo voice just by using smartphones.
How well do we know our smartphones?

Drishtant had a breaking news that all the moina’s had died in algal culture medium, Dr. Arunan, zhara & Saida suggested to make a new culture bottle by taking water from algal culture medium and to add five moina’s in it and further observe the growth of Moina’s.

@Saida Elph CUBE @Anshu Ratnam CUBE @Manasi CUBE Snail @vedant @heena ma’am @ Ashwathy please give your input as well."

Lydia · June 24, 2020, 2:41pm

Summary of 15th June 2020 CUBE Chatshaala Webinar:

We started with @Arunima CUBE Kozhikode from SN College Kozhikode, Kerala.
She told about her cardamine culture…
We want @Arunima CUBE Kozhikode to post the summary of her work and her further plans.

We moved on to @Aswathy CUBE Thriprayar, Nattika from SN College Nattika, Kerala.
She gave a summary of her single line cultures that she is maintaining…and now posting pictures of her identification work.
@Aswathy CUBE Thriprayar, Nattika concluded that the flies belonging to the single lines do not belong to the family Drosophilidae.
But most of us weren’t convinced as there wasnt any picture clearly showing the veins of the wing…
@Aswathy CUBE Thriprayar, Nattika said that she can see just 1 break in the costal vein instead of 2 breaks in the costal vein of the wing of a Drosophilidae fly.

We need some reference pictures… whenever we post the picture of the wing of a fly we should post it along with the CsBz fly wing which will help us in giving evidences as well as convincing everyone…
Why so???
Because CsBz fly belongs to the Drosophilidae family…so we can have a comparison there.
I’ll be posting some reference pictures below…after the summary.

@Hina Ma’am CUBE Kanpur ma’am too added along with @Aswathy CUBE Thriprayar, Nattika. She too will be joining @Aswathy CUBE Thriprayar, Nattika in the identification work by simultaneously starting to identify the flies in her mixed culture bottles.
@Yash CUBE and others contributed to this discussion.

We had an old CUBist from Delhi… @Kanishka from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi…she was earlier in Dyal Singh college, Delhi.
She contributed a lot with her experience on working with cardamine and the seed coat germination…she helped out @Nazish CUBE in the discussion…had a great discussion with her.

@Saida Elph CUBE then told about her work that she is doing…circadian rhythm of fruit flies.
The genes involved in the circadian rhythm of fruit flies and then related it with Phyllanthus plant.
There would be genes of the circadian rhythm or the biological in the Phyllanthus plant too…
@Lakshmy CUBE Kerala, @Mandar CUBE and others can look for it…

@Mandar CUBE from Ratnagiri gave updates about the Phyllanthus plant that he has in his home lab. Expecting him to proceed with its identification.

@Saida Elph CUBE also had a problem in differentiating between a larva and a pupa of a fruit fly as she is new to handling and culturing fruit flies.
@drishtantmkawale & @Yash CUBE helped her out by showing some basic differences in a larva and a pupa of a fruit fly…
A larva eats and is very active and moves around in the bait or the media…
But a pupa isn’t motile …it stays at one place itself…

This was a short summary.

Summary by @Kanishka (Kanishka Parishar from Delhi)
Thers was discussion over… Fruit fly single line culture and in related the media preparation. Exciting was knowing media preparation by people at home using rava, tomato, sugar…
Nd how to avoid contamination they thought to used acid (vinegar) so as to drop the pH.
Also there was discussion on seed germination rate… Of cardamine seeds… The method to organise setup. Discussion over factors which affect seed germination.
Next we discussed about kanamycin antibiotics how it will affect the seed growth. By floral dip method, the students are planning to introduce the gene and then study its role.

Lydia · June 24, 2020, 3:05pm

21st June 2020 Webinar Summaries

By @Kanishka (Kanishka Parishar from Delhi)
Summary of webinar on 21st June 2020
Aswathy talked about the work of flies culture, so as to find drosophilade family of flies out of mixed culture. They are preparing the single line culture of flies. She also told about the drosophila morphologies.
Yesterday, Lydia, Aswathy, & yash talked about the wing pattern of drosophila fruit fly, about coastal vein, incomplete coastal vein, and other many cell.

By Aswathy from CUBE SN College Nattika

SUMMARY OF CUBE WEBINAR 21 JUNE 2020
… be Continue

Yesterday webinar Started Arunan sir were asked about Wing Vein identification.we are talking about drosophildae family fruit flie wing pattern.
•@Kiran Di CUBE and @Drishtant tell how to do presenting picture on webinar screen.
•@Lydia @Yash CUBE was clearly tell about how can identified drosophildae family fruit flie wing pattern.
Major things :-
1.2Break of Costal Vein.
2.one incomplete anal cell.
3.small anal cell.
#@Lydia tell about the wing structure of flies looking for presentation above shown . @Yash CUBE was also clear the position. And tell more detailed about it.

By Yash Sheregare from CUBE Mumbai
Yesterdays Causerie Summary and Further Interesting questions
21st June 2020
Identification of fruit fly
@aswathy yesterday was presenting a picture of a wing from her Single line culture (a culture of fruit flies that arised from a single mother)
We all are in search of family Drosophilidae
In her picture she clearly shows a few diagnostic features

2 breaks in the costal vein (this was clearly visible)
Incomplete subcostal vein (wasn’t seen as clearly)
small Anal cell in wing
But we got a burning discussion on what exactly is this subcostal vein?
Where do we see this in Drosophila melanogaster fly?
What is the meaning of an incomplete subcostal vein?

If Family Drosophilidae has a wing character that says it has an incomplete subcostal vein?
Then what are the other Families of fruit flies that come under Order diptera which may have a different character of the subcostal vein?
With the help of @Aswathy CUBE Thriprayar, Nattika picture, we all got to learn what is an anal cell in the wing?
As she had marked in here picture, an anal cell vein instead of anal cell
@Lydia a presented a picture from a reference that shows all the diagrams of the Wing veins and the cells in the vein.

By @Rechel_tirkey from CUBE Ranchi
Yesterday on 21/06/2020 , in CUBE webinar when I joined the discussion was going on fruitfly .
The Questions we discussed like how flies attract towards it’s Bait (Banana peel) , What attract them towards the banana peel , how they get taste and smell?
We discussed that the fruitflies attract towards the banana because of the fruity smell which come from banana because when banana start degrading , compounds which may be present in banana like Iso amayl acetate , ethyl alcohol diffuse in the air . This diffusion makes the gradient of concentration , means the concentration of smell will increase when flies come more near to the bait .
Also discussed about the sense organ flies and the larvae of flies use to sense the smell coming from banana ? What will happen if we change the taste of banana by adding quinine ( chemical which is odorless but bitter in taste ) , will they attract and feed on them or they learn not eat .

@Arunan Sir @Kiran Di CUBE @Yash CUBE @Drishtant @Lydia @Saida Elph CUBE @Aswathy CUBE Thriprayar, Nattika and others were in the discussion .

Lydia · June 24, 2020, 8:26pm

22nd June 2020 Summaries

Summary of CUBE Chatshaala discussion by @Lydia (22nd June 2020):

(PC: @drishtantmkawale )
(Outline of the summary: credits: @KiranKalakotiR)

We started with summarizing our discussion that we had in the previous webinar.
Identification of Drosophilidae family characteristics was discussed along with the goof ups. We are now looking for labelled photos of D.melanogaster fruit fly wing from authentic references.

Then optical zooming and digital zooming was then introduced by @⁨Aashutosh Sir⁩.
How to get a resolved photo of a wing of fruit fly at home.
White background with good lightning (from another phone or torch) .

How microscope work??
Can we simulate it??
How image is formed in a Microscope??
@⁨Yash CUBE⁩ & @⁨Arunan Sir⁩ together had built up a conversation on this for all of us.
Yash will give a summary about the principle or the working of a microscope.
We can use transparent (transparent file cover) sheet to put object(fruit fly wing) on transparent sheet and we can use another source of light underneath the transparent sheet to get contrasting effect as discussed.

Taste organs and smelling organs:
Smelling organ in fruit fly: Antenna
Taste organ: Proboscis
Are the chemicals different for taste and smell?

2 other organs that we discussed about:
Arista plumose??
Maxillary palp??

Then we discussed about a situation where there is a good smell with a bad taste.
Banana kept with quinine mixed.
It gives out a very good smell by which the flies are attracted to it…but when it tastes the banana…it’s a bitter taste that it gets… suddenly it moves away from it and repels.
What will happen the next time when this fly gets the smell of banana?
Some of us said that the fly will have a memory of the last time and the fly will repel it even after getting a good smell of banana.

How does this happen?
How is the memory formed?
When the first time the fly tastes the banana with quinine it repels as a reflex action…a sudden action…but simultaneously that message is being passed on to the brain which is stored there as a memory…
Where is this message stored?
How are these messages stored?
And when the next time the fly is being exposed to the same sweet smell… how is it repelling back?
What is being inhibited that was earlier helping the fly to move towards the banana?

This was then taken up by @⁨Manasi CUBE.
Manasi explained the neuronal connection that is happening.
The diagram here was drawn by Manasi during the webinar…it was explained very well…
A good taste sensory neuron is connected to the neuron in the brain.
Manasi can summarize and give some points of that discussion.
Later it was connected to the learning and memory behaviour of snails.
Eric kandel’s work.
This was explained by Anjani CUBE and Manasi CUBE

By Rechel Tirkey from CUBE Ranchi
On 22/06/2020 , In CUBE webinar , discussion on drosophila classification and identifying features of drosophila was going on with the help of pictures shared by @Aswathy CUBE Thriprayar, Nattika then the discussion shifted into the topic microscope , taking pictures, magnification , how to take pictures with good contrast and light ? What is the role of light while taking pictures ?
We discussed principle of microscope and how mirror helps to reflect the light towards object, how objective lens and eyepiece magnify the image of the object .
When we take pictures from our phone camara , we face many problems like as @Drishtant said , most of the time when we try to focus by nearing the camera towards object it get blurry . @Aashutosh Sir @Yash CUBE told about digital zooming and optical zooming , so for good picture we need optical zooming instead of digital zooming.
We also continued the last day’s discussion how flies attract towards smell and taste . @Manasi CUBE Snail and @Anjani CUBE Snail said about how snail attract towards taste and smell , The connection between good smell and bad taste . By giving them good smell and taste to the snail and by observing in behaviour we are trying to understand about neuroplasticity and neurotransmitters .
I wanted to ask that in snail learning taste and smell and learning sense though tentacles is same or not , is this habituation is same as learning smell and taste of food ? I was getting network problem and often getting disconnected .

By Yash Sheregare from CUBE Mumbai:
Discussion on Microscopy Imaging
This idea may not be accurate but please raise questions so that it gets more clear.
Yesterday during discussions we tried to discuss how an image is formed of a specimen using a compound microscope?
For our discussion we considered the speciment to be the wing of a fruit fly.
In a microscope our object (specimen) the wing is kept on a transparent glass side
How is an image of the wing formed that we see all the features of the wing using a microscope?
How are images formed using microscope?

2 breaks in costal vein
incomplete subcostal vein
small anal cell
Above Are the features we want to see in the wing.
We tried to explain that light source in case of the microscope is the mirror placed at the bottom side of the microscope stage.
The light falls from the bottom side that is reflected from the mirror and the light falls on the object and passes through transparent places and is bent at opaque places.
This light travels further from the specimen to the objective lens where the objective lens is adjusted in such a way by moving it upside or down.
This magnifies and focuses the image and further light travels through the eye piece and falls on to our eyes
And hence we are able to see a magnified image with a good contrast and focus.
Hence the importance is of the source of light that comes from bottom and travels the lens where there Adjustment of the lens to get a clear focused and magnified image!

By @saswathy679 from CUBE SN College, Nattika
How to Get a Clear image of Fruit Flies Wing in our Phone Camera !?

Aashutosh sir is suggests How to get a good focusing image in our Phone camera.He suggested a very Nice idea. First he introduced about the Optical zooming and Digital zooming.what is the difference between Optical Zoom and Digital Zoom.According to Aashutosh Sir the optical zoom is achieved by using your camera’s lens. The digital zoom, on the other hand, is achieved by cropping and enlarging the image once it has been captured by the digital camera’s sensor.we will have more control over what part of the image is cropped and enlarged, and this is the preferred method of achieving digital zoom of our images. Digital zoom often results in lower quality pictures when it is enabled on your camera and we should disable it whenever possible. Most digital cameras allow you to do this easily.
In some reference says On a digital camera, optical zoom is a true zoom feature.This will enable you to get a closer view of the subject before taking your picture.Optical zoom allows for better photo quality than digital zoom.

https://etc.usf.edu/techease/win/images/what-is-the-difference-between-optical-and-digital-zoom/

Take picture in Optical zoom, We get a Very Good Result in Our Phone Camera

By Drishtant M Kawale from CUBE Mumbai:
I will like to add some points to this:
After summarizing briefly on the problems faced by the fruitfly group on the identification of the fruitflies, we came on discussing that how will we be able to make the best use of our mobile camera?

The things which need to be kept in mind while taking a photograph of the wing includes good lighting which can be provided with another mobile phone’s torchlight, learning to use our phone camera is also an important thing.

Few days back in the Webinar, Rahul CUBE TIFR had added that if we want to take our selfie, we try to snap it in the best way possible (by taking it multiple times) so that we get satisfied, similarly, here too we should try to take the best picture possible.

Then, Aashutosh Sir (not intended to😜) explained to us the difference between optical zoom and digital zoom of which our phone camera possesses the digital zoom.

Digital zoom means the zoom which we can perform through our phone camera. In this, the lens of our camera doesn’t come closer to the object or specimen, else, it gets adjusted internally.

Optical zoom is something which we see in professional camera where the camera lens can be moved closer and farther to the specimen or object.
Optical zooming is the one which provides us better clarity of the picture where the pixels picture do not stretch much.
Now, as we have a digital zoom facility, we can simulate the optical zoom by bringing the phone camera closer to the specimen physically!
And then try to zoom and then take a photograph.
Then we discussed the principle of microscopy and formation of the image and how can we adjust our surrounding in our to simulate the effect like microscope.

Later, we connected the neurology of the fruitfly with the one of Snails.
As olfactory studies are done in both and share the same basic principle too!

While discussing the memory formation in Snails, Manasi added that memory formation accounts to the formation of new axon terminals beside the existing ones so that more signal can be conveyed.
I didn’t understand it much, we shall look forward to discuss the same today (maybe I misunderstood it).
Manasi also made a statement that habituation (what habituation is it?) is a result of exhaustion of neurotransmitters!
Is it?
The question arising in my mind is, will the neurotransmitter be ever exhausted?
Won’t the cell re-synthesise the neurotransmitter?
For example: Acetylcholine, a lipid based neurotransmitter is synthesised inside the neuron and is then released.
Won’t this process continue to happen?

Lydia · June 24, 2020, 8:33pm

CUBE Chatshaala Summary on 23rd June 2020 by Drishtant M Kawale from CUBE Mumbai:

Fruitfly Identification
Continuing from yesterday’s discussion on the identification and problems faced while identifying the fruitfly wing, @Aswathy CUBE Thriprayar, Nattika presented a photograph of the wing of a fruit fly from a mixed culture.
We concluded that the resolution of the picture was not clear. By resolution, I mean that the details aren’t getting revealed.
Wing of a fruitfly having characteristics like the incomplete sub-costal vein, two breaks in the costal-vein and presence of anal cell will make sure that the fly is of the Drosophilidae family.
But in @Aswathy CUBE Thriprayar, Nattika’s case, the two breaks are visible but we are not able to locate the anal cell as well as the incomplete sub-costal vein.
Here is where the photography skills will pitch in!

We then discussed the arrangement of the mobile camera so as to get a clear picture of what we want.
@Dibya Sankar, a Physics Research Scholar from TIFR, Colaba suggested that we should try to put a drop of water on our mobile camera lens after which (to my understanding), it shall act as a macro lens which will show us a magnified image.
Dr. Subhojit Sen asked to be careful while putting the drop of water, as it might enter our phone through the camera lens.

As we have been discussing this from a month, it’s time that we shall focus on looking what actually we want. What do we need from this wing?
Drawing a quick conclusion shall help.

Developmental Biology of Fruit fly
As the main point of attraction here is olfaction, we came on the olfaction of the larva.
The questions that raised were:
How does a larva smell?
Is it not peculiar that a crawling creature; larva, undergoes such a modification that within a span of days, it gives rise to an adult fruit fly which instead of crawling, flies!
The wings of the fly emerge from the Imaginal discs which are there in the larvae.

Why are they called Imaginal dics?
Do we have an answer for this?
How does the wing develop from these imaginal discs?

Neurological Relation between Fruit flies and Snails
After @Manasi CUBE Snail and @Anjani CUBE Snail joined us, we discussed the learning behaviour of Snails.
How does habituation take place?
Talking about learning behaviour, we shed some light on the Assay conducted in which Coriander is fed to the Snails and a bitter-tasting compound is adding.

Why is this done?

What is the association between good smell and good taste?
Although smelling and tasting are two different phenomena, does it lead to habituation?
What is the association between good smell and bad taste?
Does the snail form a memory of the bad taste of the compound?

Later, big terms like sensitisation and resensitisation were introduced.
Need to understand them too!

Referring to these, Komal Singh from Bhind, MP added about the types of neurotransmitters - excitatotory and inhibitory which are involved in these processes or in the formation of memory and which decide whether the neuron will pass on the message or not.

Nobel-Prize Winner Eric Kandel’s work on the seaslug Aplysia cannot be left behind if we are discussing the neurology in Snails.
Following this, with the help of a graphic photo, we saw and discussed, what are electrical and chemical synapse?

In the end, @Rechel Tirkey told about the status Moina culture in her home lab and her collaborators’ lab too, their further plans with Moina to approach their research question as well as objective.

I have just highlighted the points, we shall have a discussion on them!

drishtantmkawale · July 3, 2020, 12:50pm

Summary-CUBE Chaatshala 2nd July 2020

Yesterday’s discussion involved both the branches of Biology.

We started with Botany and then discussed Zoology till the end and in between them, we found out a common topic which relates both of them!

The sleep-wake cycle or circadian rhythm studies!
Aashutosh Mule Sir was eager to know the sleep-wake cycle studies were done in the Phyllanthus plant by P. Chitralekha at her place. She has designed a special set-up for studying the same!
The objective is to study the effect of continuous light on the sleep-wake cycle of the plant given that the plant will be exposed to continuous light (white) throughout the day.

How will that help?
We know that as it is a sleep-wake cycle, it is going to repeat itself at some interval of time. So here, the cycle is repeating every 24 hours.
And we come to know that the plant is awake or sleeping by its leaves.

If the leaves of the Phyllanthus plant are closed or turned inside, it is sleeping. And if the leaves are wide open, the plant is awake.
And this opening and closing takes place each day at a particular time in the morning and at evening respectively which may/may not (I don’t have a clear idea of this) be dependent on the sunlight.

Interesting right?

We can believe that us humans or even fruit flies for an instance have a Brain which must be regulating the sleep along with the hormones.

But what about plants?

Do they have a nervous system too?
If not, then how is the sleep regulated?
This is what comes to my mind when I think about the sleep-wake cycle of the plant.

The experiment comprises of control plant to be kept in natural light and the test plant to be kept in the artificial light provided through bulb.

P. Chitralekha had done this experiment last year too and had recorded observations (which she is going to tell us😄) and is planning to do the same this year too around July 19th.
The thing which grabbed her interest is the observations which were made by her. Those were unexpected observations!
So, to confirm it again, she is going to do this.

As P. Chitralekha is known to this plant and has worked on it earlier too, she has some experience. But what will be interesting is that CUBist should also start such kind of experiment and contribute as well as share their data. Then only we will understand how it happens. Otherwise, the knowledge of this will remain confined.

One such CUBist from Goa is Nidhi, who cleared her Class XII examination this year and has been actively participating in the plant science discussions. Nidhi too is working on Phyllanthus plant since one year (and more I guess, don’t know) and has done a similar kind of experiment as mentioned above with the aim to check the effect of different wavelengths of light on the Circadian Rhythm of Phyllanthus plant.

The main objective of both the experiments is to check the effect of light exposure on the sleep-wake cycle, but the only variable here is, P. Chitralekha is using just white led light as the artificial light source whereas Nidhi is using four different coloured lights which are Red, Yellow, Green and Blue. The bulb here used is of 100Watts (the power rating) and covered with cellophane sheet.

Nidhi had kept them under light from 5.30pm to 8.30pm and the control was (same as earlier) kept in natural light.

And then the time of opening and closure of the leaves was noted down.

Please add to this by shedding some more light () on this too and correct me.

As I mentioned earlier, we connected both the Biological Sciences -Botany and Zoology through one common topic in them; the Sleep-Wake Cycle.

A few days back, taking some inspiration from the plant studies, @Saida had hinted that she too is interested in studying the same in Fruit flies!

But before that, another unusual thing happened. Saida , Yash Shergare, Aswathy Suresh, Kshipra have been attempted to study and gather data on the sleep-wake cycle of fruit flies. This is being done by keeping tomato slices as a bait/attractant for the fruit flies and the bait is being observed at the interval two hours and the number of flies on the bait is noted.

In the day time, the peak number of fruit flies is around 35 flies and in the night time, there are comparatively very less number of flies.
Now from this, we can gather a conclusion (by simply relating what happens with us humans) that the flies are active during the day (active implies they are showing movement around the bait, they are mating, courtship is taking place, eggs are layed, etc) and inactive during the night (we humans too, do the same). By inactive I mean to say that there are not much flies, even if they are there, they are stationary on the bait, do not move or mate, etc.

But Saida once found out that in 2am/4am (I don’t remember) in the morning, there were around 5 flies on the tomato bait out of which 3 flies were active! (now we know what do we mean by active)

This is interesting because this is unusual! Instead of sleeping, they are active and moving on the bait whereas the rest 2 flies were inactive. Going deep (referring to the 2017 Nobel-Prize work in Physiology or Medicine), in the fruit fly (and maybe in humans too), at night the accumulation of the per-tim (period and timeless) protein complex induces sleep in the fly and in the morning, when there is sunlight, the per-tim complex is broken down and the fly wakes up from the sleep. This is what happens normally.

But here we saw that the fly (instead of being inactive, sleeping) was moving around the bait!
Why that?
Can these flies be termed as mutants?
Which gene must have been mutated? Period (per), Timeless (Tim), Clock (Clk), Cycle (cyc), Cryptochrome (cyc)?

Can we find out that are these flies actually mutants or is it a chance event?
How can we do that?
@Lydia @Arunan

What shall be the first step by which we can study this?
How would’ve scientists like Seymour Benzer and Ronald Konopka studied the flies? The so-called mutant flies I must say?

Kanishka suggested that to find out whether the flies are mutants or no, the scientists must have done some sophisticated procedures!! (I am not going to name them)

But is so much of sophistication really required?

How can we identify that the fly is mutant or not in a simple, logical way? A way which may or may not be true but at least makes sense!

Aswathy Suresh and Saida are going to start with this.
Please let us know how are you starting!
Put the Plan-of-work and Design!

Later, @Rechel_tirkey added the names of fruit flies found in Jharkhand-Santhali Tribe call it Rhon and the Oraon Tribe calls it Tingli and the place where the Oraon tribes are found is Urukh. Rhon and Tingli is the general name for any fly in these areas.
This was the conclusion.

Please comment and add in your point of view on yesterday’s discussion!

karnamdpdurga · July 5, 2020, 4:31pm

This is a very important question. Elsewhere @Manpreetheersskp, @Arunan and I were discussing, the role of brain and nervous system. For some sea squirts, which do not need to move, they eat up their brain. Now that plants do not need to move, it makes sense to me that they do not require a specialised organ called brain!

@drishtantmkawale, Why do you think plants should have a brain?

But, do plants stop sensing!?
@Manpreetheersskp do sea squirts stop sensing?

-DP

karnamdpdurga · July 5, 2020, 4:33pm

And all these activities with Phyllanthus, Tingli/Rhon (thanks @Rechel_tirkey) that you are talking about involving genes and the nervous system appear to have very interesting links! Both seem to play a role in response to changes in the environment (nature)!

Is it just me who feels the same?

-DP