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Wouldn't it be nice to JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF A WING VEIN?
For #SICB2021 I did that. View here:
https://sicbannualmeeting.pathable.co/meetings/virtual/ojDALmNPhqAoLisEt
Collaborators Dr. Jake Socha ( @snake_flyer) & Pavel Shevchenko
Should you care what's inside of things? 1/n
@SICB_ @SICB_DCB_DVM
For #SICB2021 I did that. View here:
https://sicbannualmeeting.pathable.co/meetings/virtual/ojDALmNPhqAoLisEt
Collaborators Dr. Jake Socha ( @snake_flyer) & Pavel Shevchenko
Should you care what's inside of things? 1/n
@SICB_ @SICB_DCB_DVM
Well, not caring is like saying you don't care that there's peanut butter inside of Reese's cup.
Or caring that there's wine in your wine bottle.
OR PIZZA IN YOUR PIZZA BOX.
Insect wings are living structures -- and what's inside is pretty important 2/n
Or caring that there's wine in your wine bottle.
OR PIZZA IN YOUR PIZZA BOX.
Insect wings are living structures -- and what's inside is pretty important 2/n
Insect wings are extensions of the living systems inside of an insect -- that means we've got hemolymph (insect blood) and tracheal tubes (respiration).
How do we usually know what's inside of biological things? Well, histology (aka slicing/sectioning) is one good way 3/n
How do we usually know what's inside of biological things? Well, histology (aka slicing/sectioning) is one good way 3/n
and using X-rays is another!!
Okay, it's not like being at a disco with a bunch of lasers and cats.....but by golly, it sure feels like it!
Instead we use synchrotron resources like, 4/n
Okay, it's not like being at a disco with a bunch of lasers and cats.....but by golly, it sure feels like it!
Instead we use synchrotron resources like, 4/n
Argonne National Lab ( @advancedphoton) to image "live" insect wings and see what's inside
It's the ability to use gain resolution of voxels up to 1.72 microns when taking images. We call this: microcomputed tomography or microCT for short 5/n
It's the ability to use gain resolution of voxels up to 1.72 microns when taking images. We call this: microcomputed tomography or microCT for short 5/n
Okay. A few days of disco-cat-level-fun experiments and we've got 16 TB of data, and we've imaged "nearly live" wings from two pest species of grasshoppers.
We're ready to jump into data analysis! 6/n
We're ready to jump into data analysis! 6/n
But that first involves a large amount of time cropping the data, and taking image stacks from 40 GB to just a few gigs.
So that you can load it into reconstruction softwares, "segment" (literally draw, trace, threshold), and measure volumes.
7/n
So that you can load it into reconstruction softwares, "segment" (literally draw, trace, threshold), and measure volumes.
7/n
I've been using @SlicerMorph to visualize my insect wings, and this short teaser clip below, is the entire (mostly) tracheal network inside of the hindwing, of the North American grasshopper 
This was a course level reconstruction, where I downsampled the data 8/n
This was a course level reconstruction, where I downsampled the data 8/n
...so here's a section of REALLY fine data, only 0.5 mm length. In this short movie, you can see outer cuticle (purple), inner cuticle (orange), hemolymph (yellow), and trachea (blue)
What do we do with this?? Well, now we can feed it into fluid dynamics models. But also 9/n
What do we do with this?? Well, now we can feed it into fluid dynamics models. But also 9/n
We now have some understanding of *continuous* wing morphology.
But insect circulation is important generally! With humans and climate change highly affecting insects in sublethal ways, we need to understand wing physiology. Wings allow insects to do so much! 10/n
But insect circulation is important generally! With humans and climate change highly affecting insects in sublethal ways, we need to understand wing physiology. Wings allow insects to do so much! 10/n
I'll end with a recent example from a beautiful paper by @gtgeetha (PNAS 2020). In this short movie, you'll see the dorsal vessel - main pumping heart of an insect - under low pollution (left) and high pollution (right).
If you're not shocked, you should be! 11/12
If you're not shocked, you should be! 11/12
We need more understanding of insect systems and how we're changing their environment...and ultimately affecting them.
Want to learn more about insects? For those at #SICB2021, attend session "Insect Wing Structure-Function"
https://sicbannualmeeting.pathable.co/meetings/virtual/7dhFtKfaXwWvYwZyp 12/12
Want to learn more about insects? For those at #SICB2021, attend session "Insect Wing Structure-Function"
https://sicbannualmeeting.pathable.co/meetings/virtual/7dhFtKfaXwWvYwZyp 12/12
