Background: Insect diapause is associated with physiological dormancy, extension of life span and an altered developmental programme. Reactive oxygen species, oxidative damaged products and antioxidants are being increasingly linked to such processes in insects. Tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta Drury (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae), has an impressive pupal diapause and exhibits a distinct ...

At least 100 mammalian species exhibit embryonic diapause, where fertilized embryos arrest development in utero until suitable seasonal or nutritional environments are encountered. Delaying maternal investments in producing offspring allows these animals to utilize limited resources to survive while searching for better conditions and ensures that progeny are not produced when they are unlikely...

Developmental arrest, a critical component of the life cycle in animals as diverse as nematodes (dauer state), insects (diapause), and vertebrates (hibernation), results in dramatic depression of the metabolic rate and a profound extension in longevity. Although many details of the hormonal systems controlling developmental arrest are well-known, we know little about the interactions between me...

Mammalian embryonic diapause is a phenomenon defined by the temporary arrest in blastocyst growth and metabolic activity within the uterus which synchronously becomes quiescent to blastocyst activation and implantation. This reproductive strategy temporally uncouples conception from parturition until environmental or maternal conditions are favourable for the survival of the mother and newborn....

Electron-microscope studies have shown that the epicuticle of the hydropyle consists of 2 layers. The inner is complexly folded and the outer consists of a meshwork of fine fibrils which fills the spaces between the folds. The endocuticle is laminated, penetrated by pore canals, and contains many wax-canal filaments. The filaments are especially abundant immediately before diapause. During diap...

Insulin and juvenile hormone signaling direct entry of the mosquito Culex pipiens into its overwintering adult diapause, and these two critical signaling pathways appear to do so by converging on the regulation of forkhead transcription factor (FOXO). Diapause is a complex phenotype, and FOXO emerges as a prime candidate for activating many of the diverse physiological pathways that generate th...

Living in seasonally changing environments requires adaptation to seasonal cycles. Many insects use the change in day length as a reliable cue for upcoming winter and respond to shortened photoperiod through diapause. In this study, we report the clinal variation in photoperiodic diapause induction in populations of the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis collected along a latitudinal gradient ...

Diapause-destined embryos of the crustacean Artemia franciscana cease development as gastrulae, encyst, and enter a resting stage characterized by greatly reduced metabolic activity and extreme stress resistance. To better understand diapause induction and maintenance in Artemia embryos gene expression was analyzed by subtractive hybridization at two days post-fertilization, a time early in thi...

How different macronutrients are utilized at various stages of pupal diapause and the effects winter length on nutrient reserves remain poorly studied for most insects. Western cherry fruit fly, Rhagoletis indifferens (Diptera: Tephritidae), is a specialist cherries in higher latitudes or elevations western North America that exhibits obligate requiring chilling before adult development can occ...

In response to short days in autumn, most temperate multivoltine insects enter diapause, a state which development or reproduction is suppressed arrested, serves coordinate their and physiology (or that of offspring) with annual changes the environment (i.e. photoperiodism). This mediated by measurement time based on photoperiod (photoperiodic measurement), thought be regulated circadian clock....