Skip to main content
Advertisement

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Interviews
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About JEB
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Outstanding paper prize
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contacts
    • Contact JEB
    • Subscriptions
    • Advertising
    • Feedback
    • For library administrators
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Experimental Biology
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

supporting biologistsinspiring biology

Journal of Experimental Biology

  • Log in
Advanced search

RSS  Twitter  Facebook  YouTube  

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Interviews
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About JEB
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Outstanding paper prize
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contacts
    • Contact JEB
    • Subscriptions
    • Advertising
    • Feedback
    • For library administrators
Research Article
Metabolism and energy supply below the critical thermal minimum of a chill-susceptible insect
Heath A. MacMillan, Caroline M. Williams, James F. Staples, Brent J. Sinclair
Journal of Experimental Biology 2012 215: 1366-1372; doi: 10.1242/jeb.066381
Heath A. MacMillan
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: hmacmil2@uwo.ca
Caroline M. Williams
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
James F. Staples
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Brent J. Sinclair
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & tables
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF
Loading

SUMMARY

When exposed to temperatures below their critical thermal minimum (CTmin), insects enter chill-coma and accumulate chilling injuries. While the critical thermal limits of water-breathing marine animals may be caused by oxygen- and capacity-limitation of thermal tolerance (OCLT), the mechanisms are poorly understood in air-breathing terrestrial insects. We used thermolimit respirometry to characterize entry into chill-coma in a laboratory population of fall field crickets (Gryllus pennsylvanicus). To detect potential oxygen limitation, we quantified muscle ATP, lactate and alanine concentrations in crickets following prolonged exposure to 0°C (a temperature that causes chill-coma, chilling injury and eventual death). Although there was a sharp (44%) drop in the rate of CO2 emission at the CTmin and spiracular control was lost, there was a low, continuous rate of CO2 release throughout chill-coma, indicating that the spiracles were open and gas exchange could occur through the tracheal system. Prolonged exposure to 0°C caused muscle ATP levels to increase marginally (rather than decrease as OCLT would predict), and there was no change in muscle lactate or alanine concentration. Thus, it appears that insects are not susceptible to OCLT at low temperatures but that the CTmin may instead be set by temperature effects on whole-animal ion homeostasis.

FOOTNOTES

  • FUNDING

    This study was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Canada Graduate Scholarship to H.A.M., an Ontario Graduate Scholarship to C.M.W., NSERC Discovery Grants to B.J.S. and J.F.S., as well as a Canadian Foundation for Innovation grant and Ontario Ministry for Research and Innovation Early Researcher Award to B.J.S.

  • © 2012.
View Full Text
Previous ArticleNext Article
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

This Issue

 Download PDF

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Journal of Experimental Biology.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Metabolism and energy supply below the critical thermal minimum of a chill-susceptible insect
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Journal of Experimental Biology
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Journal of Experimental Biology web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Research Article
Metabolism and energy supply below the critical thermal minimum of a chill-susceptible insect
Heath A. MacMillan, Caroline M. Williams, James F. Staples, Brent J. Sinclair
Journal of Experimental Biology 2012 215: 1366-1372; doi: 10.1242/jeb.066381
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Research Article
Metabolism and energy supply below the critical thermal minimum of a chill-susceptible insect
Heath A. MacMillan, Caroline M. Williams, James F. Staples, Brent J. Sinclair
Journal of Experimental Biology 2012 215: 1366-1372; doi: 10.1242/jeb.066381

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Alerts

Please log in to add an alert for this article.

Sign in to email alerts with your email address

Article navigation

  • Top
  • Article
    • SUMMARY
    • INTRODUCTION
    • MATERIALS AND METHODS
    • RESULTS
    • DISCUSSION
    • Acknowledgments
    • FOOTNOTES
    • REFERENCES
  • Figures & tables
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF

Related articles

Cited by...

More in this TOC section

  • Unexpected lack of specialisation in the flow properties of spitting cobra venom
  • Responses of Manduca sexta larvae to heat waves
  • Heat hardening in a pair of Anolis lizards: constraints, dynamics and ecological consequences
Show more RESEARCH ARTICLES

Similar articles

Other journals from The Company of Biologists

Development

Journal of Cell Science

Disease Models & Mechanisms

Biology Open

Advertisement

Predicting the Future: Species Survival in a Changing World

Read our new special issue exploring the significant role of experimental biology in assessing and predicting the susceptibility or resilience of species to future, human-induced environmental change.


Big Biology Podcast - Hollie Putnam and coral bleaching

Catch the next JEB-sponsored episode of the Big Biology Podcast where Art and Marty talk to Hollie Putnam about the causes of coral bleaching and the basic biology of corals in the hope of selectively breeding corals that can better tolerate future ocean conditions.

Read Hollie's Review on the subject, which is featured in our current special issue. 


Stark trade-offs and elegant solutions in arthropod visual systems

Many elegant eye specializations that evolved in response to visual challenges continue to be discovered. A new Review by Meece et al. summarises exciting solutions evolved by insects and other arthropods in response to specific visual challenges.


Head bobbing gives pigeons a sense of perspective

Pigeons might look goofy with their head-bobbing walk, but it turns out that the ungainly head manoeuvre allows the birds to judge distance.

Articles

  • Accepted manuscripts
  • Issue in progress
  • Latest complete issue
  • Issue archive
  • Archive by article type
  • Special issues
  • Subject collections
  • Interviews
  • Sign up for alerts

About us

  • About JEB
  • Editors and Board
  • Editor biographies
  • Travelling Fellowships
  • Grants and funding
  • Journal Meetings
  • Workshops
  • The Company of Biologists
  • Journal news

For Authors

  • Submit a manuscript
  • Aims and scope
  • Presubmission enquiries
  • Article types
  • Manuscript preparation
  • Cover suggestions
  • Editorial process
  • Promoting your paper
  • Open Access
  • Outstanding paper prize
  • Biology Open transfer

Journal Info

  • Journal policies
  • Rights and permissions
  • Media policies
  • Reviewer guide
  • Sign up for alerts

Contact

  • Contact JEB
  • Subscriptions
  • Advertising
  • Feedback

 Twitter   YouTube   LinkedIn

© 2021   The Company of Biologists Ltd   Registered Charity 277992