Protein turns harmless grasshoppers into destructive swarms
December 21st, 2011 - 5:51 pm ICT by IANSLondon, Dec 21 (IANS) Locusts devastate swathes of vegetation in swarms that stretch over many square kilometres, blotting the sun and the sky for hours. This is due to a specific signalling compound in locusts’ brain, known as Protein Kinase A (PKA), reveals a study.
Researcher Swidbert Ott from the University of Cambridge and colleagues from the University of Leuven, isolated the PKA, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science reported.
They found that this protein, typically tied to learning in other animals, controls the transition from solitary to gregarious behaviour in locusts, a university statement said.
In their solitary phase, they avoid other locusts and occur in very low density. When the sporadic rains arrive and food is more plentiful, their numbers increase.
However, as the rains cease the locusts are driven onto dwindling patches of vegetation. This forced proximity to other locusts causes a little-understood transformation into their gregarious phase.
They rapidly become very mobile, actively seeking the company of other locusts, forming huge swarms that sweep the landscape in their search for food.
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