BIOMORA24: Unique biology of mole-rats - from husbandry to biomedical applications

Session

Poster Session

28 Nov 2024, 19:00

MPINB Bonn

78. A preliminary characterization of astrocyte anatomy and organization in the naked mole-rat brain

Mole-rat biology

Poster

Due to the exceptional characteristics of naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber), such as survival in hypoxic habitats or resistance to cancer and other diseases that occur with increased age, and resistance to some types of chemical pain, these eusocial animals are an excellent model of evolutionary adaptation. Astrocytes, play a major role in the immune response and modulating neuronal...

58. Age- and breeding status-specific differences in gene and transposable element expression in oocytes of the giant mole-rat (Fukomys mechowii)

Mole-rat biology

Poster

The giant mole-rat (Fukomys mechowii, GMR) is one of the few species of African mole-rats wherein a queen ovulates and breeds while ovulation in other females is suppressed. Their social structure combined with the unusually long fertility of both queens and non-breeders thus make female GMRs uniquely suitable systems for understanding how aging, reproductive maturity and ovulation frequency...

61. Characterisation of ovarian reserve in African mole-rats and other rodents

Mole-rat biology

Poster

Female germ cells, oocytes, are localised in the ovaries and form ovarian reserve of the individual. Their development comprises primordial germ cells specification, migration to gonadal ridge, rounds of mitotic divisions and germ cell nests formation, in which germ cells stop dividing, exit pluripotency and enter meiosis while nests are broken apart into individual early oocytes. It was...

67. Characterizing Mechanisms of Xenophobic Aggression in Naked Mole-Rats

Mole-rat biology

Poster

The social decision-making brain network controls social behaviour, including aggression, in a variety of species. However, whether the social decision-making network is conserved in naked mole-rats has yet to be systematically investigated. Naked mole-rats are eusocial rodents that live in large colonies of family groups. The non-breeding subordinates maintain and defend the colony. However,...

66. COMPARATIVE EPIGENETIC STABILITY IN AGING CONDITIONS BETWEEN NAKED MOLE RAT AND HUMAN

Mole-rat biology

Poster

The stability of nuclear lamina and histone modifications is critical in the aging process and cellular senescence. Our study investigates the response of naked mole rat (NMR) cells to aging conditions induced by doxycycline (dox)-regulated progerin-GFP expression, comparing it to human dermal fibroblasts (HDF). Employing a high-throughput immunofluorescence assay, we have investigated a wide...

68. Deciphering the molecular signaling pathways regulating thermogenesis in naked mole-rats: a transcriptomic approach

Mole-rat biology

Poster

The naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber, NM-R) is an extremophilic rodent with unusual physiological features such as long lifespan, poikilothermy and poor thermoregulation ability. To date, the function of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in NM-R remains unclear. Our aim is to uncover the mechanism(s) regulating the function(s) of the interscapular BAT (iBAT) of NM-R using bulk and snRNA...

62. Digging Deeper: The Impact of Helper Size and Efficiency on Cooperative Behaviour in Mole-Rats

Mole-rat biology

Poster

Excavating sand is a costly but crucial behavior in subterranean animals such as the social Damaraland mole-rats (Fukomys damarensis). These mammals dwell underground in arid environments, where digging large networks of tunnels are necessary to find food. They are cooperative breeders, living in groups where a pair of dominant individuals monopolizes reproduction. It is still unclear whether...

75. Glycogen Utilization and the Role of cCMP in Astrocyte-Neuron Metabolic Communication in Naked Mole Rats

Mole-rat biology

Poster

Naked mole rats (NMRs) exhibit unique physiological adaptations including extraordinary resistance to hypoxia and anoxia. NMR exhibit a wide range of metabolic adaptations likely evolved to survive within their harsh environment. Amongst these, is significantly elevated brain glycogen levels compared to other species like mice, providing NMRs with energetic substrate during periods of...

69. In vitro models to explore mechanisms of hypoxia resistance in the naked mole-rat

Mole-rat biology

Poster

Naked mole-rats are eusocial animals living in uncommonly hypoxic and hypercapnic environment. To counteract this adverse habitat, they have evolved unique metabolic adaptations that allow them to completely recover from prolonged oxygen deprivation, without any organ impairment – an ability that sets them apart from other terrestrial mammals, including mice. The brain, being one of the most...

84. Laterality in naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber)

Mole-rat biology

Poster

Lateralization, or the preferential use of one side of the body over the other, is widespread in various animal species. This phenomenon can impact learning and decision-making processes critical for survival. Naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber) are cooperatively breeding subterranean rodents with remarkable spatial orientation, living in underground tunnel-and-chamber systems spanning...

65. Navigation with touch

Mole-rat biology

Poster

Naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber) are one of the most incredible creatures in the animal kingdom. They are a unique eusocial rodent species with extraordinary longevity(1) and able to communicate with each other with versatile colony-specific dialects(2) and can even survive under extreme hypoxia by switching to fructose as a fuel(3). Their subterranean burrows are large and complex with...

83. Species-specificity of fear processing circuits in rodent: a comparative study of mole-rats (Fukomys micklemi) and mice

Mole-rat biology

Poster

Fear perception, a crucial survival feature, enables animals to respond to potential environmental threats. It has been shown that the threat signal goes from the sensory system (through the superior colliculus (SC) and thalamus) to the amygdala and then enters the periaqueductal gray (PAG), resulting in different escaping behaviors. Studying fear perception in new animal models provides a...

50. Spontaneous behaviour of the Ansell’s mole-rat (Fukomys anselli) in the absence of the Earth’s magnetic field

Mole-rat biology

Poster

The subterranean Ansell’s mole-rat (Fukomys anselli) can sense the Earth’s magnetic field, likely to use it as a cue for orientation in its dark habitat. The omnipresence of the Earth’s magnetic field as a directional reference raises the question of whether its sudden absence would cause changes in mole-rats’ behaviour. Recent advances in automated animal tracking and the unsupervised...

60. The role of ovulations in aging- associated decline of oocyte quality

Mole-rat biology

Poster

Female fertility is one of the first physiological functions undergoing age-related decline. One of its causes is suboptimal oocyte quality of aged females. Oocytes are established during prenatal development as a finite pool. Therefore, they can be several decades old in females of long-lived species, increasing the likelihood of the accumulation of various aberrations such as weaker...

70. Two-photon imaging of the naked mole-rat auditory cortex

Mole-rat biology

Poster

Naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber) exhibit a rich vocal repertoire through which they transmit social signals to conspecifics. They are able to distinguish between individuals from their own or another colony based on these auditory signals. The auditory cortex has been shown to encode for conspecific vocalizations and encode vocalization types in rodents. In addition, in primates,...

79. Valproic acid alters social signaling in male naked mole-rats.

Mole-rat biology

Poster

Adult neuroplasticity is an adaptive process by which animals can alter behavior in response to shifting environmental stimuli. Naked mole-rats are eusocial animals that reside in colonies where reproduction is restricted to a single breeding female and her male consort(s); all other animals are pre-pubertal and socially subordinate. Valproic acid (VPA) is a histone deacetylase inhibitor drug...