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Wings and halteres act as coupled dual oscillators in flies
The mechanics of Dipteran thorax is dictated by a network of exoskeletal linkages that, when deformed by the flight muscles, generate coordinated wing movements. In Diptera, the forewings power flight, whereas the hindwings have evolved into specialized structures called halteres, which provide rapi...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8629423/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34783648 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.53824 |
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author | Deora, Tanvi Sane, Siddharth S Sane, Sanjay P |
author_facet | Deora, Tanvi Sane, Siddharth S Sane, Sanjay P |
author_sort | Deora, Tanvi |
collection | PubMed |
description | The mechanics of Dipteran thorax is dictated by a network of exoskeletal linkages that, when deformed by the flight muscles, generate coordinated wing movements. In Diptera, the forewings power flight, whereas the hindwings have evolved into specialized structures called halteres, which provide rapid mechanosensory feedback for flight stabilization. Although actuated by independent muscles, wing and haltere motion is precisely phase-coordinated at high frequencies. Because wingbeat frequency is a product of wing-thorax resonance, any wear-and-tear of wings or thorax should impair flight ability. How robust is the Dipteran flight system against such perturbations? Here, we show that wings and halteres are independently driven, coupled oscillators. We systematically reduced the wing length in flies and observed how wing-haltere synchronization was affected. The wing-wing system is a strongly coupled oscillator, whereas the wing-haltere system is weakly coupled through mechanical linkages that synchronize phase and frequency. Wing-haltere link acts in a unidirectional manner; altering wingbeat frequency affects haltere frequency, but not vice versa. Exoskeletal linkages are thus key morphological features of the Dipteran thorax that ensure wing-haltere synchrony, despite severe wing damage. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8629423 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-86294232021-12-01 Wings and halteres act as coupled dual oscillators in flies Deora, Tanvi Sane, Siddharth S Sane, Sanjay P eLife Evolutionary Biology The mechanics of Dipteran thorax is dictated by a network of exoskeletal linkages that, when deformed by the flight muscles, generate coordinated wing movements. In Diptera, the forewings power flight, whereas the hindwings have evolved into specialized structures called halteres, which provide rapid mechanosensory feedback for flight stabilization. Although actuated by independent muscles, wing and haltere motion is precisely phase-coordinated at high frequencies. Because wingbeat frequency is a product of wing-thorax resonance, any wear-and-tear of wings or thorax should impair flight ability. How robust is the Dipteran flight system against such perturbations? Here, we show that wings and halteres are independently driven, coupled oscillators. We systematically reduced the wing length in flies and observed how wing-haltere synchronization was affected. The wing-wing system is a strongly coupled oscillator, whereas the wing-haltere system is weakly coupled through mechanical linkages that synchronize phase and frequency. Wing-haltere link acts in a unidirectional manner; altering wingbeat frequency affects haltere frequency, but not vice versa. Exoskeletal linkages are thus key morphological features of the Dipteran thorax that ensure wing-haltere synchrony, despite severe wing damage. eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2021-11-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8629423/ /pubmed/34783648 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.53824 Text en © 2021, Deora et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Evolutionary Biology Deora, Tanvi Sane, Siddharth S Sane, Sanjay P Wings and halteres act as coupled dual oscillators in flies |
title | Wings and halteres act as coupled dual oscillators in flies |
title_full | Wings and halteres act as coupled dual oscillators in flies |
title_fullStr | Wings and halteres act as coupled dual oscillators in flies |
title_full_unstemmed | Wings and halteres act as coupled dual oscillators in flies |
title_short | Wings and halteres act as coupled dual oscillators in flies |
title_sort | wings and halteres act as coupled dual oscillators in flies |
topic | Evolutionary Biology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8629423/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34783648 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.53824 |
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