Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology 4 articles published in JoVE Biology Transposon-insertion Sequencing as a Tool to Elucidate Bacterial Colonization Factors in a Burkholderia gladioli Symbiont of Lagria villosa Beetles Ramya Ganesan1, Martin Kaltenpoth1,2, Laura V. Flórez1,3 1Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University, 2Department of Insect Symbiosis, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, 3Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Section for Organismal Biology, University of Copenhagen This is an adapted method for identifying candidate insect colonization factors in a Burkholderia beneficial symbiont. The beetle host is infected with a random mutant library generated via transposon mutagenesis, and library complexity after colonization is compared to a control grown in vitro. Neuroscience High-resolution Quantification of Odor-guided Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster Using the Flywalk Paradigm Michael Thoma1, Bill S. Hansson1, Markus Knaden1 1Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology The automated tracking system Flywalk is used for high-resolution quantification of odor-guided behavior in Drosophila melanogaster. Biology Isolation of Viable Multicellular Glands from Tissue of the Carnivorous Plant, Nepenthes Sandy Rottloff1, Axel Mithöfer2, Ute Müller3, Roland Kilper3 1Laboratoire Agronomie et Environnement, Université de Lorraine, 2Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, 3aura optik Plants glands are specialized structures responsible for the biosynthesis and secretion of many compounds involved in interactions with the biotic environment. To enable studies on their molecular and biochemical features, a mechanical micropreparation technique was established in order to isolate single metabolically active glands, here from the carnivorous plant Nepenthes. Biology Identification of Metabolically Active Bacteria in the Gut of the Generalist Spodoptera littoralis via DNA Stable Isotope Probing Using 13C-Glucose Yongqi Shao*1, Erika M Arias-Cordero*1, Wilhelm Boland1 1Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology The active bacterial community associated with the gut of Spodoptera littoralis, was determined by stable-isotope-probing (SIP) coupled to pyrosequencing. Using this methodology, identification of the metabolically active bacteria species within the community was done with high resolution and precision.