New insights into the physiology of cockroaches
Friday, November 13, 2009 - 06:14
in Biology & Nature
A study by scientists from the University of Valencia sheds new light on how the cockroach organism works. A research team from the Cavanilles Institute for Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, led by professors Amparo Latorre and Andrés Moya, has shown why the German cockroach (Blatella germanica) eliminates excess nitrogen by excreting ammonia, in contrast to most terrestrial insects that commonly produce uric acid as a waste compound. The research is published November 13 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.