Data_Sheet_1_Gut Dysbiosis Has the Potential to Reduce the Sexual Attractiveness of Mouse Female.docx

Increasing evidence has shown that the gut microbiome has significant effects on mate preferences of insects; however, whether gut microbiota composition affects sexual attractiveness and mate preference in mammals remains largely unknown. Here, we showed that antibiotic treatment significantly restructured the gut microbiota composition of both mouse males and females. Males, regardless of antibiotic treatment, exhibited a higher propensity to interact with the control females than the antibiotic-treated females. The data clearly showed that gut microbiota dysbiosis reduced the sexual attractiveness of females to males, implying that commensal gut microbiota influences female attractiveness to males. The reduced sexual attractiveness of the antibiotic-treated females may be beneficial to discriminating males by avoiding disorders of immunity and sociability in offspring that acquire maternal gut microbiota via vertical transmission. We suggest further work should be oriented to increase our understanding of the interactions between gut microbiota dysbiosis, sexual selection, and mate choice of wild animals at the population level.</p

DataSheet_1_Phylogeny more than plant height and leaf area explains variance in seed mass.csv

Although variation in seed mass can be attributed to other plant functional traits such as plant height, leaf size, genome size, growth form, leaf N and phylogeny, until now, there has been little information on the relative contributions of these factors to variation in seed mass. We compiled data consisting of 1071 vascular plant species from the literature to quantify the relationships between seed mass, explanatory variables and phylogeny. Strong phylogenetic signals of these explanatory variables reflected inherited ancestral traits of the plant species. Without controlling phylogeny, growth form and leaf N are associated with seed mass. However, this association disappeared when accounting for phylogeny. Plant height, leaf area, and genome size showed consistent positive relationship with seed mass irrespective of phylogeny. Using phylogenetic partial R2s model, phylogeny explained 50.89% of the variance in seed mass, much more than plant height, leaf area, genome size, leaf N, and growth form explaining only 7.39%, 0.58%, 1.85%, 0.06% and 0.09%, respectively. Therefore, future ecological work investigating the evolution of seed size should be cautious given that phylogeny is the best overall predictor for seed mass. Our study provides a novel avenue for clarifying variation in functional traits across plant species, improving our better understanding of global patterns in plant traits.</p

Data_Sheet_1_The influence of species identity and geographic locations on gut microbiota of small rodents.PDF

Although the correlation between gut microbiota, species identity and geographic locations has long attracted the interest of scientists, to what extent species identity and geographic locations influence the gut microbiota assemblages in granivorous rodents needs further investigation. In this study, we performed a survey of gut microbial communities of four rodent species (Apodemus agrarius, A. peninsulae, Tamias sibiricus and Clethrionomys rufocanus) distributed in two areas with great distance (> 600 km apart), to assess if species identity dominates over geographic locations in shaping gut microbial profiles using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We found that gut microbiota composition varied significantly across host species and was closely correlated with host genetics. We identified strong species identity effects on gut microbial composition, with a comparatively weaker signal of geographic provenance on the intestinal microbiota. Specifically, microbiota of one species was on average more similar to that of conspecifics living in separate sites than to members of a closely related species living in the same location. Our study suggests that both host genetics and geographical variations influence gut microbial diversity of four rodent species, which merits further investigation to reveal the patterns of phylogenetic correlation of gut microbial community assembly in mammals across multiple habitats.</p

Oikos data-Yi

Oikos data-Y

Dry masses of the epicotyls (A) and roots (B) of seedlings of three oak species germinated from intact acorns and those with pericarps removed by Siberian chipmunks.

<p>All the dry masses of the epicotyls and roots were not significant between intact and pericarp removed acorns for all species (P>0.05).</p

Time to germination of three oak species germinated from intact acorns and those with pericarps removed by Siberian chipmunks.

<p>Time to germination was the time at which the first acorn in each group germinated. Chi-squared tests were performed for each species, and asterisks indicate significance (**P<0.001, *<0.01).</p

The percentage of acorns that germinated in each species when pericarps were removed and when acorns were intact.

<p>Acorns in the field study had the pericarps removed by Siberian chipmunks, while the acorns in the experimental study had the pericarps artificially removed. Different letters in the same row indicate significance (P<0.05) for the field and experimental studies.</p

Seed fate of sound and infested acorns of <i>Q. variabilis</i>, <i>Q. aliena,</i> and <i>Q. serrata var. brevipetiolata</i> after being manipulated by Siberian chipmunks.

<p>A, B, and C indicate eaten in situ (EIS); eaten after dispersal (EAD), and cached after dispersal (CAD). Data are expressed as mean ± SE.</p

To Be or Not To Be Protonated: <i>cyclo</i>-N₅^– in Crystal and Solvent

Pentazole (HN5) and its anion (cyclo-N5–) have been elusive for nearly a century because of the unstable N5 ring. Recently, Zhang et al. reported the first synthesis and characterization of the pentazolate anion cyclo-N5– in (N5)6(H3O)3(NH4)4Cl salt at ambient conditions (Science 2017, 355, 374). However, whether the cyclo-N5– in (N5)6(H3O)3(NH4)4Cl salt is protonated or not has been debated (Huang and Xu, Science, 2018, 359, eaao3672; Jiang et al. Science, 2018, 359, aas8953). Herein, we employed ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations, which can well present the dynamic behavior at realistic experimental conditions, to examine the potential protonated state of cyclo-N5– in both crystal and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solvent. Our simulations revealed that the protonation reaction of (N5)6(H3O)3(NH4)4Cl → (N5)5(N5H)­(H2O)­(H3O)2(NH4)4Cl is thermodynamically spontaneous according to ΔG < 0, and the small energy barrier of 12.6 kJ/mol is not enough to prevent the partial protonation of cyclo-N5– due to the temperature effect; consequently, both deprotonated and protonated cyclo-N5– exist in the crystal. In comparison, the DMSO solvent effect can remarkably reduce the difference of proton affinities among cyclo-N5–, H2O, and NH3, and the temperature effect can finally break these hydrogen bonds and lead to the deprotonated cyclo-N5– in DMSO solvent. Our AIMD simulations reconcile the recent controversy