Anthropogenic and ecological drivers of amphibian disease (ranavirosis)

This is the final version. Available on open access from Public Library of Science via the DOI in this recordData Availability: The data analysed in this manuscript has been deposited in Dryad (doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.66k59). Third party data was obtained from Froglife and are therefore available through the charity Froglife (Registered Charity No. 1093372 in England and Wales). Please submit queries for data to [email protected] and asking for access to the data for research purposes. Further contact details can also be found on their website http://www.froglife.org/contact-us/.Ranaviruses are causing mass amphibian die-offs in North America, Europe and Asia, and have been implicated in the decline of common frog (Rana temporaria) populations in the UK. Despite this, we have very little understanding of the environmental drivers of disease occurrence and prevalence. Using a long term (1992-2000) dataset of public reports of amphibian mortalities, we assess a set of potential predictors of the occurrence and prevalence of Ranavirus-consistent common frog mortality events in Britain. We reveal the influence of biotic and abiotic drivers of this disease, with many of these abiotic characteristics being anthropogenic. Whilst controlling for the geographic distribution of mortality events, disease prevalence increases with increasing frog population density, presence of fish and wild newts, increasing pond depth and the use of garden chemicals. The presence of an alternative host reduces prevalence, potentially indicating a dilution effect. Ranavirosis occurrence is associated with the presence of toads, an urban setting and the use of fish care products, providing insight into the causes of emergence of disease. Links between occurrence, prevalence, pond characteristics and garden management practices provides useful management implications for reducing the impacts of Ranavirus in the wild

Smartphones in ecology and evolution: a guide for the app-rehensive

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this recordSmartphones and their apps (application software) are now used by millions of people worldwide and represent a powerful combination of sensors, information transfer, and computing power that deserves better exploitation by ecological and evolutionary researchers. We outline the development process for research apps, provide contrasting case studies for two new research apps, and scan the research horizon to suggest how apps can contribute to the rapid collection, interpretation, and dissemination of data in ecology and evolutionary biology. We emphasize that the usefulness of an app relies heavily on the development process, recommend that app developers are engaged with the process at the earliest possible stage, and commend efforts to create open-source software scaffolds on which customized apps can be built by nonexperts. We conclude that smartphones and their apps could replace many traditional handheld sensors, calculators, and data storage devices in ecological and evolutionary research. We identify their potential use in the high-throughput collection, analysis, and storage of complex ecological information.Marie Curie Intra‐European FellowshipAcademy of FinlandUniversity of HelsinkiFishmongers' CompanyEuropean Social Fun

Pyridazinediones: A Novel Class of Tuneable Reagents for the Selective Dual Modification of Proteins

Antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) are a particularly promising class of antibody-based therapeutics. They are commonly referred to as “magic-bullet” therapy due to the ability to seek and destroy primarily diseased cells within the body (e.g. cancer cells). Critical to this strategy is the availability of effective methodologies to link an antibody to other molecules (e.g. cytotoxic drugs, prodrugs). Although current approaches offer great promise for the development of ADC constructs, they often are not selective and yield heterogeneous product mixtures. Other strategies require mutations with natural or unnatural amino acids, which are generally associated with low expression yields and post-translational issues, whilst some result in the loss of vital disulfide bonds. Furthermore, most of the current peptide/payload linker technologies have the potential to attach only one moiety, greatly limiting their scope and flexibility. To tackle these issues, a novel class of tuneable reagents based on pyridazinedione (PD) moieties was developed. These reagents are readily accessible from inexpensive starting materials in 3 – 4 scalable steps and overcome the problems stated above. Indeed, the PD-based reagents have exquisite selectivity towards cysteines over lysines, even at high temperature and/or with an excess of reagent. When reacted with reduced native disulfide bonds of antibodies or antibody fragments, PDs rapidly and quantitatively form a stable and rigid 2-carbon bridge between the two cysteines side-chains without affecting the structure and biological activity of antibodies. The resulting conjugates have also been demonstrated to have exceptional resistance to hydrolysis at various extreme pHs and temperatures over an extended period of time. Finally, the PD-conjugates possess two orthogonal handles that were readily modified with two different moieties to generate highly functionalised homogeneous constructs with application not only in antibody therapeutics but also in imaging and diagnostics

Population genetic structure of serotine bats (Eptesicus serotinus) across Europe and implications for the potential spread of bat rabies (European bat lyssavirus EBLV-1)

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Understanding of the movements of species at multiple scales is essential to appreciate patterns of population connectivity and in some cases, the potential for pathogen transmission. The serotine bat (Eptesicus serotinus) is a common and widely distributed species in Europe where it frequently harbours European bat lyssavirus type 1 (EBLV-1), a virus causing rabies and transmissible to humans. In the United Kingdom, it is rare, with a distribution restricted to south of the country and so far the virus has never been found there. We investigated the genetic structure and gene flow of E. serotinus across the England and continental Europe. Greater genetic structuring was found in England compared with continental Europe. Nuclear data suggest a single population on the continent, although further work with more intensive sampling is required to confirm this, while mitochondrial sequences indicate an east-west substructure. In contrast, three distinct populations were found in England using microsatellite markers, and mitochondrial diversity was very low. Evidence of nuclear admixture indicated strong male-mediated gene flow among populations. Differences in connectivity could contribute to the high viral prevalence on the continent in contrast with the United Kingdom. Although the English Channel was previously thought to restrict gene flow, our data indicate relatively frequent movement from the continent to England highlighting the potential for movement of EBLV-1 into the United Kingdom.We acknowledge DEFRA and University of Exeter for funding this stud

Fin vs. tech: are trust and knowledge creation key ingredients in fintech start-up emergence and financing?

We investigate how the emergence of fintech start-ups and their financing is shaped by regional knowledge creation and lack of trust in financial services incumbents across 21 OECD countries, 226 regions and over the 2007–2014 period. We find that knowledge generated in the IT sector is much more salient for fostering new fintech start-ups than knowledge generated in the financial services sector. Additionally, the importance of new knowledge created in the financial services sector (IT sector) increases (decreases) as fintech start-ups grow and seek financing. When the level of trust in financial services incumbents falls within a region, this is followed by an increase in the financing provided to fintech start-ups. Nevertheless, regions with historically low average levels of trust in financial services incumbents attract less fintech investment overall

Sonic Kayaks: Environmental monitoring and experimental music by citizens

The Sonic Kayak is a musical instrument used to investigate nature and developed during open hacklab events. The kayaks are rigged with underwater environmental sensors, which allow paddlers to hear real-time water temperature sonifications and underwater sounds, generating live music from the marine world. Sensor data is also logged every second with location, time and date, which allows for fine-scale mapping of water temperatures and underwater noise that was previously unattainable using standard research equipment. The system can be used as a citizen science data collection device, research equipment for professional scientists, or a sound art installation in its own right

An emerging viral pathogen truncates population age structure in a European amphibian and may reduce population viability

Infectious diseases can alter the demography of their host populations, reducing their viability even in the absence of mass mortality. Amphibians are the most threatened group of vertebrates globally, and emerging infectious diseases play a large role in their continued population declines. Viruses belonging to the genus Ranavirus are responsible for one of the deadliest and most widespread of these diseases. To date, no work has used individual level data to investigate how ranaviruses affect population demographic structure. We used skeletochronology and morphology to evaluate the impact of ranaviruses on the age structure of populations of the European common frog (Rana temporaria) in the United Kingdom. We compared ecologically similar populations that differed most notably in their historical presence or absence of ranavirosis (the acute syndrome caused by ranavirus infection). Our results suggest that ranavirosis may truncate the age structure of R. temporaria populations. One potential explanation for such a shift might be increased adult mortality and subsequent shifts in the life history of younger age classes that increase reproductive output earlier in life. Additionally we constructed population projection models which indicated that such increased adult mortality could heighten the vulnerability of frog populations to stochastic environmental challenges

Wandering behaviour prevents inter and intra oceanic speciation in a coastal pelagic fish

Small pelagic fishes have the ability to disperse over long distances and may present complex evolutionary histories. Here, Old World Anchovies (OWA) were used as a model system to understand genetic patterns and connectivity of fish between the Atlantic and Pacific basins. We surveyed 16 locations worldwide using mtDNA and 8 microsatellite loci for genetic parameters, and mtDNA (cyt b; 16S) and nuclear (RAG1; RAG2) regions for dating major lineage-splitting events within Engraulidae family. The OWA genetic divergences (0-0.4%) are compatible with intra-specific divergence, showing evidence of both ancient and contemporary admixture between the Pacific and Atlantic populations, enhanced by high asymmetrical migration from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The estimated divergence between Atlantic and Pacific anchovies (0.67 [0.53-0.80] Ma) matches a severe drop of sea temperature during the Gunz glacial stage of the Pleistocene. Our results support an alternative evolutionary scenario for the OWA, suggesting a coastal migration along south Asia, Middle East and eastern Africa continental platforms, followed by the colonization of the Atlantic via the Cape of the Good Hope.Portuguese Foundation for Science & Technology (FCT) [SFRH/BD/36600/2007]; FCT [UID/MAR/04292/2013, SFRH/BPD/65830/2009]; FCT strategic plan [UID/Multi/04326/2013]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Exploring the role of smartphone technology for citizen science in agriculture

Citizen science is the involvement of citizens, such as farmers, in the research process. Citizen science has become increasingly popular recently, supported by the proliferation of mobile communication technologies such as smartphones. However, citizen science methodologies have not yet been widely adopted in agricultural research. Here, we conducted an online survey with 57 British and French farmers in 2014. We investigated (1) farmer ownership and use of smartphone technologies, (2) farmer use of farm-specific management apps, and (3) farmer interest and willingness to participate in agricultural citizen science projects. Our results show that 89 % respondents owned a smartphone, 84 % used it for farm management, and 72 % used it on a daily basis. Fifty-nine percent engaged with farm-specific apps, using on average four apps. Ninety-three percent respondents agreed that citizen science was a useful methodology for data collection, 93 % for real-time monitoring, 83 % for identification of research questions, 72 % for experimental work, and 72 % for wildlife recording. Farmers also showed strong interest to participate in citizen science projects, often willing to commit substantial amounts of time. For example, 54 % of British respondents were willing to participate in farmland wildlife recording once a week or monthly. Although financial support was not always regarded as necessary, experimental work was the most likely activity for which respondents thought financial support would be essential. Overall, this is the first study to quantify and explore farmers' use of smartphones for farm management, and document strong support for farm-based citizen science projects. (Résumé d'auteur