9 research outputs found
Climate shapes the spatiotemporal variation in color morph diversity and composition across the distribution range of Chrysomela lapponica leaf beetle
Color polymorphism offers rich opportunities for studying the eco-evolutionary mechanisms that drive the adaptations of local populations to heterogeneous and changing environments. We explored the color morph diversity and composition in a Chrysomela lapponica leaf beetle across its entire distribution range to test the hypothesis that environmental and climatic variables shape spatiotemporal variation in the phenotypic structure of a polymorphic species. We obtained information on 13 617 specimens of this beetle from museums, private collections, and websites. These specimens (collected from 1830-2020) originated from 959 localities spanning 33 degrees latitude, 178 degrees longitude, and 4200 m altitude. We classified the beetles into five color morphs and searched for environmental factors that could explain the variation in the level of polymorphism (quantified by the Shannon diversity index) and in the relative frequencies of individual color morphs. The highest level of polymorphism was found at high latitudes and altitudes. The color morphs differed in their climatic requirements; composition of colour morphs was independent of the geographic distance that separated populations but changed with collection year, longitude, mean July temperature and between-year temperature fluctuations. The proportion of melanic beetles, in line with the thermal melanism hypothesis, increased with increasing latitude and altitude and decreased with increasing climate seasonality. Melanic morph frequencies also declined during the past century, but only at high latitudes and altitudes where recent climate warming was especially strong. The observed patterns suggest that color polymorphism is especially advantageous for populations inhabiting unpredictable environments, presumably due to the different climatic requirements of coexisting color morphs
Variable responses of individual species to tropical forest degradation
The functional stability of ecosystems depends greatly on interspecific differences in responses to environmental perturbation. However, responses to perturbation are not necessarily invariant among populations of the same species, so intraspecific variation in responses might also contribute. Such inter-population response diversity has recently been shown to occur spatially across species ranges, but we lack estimates of the extent to which individual populations across an entire community might have perturbation responses that vary through time. We assess this using 524 taxa that have been repeatedly surveyed for the effects of tropical forest logging at a focal landscape in Sabah, Malaysia. Just 39 % of taxa – all with non-significant responses to forest degradation – had invariant responses. All other taxa (61 %) showed significantly different responses to the same forest degradation gradient across surveys, with 6 % of taxa responding to forest degradation in opposite directions across multiple surveys. Individual surveys had low power (< 80 %) to determine the correct direction of response to forest degradation for one-fifth of all taxa. Recurrent rounds of logging disturbance increased the prevalence of intra-population response diversity, while uncontrollable environmental variation and/or turnover of intraspecific phenotypes generated variable responses in at least 44 % of taxa. Our results show that the responses of individual species to local environmental perturbations are remarkably flexible, likely providing an unrealised boost to the stability of disturbed habitats such as logged tropical forests
Corrigendum to ‘An international genome-wide meta-analysis of primary biliary cholangitis: Novel risk loci and candidate drugs’ [J Hepatol 2021;75(3):572–581]
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Charles Darwin’s early beetle collections: ‘Darwin’s beetle box’ and the Down House box
Charles Darwin’s enthusiasm for collecting beetles during his time as a student at the University of Cambridge is well known and ‘Darwin’s Beetle Box’ in the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge has been claimed to be his student collection. A collection of beetles at Down House is similarly thought to be Darwin’s collection of British beetles, but is imprecisely dated. Here we compare the species present in the boxes with the annotations in his copy of Stephens’ ‘British Insects’, and other notes, correspondence and specimens. There is a very close match between these sources of information and in the curation of the two boxes, the pins used and the handwritten labels, including some written by Emma Darwin. These similarities and details of correspondence lead us to conclude that most both boxes represent the collections made by Charles Darwin in 1829-31, with the addition of one specimen provided by Alfred Russel Wallace in 1866 and two probably from Francis Darwin
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Taxonomy based on science is necessary for global conservation.
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Taxonomy based on science is necessary for global conservation.
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Thresholds for adding degraded tropical forest to the conservation estate.
Acknowledgements: This study was supported by funding to the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems Project by the Sime Darby Foundation. Research permission and site access were provided by the Maliau Basin Management Committee, the Sabah Foundation, Benta Wawasan, Sabah Softwoods, the Innoprise Foundation, the Sabah Forestry Department and the Sabah Biodiversity Centre. R.M.E. is supported by the NOMIS Foundation. Data collection was financed by Australian Research Council grant DP140101541; Bat Conservation International; the British Council Newton-Ungku Omar Fund 216433953; British Ecological Society grant 3256/4035; the Cambridge Trust; the Cambridge University Commonwealth Fund; the Czech Science Foundation (14-32302S); the European Research Council (281986); the European Social Fund and the Czech Republic (CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0064); the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRG0302-STWN-1/ 2011), Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia; FFWS CZU (IGA number A_26_22); the Jardine Foundation; Malaysia Industry Group for High Technology (216433953); the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (INTER-TRANSFER LTT19018); the Panton Trust; the Primate Society of Great Britain; ProForest; Royal Society of London grant RG130793; the Sime Darby Foundation; the S. T. Lee Fund; the Sir Philip Reckitt Educational Trust; the Tim Whitmore Fund; the Universiti Malaysia Sabah; the University of East Anglia; the University of Kent; the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences; UK Research and Innovation Natural Environment Research Council grants NE/H011307/1, NE/K016253/1, NE/K016407/1, NE/K016148/1, NE/K0106261/1, NE/K015377/1, NE/L002515/1, NE/L002582/1 and NE/P00363X/1 and studentship 1122589; the Varley Gradwell Travelling Fellowship; and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature. Data collection was supported by R. Adzhar, A. Afendy, N. Arumugam, S. Benedick, V. Bignet, S. Butler, K. Graves, H. E. Hah, H. Heroin, A. Kendall, H. H. Mahsol, D. Mann, J. Miller, S. Milne, J. Mumford, D. Norman, H. Rossleykho, D. Shapiro, K. Sieving, J. Sugau, B. Udell, B. E. Yahya and M. A. Zakaria.Logged and disturbed forests are often viewed as degraded and depauperate environments compared with primary forest. However, they are dynamic ecosystems1 that provide refugia for large amounts of biodiversity2,3, so we cannot afford to underestimate their conservation value4. Here we present empirically defined thresholds for categorizing the conservation value of logged forests, using one of the most comprehensive assessments of taxon responses to habitat degradation in any tropical forest environment. We analysed the impact of logging intensity on the individual occurrence patterns of 1,681 taxa belonging to 86 taxonomic orders and 126 functional groups in Sabah, Malaysia. Our results demonstrate the existence of two conservation-relevant thresholds. First, lightly logged forests (68%) of their biomass removed, and these are likely to require more expensive measures to recover their biodiversity value. Overall, our data confirm that primary forests are irreplaceable5, but they also reinforce the message that logged forests retain considerable conservation value that should not be overlooked
An international genome-wide meta-analysis of primary biliary cholangitis: Novel risk loci and candidate drugs.
BACKGROUNDS & AIMS
Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a chronic liver disease in which autoimmune destruction of the small intrahepatic bile ducts eventually leads to cirrhosis. Many patients have inadequate response to licensed medications, motivating the search for novel therapies. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and meta-analyses (GWMA) of PBC have identified numerous risk loci for this condition, providing insight into its aetiology. We undertook the largest GWMA of PBC to date, aiming to identify additional risk loci and prioritise candidate genes for in silico drug efficacy screening.
METHODS
We combined new and existing genotype data for 10,516 cases and 20,772 controls from 5 European and 2 East Asian cohorts.
RESULTS
We identified 56 genome-wide significant loci (20 novel) including 46 in European, 13 in Asian, and 41 in combined cohorts; and a 57 genome-wide significant locus (also novel) in conditional analysis of the European cohorts. Candidate genes at newly identified loci include FCRL3, INAVA, PRDM1, IRF7, CCR6, CD226, and IL12RB1, which each play key roles in immunity. Pathway analysis reiterated the likely importance of pattern recognition receptor and TNF signalling, JAK-STAT signalling, and differentiation of T helper (T)1 and T17 cells in the pathogenesis of this disease. Drug efficacy screening identified several medications predicted to be therapeutic in PBC, some of which are well-established in the treatment of other autoimmune disorders.
CONCLUSIONS
This study has identified additional risk loci for PBC, provided a hierarchy of agents that could be trialled in this condition, and emphasised the value of genetic and genomic approaches to drug discovery in complex disorders.
LAY SUMMARY
Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a chronic liver disease that eventually leads to cirrhosis. In this study, we analysed genetic information from 10,516 people with PBC and 20,772 healthy individuals recruited in Canada, China, Italy, Japan, the UK, or the USA. We identified several genetic regions associated with PBC. Each of these regions contains several genes. For each region, we used diverse sources of evidence to help us choose the gene most likely to be involved in causing PBC. We used these 'candidate genes' to help us identify medications that are currently used for treatment of other conditions, which might also be useful for treatment of PBC