Emerging Themes from the ESA Symposium Entitled “Pollinator Nutrition: Lessons from Bees at Individual to Landscape Levels”

Pollinator populations are declining (Biesmeijer et al., 2006; Brodschneider et al., 2018; Cameron et al., 2011; Goulson, Lye, & Darvill, 2008; Kulhanek et al., 2017; National Research Council, 2007; Oldroyd, 2007), and both anecdotal and experimental evidence suggest that limited access to high quality forage might play a role (Carvell, Meek, Pywell, Goulson, & Nowakowski, 2007; Deepa et al., 2017; Goulson, Nicholls, Botias, & Rotheray, 2015; Potts et al., 2003, 2010; Vanbergen & The Insect Pollinators Initiative, 2013; Vaudo, Tooker, Grozinger, & Patch, 2015; Woodard, 2017). Multiple researchers are earnestly addressing this topic in a diverse array of insect-pollinator systems. As research continues to be published, increased communication among scientists studying the topic of nutrition is essential for improving pollinator health

Genome of the Asian Longhorned Beetle (\u3cem\u3eAnoplophora glabripennis\u3c/em\u3e), a Globally Significant Invasive Species, Reveals Key Functional and Evolutionary Innovations at the Beetle-Plant Interface

Background: Relatively little is known about the genomic basis and evolution of wood-feeding in beetles. We undertook genome sequencing and annotation, gene expression assays, studies of plant cell wall degrading enzymes, and other functional and comparative studies of the Asian longhorned beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis, a globally significant invasive species capable of inflicting severe feeding damage on many important tree species. Complementary studies of genes encoding enzymes involved in digestion of woody plant tissues or detoxification of plant allelochemicals were undertaken with the genomes of 14 additional insects, including the newly sequenced emerald ash borer and bull-headed dung beetle. Results: The Asian longhorned beetle genome encodes a uniquely diverse arsenal of enzymes that can degrade the main polysaccharide networks in plant cell walls, detoxify plant allelochemicals, and otherwise facilitate feeding on woody plants. It has the metabolic plasticity needed to feed on diverse plant species, contributing to its highly invasive nature. Large expansions of chemosensory genes involved in the reception of pheromones and plant kairomones are consistent with the complexity of chemical cues it uses to find host plants and mates. Conclusions: Amplification and functional divergence of genes associated with specialized feeding on plants, including genes originally obtained via horizontal gene transfer from fungi and bacteria, contributed to the addition, expansion, and enhancement of the metabolic repertoire of the Asian longhorned beetle, certain other phytophagous beetles, and to a lesser degree, other phytophagous insects. Our results thus begin to establish a genomic basis for the evolutionary success of beetles on plants

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

T.biloba cell counts

Cell counts for all histoblast nests in both males and females of the species Themira biloba. Anterior Dorsal (A), Posterior dorsal (P) and Ventral (V) were all counted twice as described in the methods

brush+250boot+best_parsimony

This is a Mesquite file that contains the tree sets for the parsimony analysis. Contact Rudolf Meier for questions regarding this file

A pipeline for the de novo assembly of the Themira biloba (Sepsidae: Diptera) transcriptome using a multiple k-mer length approach

Background: The Sepsidae family of flies is a model for investigating how sexual selection shapes courtship and sexual dimorphism in a comparative framework. However, like many non-model systems, there are few molecular resources available. Large-scale sequencing and assembly have not been performed in any sepsid, and the lack of a closely related genome makes investigation of gene expression challenging. Our goal was to develop an automated pipeline for de novo transcriptome assembly, and to use that pipeline to assemble and analyze the transcriptome of the sepsid Themira biloba

M.fasciculatus cell counts

Cell counts for all histoblast nests in both males and females of the species Meroplius fasciculatus

T.biloba cell counts

Cell counts for all histoblast nests in both males and females of the species Themira biloba. Anterior Dorsal (A), Posterior dorsal (P) and Ventral (V) were all counted twice as described in the methods

Data from: Deciphering the evolutionary history and developmental mechanisms of a complex sexual ornament: the abdominal appendages of Sepsidae (Diptera)

Male abdomen appendages are a novel trait found within Sepsidae (Diptera). Here we demonstrate that they are likely to have evolved once, were lost three times, and then secondarily gained in one lineage. The developmental basis of these appendages was investigated by counting the number of histoblast cells in each abdominal segment in four species: two that represented the initial instance of appendage evolution, one that has secondarily gained appendages, and one species that did not have appendages. Males of all species with appendages have elevated cell counts for the fourth segment, which gives rise to the appendages. In Perochaeta dikowi, which reacquired the trait, the females also have elevated cell count on the fourth segment despite the fact that females do not develop appendages. The species without appendages has similar cell counts in all segments regardless of sex. These results suggest that the basis for appendage development is shared in males across all species, but the sexual dimorphism is regulated differently in P. dikowi