Turning Males On: Activation of Male Courtship Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster

The innate sexual behaviors of Drosophila melanogaster males are an attractive system for elucidating how complex behavior patterns are generated. The potential for male sexual behavior in D. melanogaster is specified by the fruitless (fru) and doublesex (dsx) sex regulatory genes. We used the temperature-sensitive activator dTRPA1 to probe the roles of fruM- and dsx-expressing neurons in male courtship behaviors. Almost all steps of courtship, from courtship song to ejaculation, can be induced at very high levels through activation of either all fruM or all dsx neurons in solitary males. Detailed characterizations reveal different roles for fruM and dsx in male courtship. Surprisingly, the system for mate discrimination still works well when all dsx neurons are activated, but is impaired when all fruM neurons are activated. Most strikingly, we provide evidence for a fruM-independent courtship pathway that is primarily vision dependent

Sex and the Single Cell. II. There Is a Time and Place for Sex

In both male and female Drosophila, only a subset of cells have the potential to sexually differentiate, making both males and females mosaics of sexually differentiated and sexually undifferentiated cells

The serious games ecosystem: Interdisciplinary and intercontextual praxis

This chapter will situate academia in relation to serious games commercial production and contextual adoption, and vice-versa. As a researcher it is critical to recognize that academic research of serious games does not occur in a vaccum. Direct partnerships between universities and commercial organizations are increasingly common, as well as between research institutes and the contexts that their serious games are deployed in. Commercial production of serious games and their increased adoption in non-commercial contexts will influence academic research through emerging impact pathways and funding opportunities. Adding further complexity is the emergence of commercial organizations that undertake their own research, and research institutes that have inhouse commercial arms. To conclude, we explore how these issues affect the individual researcher, and offer considerations for future academic and industry serious games projects

Genetic management of chondrodystrophy in California condors

Five out of 169 fertile California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) eggs laid in captivity have exhibited chondrodystrophy, a lethal form of dwarfism. Pedigree records indicate that this chondrodystrophy, like similar conditions in chickens, turkeys and quail, is probably inherited as an autosomal, recessive allele. We estimate that the frequency of this putative allele is about 9%. This high frequency is probably due to a founder effect. We consider three management options for the allele: ignoring it, eliminating it by selection and minimizing its phenotypic manifestation by avoiding matings between possible carriers. We recommend minimizing its phenotypic expression because an unacceptably large proportion of condors (up to 78 out of 146) would be prevented from breeding under a selection strategy designed to eliminate the allele. We predict that many captive populations will prove similar to the California condor population in that it will prove inadvisable or impractical to select against one or more deleterious alleles detected in the population.9 page(s

Spatiotemporal network structure among "friends of friends" reveals contagious disease process.

Disease transmission can be identified in a social network from the structural patterns of contact. However, it is difficult to separate contagious processes from those driven by homophily, and multiple pathways of transmission or inexact information on the timing of infection can obscure the detection of true transmission events. Here, we analyze the dynamic social network of a large, and near-complete population of 16,430 zoo birds tracked daily over 22 years to test a novel "friends-of-friends" strategy for detecting contagion in a social network. The results show that cases of avian mycobacteriosis were significantly clustered among pairs of birds that had been in direct contact. However, since these clusters might result due to correlated traits or a shared environment, we also analyzed pairs of birds that had never been in direct contact but were indirectly connected in the network via other birds. The disease was also significantly clustered among these friends of friends and a reverse-time placebo test shows that homophily could not be causing the clustering. These results provide empirical evidence that at least some avian mycobacteriosis infections are transmitted between birds, and provide new methods for detecting contagious processes in large-scale global network structures with indirect contacts, even when transmission pathways, timing of cases, or etiologic agents are unknown

Spatiotemporal network structure among "friends of friends" reveals contagious disease process.

Disease transmission can be identified in a social network from the structural patterns of contact. However, it is difficult to separate contagious processes from those driven by homophily, and multiple pathways of transmission or inexact information on the timing of infection can obscure the detection of true transmission events. Here, we analyze the dynamic social network of a large, and near-complete population of 16,430 zoo birds tracked daily over 22 years to test a novel "friends-of-friends" strategy for detecting contagion in a social network. The results show that cases of avian mycobacteriosis were significantly clustered among pairs of birds that had been in direct contact. However, since these clusters might result due to correlated traits or a shared environment, we also analyzed pairs of birds that had never been in direct contact but were indirectly connected in the network via other birds. The disease was also significantly clustered among these friends of friends and a reverse-time placebo test shows that homophily could not be causing the clustering. These results provide empirical evidence that at least some avian mycobacteriosis infections are transmitted between birds, and provide new methods for detecting contagious processes in large-scale global network structures with indirect contacts, even when transmission pathways, timing of cases, or etiologic agents are unknown

Identification of a Novel Mycoplasma Species from an Oriental White-Backed Vulture (Gyps bengalensis)

An intracellular organism was isolated from the tissues of an Oriental white-backed vulture (Gyps bengalensis) in chicken embryo fibroblast cell cultures. Biochemical and physical properties, ultrastructural features, and 16S ribosomal DNA sequencing classified this organism as a new taxon of mycoplasma, for which the name “Mycoplasma vulturii” is proposed

Whole-genome analysis of mycobacteria from birds at the San Diego Zoo

<div><p>Methods</p><p>Mycobacteria isolated from more than 100 birds diagnosed with avian mycobacteriosis at the San Diego Zoo and its Safari Park were cultured postmortem and had their whole genomes sequenced. Computational workflows were developed and applied to identify the mycobacterial species in each DNA sample, to find single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) between samples of the same species, to further differentiate SNPs between as many as three different genotypes within a single sample, and to identify which samples are closely clustered genomically.</p><p>Results</p><p>Nine species of mycobacteria were found in 123 samples from 105 birds. The most common species were <i>Mycobacterium avium</i> and <i>Mycobacterium genavense</i>, which were in 49 and 48 birds, respectively. Most birds contained only a single mycobacterial species, but two birds contained a mixture of two species. The <i>M</i>. <i>avium</i> samples represent diverse strains of <i>M</i>. <i>avium avium</i> and <i>M</i>. <i>avium hominissuis</i>, with many pairs of samples differing by hundreds or thousands of SNPs across their common genome. By contrast, the <i>M</i>. <i>genavense</i> samples are much closer genomically; samples from 46 of 48 birds differ from each other by less than 110 SNPs. Some birds contained two, three, or even four genotypes of the same bacterial species. Such infections were found in 4 of 49 birds (8%) with <i>M</i>. <i>avium</i> and in 11 of 48 birds (23%) with <i>M</i>. <i>genavense</i>. Most were mixed infections, in which the bird was infected by multiple mycobacterial strains, but three infections with two genotypes differing by ≤ 10 SNPs were likely the result of within-host evolution. The samples from 31 birds with <i>M</i>. <i>avium</i> can be grouped into nine clusters within which any sample is ≤ 12 SNPs from at least one other sample in the cluster. Similarly, the samples from 40 birds with <i>M</i>. <i>genavense</i> can be grouped into ten such clusters. Information about these genomic clusters is being used in an ongoing, companion study of mycobacterial transmission to help inform management of bird collections.</p></div