Demographic response of snake-necked turtles correlates with indigenous harvest and feral pig predation in tropical northern Australia

The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com1. Species that mature late, experience high levels of survival and have long generation times are more vulnerable to chronic increases in mortality than species with higher fecundity and more rapid turnover of generations. 2. Many chelonians have low hatchling survival, slow growth, delayed sexual maturity and high subadult and adult survival. This constrains their ability to respond quickly to increases in adult mortality from harvesting or habitat alteration. In contrast, the northern snake-necked turtle Chelodina rugosa (Ogilby 1890) is fast-growing, early maturing and highly fecund relative to other turtles, and may be resilient to increased mortality. 3. Here we provide correlative evidence spanning six study sites and three field seasons, indicating that C. rugosa is able to compensate demographically to conditions of relatively low subadult and adult survival, caused by pig Sus scrofa (Linnaeus 1758) predation and customary harvesting by humans. 4. Recruitment and age specific fecundity tended to be greater in sites with low adult and subadult survival (and thus reduced densities of large turtles), owing to higher juvenile survival, a smaller size at onset of maturity and faster post-maturity growth. 5. These patterns are consistent with compensatory density-dependent responses, and as such challenge the generality that high subadult and adult survival is crucial for achieving long-term population stability in long-lived vertebrates such as chelonians. 6. We posit that long-lived species with ‘fast’ recruitment and a capacity for a compensatory demographic response, similar to C. rugosa, may be able to persist in the face of occasional or sustained adult harvest without inevitably threatening population viability.Damien A. Fordham, Arthur Georges, Barry W. Broo

Common genetic variants associated with open-angle glaucoma

Open-angle glaucoma (glaucoma) is a major eye disorder characterized by optic disc pathology. Recent genome-wide association studies identified new loci associated with clinically relevant optic disc parameters, such as the optic disc area and vertical cup-disc ratio (VCDR). We examined to what extent these loci are involved in glaucoma. The loci studied include ATOH7, CDC7/TGFBR3 and SALL1 for optic disc area, and CDKN2B, SIX1, SCYL1/LTBP3, CHEK2, ATOH7 and DCLK1 for VCDR. We performed a meta-analysis using data from six independent studies including: the Rotterdam Study (n= 5736), Genetic Research in Isolated Populations combined with Erasmus Rucphen Family study (n= 1750), Amsterdam Glaucoma Study (n= 296) and cohorts from Erlangen and Tübingen (n= 1363), Southampton (n= 702) and deCODE (n= 36 151) resulting in a total of 3161 glaucoma cases and 42 837 controls. Of the eight loci, we found significant evidence (P= 1.41 × 10(-8)) for the association of CDKN2B with glaucoma [odds ratio (OR) for those homozygous for the risk allele: 0.76; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.70-0.84], for the role of ATOH7 (OR: 1.28; 95% CI: 1.12-1.47) and for SIX1 (OR: 1.20; 95% CI: 1.10-1.31) when adjusting for the number of tested loci. Furthermore, there was a borderline significant association of CDC7/TGFBR3 and SALL1 (both P= 0.04) with glaucoma. In conclusion, we found consistent evidence for three common variants (CDKN2B, ATOH7 and SIX1) significantly associated with glaucoma. These findings may shed new light on the pathophysiological protein pathways leading to glaucoma, and point to pathways involved in the growth and development of the optic nerve