Cloacal Bacterial Diversity Increases with Multiple Mates: Evidence of Sexual Transmission in Female Common Lizards

Sexually transmitted diseases have often been suggested as a potential cost of multiple mating and as playing a major role in the evolution of mating systems. Yet there is little empirical data relating mating strategies to sexually transmitted microorganisms in wild populations. We investigated whether mating behaviour influences the diversity and composition of cloacal assemblages by comparing bacterial communities in the cloaca of monandrous and polyandrous female common lizards Zootoca vivipara sampled after the mating period. We found that polyandrous females harboured more diverse communities and differed more in community composition than did monandrous females. Furthermore, cloacal diversity and variability were found to decrease with age in polyandrous females. Our results suggest that the higher bacterial diversity found in polyandrous females is due to the sexual transmission of bacteria by multiple mates. The impact of mating behaviour on the cloacal microbiota may have fitness consequences for females and may comprise a selective pressure shaping the evolution of mating systems

Comparative descriptions of eggs from three species of Rhodnius (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae)

The authors describe and compare the morphological and ultrastructural characteristics of eggs from the three most recent described species of the genus Rhodnius Stål, 1859, which have not previously been studied. These species are Rhodnius colombiensis (Mejia, Galvão & Jurberg 1999), Rhodnius milesi (Carcavallo, Rocha, Galvão & Jurberg 2001) and Rhodnius stali (Lent, Jurberg & Galvão 1993). The results revealed that there are similarities in the exochorial architecture of optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy; these include the predominance of hexagonal cells that are common to all Rhodnius species and variable degrees of lateral flattening, which is common not only to species of this genus, but also to the Rhodniini tribe. Differences in overall colour, the presence of a collar in R. milesi, a longitudinal bevel in R. stali and the precise length of R. colombiensis can be useful distinguishing features. As a result of this study, the key for egg identification proposed by Barata in 1981 can be updated.European Community - Chagas Disease Intervention ActivitiesCNPqCoordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES

Genotypic variability enhances the reproducibility of an ecological study

Many scientific disciplines are currently experiencing a “reproducibility crisis” because numerous scientific findings cannot be repeated consistently. A novel but controversial hypothesis postulates that stringent levels of environmental and biotic standardization in experimental studies reduces reproducibility by amplifying impacts of lab-specific environmental factors not accounted for in study designs. A corollary to this hypothesis is that a deliberate introduction of controlled systematic variability (CSV) in experimental designs may lead to increased reproducibility. We tested this hypothesis using a multi-laboratory microcosm study in which the same ecological experiment was repeated in 14 laboratories across Europe. Each laboratory introduced environmental and genotypic CSV within and among replicated microcosms established in either growth chambers (with stringent control of environmental conditions) or glasshouses (with more variable environmental conditions). The introduction of genotypic CSV led to lower among-laboratory variability in growth chambers, indicating increased reproducibility, but had no significant effect in glasshouses where reproducibility was generally lower. Environmental CSV had little effect on reproducibility. Although there are multiple causes for the “reproducibility crisis”, deliberately including genetic variation may be a simple solution for increasing the reproducibility of ecological studies performed in controlled environments

Evolution with Stochastic Fitness and Stochastic Migration

Migration between local populations plays an important role in evolution - influencing local adaptation, speciation, extinction, and the maintenance of genetic variation. Like other evolutionary mechanisms, migration is a stochastic process, involving both random and deterministic elements. Many models of evolution have incorporated migration, but these have all been based on simplifying assumptions, such as low migration rate, weak selection, or large population size. We thus have no truly general and exact mathematical description of evolution that incorporates migration.We derive an exact equation for directional evolution, essentially a stochastic Price equation with migration, that encompasses all processes, both deterministic and stochastic, contributing to directional change in an open population. Using this result, we show that increasing the variance in migration rates reduces the impact of migration relative to selection. This means that models that treat migration as a single parameter tend to be biassed - overestimating the relative impact of immigration. We further show that selection and migration interact in complex ways, one result being that a strategy for which fitness is negatively correlated with migration rates (high fitness when migration is low) will tend to increase in frequency, even if it has lower mean fitness than do other strategies. Finally, we derive an equation for the effective migration rate, which allows some of the complex stochastic processes that we identify to be incorporated into models with a single migration parameter.As has previously been shown with selection, the role of migration in evolution is determined by the entire distributions of immigration and emigration rates, not just by the mean values. The interactions of stochastic migration with stochastic selection produce evolutionary processes that are invisible to deterministic evolutionary theory

Networking Our Way to Better Ecosystem Service Provision.

The ecosystem services (EcoS) concept is being used increasingly to attach values to natural systems and the multiple benefits they provide to human societies. Ecosystem processes or functions only become EcoS if they are shown to have social and/or economic value. This should assure an explicit connection between the natural and social sciences, but EcoS approaches have been criticized for retaining little natural science. Preserving the natural, ecological science context within EcoS research is challenging because the multiple disciplines involved have very different traditions and vocabularies (common-language challenge) and span many organizational levels and temporal and spatial scales (scale challenge) that define the relevant interacting entities (interaction challenge). We propose a network-based approach to transcend these discipline challenges and place the natural science context at the heart of EcoS research.The QUINTESSENCE Consortium gratefully acknowledges the support of Départment SPE and Métaprogramme ECOSERV of INRA, and the French ANR projects PEERLESS (ANR-12-AGRO-0006) and AgroBioSE (ANR-13-AGRO-0001).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2015.12.00

Technical Design Report for the: PANDA Micro Vertex Detector

This document illustrates the technical layout and the expected performance of the Micro Vertex Detector (MVD) of the PANDA experiment. The MVD will detect charged particles as close as possible to the interaction zone. Design criteria and the optimisation process as well as the technical solutions chosen are discussed and the results of this process are subjected to extensive Monte Carlo physics studies. The route towards realisation of the detector is outlined.Comment: 189 pages, 225 figures, 41 table

A historical overview of the classification, evolution, and dispersion of Leishmania parasites and sandflies

Background The aim of this study is to describe the major evolutionary historical events among Leishmania, sandflies, and the associated animal reservoirs in detail, in accordance with the geographical evolution of the Earth, which has not been previously discussed on a large scale. Methodology and Principal Findings Leishmania and sandfly classification has always been a controversial matter, and the increasing number of species currently described further complicates this issue. Despite several hypotheses on the origin, evolution, and distribution of Leishmania and sandflies in the Old and New World, no consistent agreement exists regarding dissemination of the actors that play roles in leishmaniasis. For this purpose, we present here three centuries of research on sandflies and Leishmania descriptions, as well as a complete description of Leishmania and sandfly fossils and the emergence date of each Leishmania and sandfly group during different geographical periods, from 550 million years ago until now. We discuss critically the different approaches that were used for Leishmana and sandfly classification and their synonymies, proposing an updated classification for each species of Leishmania and sandfly. We update information on the current distribution and dispersion of different species of Leishmania (53), sandflies (more than 800 at genus or subgenus level), and animal reservoirs in each of the following geographical ecozones: Palearctic, Nearctic, Neotropic, Afrotropical, Oriental, Malagasy, and Australian. We propose an updated list of the potential and proven sandfly vectors for each Leishmania species in the Old and New World. Finally, we address a classical question about digenetic Leishmania evolution: which was the first host, a vertebrate or an invertebrate? Conclusions and Significance We propose an updated view of events that have played important roles in the geographical dispersion of sandflies, in relation to both the Leishmania species they transmit and the animal reservoirs of the parasites

Biogeographical Survey Identifies Consistent Alternative Physiological Optima and a Minor Role for Environmental Drivers in Maintaining a Polymorphism

The contribution of adaptive mechanisms in maintaining genetic polymorphisms is still debated in many systems. To understand the contribution of selective factors in maintaining polymorphism, we investigated large-scale (>1000 km) geographic variation in morph frequencies and fitness-related physiological traits in the damselfly Nehalennia irene. As fitness-related physiological traits, we investigated investment in immune function (phenoloxidase activity), energy storage and fecundity (abdomen protein and lipid content), and flight muscles (thorax protein content). In the first part of the study, our aim was to identify selective agents maintaining the large-scale spatial variation in morph frequencies. Morph frequencies varied considerably among populations, but, in contrast to expectation, in a geographically unstructured way. Furthermore, frequencies co-varied only weakly with the numerous investigated ecological parameters. This suggests that spatial frequency patterns are driven by stochastic processes, or alternatively, are consequence of highly variable and currently unidentified ecological conditions. In line with this, the investigated ecological parameters did not affect the fitness-related physiological traits differently in both morphs. In the second part of the study, we aimed at identifying trade-offs between fitness-related physiological traits that may contribute to the local maintenance of both colour morphs by defining alternative phenotypic optima, and test the spatial consistency of such trade-off patterns. The female morph with higher levels of phenoloxidase activity had a lower thorax protein content, and vice versa, suggesting a trade-off between investments in immune function and in flight muscles. This physiological trade-off was consistent across the geographical scale studied and supports widespread correlational selection, possibly driven by male harassment, favouring alternative trait combinations in both female morphs