A new species of sand racer, Psammodromus (Squamata: Lacertidae), from the Western Iberian Peninsula

[EN] A new species of lacertid lizard of the genus Psammodromus is described from the Iberian Peninsula. Genetic and recently published phenotypic data support the differentiation of Psammodromus hispanicus into three, and not as previously sug-gested two, distinct lineages. Age estimates, lineage allopatry, the lack of mitochondrial and nuclear haplotype sharing between lineages, ecological niche divergence, and the current biogeographic distribution, indicated that the three lineages correspond to three independent species. Here, we describe a new species, Psammodromus occidentalis sp. n., which is genetically different from the other sand racers and differentiated by the number of femoral pores, number of throat scales, snout shape, head ratio, green nuptial coloration, and number of supralabial scales below the subocular scale. We also pro-pose to upgrade the two previously recognized subspecies, Psammodromus hispanicus hispanicus Fitzinger, 1826 from central Spain and Psammodromus hispanicus edwardsianus (Dugès, 1829) from eastern Spain, to the species level: Psam-modromus hispanicus stat. nov. and Psammodromus edwardsianus stat. nov. Given that the holotype of Psammodromus hispanicus was lost, we designate a neotype. We also analysed museum specimens of P. blanci, P. microdactylus and P. algirus to describe differentiation of the Psammodromus hispanicus lineages/species from their closest relatives. Copyright © 2011 Magnolia Press.Peer Reviewe

Integrative analyses of speciation and divergence in Psammodromus hispanicus (Squamata: Lacertidae)

BackgroundGenetic, phenotypic and ecological divergence within a lineage is the result of past and ongoing evolutionary processes, which lead ultimately to diversification and speciation. Integrative analyses allow linking diversification to geological, climatic, and ecological events, and thus disentangling the relative importance of different evolutionary drivers in generating and maintaining current species richness.ResultsHere, we use phylogenetic, phenotypic, geographic, and environmental data to investigate diversification in the Spanish sand racer (Psammodromus hispanicus). Phylogenetic, molecular clock dating, and phenotypic analyses show that P. hispanicus consists of three lineages. One lineage from Western Spain diverged 8.3 (2.9-14.7) Mya from the ancestor of Psammodromus hispanicus edwardsianus and P. hispanicus hispanicus Central lineage. The latter diverged 4.8 (1.5-8.7) Mya. Molecular clock dating, together with population genetic analyses, indicate that the three lineages experienced northward range expansions from southern Iberian refugia during Pleistocene glacial periods. Ecological niche modelling shows that suitable habitat of the Western lineage and P. h. edwardsianus overlap over vast areas, but that a barrier may hinder dispersal and genetic mixing of populations of both lineages. P. h. hispanicus Central lineage inhabits an ecological niche that overlaps marginally with the other two lineages.ConclusionsOur results provide evidence for divergence in allopatry and niche conservatism between the Western lineage and the ancestor of P. h. edwardsianus and P. h. hispanicus Central lineage, whereas they suggest that niche divergence is involved in the origin of the latter two lineages. Both processes were temporally separated and may be responsible for the here documented genetic and phenotypic diversity of P. hispanicus. The temporal pattern is in line with those proposed for other animal lineages. It suggests that geographic isolation and vicariance played an important role in the early diversification of the group, and that lineage diversification was further amplified through ecological divergence

Temporal-spatial correlation between angiogenesis and corticogenesis in the developing chick optic tectum

The developing chick optic tectum is a widely used model of corticogenesis and angiogenesis. Cell behaviors involved in corticogenesis and angiogenesis share several regulatory mechanisms. In this way the 3D organizations of both systems adapt to each other. The consensus about the temporally and spatially organized progression of the optic tectum corticogenesis contrasts with the discrepancies about the spatial organization of its vascular bed as a function of the time. In order to find out spatial and temporal correlations between corticogenesis and angiogenesis, several methodological approaches were applied to analyze the dynamic of angiogenesis in the developing chick optic tectum. The present paper shows that a typical sequence of developmental events characterizes the optic tectum angiogenesis. The first phase, formation of the primitive vascular bed, takes place during the early stages of the tectal corticogenesis along which the large efferent neurons appear and begin their early differentiation. The second phase, remodeling and elaboration of the definitive vascular bed, occurs during the increase in complexity associated to the elaboration of the local circuit networks. The present results show that, apart from the well-known influence of the dorsal-ventral and radial axes as reference systems for the spatial organization of optic tectum angiogenesis, the cephalic-caudal axis also exerts a significant asymmetric influence. The term cortico-angiogenesis to describe the entire process is justified by the fact that tight correlations are found between specific corticogenic and angiogenic events and they take place simultaneously at the same position along the cephalic-caudal and radial axes.Fil: Rodriguez Celin, Alejandra Jimena. Universidad Favaloro. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de Ciencias Bioestructurales. Grupo de Investigación en Biología Teórica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Rapacioli, Melina. Universidad Favaloro. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de Ciencias Bioestructurales. Grupo de Investigación en Biología Teórica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Gonzalez, Mariela Azul. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Ballarin, Virginia Laura. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería; ArgentinaFil: Fiszer, Sara. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia "Prof. Eduardo de Robertis". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia; ArgentinaFil: López, Juan José. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia "Prof. Eduardo de Robertis". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia; ArgentinaFil: Flores, Domingo Vladimir. Universidad Favaloro. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de Ciencias Bioestructurales. Grupo de Investigación en Biología Teórica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia "Prof. Eduardo de Robertis". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia; Argentin

Corticosterone mediated mate choice affects female mating reluctance and reproductive success

The study of stress-related hormones as mediators of sexual selection has traditionally focused on the effect of glucocorticoids on male quality and competing ability. However, environmental stressors are expected to affect both males and females, and the strength of sexual selection might be affected by changes in female mating decisions, a hypothesis that has rarely been tested. Here, we investigated whether female common lizard (Zootoca vivipara) mating behaviour and mating preferences are affected by different levels of administered corticosterone and conditioned by the familiarity of their partners, which is known to influence Z. vivipara social behaviour. To this end, two females, one corticosterone-treated and one control female, were simultaneously presented with an unfamiliar male and the following day with either a familiar or an unfamiliar male. Females treated with corticosterone (Cort) were more aggressive towards males and mated less. Furthermore, copulation probability in Cort females, but not in control females, increased with body size. On the second day, Cort females only mated with familiar partners. In contrast, male behaviour towards females was not affected by treatment and only bigger males successfully copulated with Cort females. This shows that corticosterone directly affected female mating behaviour and mating preferences, while male mating behaviour was unaffected by the female's level of corticosterone. Environmental and social stressors may affect reproductive strategies of females, the strength of sexual selection, and sexual conflict through their effects on female glucocorticoid levels, potentially in a wide range of species.CRD and VGJ were supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education (FPU program) grants number AP2009-0350 and AP2006-01678 respectively. Funding: Project funds were provided by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (grant numbers CGL2008-01522, CGL2012-32459, CGL2016-76918 to P.S.F.) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant numbers PP00P3_128375, PP00P3_152929/1 to P.S.F.). The handling and experimentation were conducted under licenses from the Gobierno de Aragón (LC/ehv 24/2010/105 & 106) and Navarr

Psammodromus occidentalis Fitze, Gonzalez-Jimena, San-Jose, Mauro & Zardoya, 2012, new species

Psammodromus occidentalis new species Holotype: MNCN / ADN 34516 (field number PF_08_ 2001, GenBank accession number FJ 587677), adult male from Colmenar del Arroyo (Madrid, Spain, 40 ° 27 ’ 22.14 ’’N, 4 ° 10 ’ 28.36 ’’W) captured on 24 October 2008 by Patrick S. Fitze and Virginia Gonzalez-Jimena. It is conserved in pure alcohol and frozen at - 80 °C. Voucher number MNCN / ADN tail characteristics intact re-grown, cut at 57 re-grown, cut at 56 re-grown, cut at 71 intact mm 1 mm 1 mm 1 belly coloration white white yellowish yellowish yellowish body mass (g) 1.48 1.87 1.99 1.48 1.05 Description of the holotype. Adult male (Figure 4) with detached original tail: SVL 43 mm, total length 63 mm, belly colour white, body mass 1.497 g, 12 femoral pores on both hind limbs, head length 10.7 mm, head width 5.5 mm, snout length 3.5 mm, snout width 4.1 mm, anal scale width 2.9 mm, 24 ventral scales, no supralabial scale below the subocular scale, 18 throat scales, one collar scale, two ocelli on each flank, nuptial coloration score 0. Paratypes: MNCN / ADN 34515 (field number PF_08_ 2000, GenBank accession number FJ 587676), first-year female. BMNH 2008.271 (field number PF_08_ 2002; DNA sample MNCN / ADN 34517; GenBank accession number FJ 587678), adult male. BMNH 2008.272 (field number PF_08_ 2003; DNA sample MNCN / ADN 34518, GenBank accesion number: FJ 587679), first year male. All specimens were captured in the type locality (Colmenar del Arroyo, Madrid 40 ° 27 ’ 22.14 ’’N, 4 ° 10 ’ 28.36 ’’W) by Patrick S. Fitze and Virginia Gonzalez-Jimena on October 24 th, 2008. They are conserved in pure alcohol and frozen at - 80 °C. The characteristics of the collected individuals are summarized in Table 3. Diagnosis. Psammodromus occidentalis sp. n. (former name: P. hispanicus hispanicus Western lineage; Fitze et al. 2011) shows 20–29 ventral scale rows, no supralabial scale below the subocular scale, 15–26 throat scales, 0– 3 collar scales, 9–15 femoral pores, a snout shape of 0.96–2.51, 0–5 ocelli, and a nuptial coloration score of 0–4. It can be distinguished from the edwardsianus lineage by the absence of a supralabial scale below the subocular scale, lower femoral pore numbers, more extended nuptial coloration, and slightly bigger snout shape values, and from the Central lineage (P. hispanicus) by bigger snout shape values, corresponding to a less pointed snout, higher number of femoral pores, and higher number of ocelli. Molecular differentiation based on mitochondrial and the nuclear datasets shows that P. occidentalis sp. n. is more distant from the edwardsianus and Central lineage than the later two from each other. Psammodromus occidentalis sp. n. can be easily distinguished from P. algirus by the smaller body size, a shorter tail length that rarely exceeds 2 x SVL (in adult individuals with intact tail: mean = 1.5 x ± 0.02; range = 0.7 – 2.4; P. algirus > 2 x SVL, Böhme 1981), absence of pterygoid teeth (Arnold 1989), presence of a gular fold and distinct collar scales, absence of imbricated and pointed ventral scales, and presence of two TABLE 3. Variation of Psammodromus occidentalis sp. n. paratypes collected on 24 October 2008 at the holotype locality. central ventral rows of clearly narrower scales compared to scales of adjoining rows. Psammodromus occidentalis sp. n. differs from P. blanci by a clearly present gular fold, absence of imbricate or rounded ventral scales, two narrower central ventral rows (compared to the adjoining ventral rows), by rarely existing solid lateral lines, and by a brown grayish dorsal ground color (Schleich et al. 1996). It differs from P. microdactylus by the presence of a gular fold, distinct collar scales, a brown grayish dorsal ground color, two dashed lateral lines, absence of pointed or rounded central ventral rows, presence of two narrower central ventral rows, and absence of greenish or dark olive dorsal ground color (Schleich et al. 1996). Etymology. The species epithet refers to the geographical distribution of this lizard. All described populations are located on the Western Iberian Peninsula. Distribution. P. occidentalis sp. n. was captured on the Western Iberian Peninsula (Figure 1). The edwardsianus and Central lineages were found on the East coast and in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, as previously described (Boulenger 1921; Fitze et al. 2011).Published as part of Fitze, Patrick S., Gonzalez-Jimena, Virginia, San-Jose, Luis M., Mauro, Diego San & Zardoya, Rafael, 2012, A new species of sand racer, Psammodromus (Squamata: Lacertidae), from the Western Iberian Peninsula, pp. 41-52 in Zootaxa 3205 on pages 47-50, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21321

Data from: Cumulative frequency-dependent selective episodes allow for rapid morph cycles and rock-paper-scissors dynamics in species with overlapping generations

Rock-paper-scissors (RPS) dynamics, which maintain genetic polymorphisms over time through negative frequency-dependent (FD) selection, can evolve in short-lived species with no generational overlap, where they produce rapid morph frequency cycles. However, most species have overlapping generations and thus, rapid RPS dynamics are thought to require stronger FD selection, the existence of which yet needs to be proved. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that two cumulative selective episodes, FD sexual selection reinforced by FD selection on offspring survival, generate sufficiently strong selection to generate rapid morph frequency cycles in the European common lizard Zootoca vivipara, a multi-annual species with major generational overlap. These findings show that the conditions required for the evolution of RPS games are fulfilled by almost all species exhibiting genetic polymorphisms and suggest that RPS games may be responsible for the maintenance of genetic diversity in a wide range of species

Juvenile_survival

Juvenile_surviva

Siring_success

Siring_succes

Human adipose tissue from normal and tumoral breast regulates the behavior of mammary epithelial cells

Introduction: Stromal-epithelial interactions mediate both breast development and breast cancer progression. In the present work, we evaluated the effects of conditioned media (CMs) of human adipose tissue explants from normal (hATN) and tumor (hATT) breast on proliferation, adhesion, migration and metalloproteases (MMPs) activity on tumor (MCF-7 and IBH-7) and non-tumor (MCF-10A) human breast epithelial cell lines. Material and methods: Human adipose tissues were obtained from patients and the conditioned medium from hATN and hATT collected after 24 hours of incubation. MCF-10A, MCF-7 and IBH-7 cells were grown and incubated with CMs and proliferation and adhesion, as well as migration ability and metalloprotease activity, of epithelial cells after exposing cell cultures to hATN- or hATT-CMs were quantified. The statistical significance between different experimental conditions was evaluated by one-way ANOVA. Tukey´s post-hoc tests were performed. Results: Tumor and non-tumor breast epithelial cells significantly increased their proliferation activity after 24 hours of treatment with hATT-CMs compared to control-CMs. Furthermore, cellular adhesion of these two tumor cell lines was significantly lower with hATT-CMs than with hATN-CMs. Therefore, hATT-CMs seem to induce significantly lower expression or less activity of the components involved in cellular adhesion than hATN-CMs. In addition, hATT-CMs induced pro-MMP-9 and MMP-9 activity and increased the migration of MCF-7 and IBH-7 cells compared to hATN-CMs. Conclusions: We conclude that the microenvironment of the tumor interacts in a dynamic way with the mutated epithelium. This evidence leads to the possibility to modify the tumor behavior/phenotype through the regulation or modification of its microenvironment. We developed a model in which we obtained conditioned media from adipose tissue explants completely, either from normal or tumor breast. In this way, we studied the contribution of soluble factors independently of the possible effects of direct cell contact.Fil: Pistone Creydt, Virginia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); ArgentinaFil: Fletcher, Sabrina Johanna. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); ArgentinaFil: Giudice, Jimena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); ArgentinaFil: Bruzzone, Ariana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); ArgentinaFil: Chasseing, Norma Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); ArgentinaFil: Gonzalez, Gustavo Eduardo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Oncología "Angel H. Roffo"; ArgentinaFil: Sacca, Paula Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); ArgentinaFil: Calvo, Juan Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Química Biológica; Argentin