Stress related epigenetic changes may explain opportunistic success in biological invasions in Antipode mussels

Different environmental factors could induce epigenetic changes, which are likely involved in the biological invasion process. Some of these factors are driven by humans as, for example, the pollution and deliberate or accidental introductions and others are due to natural conditions such as salinity. In this study, we have analysed the relationship between different stress factors: time in the new location, pollution and salinity with the methylation changes that could be involved in the invasive species tolerance to new environments. For this purpose, we have analysed two different mussels’ species, reciprocally introduced in antipode areas: the Mediterranean blue mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis and the New Zealand pygmy mussel Xenostrobus securis, widely recognized invaders outside their native distribution ranges. The demetylathion was higher in more stressed population, supporting the idea of epigenetic is involved in plasticity process. These results can open a new management protocols, using the epigenetic signals as potential pollution monitoring tool. We could use these epigenetic marks to recognise the invasive status in a population and determine potential biopollutants

Contrasted Effects of Diversity and Immigration on Ecological Insurance in Marine Bacterioplankton Communities

The ecological insurance hypothesis predicts a positive effect of species richness on ecosystem functioning in a variable environment. This effect stems from temporal and spatial complementarity among species within metacommunities coupled with optimal levels of dispersal. Despite its importance in the context of global change by human activities, empirical evidence for ecological insurance remains scarce and controversial. Here we use natural aquatic bacterial communities to explore some of the predictions of the spatial and temporal aspects of the ecological insurance hypothesis. Addressing ecological insurance with bacterioplankton is of strong relevance given their central role in fundamental ecosystem processes. Our experimental set up consisted of water and bacterioplankton communities from two contrasting coastal lagoons. In order to mimic environmental fluctuations, the bacterioplankton community from one lagoon was successively transferred between tanks containing water from each of the two lagoons. We manipulated initial bacterial diversity for experimental communities and immigration during the experiment. We found that the abundance and production of bacterioplankton communities was higher and more stable (lower temporal variance) for treatments with high initial bacterial diversity. Immigration was only marginally beneficial to bacterial communities, probably because microbial communities operate at different time scales compared to the frequency of perturbation selected in this study, and of their intrinsic high physiologic plasticity. Such local “physiological insurance” may have a strong significance for the maintenance of bacterial abundance and production in the face of environmental perturbations

Advection-Diffusion Equation with Absorbing Boundary

We consider a spatially homogeneous advection–diffusion equation in which the diffusion tensor and drift velocity are time-independent, but otherwise general. We derive asymptotic expressions, valid at large distances from a steady point source, for the flux onto a completely permeable boundary and onto an absorbing boundary. The absorbing case is treated by making a source of antiparticles at the boundary: this method is more general than the method of images. In both cases there is an exponential decay as the distance from the source increases; we find that the exponent is the same for both boundary conditions

Calcium malabsorption does not cause secondary hyperparathyroidism

We challenge the widespread assumption that malabsorption of calcium per se causes secondary hyperparathyroidism. Serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) does not rise at the menopause despite the fall in calcium absorption, nor is it raised in osteoporotic women with vertebral fractures despite their low calcium absorption. The age-related rise in serum PTH can be accounted for by the age-related fall in serum 25(OH)D and/or decline in renal function with consequent loss of the calcemic action of vitamin D on bone. The reference interval for serum PTH is established in the fasting state when it is at the top of its diurnal cycle and is maintaining serum ionized calcium at the expense of bone to meet the calcium being lost through skin, bowel, and kidneys. There is no evidence that the fasting PTH is influenced by the previous day’s intake or absorption of calcium, although it can be lowered by a large evening calcium supplement. Malabsorption of calcium—like dietary calcium deficiency—is a risk factor for osteoporosis because it reduces or prevents the normal food-related daytime fall in PTH and bone resorption, not because it causes secondary hyperparathyroidism.B. E. Christopher Nordin, Howard A. Morris, Michael Horowitz, Penelope S. Coates, Peter D. O’Loughlin and Allan G. Nee