Local Competition Between Foraging Relatives: Growth and Survival of Bruchid Beetle Larvae

Kin selection theory states that when resources are limited and all else is equal, individuals will direct competition away from kin. However, when competition between relatives is completely local, as is the case in granivorous insects whose larval stages spend their lives within a single seed, this can reduce or even negate the kin-selected benefits. Instead, an increase in competition may have the same detrimental effects on individuals that forage with kin as those that forage with non-kin. In a factorial experiment we assessed the effects of relatedness and competition over food on the survival and on fitness-related traits of the bruchid beetle Callosobruchus maculatus. Relatedness of competitors did not affect the survival of larvae. Larval survival substantially decreased with increasing larval density, and we found evidence that beetles maturing at a larger size were more adversely affected by competition, resulting in lower survival rates. Furthermore, females showed a reduction in their growth rate with increasing larval density, emerging smaller after the same development time. Males increased their growth rate, emerging earlier but at a similar size when food was more limited. Our results add to the growing number of studies that fail to show a relationship between relatedness and a reduction in competition between relatives in closed systems, and emphasize the importance of the scale at which competition between relatives occurs

High occurrence of Pacearchaeota and Woesearchaeota (Archaea superphylum DPANN) in the surface waters of oligotrophic high-altitude lakes

8 páginas, 4 figuras, 1 tabla.We carried out a regional survey on the archaea composition from surface waters of > 300 high-altitude Pyrenean lakes (average altitude 2300 m, pH range 4.4–10.1) by 16S rRNA gene tag sequencing. Relative Archaea abundances ranged between 0% and 6.3% of total prokaryotes amplicons in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) mixture, and we detected 769 operational taxonomic units (OTUs; grouped at 97% identity) that split into 13 different lineages, with altitude and pH having a significant effect on the community composition. Woesearchaeota and Pacearchaeota (formerly Euryarchaeota DHVEG-6 cluster) dominated the data set (83% of total OTUS), showed a high occurrence (presence in c. 75% of the lakes) and had relative abundances significantly and positively correlated with the phylogenetic diversity of bacterial communities. Micrarchaeota–Diapherotrites (formerly Euryarchaeota MEG cluster), Methanomicrobia, Thermoplasmata and ammonia-oxidizing thaumarchaeota (AOA) showed relative abundances between 1% and 3% and occurrences between 14% and 26%. Minor lineages were SM1K20, Aenigmarchaeota (formerly Euryarchaeota DSEG cluster), Methanobacteria, Bathyarchaeota and SCG. Environmental preferences substantially differed among lineages, with Aenigmarchaeota and Methanomicrobia having the largest habitat breadth, and Thermoplasmata, AOA and Micrarchaeota having the smallest. Pacearchaeota and Woesearchaeota had been mostly reported from saline habitats and sediments, but surface waters of oligotrophic alpine lakes are suitable environments for such ecologically spread and genetically diverse archaeal lineages.Funding was provided by grants DARKNESS CGL2012-32747 from the Spanish Office of Science (MINECO) and European funding (ERDF), and DISPERSAL 829/2013 from the OAPN-Spanish National Parks Network (MAGRAMA) to EOC. ROA was funded by the Spanish FPI PhD scholarships program (MINECO).Peer reviewe

Management of knee osteoarthritis: current status and future trends

Osteoarthritis (OA) affects a large number of the population, and its incidence is showing a growing trend with the increasing life span. OA is the most prevalent joint condition worldwide, and currently, there is no functional cure for it. This review seeks to briefly overview the management of knee OA concerning standardized pharmaceutical and clinical approaches, as well as the new biotechnological horizons of OA treatment. The potential of biomaterials and state of the art of advanced therapeutic approaches, such as cell and gene therapy focused primarily on cartilage regeneration are the main subjects of this review. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;9999: 1-23. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.This work was supported from the EU Marie Curie ITN “MultiScaleHuman”: Multi-scale Biological Modalities for Physiological Human Articulation (2011–2015), contract MRTN-CT-2011-289897) and the NORTE-07-0202- FEDER-023189/ARTICULATE—Desenvolvimento de novos produtos e terapias regenerativas para o tratamento de patologias articulares/ADI. J.M. Oliveira also thanks the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for the funds provided to under the program Investigador FCT 2012 (IF/00423/2012).This work was supported from the EU Marie Curie ITN “MultiScaleHuman”: Multi-scale Biological Modalities for Physiological Human Articulation (2011–2015), contract MRTN-CT-2011-289897) and the NORTE-07-0202FEDER-023189/ARTICULATE—Desenvolvimento de novos produtos e terapias regenerativas para o tratamento de patologias articulares/ADI. J.M. Oliveira also thanks the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for the funds provided to under the program Investigador FCT 2012 (IF/00423/2012)