Genes Involved in the Evolution of Herbivory by a Leaf-Mining, Drosophilid Fly

Herbivorous insects are among the most successful radiations of life. However, we know little about the processes underpinning the evolution of herbivory. We examined the evolution of herbivory in the fly, Scaptomyza flava, whose larvae are leaf miners on species of Brassicaceae, including the widely studied reference plant, Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis). Scaptomyza flava is phylogenetically nested within the paraphyletic genus Drosophila, and the whole genome sequences available for 12 species of Drosophila facilitated phylogenetic analysis and assembly of a transcriptome for S. flava. A time-calibrated phylogeny indicated that leaf mining in Scaptomyza evolved between 6 and 16 million years ago. Feeding assays showed that biosynthesis of glucosinolates, the major class of antiherbivore chemical defense compounds in mustard leaves, was upregulated by S. flava larval feeding. The presence of glucosinolates in wild-type (WT) Arabidopsis plants reduced S. flava larval weight gain and increased egg–adult development time relative to flies reared in glucosinolate knockout (GKO) plants. An analysis of gene expression differences in 5-day-old larvae reared on WT versus GKO plants showed a total of 341 transcripts that were differentially regulated by glucosinolate uptake in larval S. flava. Of these, approximately a third corresponded to homologs of Drosophila melanogaster genes associated with starvation, dietary toxin-, heat-, oxidation-, and aging-related stress. The upregulated transcripts exhibited elevated rates of protein evolution compared with unregulated transcripts. The remaining differentially regulated transcripts also contained a higher proportion of novel genes than the unregulated transcripts. Thus, the transition to herbivory in Scaptomyza appears to be coupled with the evolution of novel genes and the co-option of conserved stress-related genes.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog

Plan of Land of Peter Greenleaf, Mill Road, Cumberland, Maine, 1983

https://digitalmaine.com/cumberland_plans/1091/thumbnail.jp

Plan of Farmers Club Acres, Blanchard Road and Bruce Hill Road, Cumberland, Maine, 1988

https://digitalmaine.com/cumberland_plans/1125/thumbnail.jp

Plan of Property for Randy Bowden, Pleasant Valley Road, Cumberland, Maine, 1984

https://digitalmaine.com/cumberland_plans/1097/thumbnail.jp

Standard Boundary Survey Plan of Land on Mill Road, Cumberland, Maine, 1986

Standard Boundary Survey Plan of Land on Mill Road, Cumberland, Maine was created by Daniel T. C. LaPoint in 1986.https://digitalmaine.com/cumberland_plans/1380/thumbnail.jp

Plan of Land on Mill Road, Cumberland, Maine, 1983

Plan of Land on Mill Road, Cumberland, Maine was created by Daniel T. C. LaPoint in 1983.https://digitalmaine.com/cumberland_plans/1365/thumbnail.jp

“I’m Excited to Have my Voice Heard”: Understanding Autism Research Participation From the Perspective of Autistic Women, Non-Binary Adults, and Parents of Autistic Girls

Lay Abstract Previous studies have asked autism community members (parents of young children, autistic adults, caregivers of adults) about their views towards autism research, and found that community members are motivated to participate in research that they think will be helpful to the community or themselves/their child. They also found that personal values play a large role in the decision to engage with a research study. To our knowledge, this study is the first to focus on gender while examining study participation. We interviewed groups that have historically been underrepresented in autism research: autistic women, autistic non-binary people, and parents of autistic girls. Our results were very similar to studies focused on other community members, but one new motivator to participate in autism research for these underrepresented groups was the idea of improving the representation of their gender in autism research. By focusing on groups that have been historically under-recruited as autism research participants, we were able to identify group-specific suggestions for how autism researchers can make the experiences of their participants more comfortable and fair.The purpose of this qualitative study is to better understand how underrepresented gender groups within the autism community engage with autism research as participants. Using reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with autistic women, autistic non-binary adults, and parents of autistic girls/women (N = 41), we identified themes that encompass motivations to participate in research, barriers to participation, and elements of a research study that facilitate or hinder the research experience. Some themes overlapped with previous research with different groups of community members. However, other themes surrounding representation in autism research and the importance of community in facilitating research participation were novel and particularly salient among members of these underrepresented gender groups. This study builds upon previous research aimed at understanding gender-specific research priorities to extend the field's understanding of research participation for these historically underrepresented groups. Themes from the current study can therefore improve the facilitation of future research partnerships with members of this community to achieve shared research goals moving forward

Animals Crossing the Northway: Are Existing Culverts Useful?

The proposed construction of the Rooftop Highway between Interstates 81 and 87 in Northern New York has drawn opposition from those concerned about conserving an important north-south animal migration route. This highway could affect the ecological integrity of the Adirondack ecosystem and farther isolate the Park from other conservation areas such as Algonquin National Park. Proponents suggest that these effects could be mitigated by wildlife crossing points under the highway. To test the effectiveness of under-road passageways in the Adirondacks we monitored wild.Life use of culverts beneath Interstate 87 with motion triggered cameras and snow tracking between 14 March and 29 April, 2002. Our results suggest that the culvert/underpass system beneath I-87 does not facilitate wildlife movement beneath the interstate, but does sustain regular human use. Therefore, we are dubious about the potential mitigating effects that standard wildlife passageways would have under the proposed \u27\u27Rooftop Highway were they to follow a design similar to those under I-87, and suggest that these would have to be significantly improved, at substantial cost, in order to promote animal movement

Search for neutral charmless B decays at LEP

A search for rare charmless decays of \Bd and \Bs mesons has been performed in the exclusive channels \Bd_{(\mathrm s)}\ra\eta\eta, \Bd_{(\mathrm s)}\ra\eta\pio and \Bd_{(\mathrm s)}\ra\pio\pio. The data sample consisted of three million hadronic \Zo decays collected by the L3 experiment at LEP from 1991 through 1994. No candidate event has been observed and the following upper limits at 90\% confidence level on the branching ratios have been set \begin{displaymath} \mathrm{Br}(\Bd\ra\eta\eta)<4.1\times 10^{-4},\,\, \mathrm{Br}(\Bs\ra\eta\eta)<1.5\times 10^{-3},\,\, \end{displaymath} \begin{displaymath} \mathrm{Br}(\Bd\ra\eta\pio)<2.5\times 10^{-4},\,\, \mathrm{Br}(\Bs\ra\eta\pio)<1.0\times 10^{-3},\,\, \end{displaymath} \begin{displaymath} \mathrm{Br}(\Bd\ra\pio\pio)<6.0\times 10^{-5},\,\, \mathrm{Br}(\Bs\ra\pio\pio)<2.1\times 10^{-4}. \end{displaymath} These are the first experimental limits on \Bd\ra\eta\eta and on the \Bs neutral charmless modes