Se préparer au pire : la défense civile et l’insécurité au Nouveau-Brunswick durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale

This paper analyses the reasons behind the organization of the New Brunswick Civilian Volunteer Corps, a civil defence organization established during the Second World War. Driven by insecurity and the leadership of the provincial government, thousands of New Brunswickers took charge of the protection of their home. The intra-provincial initiative was based on a different concept of civil defence than what was promoted by the federal government, less strategic and more focused on estate preservation. The CVC was the expression of patriotism, insecurity and fear channeled into a form of citizen participation in the war.Cet article propose une analyse des motifs derrière l’organisation du Corps des volontaires civils du Nouveau-Brunswick, un organisme de défense civile établi lors de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Poussés par un sentiment d’insécurité et le leadership du gouvernement provincial, des milliers de Néo-Brunswickois prirent en main la protection de leur foyer. Cette initiative intra-provinciale reposait sur une conception différente de la défense civile de celle promue par le gouvernement fédéral, c’est-à-dire moins stratégique et plus axée sur la sauvegarde du patrimoine. Le CVC fut en fait l’expression du patriotisme, de l’insécurité et de la peur canalisés vers une forme de participation citoyenne à la guerre

Successfully resisting a pathogen is rarely costly in Daphnia magna

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A central hypothesis in the evolutionary ecology of parasitism is that trade-offs exist between resistance to parasites and other fitness components such as fecundity, growth, survival, and predator avoidance, or resistance to other parasites. These trade-offs are called costs of resistance. These costs fall into two broad categories: constitutive costs of resistance, which arise from a negative genetic covariance between immunity and other fitness-related traits, and inducible costs of resistance, which are the physiological costs incurred by hosts when mounting an immune response. We sought to study inducible costs in depth using the crustacean <it>Daphnia magna </it>and its bacterial parasite <it>Pasteuria ramosa</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We designed specific experiments to study the costs induced by exposure to this parasite, and we re-analysed previously published data in an effort to determine the generality of such costs. However, despite the variety of genetic backgrounds of both hosts and parasites, and the different exposure protocols and environmental conditions used in these experiment, this work showed that costs of exposure can only rarely be detected in the <it>D. magna-P. ramosa </it>system.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We discuss possible reasons for this lack of detectable costs, including scenarios where costs of resistance to parasites might not play a major role in the co-evolution of hosts and parasites.</p

Ace-1 duplication in Anopheles gambiae: a challenge for malaria control

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Insecticide resistance is a rapid and recent evolutionary phenomenon with serious economic and public health implications. In the mosquito <it>Anopheles gambiae s.s</it>., main vector of malaria, resistance to organophosphates and carbamates is mainly due to a single amino-acid substitution in acetylcholinesterase 1 (AChE1). This mutation entails a large fitness cost. However, a resistant duplicated allele of the gene encoding AChE1 (<it>ace-1</it>), potentially associated to a lower fitness cost, recently appeared in <it>An. gambiae</it>.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using molecular phenotype data collected from natural populations from West Africa, the frequency of this duplicated allele was investigated by statistical inference. This method is based on the departure from Hardy-Weinberg phenotypic frequency equilibrium caused by the presence of this new allele.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The duplicated allele, <it>Ag</it>-<it>ace-1</it>^<it>D</it>, reaches a frequency up to 0.65 in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, and is potentially present in Benin. A previous study showed that <it>Ag</it>-<it>ace-1</it>^<it>D</it>, present in both M and S molecular forms in different West Africa countries, was generated by a single genetic event. This single origin and its present distribution suggest that this new allele is currently spreading.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The spread of this less costly resistance allele could represent a major threat to public health, as it may impede <it>An. gambiae </it>control strategies, and thus increases the risk of malaria outbreaks.</p

Wolbachia Age-Sex-Specific Density in Aedes albopictus: A Host Evolutionary Response to Cytoplasmic Incompatibility?

Wolbachia bacteria have invaded many arthropod species by inducing Cytoplasmic Incompatibility (CI). These symbionts represent fascinating objects of study for evolutionary biologists, but also powerful potential biocontrol agents. Here, we assess the density dynamics of Wolbachia infections in males and females of the mosquito Aedes albopitcus, an important vector of human pathogens, and interpret the results within an evolutionary framework.Wolbachia densities were measured in natural populations and in age controlled mosquitoes using quantitative PCR. We show that the density dynamics of the wAlbA Wolbachia strain infecting Aedes albopictus drastically differ between males and females, with a very rapid decay of infection in males only.Theory predicts that Wolbachia and its hosts should cooperate to improve the transmission of infection to offspring, because only infected eggs are protected from the effects of CI. However, incompatible matings effectively lower the fertility of infected males, so that selection acting on the host genome should tend to reduce the expression of CI in males, for example, by reducing infection density in males before sexual maturation. The rapid decay of one Wolbachia infection in Aedes albopictus males, but not in females, is consistent with this prediction. We suggest that the commonly observed reduction in CI intensity with male age reflects a similar evolutionary process. Our results also highlight the importance of monitoring infection density dynamics in both males and females to assess the efficiency of Wolbachia-based control strategies

Forty Years of Erratic Insecticide Resistance Evolution in the Mosquito Culex pipiens

One view of adaptation is that it proceeds by the slow and steady accumulation of beneficial mutations with small effects. It is difficult to test this model, since in most cases the genetic basis of adaptation can only be studied a posteriori with traits that have evolved for a long period of time through an unknown sequence of steps. In this paper, we show how ace-1, a gene involved in resistance to organophosphorous insecticide in the mosquito Culex pipiens, has evolved during 40 years of an insecticide control program. Initially, a major resistance allele with strong deleterious side effects spread through the population. Later, a duplication combining a susceptible and a resistance ace-1 allele began to spread but did not replace the original resistance allele, as it is sublethal when homozygous. Last, a second duplication, (also sublethal when homozygous) began to spread because heterozygotes for the two duplications do not exhibit deleterious pleiotropic effects. Double overdominance now maintains these four alleles across treated and nontreated areas. Thus, ace-1 evolution does not proceed via the steady accumulation of beneficial mutations. Instead, resistance evolution has been an erratic combination of mutation, positive selection, and the rearrangement of existing variation leading to complex genetic architecture

Culex genome is not just another genome for comparative genomics

Formal publication of the Culex genome sequence has closed the human disease vector triangle by meeting the Anopheles gambiae and Aedes aegypti genome sequences. Compared to these other mosquitoes, Culex quinquefasciatus possesses many specific hallmark characteristics, and may thus provide different angles for research which ultimately leads to a practical solution for controlling the ever increasing burden of insect-vector-borne diseases around the globe. We argue the special importance of the cosmopolitan species- Culex genome sequence by invoking many interesting questions and the possible of potential of the Culex genome to answer those

No association between habitat, autogeny and genetics in Moroccan Culex pipiens populations

Mosquitoes of the Culex pipiens complex are found across the globe and are the focus of many research studies. Among the temperate species C. pipiens sensu stricto (s.s.), two forms are usually described: molestus and pipiens. These two forms are indistinguishable in terms of morphology but show behavioral and physiological differences that may have consequences for their associated epidemiology. The two forms are well defined in the northern part of the species distribution, where autogeny is strictly associated with the molestus form. However, whether the two remain distinct and show the characteristic differences in behavior is less clear in North Africa, at the southern edge of their range. The association between autogeny, as determined by ovarian dissection, and molecular forms, based on the CQ11 microsatellite marker, was studied in six Moroccan populations of C. pipiens. An overall low prevalence of autogeny was found at three of the Moroccan regions studied, although it reached 17.5% in the Agadir population. The prevalence of form-specific CQ11 alleles was quite similar across all populations, with the molestus allele being rarer (approx. 15%), except in the Agadir population where it reached 43.3%. We found significant deficits in heterozygotes at the diagnostic CQ11 locus in three populations, but the three other populations showed no significant departure from panmixia, which is in line with the results of a retrospective analysis of the published data. More importantly, we found no association between the autogeny status and CQ11 genotypes, despite the many females analyzed. There was limited evidence for two discrete forms in Morocco, where individuals carrying pipiens and molestus alleles breed and mate in the same sites and are equally likely to be capable of autogeny. These observations are discussed in the epidemiological context of Morocco, where C. pipiens is the main vector of several arboviruses.https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-022-05469-

D'une société de secours mutuel locale à une société fraternelle nationale : la transformation du projet social de l’Union Saint-Joseph d’Ottawa (1863-1905)

Cet article examine la transformation de la mutualité canadienne-française à la fin du xixe siècle en analysant le cas de l’Union Saint-Joseph d’Ottawa. Elle fut l’une des rares sociétés de secours mutuel de première génération à adapter sa structure et son projet social pour se conformer au courant mutualiste émergent et, ainsi, se transformer en une société fraternelle. L’exemple nous montre que la lutte pour la survivance dans les milieux de migration facilitait cette transition du modèle mutualiste et justifiait la redéfinition des objectifs par une petite élite au nom d’un idéal national. Le besoin d’assurer des bases institutionnelles solides pour les Canadiens français de l’Ontario légitimait cette transformation de l’Union Saint-Joseph, qui devint une grande société fraternelle vouée à la défense des intérêts économiques des Canadiens français, grâce à l’établissement de succursales dans plus de six cents communautés canadiennes-françaises du Canada et des États-Unis.This article examines the transformation of French Canadian mutuality in the late nineteenth century through an examination of Ottawa's Union Saint-Joseph. The Union was one of only a handful of first-generation mutual aid societies to adapt its structure and social project in order to conform to the emerging current of mutualism and transform itself into a fraternal society. Its example shows that the struggle for cultural survival in emigrant communities facilitated the transition of the mutualist model and justified the redefinition of its aims by a small elite in the name of a national ideal. The need to insure solid institutional bases for the French Canadians of Ontario legitimised the transformation of the Union Saint-Joseph, which became a large fraternal society devoted to defending the economic interests of French Canadians through the establishment of branches in over six hundred French Canadian communities in Canada and the United States