Predation success by a plant-ant indirectly favours the growth and fitness of its host myrmecophyte

Mutualisms, or interactions between species that lead to net fitness benefits for each species involved, are stable and ubiquitous in nature mostly due to "byproduct benefits" stemming from the intrinsic traits of one partner that generate an indirect and positive outcome for the other. Here we verify if myrmecotrophy (where plants obtain nutrients from the refuse of their associated ants) can explain the stability of the tripartite association between the myrmecophyte Hirtella physophora, the ant Allomerus decemarticulatus and an Ascomycota fungus. The plant shelters and provides the ants with extrafloral nectar. The ants protect the plant from herbivores and integrate the fungus into the construction of a trap that they use to capture prey; they also provide the fungus and their host plant with nutrients. During a 9-month field study, we over-provisioned experimental ant colonies with insects, enhancing colony fitness (i.e., more winged females were produced). The rate of partial castration of the host plant, previously demonstrated, was not influenced by the experiment. Experimental plants showed higher δ¹⁵N values (confirming myrmecotrophy), plus enhanced vegetative growth (e.g., more leaves produced increased the possibility of lodging ants in leaf pouches) and fitness (i.e., more fruits produced and more flowers that matured into fruit). This study highlights the importance of myrmecotrophy on host plant fitness and the stability of ant-myrmecophyte mutualisms

Genetic Ancestry, Race, and Severity of Acutely Decompensated Cirrhosis in Latin America

Background & Aims: Genetic ancestry or racial differences in health outcomes exist in diseases associated with systemic inflammation (eg, COVID-19). This study aimed to investigate the association of genetic ancestry and race with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF), which is characterized by acute systemic inflammation, multi-organ failure, and high risk of short-term death. / Methods: This prospective cohort study analyzed a comprehensive set of data, including genetic ancestry and race among several others, in 1274 patients with acutely decompensated cirrhosis who were nonelectively admitted to 44 hospitals from 7 Latin American countries. / Results: Three hundred ninety-five patients (31.0%) had ACLF of any grade at enrollment. Patients with ACLF had a higher median percentage of Native American genetic ancestry and lower median percentage of European ancestry than patients without ACLF (22.6% vs 12.9% and 53.4% vs 59.6%, respectively). The median percentage of African genetic ancestry was low among patients with ACLF and among those without ACLF. In terms of race, a higher percentage of patients with ACLF than patients without ACLF were Native American and a lower percentage of patients with ACLF than patients without ACLF were European American or African American. In multivariable analyses that adjusted for differences in sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, the odds ratio for ACLF at enrollment was 1.08 (95% CI, 1.03–1.13) with Native American genetic ancestry and 2.57 (95% CI, 1.84–3.58) for Native American race vs European American race. / Conclusions: In a large cohort of Latin American patients with acutely decompensated cirrhosis, increasing percentages of Native American ancestry and Native American race were factors independently associated with ACLF at enrollment

Discongruence of Mhc and cytochrome b phylogeographical patterns in Myodes glareolus (Rodentia: Cricetidae)

In the present study, a phylogeographical approach was developed to analyse the influence of selection and history on a major histocompatibility complex (Mhc) class II gene polymorphism in European bank vole (Myodes glareolus) populations. We focused on exon 2 of the Dqa gene because it is highly variable in a large array of species and appears to evolve under pathogen-mediated selection in several rodent species. Using single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis and sequencing techniques, 17 Dqa-exon2 alleles, belonging to at least two different copies of Dqa gene, were detected over the distribution range of M.glareolus. Evidence of selection was found using molecular and population analyses. At the molecular level, we detected 13 codons evolving under positive selection pressures, most of them corresponding to regions coding for putative antigen binding sites of the protein. At the European level, we compared patterns of population structure for the Dqa-exon2 and cytochrome b (cyt b) gene. We did not detect any spatial genetic structure among M.glareolus populations for the Dqa-exon2. These results strongly differed from those obtained using the cyt b gene, which indicated a recent phylogeographical history closely linked to the last glacial events. Seven mitochondrial lineages have yet been described, which correspond to major glacial refugia. Altogether, our results revealed clear evidence of balancing selection acting on Dqa-exon2 and maintaining polymorphism over large geographical areas despite M.glareolus history. It is thus likely that Mhc phylogeographical variability could have been shaped by local adaptation to pathogens. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London

Mating system, population genetics, and phylogeography of the devil’s garden ant, Myrmelachista schumanni, in the Peruvian Amazon

Devil’s gardens are a remarkable feature of Amazonian rainforests. These clearings result from the cultivation of ant-plants by their symbiotic ant, Myrmelachista schumanni. Each devil’s garden is inhabited by a single M. schumanni colony, often with millions of workers and thousands of queens. Through a combination of field surveys and microsatellite genotyping, we examined M. schumanni colony structure, mating system, dispersal, and phylogeography. We discovered that the reproduction of M. schumanni is weakly seasonal, exhibits facultative polyandry, and involves split sex ratios potentially leading to sex-biased dispersal. Surprisingly, we observed only very weak clustering of genetic variation, either within or between devil’s gardens. We hypothesize that the apparent absence of geographical structure results from the unusually high level of genetic differentiation between colonies. This study adds intriguing observations to the scarce literature about the reproduction and phylogeography of Amazonian ants.We thank the Dirección General Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre of the Ministerio de Agricultura in Peru for permits (Nos. 0299-2011-AG-DGFFS-DGEFFS, 0046-2014-MINAGRI-DGFFS-DGEFFS). We are grateful to A. Coral for assistance in the field. This work was supported by FQEB Grant RFP-12-06 from the National Philanthropic Trust to NEP and MEF, NSF SES-0750480 to NEP and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to MEF

Data from: Geneious! Simplified genome skimming methods for phylogenetic systematic studies: a case study in Oreocarya (Boraginaceae)

Premise of the study: As systematists grapple with how to best harness the power of next-generation sequencing (NGS), a deluge of review papers, methods, and analytical tools make choosing the right method difficult. Oreocarya (Boraginaceae), a genus of 63 species, is a good example of a group lacking both species-level resolution and genomic resources. The use of Geneious removes bioinformatic barriers and makes NGS genome skimming accessible to even the least tech-savvy systematists. Methods: A combination of de novo and reference-guided assemblies was used to process 100-bp single-end Illumina HiSeq 2000 reads. A subset of 25 taxa was used to test the suitability of genome skimming for future systematic studies in recalcitrant lineages like Oreocarya. Results: The nuclear ribosomal cistron, the plastome, and 12 mitochondrial genes were recovered from all 25 taxa. All data processing and phylogenomic analyses were performed in Geneious. We report possible future multiplexing levels and published low-copy nuclear genes represented within de novo contigs. Discussion: Genome skimming represents a much-improved primary data collection over PCR+Sanger sequencing when chloroplast DNA (cpDNA), nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA), and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are the target sequences. This study details methods that plant systematists can employ to study their own taxa of interest

High-throughput microsatellite isolation through 454 GS-FLX titanium pyrosequencing of enriched DNA libraries

Microsatellites (or SSRs: simple sequence repeats) are among the most frequently used DNA markers in many areas of research. The use of microsatellite markers is limited by the difficulties involved in their de novo isolation from species for which no genomic resources are available. We describe here a high-throughput method for isolating microsatellite markers based on coupling multiplex microsatellite enrichment and next-generation sequencing on 454 GS-FLX Titanium platforms. The procedure was calibrated on a model species (Apis mellifera) and validated on 13 other species from various taxonomic groups (animals, plants and fungi), including taxa for which severe difficulties were previously encountered using traditional methods. We obtained from 11 497 to 34 483 sequences depending on the species and the number of detected microsatellite loci ranged from 199 to 5791. We thus demonstrated that this procedure can be readily and successfully applied to a large variety of taxonomic groups, at much lower cost than would have been possible with traditional protocols. This method is expected to speed up the acquisition of high-quality genetic markers for nonmodel organisms