Paternity analysis in Ophiopogon xylorrhizus Wang et Tai (Liliaceae s.l.): Selfing assures reproductive success

We assessed the utility of codominant allozyme markers for paternity analysis in natural populations of Ophiopogon xylorrhizus (Liliaceae s. l.) by means of likelihood-based approach. In the three independent natural stands of 46 individual plants with 354 seeds of O. xylorrhizus (Liliaceae s. l), we assigned 319 seeds to a single individual with the highest LOD score. Among these, 179 seeds had a significant D-value. An individual (acting either as female or male) mateds with an average of one other individual on average to reproduce, except when it self-pollinated. If an individual that neither donated pollen to other individuals nor selfed, being strictly a pollen acceptor, the number of offspring produced was half that produced by as many offspring as individuals which both provided and accepted pollen (4.1 vs. 9.5). Significant positive relationships were found in all the three stands between the number of self-pollen an individual produced and the number of seeds that individual set. Male outcrossing reproductive success was unevenly varied, both in amount and spatial location. The individuals located in the centre of the stand and the individuals closest to each other had higher male outcrossing reproductive success than those at the edge of the stand. Male selfing reproductive success showed a similar pattern, with an even distribution of female reproductive output. Most mating events were took place within 20 m. The distance between mates mirrored the active ranges of pollinators, and shaped the fine-scale population spatial genetic spatial structure. The results indicate that selfing assures reproductive success in O. xylorrhizus

Information theory broadens the spectrum of molecular ecology and evolution

Information or entropy analysis of diversity is used extensively in community ecology, and has recently been exploited for prediction and analysis in molecular ecology and evolution. Information measures belong to a spectrum (or q profile) of measures whose contrasting properties provide a rich summary of diversity, including allelic richness (q = 0), Shannon information (q = 1), and heterozygosity (q = 2). We present the merits of information measures for describing and forecasting molecular variation within and among groups, comparing forecasts with data, and evaluating underlying processes such as dispersal. Importantly, information measures directly link causal processes and divergence outcomes, have straightforward relationship to allele frequency differences (including monotonicity that q = 2 lacks), and show additivity across hierarchical layers such as ecology, behaviour, cellular processes, and nongenetic inheritance. Diversity of molecules or species is best summarised as a diversity profile.Such profiles are useful in studies spanning bioinformatics to physical landscapes.Shannon information is a neglected but particularly informative part of the profile.Shannon now has robust theoretical background for molecular ecology and evolution

Stochastic modelling of animal movement

Modern animal movement modelling derives from two traditions. Lagrangian models, based on random walk behaviour, are useful for multi-step trajectories of single animals. Continuous Eulerian models describe expected behaviour, averaged over stochastic realizations, and are usefully applied to ensembles of individuals. We illustrate three modern research arenas. (i) Models of home-range formation describe the process of an animal ‘settling down’, accomplished by including one or more focal points that attract the animal's movements. (ii) Memory-based models are used to predict how accumulated experience translates into biased movement choices, employing reinforced random walk behaviour, with previous visitation increasing or decreasing the probability of repetition. (iii) Lévy movement involves a step-length distribution that is over-dispersed, relative to standard probability distributions, and adaptive in exploring new environments or searching for rare targets. Each of these modelling arenas implies more detail in the movement pattern than general models of movement can accommodate, but realistic empiric evaluation of their predictions requires dense locational data, both in time and space, only available with modern GPS telemetry

Genetic diversity and ancestry of cacao ( Theobroma cacao

Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.), an introduced tree crop in Dominica, is important for foreign exchange earnings from fine or flavour cocoa. The genetic structure of farmed cacao in Dominica was examined to identify varieties for conservation, breeding, and propagation to improve their cocoa industry. Cacao trees (156) from 73 sites over seven geographical regions were genotyped at 192 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Identity, regional differentiation, phylogenetic, multi-variate, ancestry, and core collection analyses were performed. Farmed cacao germplasm had moderate gene diversity (He = 0.320 ± 0.005) from generally unique trees, but cocoa growing regions were genetically similar. Synonymous matching (16.3%) showed that some clonal material was supplied to farmers. Cacao trees were mainly mixed from Amelonado, Criollo, Iquitos, Contamana, and Marañon ancestries, with predominantly Amelonado–Criollo hybrids. Criollo ancestry, linked to fine or flavour cocoa, was found at more than 30% in 28 unique trees. Forty-five trees, containing the SNP diversity of cacao in Dominica, are recommended as a core germplasm collection. This study identifies promising trees for improving cocoa quality; provides genetic evidence that community, regional, or country-wide pooling would not compromise the exclusive fine or flavour cocoa industry; and discusses other implications towards improving the Dominican cocoa industry.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Sensitivity of MRQAP Tests to Collinearity and Autocorrelation Conditions

MRQAP, Mantel tests, permutation tests, social networks, network autocorrelation, collinearity, dyadic data,

Fine-scale genetic structure and gene dispersal in Centaurea corymbosa (Asteraceae) I. Pattern of pollen dispersal

Pollen dispersal was characterized within a population of the narrowly endemic perennial herb, Centaurea corymbosa, using exclusion-based and likelihood-based paternity analyses carried out on microsatellite data. Data were used to fit a model of pollen dispersal and to estimate the rates of pollen flow and mutation/genotyping error, by developing a new method. Selfing was rare (1.6%). Pollen dispersed isotropically around each flowering plant following a leptokurtic distribution, with 50% of mating pairs separated by less than 11 m, but 22% by more than 40 m. Estimates of pollen flow lacked precision (0-25%), partially because mutations and/or genotyping errors (0.03-1%) could also explain the occurrence of offspring without a compatible candidate father. However, the pollen pool that fertilized these offspring was little differentiated from the adults of the population whereas strongly differentiated from the other populations, suggesting that pollen flow rate among populations was low. Our results suggest that pollen dispersal is too extended to allow differentiation by local adaptation within a population. However, among populations, gene flow might be low enough for such processes to occur.FLWINinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe