The Evolution of Bat Vestibular Systems in the Face of Potential Antagonistic Selection Pressures for Flight and Echolocation

PMCID: PMC3634842This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Statistical epistasis between candidate gene alleles for complex tuber traits in an association mapping population of tetraploid potato

Association mapping using DNA-based markers is a novel tool in plant genetics for the analysis of complex traits. Potato tuber yield, starch content, starch yield and chip color are complex traits of agronomic relevance, for which carbohydrate metabolism plays an important role. At the functional level, the genes and biochemical pathways involved in carbohydrate metabolism are among the best studied in plants. Quantitative traits such as tuber starch and sugar content are therefore models for association genetics in potato based on candidate genes. In an association mapping experiment conducted with a population of 243 tetraploid potato varieties and breeding clones, we previously identified associations between individual candidate gene alleles and tuber starch content, starch yield and chip quality. In the present paper, we tested 190 DNA markers at 36 loci scored in the same association mapping population for pairwise statistical epistatic interactions. Fifty marker pairs were associated mainly with tuber starch content and/or starch yield, at a cut-off value of q ≤ 0.20 for the experiment-wide false discovery rate (FDR). Thirteen marker pairs had an FDR of q ≤ 0.10. Alleles at loci encoding ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase activase (Rca), sucrose phosphate synthase (Sps) and vacuolar invertase (Pain1) were most frequently involved in statistical epistatic interactions. The largest effect on tuber starch content and starch yield was observed for the paired alleles Pain1-8c and Rca-1a, explaining 9 and 10% of the total variance, respectively. The combination of these two alleles increased the means of tuber starch content and starch yield. Biological models to explain the observed statistical epistatic interactions are discussed

The first multi-model ensemble of regional climate simulations at kilometer-scale resolution part 2 : historical and future simulations of precipitation

This paper presents the first multi-model ensemble of 10-year, “convection-permitting” kilometer-scale regional climate model (RCM) scenario simulations downscaled from selected CMIP5 GCM projections for historical and end of century time slices. The technique is to first downscale the CMIP5 GCM projections to an intermediate 12–15 km resolution grid using RCMs, and then use these fields to downscale further to the kilometer scale. The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of the representation of the precipitation characteristics and their projected changes over the greater Alpine domain within a Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment Flagship Pilot Study and the European Climate Prediction system project, tasked with investigating convective processes at the kilometer scale. An ensemble of 12 simulations performed by different research groups around Europe is analyzed. The simulations are evaluated through comparison with high resolution observations while the complementary ensemble of 12 km resolution driving models is used as a benchmark to evaluate the added value of the convection-permitting ensemble. The results show that the kilometer-scale ensemble is able to improve the representation of fine scale details of mean daily, wet-day/hour frequency, wet-day/hour intensity and heavy precipitation on a seasonal scale, reducing uncertainty over some regions. It also improves the representation of the summer diurnal cycle, showing more realistic onset and peak of convection. The kilometer-scale ensemble refines and enhances the projected patterns of change from the coarser resolution simulations and even modifies the sign of the precipitation intensity change and heavy precipitation over some regions. The convection permitting simulations also show larger changes for all indices over the diurnal cycle, also suggesting a change in the duration of convection over some regions. A larger positive change of frequency of heavy to severe precipitation is found. The results are encouraging towards the use of convection-permitting model ensembles to produce robust assessments of the local impacts of future climate chang

Parent perceptions of early prognostic encounters following children’s severe traumatic brain injury: ‘Locked up in this cage of absolute horror’

OBJECTIVE: Little guidance exists for discussing prognosis in early acute care with parents following children’s severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Providers’ beliefs about truth-telling can shape what is said, how it is said, and how providers respond to parents. METHODS: This study was part of a large qualitative study conducted in the USA (42 parents/37 families) following children’s moderate to severe TBI (2005 to 2007). Ethnography of speaking was used to analyse interviews describing early acute care following children’s severe TBI (29 parents/25 families). RESULTS: Parents perceived that: a) parents were disadvantaged by provider delivery; b) negative outcome values dominated some provider’s talk; c) truth-telling involves providers acknowledging all possibilities; d) framing the child’s prognosis with negative medical certainty when there is some uncertainty could damage parent-provider relationships; e) parents needed to remain optimistic; and, f) children’s outcomes could differ from providers’ early acute care prognostications. CONCLUSION: Parents blatantly and tacitly revealed their beliefs that providers play an important role in shaping parent reception of and synthesis of prognostic information, which constructs the family’s ability to cope and participate in shared decision-making. Negative medical certainty created a fearful or threatening environment that kept parents from being fully informed