Adaptive colour change and background choice behaviour in peppered moth caterpillars is mediated by extraocular photoreception

Light sensing by tissues distinct from the eye occurs in diverse animal groups, enabling circadian control and phototactic behaviour. Extraocular photoreceptors may also facilitate rapid colour change in cephalopods and lizards, but little is known about the sensory system that mediates slow colour change in arthropods. We previously reported that slow colour change in twig-mimicking caterpillars of the peppered moth (Biston betularia) is a response to achromatic and chromatic visual cues. Here we show that the perception of these cues, and the resulting phenotypic responses, does not require ocular vision. Caterpillars with completely obscured ocelli remained capable of enhancing their crypsis by changing colour and choosing to rest on colour-matching twigs. A suite of visual genes, expressed across the larval integument, likely plays a key role in the mechanism. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence that extraocular colour sensing can mediate pigment-based colour change and behaviour in an arthropod

Patologías mandibulares en dos esqueletos de la Edad Media

X Congreso Nacional de Paleopatología. Univesidad Autónoma de Madrid, septiembre de 200

Colour change of twig-mimicking peppered moth larvae is a continuous reaction norm that increases camouflage against avian predators

Camouflage, and in particular background-matching, is one of the most commonanti-predator strategies observed in nature. Animals can improve their match to thecolour/pattern of their surroundings through background selection, and/or by plasticcolour change. Colour change can occur rapidly (a few seconds), or it may be slow,taking hours to days. Many studies have explored the cues and mechanisms behindrapid colour change, but there is a considerable lack of information about slow colourchange in the context of predation: the cues that initiate it, and the range of phenotypesthat are produced. Here we show that peppered moth (Biston betularia) larvae respondto colour and luminance of the twigs they rest on, and exhibit a continuous reactionnorm of phenotypes. When presented with a heterogeneous environment of mixed twigcolours, individual larvae specialise crypsis towards one colour rather than developingan intermediate colour. Flexible colour change in this species has likely evolved inassociation with wind dispersal and polyphagy, which result in caterpillars settling andfeeding in a diverse range of visual environments. This is the first example of visuallyinduced slow colour change in Lepidoptera that has been objectively quantified andmeasured from the visual perspective of natural predators

Low back pain and FokI (rs2228570) polymorphism of vitamin D receptor in athletes

Background: Low back pain (LBP) is common in athletes. LBP can be detrimental to athletic performance and health. Factors predisposing to LBP in athletes remain elusive and require further studies. We investigated whether carriage of a specific genotype and/or allele of vitamin D receptor gene (VDR) FokI polymorphism (rs2228570) was a risk factor for LBP in athletes of different sports disciplines. Methods: This genotype/phenotype association case-control study included 60 Italian athletes (25 females and 35 males; mean age 33.9 \ub1 13.3 years; body-mass-index 23.5 \ub1 3.5 kg/m2) of which 16.7% were swimmers, 11. 7% soccer players, 11.7% volleyball players, 10.0% rugby players and other disciplines. VDR-FokI polymorphism was measured by PCR-RFLP in 24 athletes with LBP and 36 athletes without LBP episodes. Absence or presence of the FokI restriction site was denoted \u201cF\u201d and \u201cf\u201d, respectively. Other risk factors were evaluated by a questionnaire. Results: The homozygous FF genotype was found in 58.3% (14/24) of athletes with LBP versus 27.8% (10/36) of athletes without LBP, adjusted OR = 5.78, 95% CI 1.41\u201323.8, P = 0.015. The F allele was a 2-fold risk factor to develop LBP, adjusted OR = 2.55, 95% CI 1.02\u20136.43, P = 0.046, while f allele was protective. Exposure to vehicle vibrations 652 h daily, and family history of lumbar spine pathology were significant risk factors for LBP with OR=3.54, and OR=9.21, respectively. Conclusions: This is the first study in which an association between VDR-FokI polymorphism and LBP in athletes was found. Further research is needed to extend our results, and to clarify the biochemical pathways associated with how vitamin D modulates LBP in athletes. The VDR-FokI polymorphism should be considered when developing genetic focused studies of precision medicine on health in athletes

Quantitative Genetic Effects of Bottlenecks: Experimental Evidence from a Wild Plant Species, Nigella degenii

Understanding the genetic consequences of changes in population size is fundamental in a variety of contexts, such as adaptation and conservation biology. In the study presented here, we have performed a replicated experiment with the plant Nigella degenii to explore the quantitative genetic effects of a single-founder bottleneck. In agreement with additive theory, the bottleneck reduced the mean (co)variance within lines and caused stochastic, line-specific changes in the genetic (co)variance structure. However, a significant portion of the (co)variance structure was conserved, and 2 characters—leaf and flower (sepal) size—turned out to be positively correlated in all data sets, indicating a potential for correlated evolution in these characters, even after a severe bottleneck. The hierarchical partitioning of genetic variance for flower size was in good agreement with predictions from additive theory, whereas the remaining characters showed an excess of within-line variance and a deficiency of among-line variance. The latter discrepancies were most likely a result of selection, given the small proportion of lines (23%) that remained viable until the end of the experiment. Our results suggest that bottlenecked populations of N. degenii generally have a lower adaptive potential than the ancestral population but also highlight the idiosyncratic nature of bottleneck effects

Using neutral cline decay to estimate contemporary dispersal: a generic tool and its application to a major crop pathogen

Dispersal is a key parameter of adaptation, invasion and persistence. Yet standard population genetics inference methods hardly distinguish it from drift and many species cannot be studied by direct mark-recapture methods. Here, we introduce a method using rates of change in cline shapes for neutral markers to estimate contemporary dispersal. We apply it to the devastating banana pest Mycosphaerella fijiensis, a wind-dispersed fungus for which a secondary contact zone had previously been detected using landscape genetics tools. By tracking the spatio-temporal frequency change of 15 microsatellite markers, we find that σ, the standard deviation of parent–offspring dispersal distances, is 1.2 km/generation1/2. The analysis is further shown robust to a large range of dispersal kernels. We conclude that combining landscape genetics approaches to detect breaks in allelic frequencies with analyses of changes in neutral genetic clines offers a powerful way to obtain ecologically relevant estimates of dispersal in many species

Early debates on urination in ancient Greek medicine

Although considerable effort has been made by scholars to reconstruct the discovery of renal function in modern times, little attention has been paid to clarifying the early steps of ideas about urine production in Antiquity. In the oldest literature, the site of urine formation remained undetermined. Later, the bladder was considered the central uropoietic place. The first documents advocating the role of the kidneys are attested in the Hippocratic Corpus. In the IV century, Aristotle provided a theory of kidney activity. The Hellenistic and Greek-Roman physicians were aware of the fundamental role that the kidneys play in urine production. The kidneys filtered the urine and separated it from the blood. Thus, the excreting activity of the kidneys was postulated in ancient Greek medicine. This historical note describes the initial development of theories on uropoiesis and the early emergence of ideas that will provide a basic conceptual framework in modern medicine

Secondary contact and admixture between independently invading populations of the Western corn rootworm, diabrotica virgifera virgifera in Europe

The western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), is one of the most destructive pests of corn in North America and is currently invading Europe. The two major invasive outbreaks of rootworm in Europe have occurred, in North-West Italy and in Central and South-Eastern Europe. These two outbreaks originated from independent introductions from North America. Secondary contact probably occurred in North Italy between these two outbreaks, in 2008. We used 13 microsatellite markers to conduct a population genetics study, to demonstrate that this geographic contact resulted in a zone of admixture in the Italian region of Veneto. We show that i) genetic variation is greater in the contact zone than in the parental outbreaks; ii) several signs of admixture were detected in some Venetian samples, in a Bayesian analysis of the population structure and in an approximate Bayesian computation analysis of historical scenarios and, finally, iii) allelic frequency clines were observed at microsatellite loci. The contact between the invasive outbreaks in North-West Italy and Central and South-Eastern Europe resulted in a zone of admixture, with particular characteristics. The evolutionary implications of the existence of a zone of admixture in Northern Italy and their possible impact on the invasion success of the western corn rootworm are discussed