Mating status and the evolution of eusociality: Oogenesis is independent of mating status in the solitary bee Osmia bicornis

The fundamental trait underlying eusociality is the reproductive division of labour. In honeybees (Apis mellifera), queens lay eggs while workers forage, defend and care for brood. The division of labour is maintained by pheromones including queen mandibular pheromone (QMP) produced by the queen. QMP constrains reproduction in adult honeybee workers, but in the absence of their queen workers can activate their ovaries and, although they cannot mate, they lay haploid male eggs. The reproductive ground plan hypothesis suggests that reproductive constraint may have evolved by co-opting mechanisms of reproductive control in solitary ancestors. In many insects mating is required to activate or accelerate oogenesis. Here, we use the solitary bee Osmia bicornis (Megachilidae) to test whether reproductive constraint evolved from ancestral control of reproduction by mating status. We present a structural study of the O. bicornis ovary, and compare key stages of oogenesis with honeybee workers. Importantly, we show that mating does not affect any aspect of the reproductive physiology of O. bicornis. We therefore conclude that mechanisms governing reproductive constraint in honeybees were unlikely to have been co-opted from mechanisms pertaining to mating status

Minimal Intervention Dentistry (MID) mainstream or unconventional option? Study exploring the impact of COVID-19 on paediatric dentists' views and practices of MID for managing carious primary teeth in children across the United Kingdom and European Union

PurposeTo explore the techniques used to manage carious primary teeth during the COVID-19 pandemic by paediatric dentists and dentists with a special interest in paediatric dentistry (DwSI) who are members of the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD) and the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry (EAPD), and their views on the use of minimal intervention dentistry (MID) in children prior to, during and post the COVID era.MethodsA total of 212 paediatric dentists and DwSI completed an online questionnaire. Six MID techniques were explored: fissure sealants, resin infiltration, Hall Technique (HT), 38% silver diamine fluoride (SDF), atraumatic restorative treatment (ART), stepwise removal and selective caries removal.ResultsThe majority were specialists (26%) followed by clinical academics (23.1%) working mainly in university teaching hospitals (46.2%). Routine dental treatment for children with carious primary teeth was provided by the majority (92.5%) during the pandemic. HT (96%) and 38% SDF (65.7%) were the most commonly used techniques among the BSPD members whereas conventional restoration of non-selective caries removal and pulp therapy remained the most widely used technique among the EAPD members (66.2%). Most of the MID techniques were used as a treatment option (48.1%) rather than a choice (43.4%), with most of these choices having been affected by the patient's behaviour (82.5%). More than one thirds (39.2%) of the participants were reluctant to adopt MID after the pandemic. Several barriers such as lack of teaching and confidence as well as perceived lack of evidence were identified.ConclusionA range of MID techniques is practiced broadly by a sample of paediatric dentists and DwSI across the United Kingdom (U.K) and European Union (E.U). The majority of clinicians are willing to continue using these techniques going forward after COVID restrictions are lifted. The pandemic served as an opportunity for many dentists to become familiar with various MID practices, such as SDF, which has been already established some time ago

Development of a multiplex microsatellite marker set for the study of the solitary red mason bee, Osmia bicornis (Megachilidae)

Background Solitary bees, such as the red mason bee (Osmia bicornis), provide important ecosystem services including pollination. In the face of global declines of pollinator abundance, such haplodiploid Hymenopterans have a compounded extinction risk due to the potential for limited genetic diversity. In order to assess the genetic diversity of Osmia bicornis populations, we developed microsatellite markers and characterised them in two populations. Methods and results Microsatellite sequences were mined from the recently published Osmia bicornis genome, which was assembled from DNA extracted from a single male bee originating from the United Kingdom. Sequences were identified that contained dinucleotide, trinucleotide, and tetranucleotide repeat regions. Seventeen polymorphic microsatellite markers were designed and tested, sixteen of which were developed into four multiplex PCR sets to facilitate cheap, fast and efficient genotyping and were characterised in unrelated females from Germany (n = 19) and England (n = 14). Conclusions The microsatellite markers are highly informative, with a combined exclusion probability of 0.997 (first parent), which will enable studies of genetic structure and diversity to inform conservation efforts in this bee

High-Quality Assemblies for Three Invasive Social Wasps from the Vespula Genus

Social wasps of the genus Vespula have spread to nearly all landmasses worldwide and have become significant pests in their introduced ranges, affecting economies and biodiversity. Comprehensive genome assemblies and annotations for these species are required to develop the next generation of control strategies and monitor existing chemical control. We sequenced and annotated the genomes of the common wasp (Vespula vulgaris), German wasp (Vespula germanica), and the western yellowjacket (Vespula pensylvanica). Our chromosome-level Vespula assemblies each contain 176-179 Mb of total sequence assembled into 25 scaffolds, with 10-200 unanchored scaffolds, and 16,566-18,948 genes. We annotated gene sets relevant to the applied management of invasive wasp populations, including genes associated with spermatogenesis and development, pesticide resistance, olfactory receptors, immunity and venom. These genomes provide evidence for active DNA methylation in Vespidae and tandem duplications of venom genes. Our genomic resources will contribute to the development of next-generation control strategies, and monitoring potential resistance to chemical control

Erratum: High-quality assemblies for three invasive social wasps from the vespula genus (G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics (2020) 10 (3479-3488) DOI: 10.1534/g3.120.401579)

In the originally published version of this manuscript, funding information and disclosures were omitted. The following information should have been included after the Acknowledgments section. Funding This project was supported by Genomics Aotearoa (to PKD) and the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge (to PJL) both funded by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (Hı¯kina Whakatutuki), Government of New Zealand, as well as US National Science Foundation Grant #1655963 and UC Riverside Seed Grant to JP and EWR; Dovetail Genomics Matching Funds Grant to JP. Availability of data and materials Raw reads are hosted in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive under accession PRJNA643352. The version of the assemblies and annotations described in this paper is hosted on Zenodo under DOI 10.5281/zenodo.4001020. The genomes and annotations have also been uploaded to GenBank under accessions JACSDY000000000 (Vespula pensylvanica), JACSDZ000000000 (Vespula germanica) and JACSEA000000000 (Vespula vulgaris). The annotations used in this paper and the annotations hosted by GenBank differ because records were removed to pass NCBI validation. Authors' contributions PJL and PKD conceived and designed the project. All authors aided in obtaining and analysing the genomic data. PJL, PKD, TWRH, JG, EJR and EJD wrote the manuscript draft, and all authors participated in the revision of the final version. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Ethics approval and consent to participate Common wasps (V. vulgaris) were collected under the permit National Authorisation Number 38337-RES from the Department of Conservation in New Zealand. Samples of other wasps were collected from private land where no permit was required. No other ethical approval was required. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. The above information has now been updated in the online article

High-Quality Assemblies for Three Invasive Social Wasps from the Vespula Genus

Social wasps of the genus Vespula have spread to nearly all landmasses worldwide and have become significant pests in their introduced ranges, affecting economies and biodiversity. Comprehensive genome assemblies and annotations for these species are required to develop the next generation of control strategies and monitor existing chemical control. We sequenced and annotated the genomes of the common wasp (Vespula vulgaris), German wasp (Vespula germanica), and the western yellowjacket (Vespula pensylvanica). Our chromosome-level Vespula assemblies each contain 176–179 Mb of total sequence assembled into 25 scaffolds, with 10–200 unanchored scaffolds, and 16,566–18,948 genes. We annotated gene sets relevant to the applied management of invasive wasp populations, including genes associated with spermatogenesis and development, pesticide resistance, olfactory receptors, immunity and venom. These genomes provide evidence for active DNA methylation in Vespidae and tandem duplications of venom genes. Our genomic resources will contribute to the development of next-generation control strategies, and monitoring potential resistance to chemical control

Same data, different analysts: variation in effect sizes due to analytical decisions in ecology and evolutionary biology

Gould E, Fraser H, Parker T, et al. Same data, different analysts: variation in effect sizes due to analytical decisions in ecology and evolutionary biology. 2023.Although variation in effect sizes and predicted values among studies of similar phenomena is inevitable, such variation far exceeds what might be produced by sampling error alone. One possible explanation for variation among results is differences among researchers in the decisions they make regarding statistical analyses. A growing array of studies has explored this analytical variability in different (mostly social science) fields, and has found substantial variability among results, despite analysts having the same data and research question. We implemented an analogous study in ecology and evolutionary biology, fields in which there have been no empirical exploration of the variation in effect sizes or model predictions generated by the analytical decisions of different researchers. We used two unpublished datasets, one from evolutionary ecology (blue tit, Cyanistes caeruleus, to compare sibling number and nestling growth) and one from conservation ecology (Eucalyptus, to compare grass cover and tree seedling recruitment), and the project leaders recruited 174 analyst teams, comprising 246 analysts, to investigate the answers to prespecified research questions. Analyses conducted by these teams yielded 141 usable effects for the blue tit dataset, and 85 usable effects for the Eucalyptus dataset. We found substantial heterogeneity among results for both datasets, although the patterns of variation differed between them. For the blue tit analyses, the average effect was convincingly negative, with less growth for nestlings living with more siblings, but there was near continuous variation in effect size from large negative effects to effects near zero, and even effects crossing the traditional threshold of statistical significance in the opposite direction. In contrast, the average relationship between grass cover and Eucalyptus seedling number was only slightly negative and not convincingly different from zero, and most effects ranged from weakly negative to weakly positive, with about a third of effects crossing the traditional threshold of significance in one direction or the other. However, there were also several striking outliers in the Eucalyptus dataset, with effects far from zero. For both datasets, we found substantial variation in the variable selection and random effects structures among analyses, as well as in the ratings of the analytical methods by peer reviewers, but we found no strong relationship between any of these and deviation from the meta-analytic mean. In other words, analyses with results that were far from the mean were no more or less likely to have dissimilar variable sets, use random effects in their models, or receive poor peer reviews than those analyses that found results that were close to the mean. The existence of substantial variability among analysis outcomes raises important questions about how ecologists and evolutionary biologists should interpret published results, and how they should conduct analyses in the future