Anarchy in the UK: Detailed genetic analysis of worker reproduction in a naturally occurring British anarchistic honeybee, Apis mellifera, colony using DNA microsatellites

Anarchistic behaviour is a very rare phenotype of honeybee colonies. In an anarchistic colony, many workers’ sons are reared in the presence of the queen. Anarchy has previously been described in only two Australian colonies. Here we report on a first detailed genetic analysis of a British anarchistic colony. Male pupae were present in great abundance above the queen excluder, which was clearly indicative of extensive worker reproduction and is the hallmark of anarchy. Seventeen microsatellite loci were used to analyse these male pupae, allowing us to address whether all the males were indeed workers’ sons, and how many worker patrilines and individual workers produced them. In the sample, 95 of 96 of the males were definitely workers’ sons. Given that ≈ 1% of workers’ sons were genetically indistinguishable from queen’s sons, this suggests that workers do not move any queen-laid eggs between the part of the colony where the queen is present to the area above the queen excluder which the queen cannot enter. The colony had 16 patrilines, with an effective number of patrilines of 9.85. The 75 males that could be assigned with certainty to a patriline came from 7 patrilines, with an effective number of 4.21. They were the offspring of at least 19 workers. This is in contrast to the two previously studied Australian naturally occurring anarchist colonies, in which most of the workers’ sons were offspring of one patriline. The high number of patrilines producing males leads to a low mean relatedness between laying workers and males of the colony. We discuss the importance of studying such colonies in the understanding of worker policing and its evolution

Empresas domésticas en ciudades de países en desarrollo

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How to measure reproductive success?

To date there have been few empirical comparisons between alternative methods for measuring reproductive success (RS). We consider the pros and cons of alternative measures of RS to provide guidance for the design of field studies in human behavioral ecology. We compare cross-sectional measures that count offspring alive at the time of the interview and retrospective measures that require data on offspring age at death or censoring. We consider analyses that include adult women (yielding age-specific estimates of RS) as well as analyses restricted to postreproductive women (yielding data on lifetime RS). These methods are applied to reproductive data for the Dogon of Mali, West Africa. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 15:361–369, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/35101/1/10154_ftp.pd

The Rate and Effects of Spontaneous Mutation on Fitness Traits in the Social Amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum

We performed a mutation accumulation (MA) experiment in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum to estimate the rate and distribution of effects of spontaneous mutations affecting eight putative fitness traits. We found that the per-generation mutation rate for most fitness components is 0.0019 mutations per haploid genome per generation or larger. This rate is an order of magnitude higher than estimates for fitness components in the unicellular eukaryote Saccharomyces cerevisiae, even though the base-pair substitution rate is two orders of magnitude lower. The high rate of fitness-altering mutations observed in this species may be partially explained by a large mutational target relative to S. cerevisiae. Fitness-altering mutations also may occur primarily at simple sequence repeats, which are common throughout the genome, including in coding regions, and may represent a target that is particularly likely to give fitness effects upon mutation. The majority of mutations had deleterious effects on fitness, but there was evidence for a substantial fraction, up to 40%, being beneficial for some of the putative fitness traits. Competitive ability within the multicellular slug appears to be under weak directional selection, perhaps reflecting the fact that slugs are sometimes, but not often, comprised of multiple clones in nature. Evidence for pleiotropy among fitness components across MA lines was absent, suggesting that mutations tend to act on single fitness components

Late Holocene climate: Natural or anthropogenic?

For more than a decade, scientists have argued about the warmth of the current interglaciation. Was the warmth of the preindustrial late Holocene natural in origin, the result of orbital changes that had not yet driven the system into a new glacial state? Or was it in considerable degree the result of humans intervening in the climate system through greenhouse gas emissions from early agriculture? Here we summarize new evidence that moves this debate forward by testing both hypotheses. By comparing late Holocene responses to those that occurred during previous interglaciations (in section 2), we assess whether the late Holocene responses look different (and thus anthropogenic) or similar (and thus natural). This comparison reveals anomalous (anthropogenic) signals. In section 3, we review paleoecological and archaeological syntheses that provide ground truth evidence on early anthropogenic releases of greenhouse gases. The available data document large early anthropogenic emissions consistent with the anthropogenic ice core anomalies, but more information is needed to constrain their size. A final section compares natural and anthropogenic interpretations of the δ13C trend in ice core CO2

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

The regulation of IL-10 expression

Interleukin (IL)-10 is an important immunoregulatory cytokine and an understanding of how IL-10 expression is controlled is critical in the design of immune intervention strategies. IL-10 is produced by almost all cell types within the innate (including macrophages, monocytes, dendritic cells (DCs), mast cells, neutrophils, eosinophils and natural killer cells) and adaptive (including CD4(+) T cells, CD8(+) T cells and B cells) immune systems. The mechanisms of IL-10 regulation operate at several stages including chromatin remodelling at the Il10 locus, transcriptional regulation of Il10 expression and post-transcriptional regulation of Il10 mRNA. In addition, whereas some aspects of Il10 gene regulation are conserved between different immune cell types, several are cell type- or stimulus-specific. Here, we outline the complexity of IL-10 production by discussing what is known about its regulation in macrophages, monocytes, DCs and CD4(+) T helper cells

Tumour inoculation site-dependent induction of cachexia in mice bearing colon 26 carcinoma

Murine colon 26 carcinoma growing at either subcutaneous (s.c.) or intramuscular (i.m.) inoculation sites causes cachexia in mice. Such animals show extensive loss of body weight, wasting of the muscle and adipose tissues, hypoglycaemia, and hypercalcaemia, even when the tumour weight comprises only about 1.9% of carcass weight. In contrast, the same tumour when inoculated into the liver does not cause any sign of tumour-related cachexia even when the tumour becomes much larger (6.6% of carcass weight). Interleukin 6 (IL-6), a mediator associated with cachexia in this tumour model, is detected at high levels both in the tumour tissues and in the circulating blood of mice bearing colon 26 tumour at the s.c. inoculation site. In contrast, only minute levels of IL-6 are detected in the tumour grown in the liver. The colon 26 tumour grown in the liver does not lose its ability to cause cachexia, because the tumour when re-inoculated s.c. is able to cause extensive weight loss and produce IL-6 as did the original colon 26 cell line. Histological studies revealed differences in the composition of tumour tissues: the tumours grown in the subcutis consist of many polygonal tumour cells, extended-intercellular space, and high vascular density, whereas those grown in the liver consist of spindle-shaped tumour cells. Thus, the environment where tumour cells grow would be a critical factor in determining the cachectic phenotype of cancer cells, including their ability to produce IL-6. 1999 Cancer Research Campaig

New Classification of the Dictyostelids

Traditional morphology-based taxonomy of dictyostelids is rejected by molecular phylogeny. A new classification is presented based on monophyletic entities with consistent and strong molecular phylogenetic support and that are, as far as possible, morphologically recognizable. All newly named clades are diagnosed with small subunit ribosomal RNA (18S rRNA) sequence signatures plus morphological synapomorphies where possible. The two major molecular clades are given the rank of order, as Acytosteliales ord. nov. and Dictyosteliales. The two major clades within each of these orders are recognized and given the rank of family as, respectively, Acytosteliaceae and Cavenderiaceae fam. nov. in Acytosteliales, and Dictyosteliaceae and Raperosteliaceae fam. nov. in Dictyosteliales. Twelve genera are recognized: Cavenderia gen. nov. in Cavenderiaceae, Acytostelium, Rostrostelium gen. nov. and Heterostelium gen. nov. in Acytosteliaceae, Tieghemostelium gen. nov., Hagiwaraea gen. nov., Raperostelium gen. nov. and Speleostelium gen. nov. in Raperosteliaceae, and Dictyostelium and Polysphondylium in Dictyosteliaceae. The polycephalum complex is treated as Coremiostelium gen. nov. (not assigned to family) and the polycarpum complex as Synstelium gen. nov. (not assigned to order and family). Coenonia, which may not be a dictyostelid, is treated as a genus incertae sedis. Eighty-eight new combinations are made at species and variety level, and Dictyostelium ammophilum is validated