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

Actinic Papillary Fibroelastoma of the Left Ventricle

We present the case of a 69-year-old woman with a history of endometrial carcinoma in 1996, who underwent a total hysterectomy and bilateral adnexectomy. The patient also received chemotherapy (doxorubicin and cisplatinum) and local radiotherapy (50 Gy) because of a single lung metastasis, with total remission during later follow-up. During follow-up, 10 years later following radiotherapy, a transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) revealed an image consistent with a primary cardiac tumor (papillary fibroelastoma) or metastatic cardiac tumor on the posteromedial papillary muscle. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a solid mass on the posteromedial papillary muscle with late enhancement, consistent with a primary cardiac tumor. During surgery, the tumor located in the posteromedial papillary muscle was resected. A pathological examination revealed the presence of a tumor mass with a core of dense connective tissue surrounded by a layer of hyperplastic endocardial cells characteristic of a papillary fibroelastoma. After 8 years of follow-up, the patient remains asymptomatic

Industrial Melanism in the Peppered Moth Is Not Associated with Genetic Variation in Canonical Melanisation Gene Candidates

Industrial melanism in the peppered moth (Biston betularia) is an iconic case study of ecological genetics but the molecular identity of the gene determining the difference between the typical and melanic (carbonaria) morphs is entirely unknown. We applied the candidate gene approach to look for associations between genetic polymorphisms within sixteen a priori melanisation gene candidates and the carbonaria morph. The genes were isolated and sequence characterised in B. betularia using degenerate PCR and from whole-transcriptome sequence. The list of candidates contains all the genes previously implicated in melanisation pattern differences in other insects, including aaNAT, DOPA-decarboxylase, ebony, tan, tyrosine hydroxylase, yellow and yellow2 (yellow-fa). Co-segregation of candidate gene alleles and carbonaria morph was tested in 73 offspring of a carbonaria male-typical female backcross. Surprisingly, none of the sixteen candidate genes was in close linkage with the locus controlling the carbonaria-typical polymorphism. Our study demonstrates that the ‘carbonaria gene’ is not a structural variant of a canonical melanisation pathway gene, neither is it a cis-regulatory element of these enzyme-coding genes. The implication is either that we have failed to characterize an unknown enzyme-coding gene in the melanisation pathway, or more likely, that the ‘carbonaria gene’ is a higher level trans-acting factor which regulates the spatial expression of one or more of the melanisation candidates in this study to alter the pattern of melanin production

Patologías mandibulares en dos esqueletos de la Edad Media

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

Upward displacement of the odontoid process into the foramen magnum: a palaeopathological case

An upward displacement of the odontoid process into the foramen magnum was observed in the skeletal remains of a young male unearthed from a 14th to 17th century cemetery in the north-eastern Italy. Examination of skull bone vestiges and computed tomography scan analysis of the axis exhibited a clear-cut contact zone between the odontoid process and the anterior border of the foramen magnum. In addition, the odontoid process appeared backward deviated. Findings suggest a possible diagnosis of basilar impression/invagination. This anomalous contact may cause compression of neural and vascular structures with a multifaceted series of clinical symptoms. We are unable to set our finding into a complete presumptive diagnostic outline because there is no chance to estimate either the magnitude of the whole craniovertebral junction defect but we believe that the present case contributes to the general knowledge of the craniovertebral region and to bone pathology in ancient times

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

Molecular-level variation affects population growth in a butterfly metapopulation.

The dynamics of natural populations are thought to be dominated by demographic and environmental processes with little influence of intraspecific genetic variation and natural selection, apart from inbreeding depression possibly reducing population growth in small populations. Here we analyse hundreds of well-characterised local populations in a large metapopulation of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia), which persists in a balance between stochastic local extinctions and recolonisations in a network of 4,000 discrete habitat patches. We show that the allelic composition of the glycolytic enzyme phosphoglucose isomerase (Pgi) has a significant effect on the growth of local populations, consistent with previously reported effects of allelic variation on flight metabolic performance and fecundity in the Glanville fritillary and Colias butterflies. The strength and the sign of the molecular effect on population growth are sensitive to the ecological context (the area and spatial connectivity of the habitat patches), which affects genotype-specific gene flow and the influence of migration on the dynamics of local populations. The biological significance of the results for Pgi is underscored by lack of any association between population growth and allelic variation at six other loci typed in the same material. In demonstrating, to our knowledge for the first time, that molecular variation in a candidate gene affects population growth, this study challenges the perception that differential performance of individual genotypes, leading to differential fitness, is irrelevant to population dynamics. These results also demonstrate that the spatial configuration of habitat and spatial dynamics of populations contribute to maintenance of Pgi polymorphism in this species