Political ecology des engrillagements de Sologne - Tentative de défragmentation du paysage écologique, politique et disciplinaire

Quoi de plus naturel qu’une clôture ? Parmi les images d’Epinal qui nous viennent spontanément à l’esprit, le bocage avec ses haies bien ordonnées, évoque une relation apaisée, rationnelle, arcadienne avec une nature nourricière et bienveillante. Pourtant, la prolifération des clôtures en milieu rural depuis un siècle a suscité la curiosité de nombreux chercheurs dans des disciplines variées. Qu’il s’agisse de protéger la nature de dégradations engendrées par les populations humaines - dans le cas d’espaces protégés -, ou à l’inverse de protéger les humains contre des dangers « naturels » - comme dans le cas de la prévention routière, ces clôtures semblent répondre à une nécessité absolue de ségrégation spatiale entre les hommes et la nature : Quoi de moins naturel qu’une clôture ? Vu sous cet angle, le conflit politico-environnemental engendré par la propagation récente des engrillagements forestiers en Sologne reflète assez bien l’ambiguïté de nos perceptions vis-à-vis du caractère naturel ou non de ces clôtures. La Sologne est une région naturelle Française couvrant près de 500 000 hectares délimitée au nord par la vallée de la Loire et au sud par la vallée du Cher. Fruit d’une occupation humaine attestée depuis le XIe siècle, conjuguée à des contraintes écologiques spécifiques, le paysage Solognot est aujourd’hui caractérisé par son couvert boisé important (environ 50% de la surface) et ses populations importantes de grand gibier, qui entretiennent la longue réputation cynégétique de cette région ; la propriété privée y est largement majoritaire (plus de 90% de la surface forestière). En 2012, une agitation médiatique (film, articles de presse, sites internet) cristallisent un conflit environnemental latente, faisant intervenir des éléments écologiques – les effets supposés bénéfiques ou néfastes de ces engrillagements sur la grande faune, mais aussi politiques – la nécessité de réglementer les engrillagements, et culturels - la sauvegarde du « paysage Solognot ». Afin d’analyser ce conflit, une approche interdisciplinaire de type Political Ecology a été menée, mêlant travail d’enquête auprès de la population et étude du fonctionnement écologique des espaces engrillagés. Ces travaux ont montré que les engrillagements modifient la répartition spatiale des cerfs. La recherche d’effets cascades sur les oiseaux forestiers - résultants des surdensités locales de cerfs en espace engrillagé - n’a cependant pas mis en évidence d’effet négatif. A partir des enquêtes, il apparaît que le conflit est pluridimensionnel et que l’aspect écologique – bien réel – ne suffit pas à lui seul pour comprendre l’enjeu de ce débat au sujet des engrillagements. Ces résultats génèrent une réflexion sur la complexité des conflits environnementaux, et la nécessité d’envisager ces conflits sous des angles différents. Cela implique d’utiliser des outils et des approches issues de plusieurs disciplines, mais aussi et surtout de parvenir à mettre en résonance le matériel hétérogène ainsi obtenu, afin de proposer une approche multifacette mais cohérente. Dans ce cas d’étude, les résultats sur les effets cascades se sont par exemple révélés extrêmement marginaux, alors qu’une étude parallèle sur le comportement du sanglier en milieu engrillagé aurait probablement été très pertinente. Cela amène plus largement à réfléchir sur le « cadrage » des problèmes environnementaux, et sur les choix conscients ou non que nous faisons lorsque nous décrivons une situation comme problématique pour « la nature ». Plus généralement, ces résultats incitent à (re)placer le politique au cœur de nos réflexions sur ce qu’est la « nature », y compris dans la façon dont nous écologues posons nos questions de recherches

Plant dispersal syndromes are unreliable, especially for predicting zoochory and long-distance dispersal

Plant dispersal syndromes are allocated based on diaspore morphology and used to predict the dominant mechanisms of dispersal. Many authors assume that only angiosperms with endozoochory, epizoochory or anemochory syndromes have a longdistance dispersal (LDD) mechanism. Too much faith is often placed in classical syndromes to explain historical dispersal events and to predict future ones. What is usually recorded as the ‘endozoochory syndrome’ is in reality a ‘frugivory syndrome’ and this has often diverted attention from endozoochory by non-frugivores (e.g. waterbirds and large herbivores) that disperse a broad range of angiosperms, for which they likely provide the maximum dispersal distances. Neither the endozoochory nor the epizoochory syndromes provide helpful predictions of which plants non-frugivores disperse, or by which mechanism. We combined data from previous studies to show that only 4% of European plant species dispersed by ungulate endozoochory belong to the corresponding syndrome, compared to 36% for ungulate epizoochory and 8% for endozoochory by migratory ducks. In contrast, the proportions of these species that are assigned to an ‘unassisted syndrome’ are 37, 31 and 28%, respectively. Since allocated syndromes do not adequately account for zoochory, empirical studies often fail to find the expected relationship between syndromes and LDD events such as those underlying the colonization of islands or latitudinal migration rates. We need full incorporation of existing zoochory data into dispersal databases, and more empirical research into the relationship between plant traits and the frequency and effectiveness of different dispersal mechanisms (paying attention to unexpected vectors). Acknowledging the broad role of non-frugivores in facilitating LDD is crucial to improve predictions of the consequences of global change, such as how plant distributions respond to climate change, and how alien plants spread. Networks of dispersal interactions between these vertebrates and plants are a vital but understudied part of the Web of Life

Overabundant ungulates in French Sologne? Increasing red deer and wild boar pressure may not threaten woodland birds in mature forest stands

Increasing ungulate populations have been considered to drive changes in woodland bird communities in temperate and boreal forests. Ungulates may negatively affect understory-dependent woodland birds either directly or indirectly. For instance ungulates may prey on nests, or they may reduce the availability of nesting sites, foraging resources or cover for understory-dependent bird species. We conducted ungulate pressure, vegetation and bird surveys on 95 plots, in nineteen mature forest stands (9 fenced and 10 unfenced properties) located in the Sologne region (France). In such private forests, ungulate population densities are highly variable; we were therefore able to explore the effects of varying red deer (Cervus elaphus) browsing and wild boar (Sus scrofa) rooting intensity on bird communities. Bayesian Binomial mixture models indicated that ground-nesting birds were more abundant in forests with high observed wild boar rooting intensity. Generally, increasing deer browsing pressure did not have any negative effect on woodland birds in mature forest stands with a developed canopy, and did not result in lower shrub cover. Most previous studies documenting a negative effect of browsing on birds focused on young forest stands where overstory vegetation was scarce. Our results suggest that the impact of ungulate pressure on forest birds may decrease with forest stand age

Nucleic Acids Res

We have used surface plasmon resonance to investigate the nucleic acid binding properties of the core protein of hepatitis C virus, a disordered protein believed to chaperone the genomic RNA. It was previously shown that a peptide (peptide E) corresponding to the association of two basic clusters of core enhances the annealing and the dimerization of nucleic acid fragments derived from a stem loop (SL2) in the 3' untranslated region of the hepatitis C virus genome. However, strong aggregation of nucleic acids by core or peptide E in the excess of the latter precluded the characterization of their binding parameters up to now. By careful design of surface plasmon resonance experiments, we obtained accurate binding parameters for the interaction of peptide E with SL2-derived oligonucleotides of different lengths and sequences, in form of stem-loop, duplex or strand. Peptide E was found to bind in a salt dependent manner to all oligonucleotides assayed. Affinity data identify at least two binding modes, of which one is independent of sequence/structure, and the other is specific to the SL2 stem-loop fold. Stoichiometry data support a multi-motif binding model allowing formation of higher-order complexes. We propose that the modular binding mode demonstrated for structured RNA-binding proteins also applies to this disordered chaperone and is relevant to its activity

SMARCB1 regulates a TFCP2L1-MYC transcriptional switch promoting renal medullary carcinoma transformation and ferroptosis resistance

Renal medullary carcinoma (RMC) is an aggressive tumour driven by bi-allelic loss of SMARCB1 and tightly associated with sickle cell trait. However, the cell-of-origin and oncogenic mechanism remain poorly understood. Using single-cell sequencing of human RMC, we defined transformation of thick ascending limb (TAL) cells into an epithelial-mesenchymal gradient of RMC cells associated with loss of renal epithelial transcription factors TFCP2L1, HOXB9 and MITF and gain of MYC and NFE2L2-associated oncogenic and ferroptosis resistance programs. We describe the molecular basis for this transcriptional switch that is reversed by SMARCB1 re-expression repressing the oncogenic and ferroptosis resistance programs leading to ferroptotic cell death. Ferroptosis resistance links TAL cell survival with the high extracellular medullar iron concentrations associated with sickle cell trait, an environment propitious to the mutagenic events associated with RMC development. This unique environment may explain why RMC is the only SMARCB1-deficient tumour arising from epithelial cells, differentiating RMC from rhabdoid tumours arising from neural crest cells

An ultraconserved Hox–Pbx responsive element resides in the coding sequence of Hoxa2 and is active in rhombomere 4

The Hoxa2 gene has a fundamental role in vertebrate craniofacial and hindbrain patterning. Segmental control of Hoxa2 expression is crucial to its function and several studies have highlighted transcriptional regulatory elements governing its activity in distinct rhombomeres. Here, we identify a putative Hox–Pbx responsive cis-regulatory sequence, which resides in the coding sequence of Hoxa2 and is an important component of Hoxa2 regulation in rhombomere (r) 4. By using cell transfection and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays, we show that this regulatory sequence is responsive to paralogue group 1 and 2 Hox proteins and to their Pbx co-factors. Importantly, we also show that the Hox–Pbx element cooperates with a previously reported Hoxa2 r4 intronic enhancer and that its integrity is required to drive specific reporter gene expression in r4 upon electroporation in the chick embryo hindbrain. Thus, both intronic as well as exonic regulatory sequences are involved in Hoxa2 segmental regulation in the developing r4. Finally, we found that the Hox–Pbx exonic element is embedded in a larger 205-bp long ultraconserved genomic element (UCE) shared by all vertebrate genomes. In this respect, our data further support the idea that extreme conservation of UCE sequences may be the result of multiple superposed functional and evolutionary constraints