Decoration Increases the Conspicuousness of Raptor Nests

Avian nests are frequently concealed or camouflaged, but a number of species builds noticeable nests or use conspicuous materials for nest decoration. In most cases, nest decoration has a role in mate choice or provides thermoregulatory or antiparasitic benefits. In territorial species however, decorations may serve additional or complementary functions, such as extended phenotypic signaling of nest-site occupancy and social status to potential intruders. The latter may benefit both signaler and receiver by minimizing the risk of aggressive interactions, especially in organisms with dangerous weaponry. Support for this hypothesis was recently found in a population of black kites (Milvus migrans), a territorial raptor that decorates its nest with white artificial materials. However, the crucial assumption that nest decorations increased nest-site visibility to conspecifics was not assessed, a key aspect given that black kite nests may be well concealed within the canopy. Here, we used an unmanned aircraft system to take pictures of black kite nests, with and without an experimentally placed decoration, from different altitudes and distances simulating the perspective of a flying and approaching, prospecting intruder. The pictures were shown to human volunteers through a standardized routine to determine whether detection rates varied according the nest decoration status and distance. Decorated nests consistently showed a higher detection frequency and a lower detection-latency, compared to undecorated versions of the same nests. Our results confirm that nest decoration in this species may act as a signaling medium that enhances nest visibility for aerial receivers, even at large distances. This finding complements previous work on this communication system, which showed that nest decoration was a threat informing trespassing conspecifics on the social dominance, territory quality and fighting capabilities of the signaler

Comparación de métodos para el seguimiento de las poblaciones de comadreja Mustela nivalis en ambientes agrícolas

La comadreja Mustela nivalis es un pequeño carnívoro especializado en el consumo de micromamíferos. En la Península Ibérica hay muy poca información sobre esta especie, siendo especialmente interesante el estudio de su papel en la regulación de la dinámica poblacional de los micromamíferos. Algunas especies alcanzan eventualmente elevadas densidades en ambientes agrícolas, generando notable alarma social ya que pueden mermar significativamente la producción agrícola. Cualquier estudio de esta naturaleza requiere de métodos efectivos de seguimiento a largo plazo de las poblaciones de este mustélido. En este trabajo evaluamos la eficacia y eficiencia de cuatro metodologías para detectar comadrejas en ambientes agrarios: captura en vivo, trampas de huellas, trampas de pelo y cámaras-trampa. El estudio se desarrolló en dos localidades agrícolas de la meseta Castellano-Leonesa. Se hicieron dos muestreos por localidad, en otoño y primavera de 2016/2017. En cada localidad seleccionamos 10 lindes de ~400 m de longitud, donde se instalaron de forma alterna y equidistante: 6 trampas de captura, 2 trampas de huellas, 2 trampas de pelos y 1 cámara-trampa, que estuvieron activos entre 9-10 días. Se usó carne de pollo y topillo Microtus arvalis como cebo. Se detectó la presencia de comadrejas con alguna de las metodologías en el 38% de las lindes muestreadas (ocupación estimada), con un total de 29 detecciones (13 otoño/16 primavera). El trampeo en vivo detectó la presencia en el 80% de las lindes positivas, las trampas de huella en el 33%, las cámaras-trampa en el 20% y las trampas de pelo en el 6%. La ocupación estimada estuvo relacionada positivamente con las tasas de detección (detecciones/100 trampas-día) del trampeo en vivo y de las trampas de huellas pero no con las de cámaras-trampa y trampas de pelo. Al tener en cuenta el esfuerzo (trampas-día), las trampas de pelo fueron el método menos eficiente para detectar comadrejas. Estos resultados indican que, con esfuerzos similares, las trampas de huellas y las cámaras-trampa pueden ser tan eficaces como el trampeo en vivo para detectar comadrejas en ambientes agrícolas con condiciones similares a las de nuestro estudio.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Tracking the antibody immunome in sporadic colorectal cancer by using antigen self-assembled protein arrays

© 2021 by the authors.Sporadic Colorectal Cancer (sCRC) is the third leading cause of cancer death in the Western world, and the sCRC patients presenting with synchronic metastasis have the poorest prognosis. Genetic alterations accumulated in sCRC tumor cells translate into mutated proteins and/or abnormal protein expression levels, which contribute to the development of sCRC. Then, the tumor-associated proteins (TAAs) might induce the production of auto-antibodies (aAb) via humoral immune response. Here, Nucleic Acid Programmable Protein Arrays (NAPPArray) are employed to identify aAb in plasma samples from a set of 50 sCRC patients compared to seven healthy donors. Our goal was to establish a systematic workflow based on NAPPArray to define differential aAb profiles between healthy individuals and sCRC patients as well as between non-metastatic (n = 38) and metastatic (n = 12) sCRC, in order to gain insight into the role of the humoral immune system in controlling the development and progression of sCRC. Our results showed aAb profile based on 141 TAA including TAAs associated with biological cellular processes altered in genesis and progress of sCRC (e.g., FSCN1, VTI2 and RPS28) that discriminated healthy donors vs. sCRC patients. In addition, the potential capacity of discrimination (between non-metastatic vs. metastatic sCRC) of 7 TAAs (USP5, ML4, MARCKSL1, CKMT1B, HMOX2, VTI2, TP53) have been analyzed individually in an independent cohort of sCRC patients, where two of them (VTI2 and TP53) were validated (AUC ~75%). In turn, these findings provided novel insights into the immunome of sCRC, in combination with transcriptomics profiles and protein antigenicity characterizations, wich might lead to the identification of novel sCRC biomarkers that might be of clinical utility for early diagnosis of the tumor. These results explore the immunomic analysis as potent source for biomarkers with diagnostic and prognostic value in CRC. Additional prospective studies in larger series of patients are required to confirm the clinical utility of these novel sCRC immunomic biomarkers.We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Health Institute Carlos III (ISCIII) for the grants: FIS PI14/01538, FIS PI17/01930 and CB16/12/00400. We also acknowledge Fondos FEDER (EU) “Una manera de hacer Europa” and Junta Castilla-León (COVID19 grant COV20EDU/00187). Fundación Solórzano FS/38-2017. The Proteomics Unit belongs to ProteoRed, PRB3-ISCIII, supported by grant PT17/0019/0023, of the PE I + D + I 2017-2020, funded by ISCIII and FEDER. CNPq-National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Brazil) (306258/2019-6) and FAPERJ-Foundation for Research Support of Rio de Janeiro State for the financial support (E-26/201.670/2017 and 210.379/2018). M. González-González is supported by MINECOPTA2019-017870-I.A. Landeira-Viñuela is supported by VIII Centenario-USAL PhD Program. P.J.-V. is supported by JCYL PhD Program and scholarship JCYL-EDU/601/2020. P.D. and E.B. are supported by a JCYL-EDU/346/2013 Ph.D. scholarship

The Association of Cardiometabolic, Diet and Lifestyle Parameters With Plasma Glucagon-like Peptide-1:An IMI DIRECT Study

ContextThe role of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) in type 2 diabetes (T2D) and obesity is not fully understood.ObjectiveWe investigate the association of cardiometabolic, diet, and lifestyle parameters on fasting and postprandial GLP-1 in people at risk of, or living with, T2D.MethodsWe analyzed cross-sectional data from the two Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Diabetes Research on Patient Stratification (DIRECT) cohorts, cohort 1 (n = 2127) individuals at risk of diabetes; cohort 2 (n = 789) individuals with new-onset T2D.ResultsOur multiple regression analysis reveals that fasting total GLP-1 is associated with an insulin-resistant phenotype and observe a strong independent relationship with male sex, increased adiposity, and liver fat, particularly in the prediabetes population. In contrast, we showed that incremental GLP-1 decreases with worsening glycemia, higher adiposity, liver fat, male sex, and reduced insulin sensitivity in the prediabetes cohort. Higher fasting total GLP-1 was associated with a low intake of wholegrain, fruit, and vegetables in people with prediabetes, and with a high intake of red meat and alcohol in people with diabetes.ConclusionThese studies provide novel insights into the association between fasting and incremental GLP-1, metabolic traits of diabetes and obesity, and dietary intake, and raise intriguing questions regarding the relevance of fasting GLP-1 in the pathophysiology T2D

Smoking induces coordinated DNA methylation and gene expression changes in adipose tissue with consequences for metabolic health

Abstract Background Tobacco smoking is a risk factor for multiple diseases, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Many smoking-associated signals have been detected in the blood methylome, but the extent to which these changes are widespread to metabolically relevant tissues, and impact gene expression or metabolic health, remains unclear. Methods We investigated smoking-associated DNA methylation and gene expression variation in adipose tissue biopsies from 542 healthy female twins. Replication, tissue specificity, and longitudinal stability of the smoking-associated effects were explored in additional adipose, blood, skin, and lung samples. We characterized the impact of adipose tissue smoking methylation and expression signals on metabolic disease risk phenotypes, including visceral fat. Results We identified 42 smoking-methylation and 42 smoking-expression signals, where five genes (AHRR, CYP1A1, CYP1B1, CYTL1, F2RL3) were both hypo-methylated and upregulated in current smokers. CYP1A1 gene expression achieved 95% prediction performance of current smoking status. We validated and replicated a proportion of the signals in additional primary tissue samples, identifying tissue-shared effects. Smoking leaves systemic imprints on DNA methylation after smoking cessation, with stronger but shorter-lived effects on gene expression. Metabolic disease risk traits such as visceral fat and android-to-gynoid ratio showed association with methylation at smoking markers with functional impacts on expression, such as CYP1A1, and at tissue-shared smoking signals, such as NOTCH1. At smoking-signals, BHLHE40 and AHRR DNA methylation and gene expression levels in current smokers were predictive of future gain in visceral fat upon smoking cessation. Conclusions Our results provide the first comprehensive characterization of coordinated DNA methylation and gene expression markers of smoking in adipose tissue. The findings relate to human metabolic health and give insights into understanding the widespread health consequence of smoking outside of the lung

Sixteen new lung function signals identified through 1000 Genomes Project reference panel imputation

Lung function measures are used in the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In 38,199 European ancestry individuals, we studied genome-wide association of forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC) and FEV1/FVC with 1000 Genomes Project (phase 1)-imputed genotypes and followed up top associations in 54,550 Europeans. We identify 14 novel loci (P <5 x 10(-8)) in or near ENSA, RNU5F-1, KCNS3, AK097794, ASTN2, LHX3, CCDC91, TBX3, TRIP11, RIN3, TEKT5, LTBP4, MN1 and AP1S2, and two novel signals at known loci NPNT and GPR126, providing a basis for new understanding of the genetic determinants of these traits and pulmonary diseases in which they are altered.Peer reviewe

Addressing phase of population cycle and spatial scale is key to understand vole abundance in crop field margins: Implications for managing a cyclic pest species

In simplified agricultural landscapes, some rodent species such as the common vole (Microtus arvalis) can reach high abundances and become agricultural pests. Crop field margins are a key structural element and, therefore, expected to play a key role in vole abundance, even within the demographic cycles that govern vole population dynamics. Here, we aim to identify i) the margin variables that determine vole population response, and ii) at which spatial scale this response can be identified and, therefore, managed. We sampled vole abundance in field margins in two replicated areas of north-western Spain during five years, including all population phases. Environmental variables related to vegetation structure, nearby crops and presence of streams or ditches were extracted at two different spatial scales: a precise small spatial scale -“trapping point” scale-, which referred to the exact location of the traps, and a broader spatial scale -“margin” scale-, that referred to the average values across the whole margin length. Using linear mixed models, we analysed the effects of the environmental variables at both spatial scales during the vole population cycle phases. The broad spatial scale accounted better for vole abundance response, being the latter dependent on the population cycle phase. The stronger effect of environmental variables consisted on vegetation structure effects during the peak phase. In this phase, margins with high cover and short vegetation promote high vole abundances, whilst margins with less cover and taller vegetation, usually associated with higher stability in margins, were related to lower peak abundances. No clear effect of nearby crops was detected in our models, when all variables were accounted for. Our results suggest that keeping stable and well vegetated field margins leads to lower abundance within crop field margins during the population outbreaks, and that any successful management strategy should be addressed to the full extent of the field margin, instead of more localized actions.This study was funded by I+D National Plan Projects of the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (TOPILLAZO-CGL2011–30274 and MOVITOPI-CGL2015–71255-P, co-funded by European Regional Development Fund FEDER, EU), Fundación BBVA Research Project TOPIGEPLA (2014 call) and MAPAMA/TRAGSATEC to GREFA (biological control program). Researchers at TEG-UAM were also funded by REMEDINAL TE-CM Research Network (P2018/EMT4338). Julio Domínguez was supported by a predoctoral grant: “Programa Talento Formación” funded by Fondo Social Europeo (FSE) and Castilla La Mancha regional government (JCCM) (ref: SBPLY/16/180501/000205).Peer reviewe