Kapitel des Online Lehrbuch der Medizinischen Psychologie und Medizinischen Soziologie

Hybridization can induce transposons to jump into new genomic positions, which may result in their accumulation across the genome. Alternatively, transposon copy numbers may increase through non-allelic (ectopic) homologous recombination in highly repetitive regions of the genome. The relative contribution of transposition bursts versus recombination-based mechanisms to evolutionary processes remains unclear because studies on transposon dynamics in natural systems are rare. We assessed the genome-wide distribution of transposon insertions in a young hybrid lineage (“invasive...

While synonymous mutations were long thought to be without phenotypic consequences, there is growing evidence they can affect gene expression, protein folding and ultimately the fitness of an organism. In only a few cases have the mechanisms by which synonymous mutations affect the phenotype been elucidated. We previously identified 48 mutations in TEM-1 β-lactamase that increased resistance of Escherichia coli to cefotaxime, 10 of which were synonymous. To better understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the...

Obesity and an unhealthy nutrition are on the rise and affect also women in childbearing age and hence, during pregnancy. Despite normal or even high birth weight the offspring suffers from long term metabolic risks. We hypothesized that fetal growth is disturbed during different intrauterine phases. Underlying molecular events remain elusive. Female mice were fed either a control diet (SD) or a high fat diet (HFD) after weaning until mating and during pregnancy. Pregnant mice...

Stomata control gas exchanges between the plant and the atmosphere. How natural variation in stomata size and density contributes to resolve trade‐offs between carbon uptake and water‐loss in response to local climatic variation is not yet understood. We developed an automated confocal microscopy approach to characterize natural genetic variation in stomatal patterning in 330 fully‐sequenced Arabidopsis thaliana accessions collected throughout the European range of the species. We compared this to variation in water‐use efficiency, measured...

The phylogenetic relationships of the winged insect lineages – mayflies (Ephemeroptera), damselflies and dragonflies (Odonata), and all other winged insects (Neoptera) – are still controversial with three hypotheses supported by different datasets: Palaeoptera, Metapterygota and Chiastomyaria. Here, we reanalyze available phylogenomic data with a focus on detecting confounding and alternative signal. In this context, we provide a framework to quantitatively evaluate and assess incongruent molecular phylogenetic signal inherent in phylogenomic datasets. Despite overall support for...