Background: The shift from solitary to social behavior is one of the major evolutionary transitions. Primitively eusocial bumblebees are uniquely placed to illuminate the evolution of highly eusocial insect societies. Bumblebees are also invaluable natural and agricultural pollinators, and there is widespread concern over recent population declines in some species. High-quality genomic data will inform key aspects of bumblebee biology, including susceptibility to implicated population viability threats. Results: We report the high quality draft genome...

The core–periphery hypothesis (CPH) predicts that populations located at the periphery of a species' range should have lower levels of genetic variation than those at the centre of the range. However, most of the research on the CPH focuses on geographic distance and not on ecological distance, or uses categorical definitions of core and periphery to explain the distribution of genetic diversity. We use current climate data and historical climate data from the last glacial...

Plants on infertile soils exhibit physiological and morphological traits that support conservative internal nutrient cycling. However, potential trade-offs among use efficiencies for N, P, and cations are not well explored in species-rich habitats where multiple elements may limit plant production. We examined uptake efficiency and use efficiency of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Al, and Na in plots of regenerating tropical dry forests spanning a gradient of soil fertility. Our aim was to determine whether...

Leishmania donavani is the causative agent of leishmaniasis, responsible for social and economic disruption, especially in developing countries. Lack of effective drugs with few side effects have necessitated the discovery of newer therapeutic solutions for leishmaniasis. Glycophosphatidylinositol (GPI) synthesis plays a vital role in protozoan cell membranes structural formation and antigenic modification. Hence, any disruption in its biosynthesis can prove fatal to the parasitic protozoans. N-acetylglucosamine-phosphatidylinositol de-N-acetylase (NAGP-deacetylase) is an enzyme from the GPI biosynthetic...

Aim: Effective conservation policies rely on information about population genetic structure and the connectivity of remnants of suitable habitat. The interaction between natural and anthropogenic discontinuities across landscapes can uncover the relative contributions of different barriers to gene flow, with direct consequences for decision-making in conservation. Therefore, we aimed to quantify the relative roles of land cover and topographic variables on the population genetic differentiation and diversity of a stream-breeding savanna treefrog (Bokermannohyla ibitiguara) across...

Many species use dormant stages for habitat selection by tying recovery from the stage to informative external cues. Other species have an undiscerning strategy in which they recover randomly despite having advanced sensory systems. We investigated whether elements of a species' habitat structure and life history can bar it from developing a discerning recovery strategy. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has a dormant stage called the dauer larva that disperses between habitat patches. On one hand,...

Phylogenetic comparative methods use tree topology, branch lengths, and models of phenotypic change to take into account non-independence in statistical analysis. However, these methods normally assume that trees and models are known without error. Approaches relying on evolutionary regimes also assume specific distributions of character states across a tree, which often result from ancestral state reconstructions that are subject to uncertainty. Several methods have been proposed to deal with some of these sources of uncertainty,...

1. Increases in nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) availability are changing animal communities, partly by altering stoichiometric imbalances between consumers and their food. Testing relationships between resource stoichiometry and consumer assemblage structure requires ecosystem-level manipulations that have been lacking to date. 2. We analyzed patterns of macroinvertebrate community composition in five detritus-based headwater streams subject to experimental whole-stream N and P additions that spanned a steep gradient in dissolved N:P ratio (2:1, 8:1, 16:1, 32:1,...

With fossil representatives from the Silurian capable of respiring atmospheric oxygen, millipedes are among the oldest terrestrial animals, and likely the first to acquire diverse and complex chemical defenses against predators. Exploring the origin of complex adaptive traits is critical for understanding the evolution of Earth’s biological complexity, and chemical defense evolution serves as an ideal study system. The classic explanation for the evolution of complexity is by gradual increase from simple to complex, passing...

For coronaviruses, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) is an essential enzyme that catalyses the replication from RNA template and therefore remains an attractive therapeutic target for anti-COVID drug discovery. In the present study, we performed a comprehensive in silico screening for 16,776 potential molecules from recently established drug libraries based on two important pharmacophores (3-amino-4-phenylbutan-2-ol and piperazine). Based on initial assessment, 4042 molecules were obtained suitable as drug candidates, which were following Lipinski’s rule. Molecular docking...

We present here Bedmap2 (2013), a suite of gridded products describing surface elevation, ice-thickness and the sea floor and subglacial bed elevation of the Antarctic south of 60deg S. We derived these products using data from a variety of sources, including many substantial surveys completed since the original Bedmap compilation (Bedmap1) in 2001. In particular, the Bedmap2 ice thickness grid is made from 25 million measurements, over two orders of magnitude more than were used...

Supplemental Material for Illustrating Resource Needs through Data Visualization: Creation of Life-Space Maps for Rural Veterans with Dementia and their Caregivers by Julia Loup, Kate Smith, A. Lynn Snow, and Michelle M. Hilgeman in Journal of Applied Gerontology.

Abstract Background Bacterial meningitis is a life-threatening disease that occurs when pathogens such as Neisseria meningitidis cross the meningeal blood cerebrospinal fluid barrier (mBCSFB) and infect the meninges. Due to the human-specific nature of N. meningitidis, previous research investigating this complex host–pathogen interaction has mostly been done in vitro using immortalized brain endothelial cells (BECs) alone, which often do not retain relevant barrier properties in culture. Here, we developed physiologically relevant mBCSFB models using BECs...

Additional file 2: Figure S1. Laminin expression in the iBEC-LMC co-culture model. Figure S2. Characterization of the hCMEC/D3-LMC co-culture model. Figure S3. Barrier properties of LMC monolayers and prolonged iBEC-LMC co-culture. Figure S4. N. meningitidis interaction with the hCMEC/D3-LMC direct co-culture model. Figure S5. Effects of N. meningitidis infection on cell-junction expression in hCMEC/D3 from mono- and co-culture models. Figure S6. Effects of SNAI1 knockdown on N. meningitidis induced downregulation of cell-junction expression in hCMEC/D3....

Understanding historical range shifts and population size variation provides important context for interpreting contemporary genetic diversity. Methods to predict changes in species distributions and model changes in effective population size (Ne) using whole genomes make it feasible to examine how temporal dynamics influence diversity across populations. We investigate Ne variation and climate-associated range shifts to examine the origins of a previously observed latitudinal heterozygosity gradient in the bumble bee Bombus vancouverensis Cresson (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus...

The use of gDNA isolated from museum specimens for high throughput sequencing, especially targeted sequencing in the context of phylogenetics, is a common practice. Yet, little understanding has been focused on comparing the quality of DNA and the results of sequencing museum DNAs. Dragonflies and damselflies are ubiquitous in freshwater ecosystems and are commonly collected and preserved insects in museum collections hence their use in this study. However, the history of odonate preservation across time...

Primary stressors are direct outcomes of extreme events (e.g., viruses, floodwater) whereas secondary stressors stem from pre-disaster life circumstances and societal arrangements (e.g., illness, problematic pre-disaster policies) or from inefficient responses to the extreme event. Secondary stressors can cause significant long-term damage to people affected but are also tractable and amenable to change. In this study we explored the association between secondary stressors, social identity processes, social support, and perceived stress and resilience. Pre-registered analyses...

Primary stressors are direct outcomes of extreme events (e.g., viruses, floodwater) whereas secondary stressors stem from pre-disaster life circumstances and societal arrangements (e.g., illness, problematic pre-disaster policies) or from inefficient responses to the extreme event. Secondary stressors can cause significant long-term damage to people affected but are also tractable and amenable to change. In this study we explored the association between secondary stressors, social identity processes, social support, and perceived stress and resilience. Pre-registered analyses...

Abstract Background 7-Methylxanthine, a derivative of caffeine noted for its lack of toxicity and ability to treat and even prevent myopia progression, is a high-value biochemical with limited natural availability. Attempts to produce 7-methylxanthine through purely chemical methods of synthesis are faced with complicated chemical processes and/or the requirement of a variety of hazardous chemicals, resulting in low yields and racemic mixtures of products. In recent years, we have developed engineered microbial cells to produce...

Abstract Background 7-Methylxanthine, a derivative of caffeine noted for its lack of toxicity and ability to treat and even prevent myopia progression, is a high-value biochemical with limited natural availability. Attempts to produce 7-methylxanthine through purely chemical methods of synthesis are faced with complicated chemical processes and/or the requirement of a variety of hazardous chemicals, resulting in low yields and racemic mixtures of products. In recent years, we have developed engineered microbial cells to produce...

Supplemental Material for Illustrating Resource Needs through Data Visualization: Creation of Life-Space Maps for Rural Veterans with Dementia and their Caregivers by Julia Loup, Kate Smith, A. Lynn Snow, and Michelle M. Hilgeman in Journal of Applied Gerontology.

By definition, mating between individuals is infrequent in highly selfing organisms, and so too, therefore, hybridization should be rare between genetically divergent lineages in predominantly self-fertilizing species. Notwithstanding these expectations, here we report a remarkable case of natural hybridization between highly diverged phylogeographic lineages of the mangrove rivulus, a small killifish that reproduces predominantly by self-fertilization and typically is found as highly homozygous lines in most parts of its extensive geographic range. Two distinctive genetic...

Herbaria contain a cumulative sample of the world’s flora, assembled by thousands of people over several hundred years. Recent advances in computation, DNA sequencing, and image manipulation have allowed us to capitalize on this resource. Using herbarium material, we conducted a species-level analysis of a major clade in the grass tribe Andropogoneae, which includes the dominant species of the world’s grasslands, from the genera Andropogon, Schizachyrium, Hyparrhenia, and other groups. We imaged 188 of the...

1. Induced plant defenses regulated by the phytohormones jasmonic acid and salicylic acid are predicted to influence herbivore population dynamics, in part because they can operate in a density-dependent manner. While there is ample evidence that induced plant responses affect individual performance and growth of herbivores, whether they scale-up to regulate herbivore population dynamics is still unclear. 2. We evaluated the consequences of variation in plant defenses and herbivore density on herbivore development, reproduction and...