1. While a trade-off between larval development and adult lifespan is key to understand why not all animals develop at their maximum rate and why life histories align along a fast-slow continuum, it has been rarely studied. More general, the physiological mechanisms underlying life history trade-offs are poorly understood and there is ongoing debate about the mediatory role of oxidative stress. 2. We explicitly investigated the role of oxidative stress in mediating the trade-off between...

While transgenerational plasticity may buffer ectotherms to warming and pesticides separately, it remains unknown how combined exposure to warming and pesticides in the parental generation shapes the vulnerability to these stressors in the offspring. We studied the transgenerational effects of single and combined exposure to warming (4°C increase) and the pesticide chlorpyrifos on life history traits of the vector mosquito Culex pipiens. Parental exposure to a single stressor, either warming or the pesticide, had negative...

An example OSF project to demonstrate transparent research practices and supplementary materials for Klein, O., Hardwicke, T. E., Aust, F., Breuer, J., Danielsson, H., Hoeflich Mohr, A., IJzerman, H., Nilsonne, G., Vanpaemel, W. & Frank, M. C. (in press). A practical guide for transparency in psychological science. Collabra: Psychology.

East African highland bananas (EAHB) are staple food crop in Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and other countries in the African Great Lakes region. Even though several morphologically different types exist, all EAHB are triploid and display minimal genetic variation. To provide more insights into the genetic variation within EAHB, genotyping using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, molecular analysis of ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region of ribosomal DNA locus and the analysis of chromosomal distribution of ribosomal DNA sequences was...

Whereas the composition of the human gut microbiome is well resolved, predictive understanding is still lacking. Here, we followed a bottom-up strategy to explore human gut community dynamics: we established a synthetic community composed of three representative human gut isolates (Roseburia intestinalis L1-82, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii A2-165 and Blautia hydrogenotrophica S5a33) and explored their interactions under well-controlled conditions in vitro. Systematic mono- and pair-wise fermentation experiments confirmed competition for fructose and cross-feeding of formate. We quantified...

Unobserved diversity, such as undetected genetic structure or the presence of cryptic species, is of concern for the conservation and management of global biodiversity in the face of threatening anthropogenic processes. For instance, unobserved diversity can lead to overestimation of maximum sustainable yields and therefore to overharvesting of the more vulnerable stock components within unrecognized mixed-stock fisheries. We used DNA from archival (otolith) samples to reconstruct the temporal (1970–2007) genetic makeup of two mixed-stock flounder...

1. To assess long-term impacts of global warming on species there is growing interest in latitudinal intraspecific patterns in thermal adaptation. Yet, while both mean temperatures and daily temperature fluctuations (DTFs) are expected to increase under global warming, latitudinal differences in the effects of DTFs have not been documented. 2. We tested whether low-latitude populations of an ectotherm deal better with greater DTF than high-latitude populations, especially at a high mean temperature close to the...

Analyses files for the project : Effects of approach-avoidance training on the extinction and return of fear responses. Authors: Angelos-Miltiadis Krypotos, Inna Arnaudova, Marieke Effting, Merel Kindt, and Tom Beckers.

Synergistic interactions between temperature and contaminants are a major challenge for ecological risk assessment, especially under global warming. While thermal evolution may increase the ability to deal with warming, it is unknown whether it may also affect the ability to deal with the many contaminants that are more toxic at higher temperatures. We investigated how evolution of genetic adaptation to warming affected the interactions between warming and a novel stressor: zinc oxide nanoparticles (nZnO) in...

Unraveling adaptive genetic variation represents, in addition to the estimate of population demographic parameters, a cornerstone for the management of aquatic natural living resources, which in turn, represent the raw material for breeding programs. The turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) is a marine flatfish of high commercial value living on the European continental shelf. While wild populations are declining, aquaculture is flourishing in Southern Europe. We evaluated the genetic structure of turbot throughout its natural distribution range...

The high degree of endemism on Sulawesi has previously been suggested to have vicariant origins, dating back 40 Myr ago. Recent studies, however, suggest that much of Sulawesi’s fauna assembled over the last 15 Myr. Here, we test the hypothesis that more recent uplift of previously submerged portions of land on Sulawesi promoted diversification, and that much of its faunal assemblage is much younger than the island itself. To do so, we combined palaeogeographical reconstructions...

1. Ecogeographic isolation is a fundamental prezygotic barrier to reproduction and a step toward diversification in flowering plants. However, whether ecogeographic isolation acts as a reproductive barrier between species and thus as a mechanism for species divergence is unclear and is expected to change as species distributions shift under climate change. 2. Using a Maxent framework, we quantified the extent of ecogeographic isolation of nine closely related species of the European plant genus Pulmonaria, which...

The aim of this study was to compare young and adult sprinters on several biomechanical parameters that were previously highlighted as performance-related and to determine the behaviour of several muscle-tendon units (MTU) in the first stance phase following a block start in sprint running. The ground reaction force (GRF) and kinematic data were collected from 16 adult and 21 young well-trained sprinters. No difference between the groups was found in some of the previously-highlighted performance-related...

Bats and birds are key providers of ecosystem services in forests. How climate and habitat jointly shape their communities is well studied, but whether biotic predictors from other trophic levels may improve bird and bat diversity models is less known, especially across large bioclimatic gradients. Here, we achieved multi-taxa surveys in 209 mature forests replicated in six European countries from Spain to Finland, to investigate the importance of biotic predictors (i.e., the abundance or activity...

The Congolese and Lower Guinean ichthyological provinces are understudied hotspots of the global fish diversity. Here, we barcoded 741 specimens from the Lower and Middle Congo River and from three major drainage basins of the Lower Guinean ichthyological province, Kouilou-Niari, Nyanga and Ogowe. We identified 195 morphospecies belonging to 82 genera and 25 families. Most morphospecies (92.8%) corresponded to distinct clusters of DNA barcodes. Of the four morphospecies present in both neighbouring ichthyological provinces, only...

Context and objective: In the estimation of glomerular filtration rate (GFR), ethnicity is an important determinant. However, all existing equations have been built solely from Caucasian and Afro-American populations and they are potentially inaccurate for estimating GFR in African populations. We therefore evaluated the performance of different estimated GFR (eGFR) equations in predicting measured GFR (mGFR). Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 93 healthy adults were randomly selected in the general population of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic...

1.Most naturalized and invasive alien plant species were originally introduced to regions for horticultural purposes. However, many regions now face an invasion debt from ornamental alien species, which have not yet naturalized. In this regard, climate change represents a threat as it may lower the barriers to naturalization for some ornamental alien species. Identifying those species is extremely important for anticipating impending invasions. 2.To identify predictors of naturalization, we modelled the effects of climate, nursery...

Master's thesis project Eline Van Geert under supervision of Prof. Johan Wagemans

Master's thesis project of Eline Van Geert and subsequent follow-up studies under supervision of Prof. Johan Wagemans at the GestaltReVision lab, KU Leuven

Reproducibility is a defining feature of science, but the extent to which it characterizes current research is unknown. We conducted replications of 100 experimental and correlational studies published in three psychology journals using high-powered designs and original materials when available.

When environments change, populations may adapt surprisingly fast, repeatedly and even at microgeographic scales. There is increasing evidence that such cases of rapid parallel evolution are fueled by standing genetic variation, but the source of this genetic variation remains poorly understood. In the saltmarsh beetle Pogonus chalceus, short-winged ‘tidal’ and long-winged ‘seasonal’ ecotypes have diverged in response to contrasting hydrological regimes and can be repeatedly found along the Atlantic European coast. By analyzing genomic variation...

Recombination, the exchange of information between different genetic polymer strands, is of fundamental importance in biology for genome maintenance and genetic diversification mediated by dedicated recombinase enzymes. Here, we describe a pervasive non-enzymatic capacity for recombination (and ligation) in random-sequence genetic oligomer pools. Specifically, we examine random and semi-random eicosamer (N20) pools of RNA, DNA and the unnatural genetic polymers ANA (arabino-), HNA (hexitol-) and AtNA (altritol-nucleic acids). While DNA, ANA and HNA pools proved...

Plant populations occupying different habitats may diverge from each other over time and gradually accumulate genetic and morphological differences, ultimately resulting in ecotype or even species formation. In plant species that critically rely on mycorrhizal fungi, differences in mycorrhizal communities can contribute to ecological isolation by reducing or even inhibiting germination of immigrant seeds. In this study, we investigated whether the mycorrhizal communities available in the soil and associating with the roots of seedlings and...

The Atlantic bluefin tuna is a highly migratory species emblematic of the challenges associated with shared fisheries management. In an effort to resolve the species’ stock dynamics, a genome-wide search for spatially informative single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was undertaken, by way of sequencing reduced representation libraries. An allele frequency approach to SNP discovery was used, combining the data of 555 larvae and young-of-the-year (LYOY) into pools representing major geographical areas and mapping against a newly...