Long-term population history can influence the genetic effects of recent bottlenecks. Therefore, for threatened or endangered species, an understanding of the past is relevant when formulating conservation strategies. Levels of variation at neutral markers have been useful for estimating local effective population sizes (Ne) and inferring whether population sizes increased or decreased over time. Furthermore, analyses of genotypic, allelic frequency, and phylogenetic information can potentially be used to separate historical from recent demographic changes. For...

Although many classic radiations on islands are thought to be the result of repeated lineage splitting, the role of past fusion is rarely known because during these events, purebreds are rapidly replaced by a swarm of admixed individuals. Here we capture lineage fusion in action in a Galápagos giant tortoise species, Chelonoidis becki, from Wolf Volcano (Isabela Island). The long generation time of Galápagos tortoises and dense sampling (841 individuals) of genetic and demographic data...

Human studies indicate that alcohol exposure during gestation not only increases the chance for later alcohol abuse, but also nicotine dependence. The flavor attributes of both alcohol and nicotine can be important determinants of their initial acceptance and they both share the component chemosensory qualities of an aversive odor, bitter taste and oral irritation. There is a growing body of evidence demonstrating epigenetic chemosensory mechanisms through which fetal alcohol exposure increases adolescent alcohol acceptance, in...

Shallow water anthozoans, the major builders of modern coral reefs, enhance their metabolic and calcification rates with algal symbionts. Controversy exists over whether these anthozoan-algae associations are flexible over the lifetimes of individual hosts, promoting acclimative plasticity, or are closely linked, such that hosts and symbionts coevolve across generations. Given the diversity of algal symbionts and the morphological plasticity of many host species, cryptic variation within either partner could potentially confound studies of anthozoan-algal associations....