Circadian rhythms, their free-running periods and strength of the rhythm are often used as indicators of biological clocks, and there is evidence that the free-running periods of circadian rhythm are not affected by environmental factors like temperature. However, there are few studies of environmental effects on the power of rhythms and it is not clear if temperature compensation is universal. Additionally, genetic variation and phenotypic plasticity in biological clocks are important for understanding the evolution...

Tonic immobility and escape are adaptive anti-predator tactics used by many animals. Escape requires movement, whereas tonic immobility does not. If anti-predator tactics relate to weapon size, males with larger weapons may adopt tonic immobility, whereas males with smaller weapons may adopt escape. However, no study has investigated the relationship between weapon size and anti-predator tactics. In this study, we investigated the relationship between male weapon size and tonic immobility in the beetle Gnathocerus cornutus....

Although hybridization frequently occurs among plant species, hybrid zones of divergent lineages formed at species boundaries are less common and may not be apparent in later generations of hybrids with more parental-like phenotypes, as a consequence of backcrossing. To determine the effects of dispersal and selection on species boundaries, we compared clines in leaf traits and molecular hybrid index along two hybrid zones on Yakushima Island, Japan, in which a temperate (Rubus palmatus) and subtropical...

In theory, a male should change the allocation of fighting and mating efforts in relation to his age. Thus, the consequences of sexual selection may be complicated by changes in the male resource allocation due to aging. However, previous studies have focused on changes in female mate choice and male-male competition with aging separately, and the impact of aging on the relationship between mate choice and male competition is unknown. Here, we examined how male...

Antibiotics and dietary habits can affect the gut microbial community, influencing disease susceptibility. Although the influence of microbiota on the postnatal environment has been well documented, much less is known regarding the impact of gut microbiota at the embryonic stage. Here, we show that maternal microbiota shapes the metabolic system of offspring. During pregnancy, short-chain fatty acids produced by the maternal microbiota dictate the differentiation of neural, intestinal, and pancreatic cells through embryonic GPR41 and...