Selection of the sex‐linked inhibitor of apoptosis in mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) driven by enhanced expression during early overwintering

The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) is an insect native to western North America; however, its geographical range has recently expanded north in BC and east into Alberta. To understand the population structure in the areas of expansion, 16 gene‐linked microsatellites were screened and compared to neutral microsatellites using outlier analyses of F_st and F_ct values. One sex‐linked gene, inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP), showed a strong signature of positive selection for neo‐X alleles and was analyzed for evidence of adaptive variation. Alleles of IAP were sequenced, and differences between the neo‐X and neo‐Y alleles were consistent with neutral evolution suggesting that the neo‐Y allele may not be under functional constraints. Neo‐Y alleles were amplified from gDNA, but not effectively from cDNA, suggesting that there was little IAP expression from neo‐Y alleles. There were no differences in overall IAP expression between males and females with the common northern neo‐X allele suggesting that the neo‐X allele in males compensates for the reduced expression of neo‐Y alleles. However, males lacking the most common northern neo‐X allele thought to be selected for in northern populations had reduced overall IAP expression in early October—at a time when beetles are preparing for overwintering. This suggests that the most common allele may have more rapid upregulation. The reduced function of neo‐Y alleles of IAP suggested by both sequence differences and lower levels of expression may foster a highly selective environment for neo‐X alleles such as the common northern allele with more efficient upregulation.     

Vatra Româneasca and resurgent nationalism in Romania

Abstract

The swift rise of the Vatra Româneasca movement has taken place in the context of a shattered Romanian economy and attendant political turbulence that has left a badly desocialized citizenry ripe for populist mobilization. Vatra has adapted important elements of Ceau?escu's nationalist ideology for use in the post‐communist age. Its success in articulating a campaign against policies of cultural pluralism and minority rights has extended the influence of office‐holders appointed under Communism in minority and mixed areas. Its rhetoric and symbols have been borrowed by the Iliescu regime which lacks a grass‐roots presence or a coherent ideology of its own. The political inexperience of this movement has not prevented it from creating an image of the nation and a set of values designed to enable a disorientated population to come to terms with bewildering changes. Whatever electoral prospects it may have, its rise is the clearest indication that nationalism of an implacable kind is well‐placed to fill the political vacuum left by the collapse of Communism.     

MULTIPLE ORIGINS OF SEX CHROMOSOME FUSIONS CORRELATED WITH CHIASMA LOCALIZATION IN HABRONATTUS JUMPING SPIDERS (ARANEAE: SALTICIDAE)

Entelegyne spiders rarely show fusions yielding neo‐Y chromosomes, which M. J. D. White attributed to a constraint in spiders, namely their proximal chiasma localization acting to upset meiotic segregation in males with fusions. Of the 75 taxa of Habronattus and outgroups studied, 47 have X₁X₂0 sex chromosomes in males, 10 have X₁X₂Y, 15 have X₁X₂X₃Y, 2 have X0, and one has both X₁X₂0 and X₁X₂X₃Y. Chromosome numbers and behavior suggest neo‐Ys formed by an autosome‐X fusion to make X₁X₂Y, with a second fusion to an autosome to make X₁X₂X₃Y. Phylogeny shows at least 8–15 gains (or possibly some losses) of neo‐Y (i.e., X‐autosome fusions), a remarkable number for such a small clade. In contrast to the many X‐autosome fusions, at most one autosome–autosome fusion is indicated. Origins of neo‐Y are correlated significantly with distal localization of chiasmata, supporting White's hypothesis that evolution of neo‐Y systems is facilitated by looser pairing (distal chiasmata) at meiosis. However, an alternative (or contributing) explanation for the correlation is that X‐autosome fusions were selected to permit isolation of male‐favored alleles to the neo‐Y chromosome, aided by distal chiasmata limiting recombination. This intralocus sexual conflict hypothesis could explain both the many X‐autosome fusions, and the stunning complexity of male Habronattus courtship displays.     

“New Canadians are new conservatives”: race,incorporation and achieving electoral success in multicultural Canada

Despite declarations of race's irrelevance, the Conservative Party of Canada's (CPC) stance on race-related policies under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper's leadership was key to every electoral campaign it fought. Moreover, it is not despite but because of their race that racialized political elites have been incorporated into the CPC and its antecedents. Indeed, beginning in the 1990s, the inclusion of Asian Members of Parliament (MP) became for the Reform Party of Canada, a weapon in the struggle for electoral success; that is, part of an era of Conservative racial realignment. By tracing the role of Asian Conservative MP in the rise of the Reform Party since its 1987 inception and the electoral success of the CPC (2006–2015), this article explores how racialized political elites become crucial to the legitimization of the racial state when it is through a discourse of inclusion that exclusion is crafted.     

GENETIC ARCHITECTURE OF ISOLATION BETWEEN TWO SPECIES OF SILENE WITH SEX CHROMOSOMES AND HALDANE'S RULE

Examination of the genetic architecture of hybrid breakdown can provide insight into the genetic mechanisms of commonly observed isolating phenomena such as Haldane's rule. We used line‐cross analysis to dissect the genetic architecture of divergence between two plant species that exhibit Haldane's rule for male sterility and rarity, Silene latifolia and Silene diclinis. We made 15 types of crosses, including reciprocal F₁, F₂, backcrosses, and later‐generation crosses, grew the seeds to flowering, and measured the number of viable ovules, proportion of viable pollen, and sex ratio. Typically, Haldane's rule for male rarity in XY animal hybrids is explained by interactions involving recessive X‐linked alleles that are deleterious when hemizygous (dominance theory), whereas sterility is explained by rapid evolution of spermatogenesis genes (faster‐male evolution). In contrast, we found that the genetic mechanisms underlying Haldane's rule between the two Silene species did not follow these conventions. Dominance theory was sufficient to explain male sterility, but male rarity likely involved faster‐male evolution. We also found an effect of the neo‐sex chromosomes of S. diclinis on the extreme rarity of some hybrid males. Our findings suggest that the genetic architecture of Haldane's rule in dioecious plants may differ from those commonly found in animals.     

Australian Anthropology,Ideology and Political Repression: The Cold War Experience of Frederick G. G. Rose

It is more than half a century since Frederick G. G. Rose (1915–1991) published his classic text, The classification of kin, age structure and marriage amongst the Groote Eylandt Aborigines: A study in method and a theory of kinship (1960) in the former German Democratic Republic. Although the fieldwork for his thesis had been carried out in Australia on Groote Eylandt in 1938 and 1941, a conservative academic establishment and the political climate of the Cold War postponed its publication until 1960. Why were Rose's fieldwork findings suppressed by the powerful gate-keeper of Australian anthropology, Professor Adolphus Peter Elkin (1891–1979)? Moreover, why was Rose later denied a government permit to revisit Groote Eylandt and Central Australia to further his research? This paper examines the early work of the communist anthropologist, Frederick Rose, within the broad context of Western post-war anthropological developments, an expanding capitalist economy and the political tensions of the Cold War era. As a communist and public servant from 1938 to 1954, Rose was forced, after the Petrov Royal Commission cast him under a cloud of suspicion, to seek institutional support for his academic career in the German Democratic Republic.     

Hommel's procedure in linear time

Hommel's and Hochberg's procedures for familywise error control are both derived as shortcuts in a closed testing procedure with the Simes local test. Hommel's shortcut is exact but takes quadratic time in the number of hypotheses. Hochberg's shortcut takes only linear time after the P‐values are sorted, but is conservative. In this paper, we present an exact shortcut in linear time on sorted P‐values, combining the strengths of both procedures. The novel shortcut also applies to a robust variant of Hommel's procedure that does not require the assumption of the Simes inequality.     

Corrective conversion: unsettling citizens and the politics of inclusion in Israel

Gauri Viswanathan's notion of religious conversion as an ‘unsettling’ political event has recently figured prominently in the scholarship on conversion. However, although numerous scholars have productively applied Viswanathan's understanding in their work, primarily in the context of conversion to religious minorities within the nation‐state, to focus too heavily on conversion's unsettling effects risks overlooking political constellations in which it might have rather settling effects. In contrast to the scholarly focus on conversion's disruptive qualities, this article offers an ethnographic account of the ‘settling’ ambitions and logics that underwrite the state politics of Jewish conversion (giur) in contemporary Israel. By looking ethnographically into the mundane discursive, pedagogic, and bureaucratic processes through which the Jewish state converts non‐Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, I demonstrate how religious conversion works to restore the bureaucratic logic of Israeli nationalism, thereby reinstating unambiguous forms of Jewish belonging. Religious conversion can also be an act of taxonomic repair.     

Cover Picture: Proteomics 22/2008

In this issue of Proteomics you will find the following highlighted articles: Man bites dog! Noise improves signal! Yes, the right kind of noise does improve the signal (by about 10‐fold in the LC/MS case described here). Scheltema et al. used the noise generated by the ions remaining in the sample from the LC step as internal standards to standardize and calibrate the mass spectrum of interest. Given a set of well characterized contaminants at very low, but detectable levels, the researchers were able to appropriately stretch or compress spectra by comparison to a reference spectrum of contaminants expected in a particular sample. The demonstration was performed on a Thermo Fisher LTQ Orbitrap system which, run conventionally, yielded a mass accuracy of 1 to 2 parts per million. When the noise method was applied to the same data, the mass accuracy was 0.21 ppm. Scheltema, R. A. et al., Proteomics 2008, 8, 4647–4656. Rafting down the Melanoma river When the subject is rafts, Mark Twain's story of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn rafting down the Mississippi comes immediately to mind for most Americans. A raft of interest to life scientists is associated with detergent resistant membranes found in malignant melanoma cell lines. Made of predominantly cholesterol and sphingolipids, the raft and associated proteins have been shown to participate in signal regulation and protein trafficking as well as several diseases. Working from this information, Baruthio et al. have looked at the lipid raft proteome as a function of melanoma malignancy stage using LC‐MS/MS: radial growth phase, (pre‐metastatic); early vertical growth phase, (non‐metastatic); and fully transformed. They found >175 proteins total in all stages, the most abundant was AHNAK, a large membrane protein. Groups of potential stage markers were detected, although with some difficulty in reproducibility of extraction. Functions found included vacuolar ATPases, adhesion molecules, and signaling pathway regulators. Baruthio, F. et al., Proteomics 2008, 8, 4733–4747. Hot peppers maker confusing soup Capsaicin is the naturally occurring compound that gives chili peppers their “heat.” It is also a component of the pepper's arsenal, deterring some types of attacks. Another of its roles is in regulation of programmed cell death, apoptosis: sometimes it promotes it, sometimes it inhibits it and it always seems to involve reactive oxygen species (ROS). To look at its function as a potential anti‐cancer agent, Baek et al. compared its effect on two human cancer cell lines. HepG2, a hepatoblastoma and SK‐N‐SH, a neuroblastoma, were examined for proteomic changes after exposure to capsaicin at various levels and for various times. Both blastomas responded but in markedly different fashions. Apoptosis was induced in both cell lines, but the ROS levels were up in HepG2 and down in SK‐N‐SH. A number of ROS enzymes exhibited anomalous expression level changes, possibly due to the number of enzymes involved. Baek, Y. M. et al., Proteomics 2008, 8, 4748–4767.     

The cell biology of human hair follicle pigmentation

Although we have made significant progress in understanding the regulation of the UVR‐exposed epidermal‐melanin unit, we know relatively little about how human hair follicle pigmentation is regulated. Progress has been hampered by gaps in our knowledge of the hair growth cycle’s controls, to which hair pigmentation appears tightly coupled. However, pigment cell researchers may have overly focused on the follicular melanocytes of the nocturnal and UVR‐shy mouse as a proxy for human epidermal melanocytes. Here, I emphasize the epidermis‐follicular melanocyte pluralism of human skin, as research models for vitiligo, alopecia areata and melanoma, personal care/cosmetics innovation. Further motivation could be in finding answers to why hair follicle and epidermal pigmentary units remain broadly distinct? Why melanomas tend to originate from epidermal rather than follicular melanocytes? Why multiple follicular melanocyte sub‐populations exist? Why follicular melanocytes are more sensitive to aging influences? In this perspective, I attempt to raise the status of the human hair follicle melanocyte and highlight some species‐specific issues involved which the general reader of the pigmentation literature (with its substantial mouse‐based data) may not fully appreciate.     

Cyclase and Phosphodiesterase Activity on Pre‐T Lymphoid Human Cells,Treated with Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO)

Our aim is to estimate the role of the DMSO on pre‐T lymphoid human cells, we have searched the cyclase and phosphodiesterase activity. We have studied the GTP specific cyclase (G‐Case) and have observed an analogous course to that one of the cAMP‐PDE, where, in both cases, the differences ratio is approximately 5. For the cyclase activity values it has been found that cAMP neo formed is undeterminable in these cells, for the controls and the treated samples.     

In this issue: Proteomics 22/2008

In this issue of Proteomics you will find the following highlighted articles: Man bites dog! Noise improves signal! Yes, the right kind of noise does improve the signal (by about 10‐fold in the LC/MS case described here). Scheltema et al. used the noise generated by the ions remaining in the sample from the LC step as internal standards to standardize and calibrate the mass spectrum of interest. Given a set of well characterized contaminants at very low, but detectable levels, the researchers were able to appropriately stretch or compress spectra by comparison to a reference spectrum of contaminants expected in a particular sample. The demonstration was performed on a Thermo Fisher LTQ Orbitrap system which, run conventionally, yielded a mass accuracy of 1 to 2 parts per million. When the noise method was applied to the same data, the mass accuracy was 0.21 ppm. Scheltema, R. A. et al., Proteomics 2008, 8, 4647–4656. Rafting down the Melanoma river When the subject is rafts, Mark Twain's story of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn rafting down the Mississippi comes immediately to mind for most Americans. A raft of interest to life scientists is associated with detergent resistant membranes found in malignant melanoma cell lines. Made of predominantly cholesterol and sphingolipids, the raft and associated proteins have been shown to participate in signal regulation and protein trafficking as well as several diseases. Working from this information, Baruthio et al. have looked at the lipid raft proteome as a function of melanoma malignancy stage using LC‐MS/MS: radial growth phase, (pre‐metastatic); early vertical growth phase, (non‐metastatic); and fully transformed. They found >175 proteins total in all stages, the most abundant was AHNAK, a large membrane protein. Groups of potential stage markers were detected, although with some difficulty in reproducibility of extraction. Functions found included vacuolar ATPases, adhesion molecules, and signaling pathway regulators. Baruthio, F. et al., Proteomics 2008, 8, 4733–4747. Hot peppers maker confusing soup Capsaicin is the naturally occurring compound that gives chili peppers their “heat.” It is also a component of the pepper's arsenal, deterring some types of attacks. Another of its roles is in regulation of programmed cell death, apoptosis: sometimes it promotes it, sometimes it inhibits it and it always seems to involve reactive oxygen species (ROS). To look at its function as a potential anti‐cancer agent, Baek et al. compared its effect on two human cancer cell lines. HepG2, a hepatoblastoma and SK‐N‐SH, a neuroblastoma, were examined for proteomic changes after exposure to capsaicin at various levels and for various times. Both blastomas responded but in markedly different fashions. Apoptosis was induced in both cell lines, but the ROS levels were up in HepG2 and down in SK‐N‐SH. A number of ROS enzymes exhibited anomalous expression level changes, possibly due to the number of enzymes involved. Baek, Y. M. et al., Proteomics 2008, 8, 4748–4767.     

Constitutional change in Fiji: The apparatus of justification

The discriminatory racial and other non‐democratic provisions which feature in the new constitution of the ‘Sovereign Democratic Republic of Fiji’ have been justified by the regime, at least superficially, on the grounds that they are essential for the protection and enhancement of indigenous Fijian rights and interests. This justification is underscored by two further related, claims which serve to promote the view that western democratic principles and practices are unsuitable to Fiji's political environment. First, the nature of Fiji's plural society is said to constitute a prima facie barrier to the peaceful conduct of western‐style democratic politics. Secondly, it is claimed that the 1970 Constitution of Fiji represented the imposition of essentially alien values on a pre‐existing ‘traditional’, and more legitimate, political framework. The purpose of this article is to evaluate these claims and to demonstrate that the new constitution is, in most respects, an instrument of Fijian chiefly domination.     

Multiple Comparisons for a Large Number of Parameters

When there are many parameters of interest (finitely large or infinite), standard multiple comparison procedures for a finite number of parameters (called discrete‐domain approaches) may lead to a simultaneous confidence region (SCR) too conservative to be useful. Such cases often arise in locating disease genes, detecting changes in image data and examining shapes and patterns in growth curves; or generally, in quantifying uncertainty in an estimate of a regression function (as one entity). In these cases, procedures designed for a continuous domain must be used. Scheffe's method is a classical example of continuous‐domain approaches. It provides an SCR for a regression function when errors are iid Gaussian and the predictor space is unconstrained, i.e. the domain of interest is the q dimensional Euclidean space. In practice, however, functions defined on finite intervals or other constrained domains are often of interest and data may not be Gaussian. Thus, Scheffe's SCR becomes either too conservative or inadequate. In this paper, we introduce and survey a modern‐type continuous‐domain approach, and explore a connection between some discrete‐ and continuous‐domain multiple comparison procedures. We show that, in some cases, even for a small number of parameters, it is still better to use a continuous‐domain multiple comparison procedure. The main ideas behind the continuous‐domain procedures are shown. A new procedure for comparing a finite number of contrasts about k regression curves is developed. Relevant software is provided.     

Host‐plant range expansion to Gymnocladus dioica by an introduced seed predatory beetle Megabruchidius dorsalis

A seed predatory beetle, Megabruchidius dorsalis (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Bruchinae) native to the Oriental region was first found to utilize a North American Gymnocladus dioica (Fabaceae: Caesalpinioideae) in its introduced area in Central Europe. A maximum of three adult exit holes were found on a single seed. Host‐plants of the bruchine beetle have been reviewed from its native and introduced regions, including a host record of Gleditsia fera from Taiwan. Our review indicated the beetle's strict oligophagy on caesalpinioid Gleditsia species. On the contrary, our finding suggests that the beetle's host‐range extends to the caesalpinioid Umtiza clade. On the plant side, this study provides a counterexample to the enemy release hypothesis that predicts fewer predators/parasites in an organism's range of introduction than in their native range; Gy. dioica is attacked by the seed predator in its introduced region, whereas in its native range it is free from seed predators.     

Sillem's Mountain Finch Leucosticte sillemi is a valid species of rosefinch (Carpodacus,Fringillidae)

Sillem's Mountain Finch Leucosticte sillemi was described in 1992 on the basis of an adult and an immature specimen collected in western Tibet in September 1929, but its taxonomic validity and phylogenetic position have been unclear. Based on phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA from the holotype, we show that L. sillemi is not a colour morph of Brandt's Mountain Finch Leucosticte brandti but represents a valid, previously overlooked species of rosefinch (Carpodacus) that has secondarily acquired a pale plumage convergent on that of Leucosticte. Sillem's Mountain Finch is one of the least known species of bird and represents the only known species of rosefinch in which males have no reddish plumage coloration. This species and its sister taxon, the Tibetan Rosefinch Carpodacus roborowskii, are likely to be the world's highest‐altitude sister‐species pair of birds.     

Oligomeric Dop1p is Part of the Endosomal Neo1p‐Ysl2p‐Arl1p Membrane Remodeling Complex

Yeast Dop1p is an essential protein that is highly conserved in evolution and whose function is largely unknown. Here, we provide evidence that Dop1p localizes to endosomes and exists in a complex with two other conserved proteins: Neo1p, a P₄‐ATPase and putative flippase, and the scaffolding protein Ysl2p/Mon2p. The latter operates during membrane budding at the tubular endosomal network/trans‐Golgi network (TEN/TGN) in a process that includes clathrin recruitment via adaptor proteins. Consistent with a role for Dop1p during this process, temperature‐sensitive dop1‐3 cells accumulate multivesicular, elongated tubular and ring‐like structures similar to those displayed by neo1 and ysl2 mutants. In further agreement with the concept of Dop1p‐Neo1p‐Ysl2p complex formation and co‐operation, we show that dop1‐3 cells exhibit reduced levels of Neo1p and Ysl2p at steady state. Conversely, mutations or deletions in NEO1 and YSL2 lead to a decrease in Dop1p levels. In addition to binding to Neo1p and Ysl2p, Dop1p can form dimers or multimers. A critical region for dimerization resides in the C‐terminus with leucine zipper‐like domains. Dop1p's membrane association is largely mediated by its internal region, but Ysl2p might not be crucial for membrane recruitment.     

The economics and greenhouse gas balance of land conversion to Jatropha: the case of Tanzania

Due to higher oil prices, abundance of labor and suitable land and its stable political climate, Tanzania attracted many investments in Jatropha. Although several studies on Jatropha's economic potential are available, its true economics are still uncertain. This paper aims to add to the growing body of knowledge on the socio‐economic performance of the Jatropha system by (i) studying the economic potential (net present value – NPV) of the current most prevailing Jatropha system for Tanzanian farmers and its regional differences, by (ii) making a greenhouse gas (GHG) balance and its economic value of the Jatropha activities on regional level, and by (iii) calculating break‐even thresholds for yield and seed price. Therefore, regional yield modeling, regional life‐cycle assessment, and NPV calculations based on Monte Carlo simulations, each with its set of assumptions, are combined. This study shows positive economic potential of Jatropha cultivation in most of the Tanzanian regions. However, the results also show that 13 of 20 Tanzanian regions will not attain a net positive GHG balance within 10 years. This indicates that the environmental impacts might be more restrictive for Jatropha's sustainability potential in Tanzania than the socio‐economic potential. These results are based on the combination of three models, which consists of strong interdisciplinary modeling work. However, this modeling also contains simplifications (e.g., no opportunity cost for ‘marginal’ land) and uncertainties (e.g., using globally modeled potential yield estimations), which have to be considered in the interpretation of the results.