Three Infectious Viral Species Lying in Wait in the Banana Genome

Plant pararetroviruses integrate serendipitously into their host genomes. The banana genome harbors integrated copies of banana streak virus (BSV) named endogenous BSV (eBSV) that are able to release infectious pararetrovirus. In this investigation, we characterized integrants of three BSV species—Goldfinger (eBSGFV), Imove (eBSImV), and Obino l''Ewai (eBSOLV)—in the seedy Musa balbisiana Pisang klutuk wulung (PKW) by studying their molecular structure, genomic organization, genomic landscape, and infectious capacity. All eBSVs exhibit extensive viral genome duplications and rearrangements. eBSV segregation analysis on an F1 population of PKW combined with fluorescent in situ hybridization analysis showed that eBSImV, eBSOLV, and eBSGFV are each present at a single locus. eBSOLV and eBSGFV contain two distinct alleles, whereas eBSImV has two structurally identical alleles. Genotyping of both eBSV and viral particles expressed in the progeny demonstrated that only one allele for each species is infectious. The infectious allele of eBSImV could not be identified since the two alleles are identical. Finally, we demonstrate that eBSGFV and eBSOLV are located on chromosome 1 and eBSImV is located on chromosome 2 of the reference Musa genome published recently. The structure and evolution of eBSVs suggest sequential integration into the plant genome, and haplotype divergence analysis confirms that the three loci display differential evolution. Based on our data, we propose a model for BSV integration and eBSV evolution in the Musa balbisiana genome. The mutual benefits of this unique host-pathogen association are also discussed.     

Does cleistogamy variation translate into outcrossing variation in the annual species Lamium amplexicaule (Lamiaceae)?

The maintenance of cleistogamy, the ability to produce closed, obligately selfing flowers (CL), and open, potentially outcrossed flowers (CH), in different proportions, is classically explained through different morphological/physiological properties of the two floral types, but rarely as a mechanism of adjusting the outcrossing rate. We explore the link between CH proportion and overall outcrossing rate in natural populations of Lamium amplexicaule. We assessed number of calices, CH proportion, CH and overall outcrossing rate in four natural populations in two distant areas in France. In each region, we had one favorable and one unfavorable habitat population. Unfavorable habitats produce smaller plants (with fewer calices) with higher CH proportions compared to favorable habitats, regardless of the geographic origin of the populations. CH outcrossing rate did not change significantly among populations. Thus, the overall outcrossing rate in L. amplexicaule is mainly determined by the CH proportion. Contrary to the classical view, unfavorable environments in our study are associated with higher rate of chasmogamous flowers, supposedly more costly to produce. We propose that cleistogamy variation can be considered as a variation of the outcrossing rate and could be explained by classic forces driving the evolution of mating systems (inbreeding depression, pollinators’ abundance).     

Differences in seed dormancy and germination in amphicarpic legumes: manifold bet-hedging in space and time

两型结实豆科植物种子休眠和萌发的差异：空间和时间上多样性的两头下注策略 通过休眠而实现的在空间或时间上的传播是生物体对它们所经历的环境施加影响的主要过程之一。在植物中，由于这两种传播都是通过种子进行的，而且两者在适应性方面发挥的作用也是类似的，因此预测它们之间存在较强的进化相关性。在本研究中，我们使用了两型结实的植株来研究这些进化相关性，这类植株能同时产生具有高度空间传播力的种子以及不会传播的地下种子。我们对经不同组合的休眠过程破坏处理(即干燥后熟、冷积层和物理划伤)后的种子的萌发百分比进行了评估，以研究两种两型结实豆科植物——野豌豆(Vicia amphicarpa L.)和山黧豆(Lathyrus amphicarpos L.)，以及同它们亲缘关系很近的两种单型结实类群——救荒野豌豆(Vicia sativa L.)和红山黧豆(Lathyrus cicera L.)的飞播种子和地下种子在休眠和萌发方面的变化情况。研究结果表明，空间传播和时间传播之间存在着复杂的相互作用。在刚完成传播时，空播种子比地下种子更具休眠性，但当种子经后熟处理而开始物理休眠时，这种趋势也随之逆转。单型结实植株种子的萌发百分比高于其两型结实的同属植株，并在后熟处理后都同样失去了休眠性。相反，两型结实植株的种子则表现出同时受生理休眠和物理休眠调节的不同休眠性策略，预计这可能使出苗时间发生变化，从而提供了多层次多样化的两头下注策略(bet-hedging)。这一策略能够使植株依赖于丰产季中的历史有利区域而不阻碍空间和时间上的迁移，从而有可能在不可预测性很高的条件下具有适应性。     

Anticipated effects of abiotic environmental change on intraspecific social interactions

Social interactions are ubiquitous across the animal kingdom. A variety of ecological and evolutionary processes are dependent on social interactions, such as movement, disease spread, information transmission, and density-dependent reproduction and survival. Social interactions, like any behaviour, are context dependent, varying with environmental conditions. Currently, environments are changing rapidly across multiple dimensions, becoming warmer and more variable, while habitats are increasingly fragmented and contaminated with pollutants. Social interactions are expected to change in response to these stressors and to continue to change into the future. However, a comprehensive understanding of the form and magnitude of the effects of these environmental changes on social interactions is currently lacking. Focusing on four major forms of rapid environmental change currently occurring, we review how these changing environmental gradients are expected to have immediate effects on social interactions such as communication, agonistic behaviours, and group formation, which will thereby induce changes in social organisation including mating systems, dominance hierarchies, and collective behaviour. Our review covers intraspecific variation in social interactions across environments, including studies in both the wild and in laboratory settings, and across a range of taxa. The expected responses of social behaviour to environmental change are diverse, but we identify several general themes. First, very dry, variable, fragmented, or polluted environments are likely to destabilise existing social systems. This occurs as these conditions limit the energy available for complex social interactions and affect dissimilar phenotypes differently. Second, a given environmental change can lead to opposite responses in social behaviour, and the direction of the response often hinges on the natural history of the organism in question. Third, our review highlights the fact that changes in environmental factors are not occurring in isolation: multiple factors are changing simultaneously, which may have antagonistic or synergistic effects, and more work should be done to understand these combined effects. We close by identifying methodological and analytical techniques that might help to study the response of social interactions to changing environments, highlight consistent patterns among taxa, and predict subsequent evolutionary change. We expect that the changes in social interactions that we document here will have consequences for individuals, groups, and for the ecology and evolution of populations, and therefore warrant a central place in the study of animal populations, particularly in an era of rapid environmental change.