Nonlinear and correlational sexual selection on 'honest' female ornamentation

Female ornamentation has long been overlooked because of the greater prevalence of elaborate displays in males. However, the circumstances under which females would benefit from honestly signalling their quality are limited. Females are not expected to invest in ornamentation unless the fitness benefits of the ornament exceed those derived from investing the resources directly into offspring. It has been proposed that when females gain direct benefits from mating, females may instead be selected for ornamentation that deceives males about their reproductive state. In the empidid dance flies, males frequently provide nuptial gifts and it is usually only the female that is ornamented. Female traits in empidids, such as abdominal sacs and enlarged pinnate leg scales, have been proposed to 'deceive' males into matings by disguising egg maturity. We quantified sexual selection in the dance fly Rhamphomyia tarsata and found escalating, quadratic selection on pinnate scales and that pinnate scales honestly reflect female fecundity. Mated females had a larger total number and more mature eggs than unmated females, highlighting a potential benefit rather than a cost of male mate choice. We also show correlational selection on female pinnate scales and fecundity. Correlational selection, equivalent investment patterns or increased nutrition from nuptial gifts may all maintain honesty in female ornamentation.     

混合线性模型下猪群间遗传联系的度量

采用关联指数（IC）和决定系数（CD）两种方法,度量混合线性模型遗传评估下猪群体间的遗传关联性。结果表明,加拿大安大略省的大约克夏猪、长白猪、杜洛克猪和汉普夏猪4个主要品种群体间具有良好的遗传联系。CD法既组合了数据结构和信息量,又考虑了预测误差方差和遗传变异性,是一个选择判断遗传评估精度的好方法。     

Complex binding interactions between multicomponent mixtures and odorant receptors in the olfactory organ of the Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus

Our study was designed to examine how components of complex mixtures can inhibit the binding of other components to receptor sites in the olfactory system of the spiny lobster Panulirus argus. Biochemical binding assays were used to study how two- to six-component mixtures inhibit binding of the radiolabeled odorants taurine, L-glutamate and adenosine-5'-monophosphate to a tissue fraction rich in dendritic membrane of olfactory receptor neurons. Our results indicate that binding inhibition by mixtures can be large and is dependent on the nature of the odorant ligand and on the concentration and composition of the mixture. The binding inhibition by mixtures of structurally related components was generally predicted using a competitive binding model and binding inhibition data for the individual components. This was not the case for binding inhibition by most mixtures of structurally unrelated odorants. The binding inhibition for these mixtures was generally smaller than that for one or more of their components, indicating that complex binding interactions between components can reduce their ability to inhibit binding. The magnitude of binding inhibition was influenced more by the mixture's precise composition than by the number of components in it, since mixtures with few components were sometimes more inhibitory than mixtures with more components. These findings raise the possibility that complex binding interactions between components of a mixture and their receptors may shape the output of olfactory receptor neurons to complex mixtures.      

Noncontact dipole effects on channel permeation. III. Anomalous proton conductance effects in gramicidin

Proton transport on water wires, of interest for many problems in membrane biology, is analyzed in side-chain analogs of gramicidin A channels. In symmetrical 0.1 N HCl solutions, fluorination of channel Trp(11), Trp-(13), or Trp(15) side chains is found to inhibit proton transport, and replacement of one or more Trps with Phe enhances proton transport, the opposite of the effects on K(+) transport in lecithin bilayers. The current-voltage relations are superlinear, indicating that some membrane field-dependent process is rate limiting. The interfacial dipole effects are usually assumed to affect the rate of cation translocation across the channel. For proton conductance, however, water reorientation after proton translocation is anticipated to be rate limiting. We propose that the findings reported here are most readily interpreted as the result of dipole-dipole interactions between channel waters and polar side chains or lipid headgroups. In particular, if reorientation of the water column begins with the water nearest the channel exit, this hypothesis explains the negative impact of fluorination and the positive impact of headgroup dipole on proton conductance.     

The identification of disease-induced biomarkers in the urine of BSE infected cattle

Background  

The bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) epidemic and the emergence of a new human variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) have led to profound changes in the production and trade of agricultural goods. The rapid tests currently approved for BSE monitoring in slaughtered cattle are all based on the detection of the disease related isoform of the prion protein, PrP^d, in brain tissue and consequently are only suitable for post-mortem diagnosis. Objectives: In instances such as assessing the health of breeding stock for export purposes where post-mortem testing is not an option, there is a demand for an ante-mortem test based on a matrix or body fluid that would permit easy access and repeated sampling. Urine and urine based analyses would meet these requirements.     

Mitochondrial DNA variation and genetic structure in populations of Drosophila melanogaster

The understanding of the genetic structure of a species can be improved by considering together data from different types of genetic markers. In the past, a number of worldwide populations of Drosophila melanogaster have been extensively studied for several such markers, including allozymes, chromosomal inversions, and quantitative characters. Here we present results from a study of restriction- fragment-length polymorphisms of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in 92 isofemale lines from many of the same geographic populations of D. melanogaster. Eleven restriction enzymes were used, of which four revealed restriction-site polymorphism. A total of 24 different haplotypes were observed, of which 18 were unique to single populations. In many populations, the unique haplotypes have reached high frequency without being observed in neighboring populations. A Wagner parsimony tree reveals that mutationally close variants show geographical clumping, suggesting local differentiation of mtDNA in populations. The Old-World and the New-World populations are differentiated, with the predominant Old-World haplotype being virtually absent from the New World. These results contrast with those for the nuclear genes, in which many loci show parallel clines in different continents, and suggest a common origin of D. melanogaster populations in North America.      

The molecular organization of the beta-globin complex of the deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus

Recombinant DNA clones have been isolated that contain 80 kb of the beta-globin complex from the deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus. Comparisons of this complex with that from the laboratory mouse, Mus domesticus (with an order 5'-Hbby, Hbb-bhO, Hbb-bhl, Hbb-bh2, Hbb-bh3, Hbb-bl, Hbb-b2 3') highlight organizational trends in the beta-globin complex since the two species diverged. Unlike other mammals studied thus far, the deer mouse possesses three adult genes. Partial sequence analysis indicates that each of the three adult genes is intact and hence may be functional. Hybridization of one of the two Mus pseudogenes, Hbb-bh3, to genomic blots from Peromyscus reveals that it has a homologous counterpart in Peromyscus. Homologous genes to the two gamma-like Mus genes, Hbb-bhO and Hbb-bhl, are also found in Peromyscus. The strong hybridization between the Hbb-bhl genes and significant nucleotide similarity between the Hbb-bhO genes suggest that both pairs are important for the ontogeny of these mice although no known product has been identified for the Hbb-bhO genes. The presence of Hbb-bhO and Hbb-bhl in Peromyscus suggests that the duplication that created this related gene set occurred before the two lineages diverged. A single gene for Hbb-y has been isolated from Peromyscus. The adult region in Peromyscus has undergone significant divergence from the same region in Mus, having three rather than two adult genes, the acquisition of at least 15 kb of extra DNA relative to Mus, and possibly the loss of the Hbb-bh2 pseudogene. The nonadult region of the complex, in contrast, contains the same set of genes apparently distributed over the same amount of DNA as in the Mus beta- globin complex. This observation suggests that the embryonic region of the complex is more evolutionarily stable than the adult region.