Early environment influences later performance in fishes

Conditions fish encounter during embryogenesis and early life history can leave lasting effects not only on morphology, but also on growth rate, life‐history and behavioural traits. The ecology of offspring can be affected by conditions experienced by their parents and mother in particular. This review summarizes such early impacts and their ecological influences for a variety of teleost species, but with special reference to salmonids. Growth and adult body size, sex ratio, egg size, lifespan and tendency to migrate can all be affected by early influences. Mechanisms behind such phenotypically plastic impacts are not well known, but epigenetic change appears to be one central mechanism. The thermal regime during development and incubation is particularly important, but also early food consumption and intraspecific density can all be responsible for later life‐history variation. For behavioural traits, early experiences with effects on brain, sensory development and cognition appear essential. This may also influence boldness and other social behaviours such as mate choice. At the end of the review, several issues and questions for future studies are given.     

Analysis of conformational motions and related key residue interactions responsible for a specific function of proteins with elastic network model

Protein collective motions play a critical role in many biochemical processes. How to predict the functional motions and the related key residue interactions in proteins is important for our understanding in the mechanism of the biochemical processes. Normal mode analysis (NMA) of the elastic network model (ENM) is one of the effective approaches to investigate the structure-encoded motions in proteins. However, the motion modes revealed by the conventional NMA approach do not necessarily correspond to a specific function of protein. In the present work, a new analysis method was proposed to identify the motion modes responsible for a specific function of proteins and then predict the key residue interactions involved in the functional motions by using a perturbation approach. In our method, an internal coordinate that accounts for the specific function was introduced, and the Cartesian coordinate space was transformed into the internal/Cartesian space by using linear approximation, where the introduced internal coordinate serves as one of the axes of the coordinate space. NMA of ENM in this internal/Cartesian space was performed and the function-relevant motion modes were identified according to their contributions to the specific function of proteins. Then the key residue interactions important for the functional motions of the protein were predicted as the interactions whose perturbation largely influences the fluctuation along the internal coordinate. Using our proposed methods, the maltose transporter (MalFGK₂) from E. Coli was studied. The functional motions and the key residue interactions that are related to the channel-gating function of this protein were successfully identified.     

Ecological and social determinants of association and proximity patterns in the fission–fusion society of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi)

Some social species exhibit high levels of fission–fusion dynamics (FFD) that improve foraging efficiency. In this study, we shed light on the way that FFD allows animal groups to cope with fluctuations in fruit availability. We explore the relative contribution of fruit availability and social factors like sex in determining association and proximity patterns in spider monkeys. We tested the influence of fruit availability and social factors on the association and proximity patterns using three-year data from a group of spider monkeys in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. We identified subgroup members and estimated their Interindividual distances through instantaneous scan sampling. We evaluated fruit availability by monitoring the phenology of the 10 most important food tree species for spider monkeys in the study site. Social network analyses allowed us to evaluate association and proximity patterns in subgroups. We showed that association patterns vary between seasons, respond to changes in fruit availability, and are influenced by the sex of individuals, likely reflecting biological and behavioral differences between sexes and the interplay between ecological and social factors. In contrast, proximity patterns were minimally affected by changes in fruit availability, suggesting that social factors are more important than food availability in determining cohesion within subgroups.     

Genome‐wide analysis of Italian sheep diversity reveals a strong geographic pattern and cryptic relationships between breeds

Italy counts several sheep breeds, arisen over centuries as a consequence of ancient and recent genetic and demographic events. To finely reconstruct genetic structure and relationships between Italian sheep, 496 subjects from 19 breeds were typed at 50K single nucleotide polymorphism loci. A subset of foreign breeds from the Sheep HapMap dataset was also included in the analyses. Genetic distances (as visualized either in a network or in a multidimensional scaling analysis of identical by state distances) closely reflected geographic proximity between breeds, with a clear north–south gradient, likely because of high levels of past gene flow and admixture all along the peninsula. Sardinian breeds diverged more from other breeds, a probable consequence of the combined effect of ancient sporadic introgression of feral mouflon and long‐lasting genetic isolation from continental sheep populations. The study allowed the detection of previously undocumented episodes of recent introgression (Delle Langhe into the endangered Altamurana breed) as well as signatures of known, or claimed, historical introgression (Merino into Sopravissana and Gentile di Puglia; Bergamasca into Fabrianese, Appenninica and, to a lesser extent, Leccese). Arguments that would question, from a genomic point of view, the current breed classification of Bergamasca and Biellese into two separate breeds are presented. Finally, a role for traditional transhumance practices in shaping the genetic makeup of Alpine sheep breeds is proposed. The study represents the first exhaustive analysis of Italian sheep diversity in an European context, and it bridges the gap in the previous HapMap panel between Western Mediterranean and Swiss breeds.     

Muon disrupts AKT hydrogen bond network in cancer

A cancer microenvironment generates strong hydrogen bond network system by the positive feedback loops supporting cancer complexity and robustness. Such network functions through the AKT locus generating high entropic energy supporting cancer metastatic robustness. Charged lepton particle muon follows the rule of Bragg effect during a collision with hydrogen network in cancer cells. Muon beam dismantles hydrogen bond network in cancer by the muon-catalyzed fusion, leading to apoptosis of cancer cells. Muon induces cumulative energy appearance on the hydrogen bond network in a cancer cell with its fast decay to an electron and two neutrinos. Thus, muon beam, muonic atom, muon neutrino shower, and electrons simultaneously cause fast neutralization of the AKT hydrogen bond network by the conversion of hydrogen into deuterium or helium, inactivating the hydrogen bond networks and inducing failure of cancer complexity and robustness with the disappearance of a malignant phenotype.     

Subordination stress in Nile tilapia and its effect on plasma lysozyme activity

Dominant Nile tilapia had significantly higher lysozyme activity than did subordinate fishes (α=0·05). Plasma lysozyme level was not correlated with sex, parental origin, rearing length, weight, condition factor or rearing density.     

基于指标自动筛选的新疆开孔河流域生态健康评价

生态健康评价对了解区域生态健康状况和促进区域可持续发展具有重要意义,如何自动筛选出能反映生态系统特性的重要指标,是生态健康定量评估的关键问题。基于压力-状态-响应(PSR,Press-State-Response)框架和生态等级网络框架(EHN,Ecological Hierarchy Network),通过文献调研和因果分析建立要素层与指标层之间的交叉联系,构建了生态健康评价"网状"指标体系;在保证指标体系完备性基础上,通过结合主成分分析和熵权法的候选指标权重的客观计算,基于目标优化理论构建了评价指标的自动筛选模型,并基于中选指标计算了新疆开孔河流域2001—2017年生态健康指数(EHCI,Ecological Health Comprehensive Indexes),分析其空间分异和时间变化特征。结果表明:利用所建立的评价指标自动筛选模型,开孔河流域生态健康评价指标由31个候选指标自动筛选出了17个中选指标,用54.8%的指标表达了85.98%的信息,中选的17个指标在干旱/半干旱区域有关文献中应用较多,使用频次比例都在20%以上,其中归一化植被指数(NDVI,Normalized Difference Vegetation Index)、年降水量和植被覆盖度(FVC,Fractional Vegetation Coverage)3个指标的使用频次百分比均超过了50%,说明指标自动筛选模型的合理性;开孔河流域空间分布差异显著,总体上西北高、东南低,东南部和中部绿洲区外围生态健康状况较差,西北部河谷地带和中部两大绿洲区生态健康状况较好;17年来,流域生态质量整体趋于改善,显著改善区域占10.26%,远高于显著退化的1.61%,显著改善区域以孔雀河绿洲最为明显。开孔河流域生态健康的总体好转趋势说明区域生态综合治理取得一定成效。     

Effects of larval competition on survival and growth in Mediterranean fruit flies

1. Larval success was compared when one, two, or three egg clutches were laid in kumquat fruits (≈ 10 ml in volume) either successively on the same day or at the rate of one clutch per day. 2. Increased clutch density was associated with a significant decrease in larval survival rate and non‐significant decreases in larval growth rate and pupal mass. 3. Larval and pupal parameters showed significantly larger variance when clutches were laid on successive days than on the same day, suggesting a competitive advantage for older larvae over younger larvae. 4. The results suggest that, in small fruit, reduced fitness due to larval competition may act against possible fitness benefits due to social facilitation among adult females, hence reducing the likelihood of non‐linear population dynamics caused by processes such as the Allee effect.