Delayed dispersal and the costs and benefits of different routes to independent breeding in a cooperatively breeding bird

Why sexually mature individuals stay in groups as nonreproductive subordinates is central to the evolution of sociality and cooperative breeding. To understand such delayed dispersal, its costs and benefits need to be compared with those of permanently leaving to float through the population. However, comprehensive comparisons, especially regarding differences in future breeding opportunities, are rare. Moreover, extraterritorial prospecting by philopatric individuals has generally been ignored, even though the factors underlying this route to independent breeding may differ from those of strict philopatry or floating. We use a comprehensive predictive framework to explore how various costs, benefits and intrinsic, environmental and social factors explain philopatry, prospecting, and floating in Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis). Not only floaters more likely obtained an independent breeding position before the next season than strictly philopatric individuals, but also suffered higher mortality. Prospecting yielded similar benefits to floating but lower mortality costs, suggesting that it is overall more beneficial than floating and strict philopatry. While prospecting is probably individual‐driven, although limited by resource availability, floating likely results from eviction by unrelated breeders. Such differences in proximate and ultimate factors underlying each route to independent breeding highlight the need for simultaneous consideration when studying the evolution of delayed dispersal.     

Sex, mutation and fitness: asymmetric costs and routes to recovery through compensatory evolution

A wild-type population of Drosophila melanogaster was used to assess the impact of a known deleterious mutation, nub(1), when it had (1) evolved for up to 180 generations with the mutation or (2) recently had the same mutant allele introgressed into it. Relative to this benchmark, we observed much stronger initial fitness depression in males (-74%) than in females (-38%) and also relatively greater fitness recovery by evolved males (+55%) than females (+17%). Experimental assays revealed amelioration in both juvenile and adult fitness and suggested that the greater relative recovery of male fitness was from gains through sexual selection. These evolutionary changes in male fertility depended on pairing with their coevolved mates for both mate choice and post-copulatory components of sexual selection. Without replication at the population level, these results are used to motivate a general hypothesis rather than definitively test it: Differences in reproductive optima may generally skew mutational effects towards the more strongly sexually-selected sex due to genic capture and condition dependence.     

Evolution of Drosophila resistance against different pathogens and infection routes entails no detectable maintenance costs

Pathogens exert a strong selective pressure on hosts, entailing host adaptation to infection. This adaptation often affects negatively other fitness‐related traits. Such trade‐offs may underlie the maintenance of genetic diversity for pathogen resistance. Trade‐offs can be tested with experimental evolution of host populations adapting to parasites, using two approaches: (1) measuring changes in immunocompetence in relaxed‐selection lines and (2) comparing life‐history traits of evolved and control lines in pathogen‐free environments. Here, we used both approaches to examine trade‐offs in Drosophila melanogaster populations evolving for over 30 generations under infection with Drosophila C Virus or the bacterium Pseudomonas entomophila, the latter through different routes. We find that resistance is maintained after up to 30 generations of relaxed selection. Moreover, no differences in several classical life‐history traits between control and evolved populations were found in pathogen‐free environments, even under stresses such as desiccation, nutrient limitation, and high densities. Hence, we did not detect any maintenance costs associated with resistance to pathogens. We hypothesize that extremely high selection pressures commonly used lead to the disproportionate expression of costs relative to their actual occurrence in natural systems. Still, the maintenance of genetic variation for pathogen resistance calls for an explanation.     

Feeding and metabolic compensations in response to different foraging costs

How energetic cost of locomotion affects foraging decisions, and its metabolic consequences are poorly understood. In several groups of animals, including hermit crabs, exploratory walking enhances the efficiency of foraging by increasing the probability of finding more and better food items; however, the net gain of energy will only be enhanced if the costs of walking are lower than the benefits of enhanced food acquisition. In hermit crabs, the cost of walking increases with the mass of the shell type occupied. Thus, we expected that hermit crabs should adjust their foraging strategy to the cost of movement in different shells. We assessed the foraging, the quantity and quality of food intake, and the energetic cost of maintenance of hermit crabs paying different costs of foraging in the wild. The exploratory walking negatively correlated with shell mass, showing that hermit crabs use different foraging strategies in response to the expenditure required to move. Hermit crabs deal with high energetic costs of foraging in heavy shells by reduces their exploratory walking and overall metabolic rate, as a strategy to maximize the net energy intake. This study integrates behavioral and metabolic compensations as a response to foraging at different costs in natural conditions.     

Occupational Dermatoses in Ontario, 1955 to 1962

In Ontario in 1962, with a compensationeligible labour force of 1,814,000, 10 out of each 1000 workers received compensation for some occupational dermatosis, as defined here; 36 out of each 1000 workers received compensation for some cause. Contact dermatitides made up 5042 of 7448 cases of occupational disease for which compensation and/or medical aid was paid in 1955 and 1956. In eight years, 1955 to 1962 (inclusive), of a total of 534,557 “compensation only” cases, 7023 received payment for contact dermatitis. The average yearly cost of compensation of a worker with a contact dermatitis was estimated at $1113; the annual total cost, at $900,000. The average cost of an occupational dermatosis was $368; the annual total cost, $10 million. Occupational dermatoses account for almost one-third of all compensation costs. The cost of “medical aid only” is excluded from all of these estimates. In contact dermatitis, primary irritants (chemicals) are still the main causative agents. Skin sensitizers, the epoxy resins particularly, have become more prominent in recent years. There is no all-purpose barrier cream or protective clothing. Proper personal hygiene remains the most effective preventive agent in industry.     

Susceptibility of laboratory animals to Blastomyces dermatitidis using different routes of inoculation

Experiments have been made to determine the most susceptible animal and best route of inoculation, for the recovery ofBlastomyces dermatitidis. Statistically significant differences were found in the recovery rate ofB. dermatitidis from hamsters and guinea-pigs injected intratesticularly compared with hamsters inoculated intraperitoneally. The intratesticular route in hamsters also appeared significantly more sensitive than the intravenous route in mice. Through both methods it was also possible to recoverB. dermatitidis from some animals inoculated with a suspension of septic garden soil and using only 137 viable particles. The same suspension processed by the oil flotation method with later injection of the supernatant oil into hamsters intratesticularly, permitted the isolation of the agent from all the animals. The processing of soils through this method with later intratesticular inoculation of hamsters should be a useful tool in the search ofB. dermatitidis in nature.

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Resumen Se describen experiencias tendientes a determinar el animal de laboratorio y la mejor ruta de inoculación, para el aislamiento deBlastomyces dermatitidis, a partir de cultivos sobre suelo esterilizado.Se encontró una diferencia significativa en la recuperación del hongo de hamsters y cobayos inoculados por via intratesticular en relación a hamsters inoculados en el peritoneo.La via intratesticular en el hamster se mostró también más sensible que la via intravenosa en el ratón. Mediante ambos méthodos fue posible asimismo recuperarB. dermatitidis de algunos animales inoculados con una suspensión de suelo de jardin no esterilizado, artificialmente contaminado con el hongo e inyectándose aproximadamente 137 partículas viables. El procesamiento del mismo inóculo por el método de flotación en parafina liquida con posterior inyección de la parafina sobrenadante en el hamster por via intratesticular, permitió aislar el agente de todos lo animales inoculados.Se concluye que el procesamiento de suelos por este método, puede ser de gran utilidad para la búsqueda deB. dermatitidis en la naturaleza.

     

Polycystin-2 takes different routes to the somatic and ciliary plasma membrane

Polycystin-2 (also called TRPP2), an integral membrane protein mutated in patients with cystic kidney disease, is located in the primary cilium where it is thought to transmit mechanical stimuli into the cell interior. After studying a series of polycystin-2 deletion mutants we identified two amino acids in loop 4 that were essential for the trafficking of polycystin-2 to the somatic (nonciliary) plasma membrane. However, polycystin-2 mutant proteins in which these two residues were replaced by alanine were still sorted into the cilium, thus indicating that the trafficking routes to the somatic and ciliary plasma membrane compartments are distinct. We also observed that the introduction of dominant-negative Sar1 mutant proteins and treatment of cells with brefeldin A prevented the transport into the ciliary plasma membrane compartment, whereas metabolic labeling experiments, light microscopical imaging, and high-resolution electron microscopy revealed that full-length polycystin-2 did not traverse the Golgi apparatus on its way to the cilium. These data argue that the transport of polycystin-2 to the ciliary and to the somatic plasma membrane compartments originates in a COPII-dependent fashion at the endoplasmic reticulum, that polycystin-2 reaches the cis side of the Golgi apparatus in either case, but that the trafficking to the somatic plasma membrane goes through the Golgi apparatus whereas transport vesicles to the cilium leave the Golgi apparatus at the cis compartment. Such an interpretation is supported by the finding that mycophenolic acid treatment resulted in the colocalization of polycystin-2 with GM130, a marker of the cis-Golgi apparatus. Remarkably, we also observed that wild-type Smoothened, an integral membrane protein involved in hedgehog signaling that under resting conditions resides in the somatic plasma membrane, passed through the Golgi apparatus, but the M2 mutant of Smoothened, which is constitutively located in the ciliary but not in the somatic plasma membrane, does not. Finally, a dominant-negative form of Rab8a, a BBSome-associated monomeric GTPase, prevented the delivery of polycystin-2 to the primary cilium whereas a dominant-negative form of Rab23 showed no inhibitory effect, which is consistent with the view that the ciliary trafficking of polycystin-2 is regulated by the BBSome.     

Susceptibility of hamsters and mice to Paracoccidioides brasiliensis using different routes of inoculation

Experiments were made to investigate the efficacy of inoculation of hamsters and mice by different routes, for the recovery of the mycelial phase ofParacoccidioides brasiliensis. A clear superiority was found for the intratesticular route in hamsters over the intraperitoneal route in the same animal and also over the intraperitoneal and intravenous routes in mice. The intratesticular route in hamsters is thought to be the most appropriate to be used in future attempts to isolateP. brasiliensis from nature.

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Resumen Se realizaron experiencias tendientes a comparar la eficacia de la inoculación de hamsters y lauchas por diferentes vías, para la recuperación de la fase miceliana deParacoccidioides brasiliensis. Se encontró una clara superioridad de la vía intratesticular en el hamster sobre la vía intraperitoneal en el mismo animal y también sobre las vías intraperitoneal e intravenosa en la laucha.La vía intratesticular en el hamster se supone indicada para ser usada en la búsqueda del hongo en sus habitats naturales.

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From the Department of Community Medicine, Mycology Program, University of Kentucky, College of Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky, 40506, U.S.A.