Re-mating between and within breeding seasons in the Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber roseus

Data on re-mating between and within breeding seasons were collected between 1983 and 1994 as part of a long-term study of the Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber roseus in the Camargue, southern France. Flamingos have bred in the Rhône delta for centuries and since 1972 have done so annually on an artificial island in the Etang du Fangassier. A sample of chicks has been ringed each year since 1977; many of these birds were later observed back at the breeding site and were used in this study. The mate-switching rate between consecutive breeding seasons was 98.3%. This result is contrary to what has been reported from captive flocks where extensive mate fidelity occurred between consecutive breeding seasons. Mate-switching also was observed in the Camargue within breeding seasons, following breeding failure, and seems to be linked to male breeding strategy in response to the need to synchronize hatching and the limited energy supply of breeding females. The absence of a long-term pair bond in Greater Flamingos contrasts with current views on the evolution of mate fidelity in relation to longevity in birds.     

Greater flamingos Phoenicopterus roseus are partial capital breeders

Capital breeding refers to a strategy in which birds use body stores for egg formation, whereas income breeders obtain all resources for egg formation at breeding sites. Capital breeding should occur more in large‐bodied species because the relative cost of carrying stores for egg formation becomes smaller with increasing body size. Based on a comparison between stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in potential prey at wintering sites and eggs, we examined whether greater flamingos use nutrients stored earlier in the year for egg production. Our results suggest that the greater flamingo is a partial income breeder, since prey for egg formation were obtained both in overwintering sites and at the breeding site. This may be because there are selective pressures for nesting females to lay soon after arriving at the breeding site, which may be facilitated by arriving at the breeding site with developed ovarian follicles.     

Temporal and spatial variation in dispersal in the greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber roseus)

We studied movements of individually marked greater flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber roseus) born in the Camargue, southern France, between their two most important breeding colonies in the western Mediterranean (Camargue and Fuente de Piedra, Spain) from 1986 to 1992. The two sites differ in the frequency with which they offer suitable conditions for breeding. Flamingos have bred each year in the Camargue since 1974, but in only 12 of the past 22 years at Fuente de Piedra. Higher colony fidelity is thus expected in the less variable environment (Camargue), but if dispersal occurs competition might be an important factor causing this dispersal. Following years during which breeding birds in the Camrgue were disturbed (1988 and 1990) a higher proportion of adults changed colonies between breeding attempts (= breeding dispersal, 12.4%), while only 0.4% of flamingos breeding in the Camargue dispersed in the other years. As expected, flamingos breeding at Fuente de Piedra showed a higher rate of breeding dispersal (8.14%). No differences were observed between males and females. The importance of breeding failure as a factor causing breeding dispersal in flamingos was also confirmed by the movements of individual birds. The proportion of young flamingos that moved from their natal colony to start breeding at Fuente de Piedra (= natal dispersal) was independent of sex and age, but increased when breeding access to the Camargue colony was more difficult. However, natal dispersal was also higher in 1988 and 1990 (40.5%) than in the remaining years (1.2%), as was breeding dispersal. We discuss possible ways in which the increased natal dispersal among inexperienced birds could be linked with the increased breeding dispersal of adults in the same year.     

Cutaneous geotrichosis in the red flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber).

In three flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber), which died showing extensive necrotic inflammation of the skin of the webs and the legs, the presence of abundant mycelium and arthrospores was shown in the altered dermis and epidermis. From all the lesions Geotrichum Candidum was isolated in pure culture. Inoculation of suspensions of the fungus into domestic chickens and mice produced granulomas or more purulent nodules with central growth of abundant mycelium. From 20 of 28 experimental animals, G. candidum was reisolated from the lesions in pure culture 2 weeks after the inoculation. It is suggested that alteration of the skin by e.g., prolonged contact with pondwater, the presence of small wounds and the advanced age of the birds, acting as predisposing factors may be necessary in establishing this disease.     

Sex determination in the Lesser Flamingo (Phoenicopterus minor) using morphological measurements

Morphological measurements and blood samples were taken from 154 Lesser Flamingos Phoenicopterus minor, including adults (>3 years old), immature sub-adults (2–3 years old) and first-year juvenile birds of both sexes, captured at Lake Bogoria, Kenya (0°11'–20' N, 036°06' E) during 2001 and 2002. PCR amplification of the CHD-Z and CHD-W genes using DNA extracted from the blood samples was used to determine the sex of each bird. There were significant differences in mass and tarsus length among the three age groups, indicating that Lesser Flamingos continue to grow in skeletal size and mass between fledging and the attainment of adult plumage at 3–4 years of age. On average, males were significantly larger than females in all age groups, although there was substantial overlap between the sexes in all morphological measurements. The element with the least amount of overlap was head-and-bill length. Discriminant functions utilising head-and-bill length that correctly predict the sex of juvenile and immature birds with approximately 93% accuracy are presented. By adding total tarsus length, the sex of wild adult Lesser Flamingos is correctly predicted with approximately 98% accuracy. The same discriminant function developed for wild adult birds predicted the sex of 19 captive adult Lesser Flamingos of known sex with 100% accuracy.     

Adaptive benefits of differential post-fledging development patterns in the Lesser Flamingo (Phoenicopterus minor)

Measurements of five morphological components (mass, skull length, culmen, flattened wing and tarsus) and blood samples were taken from 154 fledged wild Lesser Flamingos Phoenicopterus minor captured during 2001 and 2002 at Lake Bogoria, Kenya (0°11'–20'N, 036°06'E). The sample included adults (>3 years old), immature birds (2–3 years old) and first-year juvenile birds of both sexes. The sex of each bird was determined by PCR amplification of the CHD-Z and CHD-W genes, using DNA extracted from blood samples. Within each gender, there were significant differences in mass and tarsus length amongst the three age groups, indicating that the skeletal size and mass of Lesser Flamingos continue to increase between fledging and attainment of adult plumage at three to four years of age. The different morphological components increased in size at different rates, although the same components appeared to increase at similar rates in both males and females. Skull and culmen lengths had reached adult size in juvenile birds, while juvenile wing length, tarsus length and mass were approximately 95%, 85% and 75% of adult size, respectively. The adaptive significance of these findings is discussed.     

Breeding Experience Might Be a Major Determinant of Breeding Probability in Long-Lived Species: The Case of the Greater Flamingo

The probability of breeding is known to increase with age early in life in many long-lived species. This increase may be due to experience accumulated through past breeding attempts. Recent methodological advances allowing accounting for unobserved breeding episodes, we analyzed the encounter histories of 14716 greater flamingos over 25 years to get a detailed picture of the interactions of age and experience. Survival did not improve with experience, seemingly ruling out the selection hypothesis. Breeding probability varied within three levels of experience : no breeding experience, 1 experience, 2+ experiences. We fitted models with and without among-individual differences in breeding probabilities by including or not an additive individual random effect. Including the individual random effect improved the model fit less than including experience but the best model retained both. However, because modeling individual heterogeneity by means of an additive static individual random effect is currently criticized and may not be appropriate, we discuss the results with and without random effect. Without random effect, breeding probability of inexperienced birds was always times lower than that of same age experienced birds, and breeding probability increased more with one additional experience than with one additional year of age. With random effects, the advantage of experience was unequivocal only after age 9 while in young having experience was penalizing. Another pattern, that breeding probability of birds with experiences dropped after some age (8 without random effect; up to 11 with it), may point to differences in the timing of reproductive senescence or to the existence of a sensitive period for acquiring behavioral skills. Overall, the role of experience appears strong in this long-lived species. We argue that overlooking the role of experience may hamper detection of trade-offs and assessment of individual heterogeneity. However, manipulative experiments are desirable to confirm our finding.     

Using multistate recapture modelling to assess age‐specific bottlenecks in breeding success: a case study in the greater flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus

Bird reproductive performance often increases with age or experience as a result of improved foraging skills, increased reproductive effort, improved coordination between partners, or a selection process. However, it remains unclear whether age and/or experience affect equally the successive steps of the breeding process, from egg laying to incubation and chick rearing. Using data from a long‐term study of the Camargue (southern France) population of the greater flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus, we studied the influence of age on step‐specific breeding performances during a single breeding season. We used, for the first time, multistate recapture models to evaluate the effect of age on breeding attendance (as a surrogate for breeding success) during incubation, early chick rearing and late chick rearing. Our results show a significant positive influence of age on breeding attendance, but only during the incubation period. Older parents had a higher probability than younger ones of completing incubation, whereas after the chick had hatched, the influence of parental age on breeding attendance was no longer significant. Although a high rate of nest desertion by younger flamingos during the middle of the incubation period coincided with a period of heavy rainfall, including rainfall level as a covariate did not improve the fit of the models. We discuss our results in relation to the evolution of life‐history strategies in long‐lived bird species and the influence of environmental instability.     

Genetic polymorphism in dopamine receptor D4 is associated with early body condition in a large population of greater flamingos, Phoenicopterus roseus

Body condition is an important determinant of fitness in many natural populations. However, as for many fitness traits, the underlying genes that regulate body condition remain elusive. The dopamine receptor D4 gene (DRD4) is a promising candidate as dopamine is known to play an important role in the regulation of food intake and the metabolism of both glucose and lipids in vertebrates. In this study, we take advantage of a large data set of greater flamingos, Phoenicopterus roseus, to test whether DRD4 polymorphism predicts early body condition (EBC) while controlling for whole-genome effects of inbreeding and outbreeding using microsatellite multilocus heterozygosity (MLH). We typed 670 of these individuals for exon 3 of the homologue of the human DRD4 gene and 10 microsatellite markers. When controlling for the effects of yearly environmental variations and differences between sexes, we found strong evidence of an association between exon 3 DRD4 polymorphisms and EBC, with 2.2-2.3% of the variation being explained by DRD4 polymorphism, whereas there was only weak evidence that MLH predicts EBC. Because EBC is most likely a polygenic trait, this is a considerable amount of variation explained by a single gene. This is to our knowledge, the first study to show an association between exon 3 DRD4 polymorphism and body condition in non-human animals. We anticipate that the DRD4 gene as well as other genes coding for neurotransmitters and their receptors may play an important role in explaining variation in traits that affect fitness.     

Interannual variations in feeding frequencies and food quality of greater flamingo chicks (Phoenicopterus roseus): evidence from plasma chemistry and effects on body condition

Greater flamingos in southern Spain foraged in areas distant from a breeding site, spending 4-6 days in foraging areas between successive visits to the colony to feed their chicks. During four years, we took blood samples from chicks to ascertain whether there were interannual variations in several blood parameters, indicative of food quality and feeding frequencies. When the chicks were captured, 20-31% of them had their crops empty, indicating that not all chicks were fed daily. Additional evidence of variations in feeding frequencies was obtained from a principal component analysis (PCA) on plasma chemistry values, which also indicated that there were annual variations in the quality of food received by chicks. The association of cholesterol and glucose with some PC axes indicated that some chicks were experiencing fasting periods. Of all plasma metabolites considered, cholesterol was the best one to predict body condition. Greater flamingo chicks experiencing longer fasting intervals, as suggested by higher plasma levels of cholesterol, were in lower body condition.     

Centromere pairing precedes meiotic chromosome pairing in plants

Meiosis is a specialized eukaryotic cell division, in which diploid cells undergo a single round of DNA replication and two rounds of nuclear division to produce haploid gametes. In most eukaryotes, the core events of meiotic prophase I are chromosomal pairing,synapsis and recombination. To ensure accurate chromosomal segregation, homologs have to identify and align along each other at the onset of meiosis. Although much progress has been made in elucidating meiotic processes, information on the mechanisms underlying chromosome pairing is limited in contrast to the meiotic recombination and synapsis events. Recent research in many organisms indicated that centromere interactions during early meiotic prophase facilitate homologous chromosome pairing, and functional centromere is a prerequisite for centromere pairing such as in maize. Here, we summarize the recent achievements of chromosome pairing research on plants and other organisms, and outline centromere interactions, nuclear chromosome orientation,and meiotic cohesin, as main determinants of chromosome pairing in early meiotic prophase.     

Novel Sulfonolipid in the Extremely Halophilic Bacterium Salinibacter ruber

Salinibacter ruber is an extremely halophilic bacterium, phylogenetically affiliated with the Flavobacterium/Cytophaga branch of the domain Bacteria. Electrospray mass analyses (negative ion) of the total lipid extract of a pure culture of S. ruber shows a characteristic peak at m/z 660 as the most prominent peak in the high-mass range of the spectrum. A novel sulfonolipid, giving rise to the molecular ion [M-H]⁻ of m/z 660, has been identified. The sulfonolipid isolated and purified by thin-layer chromatography was shown by chemical degradation, mass spectrometry, infrared spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance analysis to have the structure 2-carboxy-2-amino-3-O-(13′-methyltetradecanoyl)-4-hydroxy-18-methylnonadec-5-ene-1-sulfonic acid. This lipid represents about 10% of total cellular lipids, and it appears to be a structural variant of the sulfonolipids found as main components of the cell envelope of gliding bacteria of the genus Cytophaga and closely related genera (W. Godchaux and E. R. Leadbetter, J. Bacteriol. 153:1238-1246, 1983) and of diatoms (R. Anderson, M. Kates, and B. E. Volcani, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 528:89-106, 1978). Since this sulfonolipid has never been observed in any other extreme halophilic microorganism, we consider the peak at m/z 660 the lipid signature of Salinibacter. This study suggests that this novel sulfonolipid may be used as a chemotaxonomic marker for the detection of Salinibacter within the halophilic microbial community in saltern crystallizer ponds and other hypersaline environments.     

Sugar metabolism in the extremely halophilic bacterium Salinibacter ruber

Growth of Salinibacter ruber, a red, extremely halophilic bacterium phylogenetically affiliated with the Flavobacterium/Cytophaga branch of the domain Bacteria, is stimulated by a small number of sugars (glucose, maltose, starch at 1 g l(-1)). Glucose consumption starts after other substrates have been depleted. Glucose metabolism proceeds via a constitutive, salt-inhibited hexokinase and a constitutive salt-dependent nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP)-linked glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. Glucose dehydrogenase and fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase activity could not be detected. It is therefore suggested that Salinibacter metabolizes glucose by the classic Entner-Doudoroff pathway and not by the Embden-Meyerhof glycolytic pathway or by the modified Entner-Doudoroff pathway present in halophilic Archaea of the family Halobacteriaceae, in which the phosphorylation step is postponed. However, activity of 2-keto-3-deoxy-6-phosphogluconate aldolase could not be detected in extracts of Salinibacter cells, whether or not grown in the presence of glucose.     

Glycerol metabolism in the extremely halophilic bacterium Salinibacter ruber

Growth of Salinibacter ruber, a red, extremely halophilic bacterium phylogenetically affiliated with the Flavobacterium/Cytophaga branch of the domain Bacteria, is stimulated by glycerol. In contrast to glucose consumption, which starts only after more easily degradable substrates present in yeast extract have been depleted, glycerol is consumed during the earliest growth phases. When U-(14)C-labeled glycerol was added to the culture, up to 25% of the radioactivity was incorporated by the cells. Glycerol kinase activity was detected only in cells grown in the presence of glycerol (up to 90 nmol mg protein(-1) min(-1)). This enzyme functioned over salt concentrations from 0.6 to 2.8 M KCl. No significant activity of NAD-dependent glycerol dehydrogenase was found. It is suggested that Salinibacter may use glycerol as one of its principal substrates in its habitat, the saltern crystallizer ponds.     

Novel sulfonolipid in the extremely halophilic bacterium Salinibacter ruber

Salinibacter ruber is an extremely halophilic bacterium, phylogenetically affiliated with the Flavobacterium/Cytophaga branch of the domain Bacteria. Electrospray mass analyses (negative ion) of the total lipid extract of a pure culture of S. ruber shows a characteristic peak at m/z 660 as the most prominent peak in the high-mass range of the spectrum. A novel sulfonolipid, giving rise to the molecular ion [M-H]- of m/z 660, has been identified. The sulfonolipid isolated and purified by thin-layer chromatography was shown by chemical degradation, mass spectrometry, infrared spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance analysis to have the structure 2-carboxy-2-amino-3-O-(13'-methyltetradecanoyl)-4-hydroxy-18-methylnonadec-5-ene-1-sulfonic acid. This lipid represents about 10% of total cellular lipids, and it appears to be a structural variant of the sulfonolipids found as main components of the cell envelope of gliding bacteria of the genus Cytophaga and closely related genera (W. Godchaux and E. R. Leadbetter, J. Bacteriol. 153:1238-1246, 1983) and of diatoms (R. Anderson, M. Kates, and B. E. Volcani, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 528:89-106, 1978). Since this sulfonolipid has never been observed in any other extreme halophilic microorganism, we consider the peak at m/z 660 the lipid signature of Salinibacter. This study suggests that this novel sulfonolipid may be used as a chemotaxonomic marker for the detection of Salinibacter within the halophilic microbial community in saltern crystallizer ponds and other hypersaline environments.     

Phenolic compounds in Catharanthus roseus

Besides alkaloids Catharanthus roseus produces a wide spectrum of phenolic compounds, this includes C6C1 compounds such as 2,3-dihydoxybenzoic acid, as well as phenylpropanoids such as cinnamic acid derivatives, flavonoids and anthocyanins. The occurrence of these compounds in C. roseus is reviewed as well as their biosynthesis and the regulation of the pathways. Both types of compounds compete with the indole alkaloid biosynthesis for chorismate, an important intermediate in plant metabolism. The biosynthesis C6C1 compounds is induced by biotic elicitors.