‘Racism: From the Labour Movement to the Far-Right’

This report is a reflection on a recent conference, ‘Racism: From the Labour Movement to the Far-Right’, which was held at the University of Glasgow from Friday 5th to Saturday 6th September 2014. The authors discuss the main themes that the conference sought to address, consider the key highlights of the event including a summary of the opening address by Floya Anthias, and offer some suggestions as to how the initiative may be taken forward.     

Do Insectivorous Birds use Volatile Organic Compounds from Plants as Olfactory Foraging Cues? Three Experimental Tests

Some insectivorous birds orient towards insect‐defoliated trees even when they do not see the foliar damage or the herbivores. There are, however, only a few studies that have examined the mechanisms behind this foraging behaviour. Previous studies suggest that birds can use olfactory foraging cues (e.g. volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by defoliated plants), indirect visual cues or a combination of the two sensory cues. VOCs from insect‐defoliated plants are known to attract natural enemies of herbivores, and researchers have hypothesized that VOCs could also act as olfactory foraging cues for birds. We conducted three experiments across a range of spatial scales to test this hypothesis. In each experiment, birds were presented with olfactory cues and their behavioural responses or foraging outcomes were observed. In the first experiment, two different VOC blends, designed to simulate the volatile emissions of mountain birch (Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii) after defoliation by autumnal moth (Epirrita autumnata) larvae, were used in behavioural experiments in aviaries with pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca). The second experiment was a field‐based trial of bird foraging efficiency; the same VOC blends were applied to mountain birches, silver birches (B. pendula) and European white birches (B. pubescens) with plasticine larvae attached to the trees to serve as artificial prey for birds and provide a means to monitor predation rate. In the third experiment, the attractiveness of silver birch saplings defoliated by autumnal moth larvae versus intact controls was tested with great tits (Parus major) and blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) in an aviary. Birds did not orient towards either artificial or real trees with VOC supplements or towards herbivore‐damaged saplings when these saplings and undamaged alternatives were hidden from view. These findings do not support the hypothesis that olfactory foraging cues are necessary in the attraction of birds to herbivore‐damaged trees.     

A robust multiple-locus method for quantitative trait locus analysis of non-normally distributed multiple traits

Linear regression-based quantitative trait loci/association mapping methods such as least squares commonly assume normality of residuals. In genetics studies of plants or animals, some quantitative traits may not follow normal distribution because the data include outlying observations or data that are collected from multiple sources, and in such cases the normal regression methods may lose some statistical power to detect quantitative trait loci. In this work, we propose a robust multiple-locus regression approach for analyzing multiple quantitative traits without normality assumption. In our method, the objective function is least absolute deviation (LAD), which corresponds to the assumption of multivariate Laplace distributed residual errors. This distribution has heavier tails than the normal distribution. In addition, we adopt a group LASSO penalty to produce shrinkage estimation of the marker effects and to describe the genetic correlation among phenotypes. Our LAD-LASSO approach is less sensitive to the outliers and is more appropriate for the analysis of data with skewedly distributed phenotypes. Another application of our robust approach is on missing phenotype problem in multiple-trait analysis, where the missing phenotype items can simply be filled with some extreme values, and be treated as outliers. The efficiency of the LAD-LASSO approach is illustrated on both simulated and real data sets.     

Geometric morphometrics throws light on evolution of the subterranean catfish Rhamdiopsis krugi (Teleostei: Siluriformes: Heptapteridae) in eastern Brazil

Rhamdiopsis krugi is a highly specialized troglobitic (exclusively subterranean) catfish from phreatic water bodies of caves located within two separated metasedimentary basins in the region of Chapada Diamantina, Bahia state, Brazil. In order to test the hypothesis of isolation with differentiation of the groups from the Una‐Utinga and Irecê metasedimentary basins, we compared five populations among themselves and with an epigean species of Rhamdiopsis. This was accomplished using geometric morphometrics, a powerful tool for detecting differences in body shape at population and species levels. All studied samples differed significantly from each other, the epigean sample being the most distinct and the Una Basin populations clustering together. Geological and hydrological barriers explain the differences among the subterranean populations. We discuss our results together with the autapomorphies found in R. krugi, which validate its monophyly. These results imply an old age for the R. krugi clade, more than 10 Myr; alternative hypotheses are also presented. We propose a two‐step vertical colonization model of the subterranean habitat through the hyporheic zone by an epigean ancestral, with a progressive acquisition of the autapomorphies characterizing R. krugi. For conservation purposes, the two differentiated sets of populations should be considered and referred to as R. krugi ‘Una morphotype’ and R. krugi ‘Irecê morphotype’. © 2014 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2014, 114 , 136–151.     

Genome-wide analysis of signatures of selection in populations of African honey bees (Apis mellifera) using new web-based tools

Background

With the development of inexpensive, high-throughput sequencing technologies, it has become feasible to examine questions related to population genetics and molecular evolution of non-model species in their ecological contexts on a genome-wide scale. Here, we employed a newly developed suite of integrated, web-based programs to examine population dynamics and signatures of selection across the genome using several well-established tests, including F_ST, pN/pS, and McDonald-Kreitman. We applied these techniques to study populations of honey bees (Apis mellifera) in East Africa. In Kenya, there are several described A. mellifera subspecies, which are thought to be localized to distinct ecological regions.

Results

We performed whole genome sequencing of 11 worker honey bees from apiaries distributed throughout Kenya and identified 3.6 million putative single-nucleotide polymorphisms. The dense coverage allowed us to apply several computational procedures to study population structure and the evolutionary relationships among the populations, and to detect signs of adaptive evolution across the genome. While there is considerable gene flow among the sampled populations, there are clear distinctions between populations from the northern desert region and those from the temperate, savannah region. We identified several genes showing population genetic patterns consistent with positive selection within African bee populations, and between these populations and European A. mellifera or Asian Apis florea.

Conclusions

These results lay the groundwork for future studies of adaptive ecological evolution in honey bees, and demonstrate the use of new, freely available web-based tools and workflows (http://usegalaxy.org/r/kenyanbee) that can be applied to any model system with genomic information.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-1712-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Costly punishment prevails in intergroup conflict

Understanding how societies resolve conflicts between individual and common interests remains one of the most fundamental issues across disciplines. The observation that humans readily incur costs to sanction uncooperative individuals without tangible individual benefits has attracted considerable attention as a proximate cause as to why cooperative behaviours might evolve. However, the proliferation of individually costly punishment has been difficult to explain. Several studies over the last decade employing experimental designs with isolated groups have found clear evidence that the costs of punishment often nullify the benefits of increased cooperation, rendering the strong human tendency to punish a thorny evolutionary puzzle. Here, we show that group competition enhances the effectiveness of punishment so that when groups are in direct competition, individuals belonging to a group with punishment opportunity prevail over individuals in a group without this opportunity. In addition to competitive superiority in between-group competition, punishment reduces within-group variation in success, creating circumstances that are highly favourable for the evolution of accompanying group-functional behaviours. We find that the individual willingness to engage in costly punishment increases with tightening competitive pressure between groups. Our results suggest the importance of intergroup conflict behind the emergence of costly punishment and human cooperation.     

Association between the <Emphasis Type="Italic">PTPN22</Emphasis>+1858 C/T polymorphism and psoriatic arthritis

Introduction  

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the frequency of the PTPN22 +1858 C/T single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (rs 2476601), previously shown to be associated with several autoimmune diseases, in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in comparison with population based controls.     

Cardiovascular events in early RA are a result of inflammatory burden and traditional risk factors: a five year prospective study

Introduction  

Co-morbidity and mortality due to cardiovascular disease (CVD) are increased in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Most published studies in this field are retrospective or cross sectional. We investigated the presence of traditional and disease related risk factors for CVD at the onset of RA and during the first five years following diagnosis. We also evaluated their potential for predicting a new cardiovascular event (CVE) during the five-year follow-up period and the modulatory effect of pharmacological treatment.     

Diagnostic properties of metabolic perturbations in rheumatoid arthritis

Introduction  

The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of diagnosing early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by measuring selected metabolic biomarkers.