Sex-biased dispersal promotes adaptive parental effects

Background  

In heterogeneous environments, sex-biased dispersal could lead to environmental adaptive parental effects, with offspring selected to perform in the same way as the parent dispersing least, because this parent is more likely to be locally adapted. We investigate this hypothesis by simulating varying levels of sex-biased dispersal in a patchy environment. The relative advantage of a strategy involving pure maternal (or paternal) inheritance is then compared with a strategy involving classical biparental inheritance in plants and in animals.     

Intraspecific genetic variation of a Fagus sylvatica population in a temperate forest derived from airborne imaging spectroscopy time series

1. The growing pace of environmental change has increased the need for large‐scale monitoring of biodiversity. Declining intraspecific genetic variation is likely a critical factor in biodiversity loss, but is especially difficult to monitor: assessments of genetic variation are commonly based on measuring allele pools, which requires sampling of individuals and extensive sample processing, limiting spatial coverage. Alternatively, imaging spectroscopy data from remote platforms may hold the potential to reveal genetic structure of populations. In this study, we investigated how differences detected in an airborne imaging spectroscopy time series correspond to genetic variation within a population of Fagus sylvatica under natural conditions.
2. We used multi‐annual APEX (Airborne Prism Experiment) imaging spectrometer data from a temperate forest located in the Swiss midlands (Laegern, 47°28'N, 8°21'E), along with microsatellite data from F. sylvatica individuals collected at the site. We identified variation in foliar reflectance independent of annual and seasonal changes which we hypothesize is more likely to correspond to stable genetic differences. We established a direct connection between the spectroscopy and genetics data by using partial least squares (PLS) regression to predict the probability of belonging to a genetic cluster from spectral data.
3. We achieved the best genetic structure prediction by using derivatives of reflectance and a subset of wavebands rather than full‐analyzed spectra. Our model indicates that spectral regions related to leaf water content, phenols, pigments, and wax composition contribute most to the ability of this approach to predict genetic structure of F. sylvatica population in natural conditions.
4. This study advances the use of airborne imaging spectroscopy to assess tree genetic diversity at canopy level under natural conditions, which could overcome current spatiotemporal limitations on monitoring, understanding, and preventing genetic biodiversity loss imposed by requirements for extensive in situ sampling.

     

Liver microsome phospholipids and cytochrome P.450 conceptration in phenobarbital treated rats fed on different diets

Liver microsomal concentration of cytochrome P.450 is increased in animals which are fed diets rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids. On the other hand, the effects of phenobarbital are more important when the dietary fat is more unsaturated. The unsaturation index in liver microsomal phosphatidylcholines depends on the unsaturation of the dietary fats. The treatment with phenobarbital constantly results in a decrease of the unsaturation index of fatty acids both in lecithins and cephalins. The importance of the liver microsomal cytochrome P.450 increase and the importance of the unsaturation index decrease in liver microsomal lecithins, both promoted by phenobarbital, are in good agreement.     

Introduction historique et critique à la notion de dépression en psychiatrie

The author describes the history of the concept of depression in modern psychiatry from the end of the Age of Enlightenment until today in three parts. In the first period (1793–1854), the opposition of general delusion (mania) and partial delusion (melancholia) prevails, without the problem of changes of the affective state being an issue. Only with the work of J. Guislain, and later of W. Griesinger, does the concept of mood disorders become a categorical form in mental pathology with the idea of psychological pain. The second period (1854–1926) is distinguished firstly by the works of J.P. Falret on circular insanity, and then those of V. Magnan, J. Ségnan, J. Séglas et Ph. Chaslin in France and E. Kraepelin in Germany. This period is characterized by the classical construction of periodic manicdepressive psychosis and takes into account the opposition of mania and melancholia. In the third period (1926–1977), the influences of phenomenology, psychoanalysis and structuralism predominate. Gradually melancholia loses its place at the core of this field, in favour of the concept of depression and this change now characterizes contemporary psychiatry.     

Complementary Roles of the Hippocampus and the Dorsomedial Striatum during Spatial and Sequence-Based Navigation Behavior

We investigated the neural bases of navigation based on spatial or sequential egocentric representation during the completion of the starmaze, a complex goal-directed navigation task. In this maze, mice had to swim along a path composed of three choice points to find a hidden platform. As reported previously, this task can be solved by using two hippocampal-dependent strategies encoded in parallel i) the allocentric strategy requiring encoding of the contextual information, and ii) the sequential egocentric strategy requiring temporal encoding of a sequence of successive body movements associated to specific choice points. Mice were trained during one day and tested the following day in a single probe trial to reveal which of the two strategies was spontaneously preferred by each animal. Imaging of the activity-dependent gene c-fos revealed that both strategies are supported by an overlapping network involving the dorsal hippocampus, the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) and the medial prefrontal cortex. A significant higher activation of the ventral CA1 subregion was observed when mice used the sequential egocentric strategy. To investigate the potential different roles of the dorsal hippocampus and the DMS in both types of navigation, we performed region-specific excitotoxic lesions of each of these two structures. Dorsal hippocampus lesioned mice were unable to optimally learn the sequence but improved their performances by developing a serial strategy instead. DMS lesioned mice were severely impaired, failing to learn the task. Our data support the view that the hippocampus organizes information into a spatio-temporal representation, which can then be used by the DMS to perform goal-directed navigation.     

Impact of disease frequency and host density on pollination and transmission of an African anther-smut fungus

The vast majority of flowering plants rely solely on insects for pollination. A number of pathogens have evolved mechanisms to exploit these close associations and use pollinators as vectors of infective propagules. Factors that affect pollinator movements and successful pollination may in turn also influence successful transmission of fungal spores. Here we investigate the effect of host density and the frequency of diseased Oxalis lanata individuals infected by the anther-smut fungus, Thecaphora capensis, on the likelihood of receiving pollen and fungal spores. Specifically, we determined the numbers of spores and pollen grains deposited on stigmatic surfaces of selected flowers under natural and standardized conditions where host density and disease frequency varied. The effect of host flower density and diseased flower frequency on pollen and spore transfer was variable under natural conditions and these factors interacted significantly. However, an increase in host density and disease frequency significantly influenced pollen and spore deposits under standardized conditions. The effect of host density was, however, not linear and an optimal flower density for pollen and fungal spore transmission was found. Similar to other systems of vector-borne disease, the transmission of anther-smut of Oxalis lanata is more frequency-dependent than density-dependent. This study represents a first step towards understanding the disease transmission process of T. capensis on Oxalis and lays the foundation for future comparative studies between this and other systems to develop and test general hypotheses of disease dynamics in vector-borne disease transmission systems.