Hominid paleoecology: The competitive exclusion principle and determinants of niche relationships

Some paleonanthropologists invoke the competitive exclusion principle programmatically in support of a single-species (or lineage) hypothesis of hominid evolution. Others apparently accept the association between competitive exclusion and a single species view, and develop multi-species interpretations using only taxonomic concepts. This paper demonstrates that the competitive exclusion principle itself is too assumption-bound to be appropriate for analyzing questions of hominid coexistence. Especially, the principle does not establish the ecological validity of the single-species hypothesis. Contrary to its immediate appearances, the principle has developed historically and analytically to predict and explain the evolution and maintenance of diversity in communities. Used in this manner it constitutes an important basis for the study of hominid paleoecology. Niche concepts necessary to demonstrate this are introduced, and competition and other factors that may have influenced the realized niches of sympatric hominid species are discussed. Nearly all modifications of the competitive exclusion principle that make it more realistic also illuminate factors that generate stable coexistence among competing species. These factors and their organizing theory establish the relevance of a broad data base to the analysis of hominid paleoecology; they should help to guide research on the ecology of early homonid species and their interrelationships.     

Genetic structure and relationships among anadromous and landlocked populations of rainbow smelt, Osmerus mordax, Mitchill, as revealed by mtDNA restriction analysis

Larvae of anadromous rainbow smelt originating in various spawning tributaries are retained in the St Lawrence estuary. We proposed that these smelt represent one population genetically differentiated from adjacent populations characterized by geographically distinct larval retention areas. We also analysed four landlocked populations to evaluate the phylogenetic basis of dwarf and normal-sized phenotypes and their relation to an adromous smelt. A phylogenetic distinction was revealed between anadromous and landlocked smelt, with only one of the two mtDNA phylogenetic groups of anadromous fish observed among landlocked smelt. Significant geographical heterogeneity in the distribution of mtDNA genotypes was observed among landlocked smelt, suggesting that dwarfism in smelt may be polyphyletic in origin. St Lawrence smelt were genetically identical but distinct from adjacent populations, supporting the proposition that population genetic structure reflects the number of larval retention zones rather than spawning sites.     

Natural DNA sequences complementary in the same direction: evidence for parallel biosynthesis?

Based on both the occurrence of families of DNA sequences complementary in the same direction in different genomes and the physical possibility of DNA forming a parallel double helix, we postulate an unusual enzymatic synthesis of parallel DNA on a DNA template from its 5-end. We discuss the assumed evolutionary aspects of this problem and suggest ways to check the hypothesis.     

Adenosine deaminase deficiency due to heterozygous abnormality consisting of a deletion of exon 7 and the absence of enzyme mRNA

An adenosine deaminase (ADA;EC 3.5.4.4)-deficient B lymphoblastoid cell line BADO5 derived from a Japanese patient with severe combined immunodeficiency disease and two B lymphoblastoid cell lines, BAMO5 from his mother and BAFO5 from his father, were characterized. To identify mutations affecting ADA activity, we prepared cDNAs to ADA mRNAs of the BADO5 cell line for nucleotide sequencing. Sequence analysis of one of the BADO5 ADA cDNA clones revealed deletion of exon 7, and one point mutation of base 629 from G to A that did not affect the amino acid sequence. All clones of the BADO5 cell line so far examined showed the absence of exon 7 by Southern blotting analysis. Ribonuclease protection assay with an RNA probe spanning from exon 5 to exon 11 showed that the BADO5 ADA mRNA had a deletion of exon 7, the BAMO5 mRNA had normal length, and the BAFO5 mRNA had two species with a deletion of exon 7 and with normal length. Consequently, the patient's ADA genes resulted from one allele of the BAMO5 ADA gene that did not produce a detectable mRNA, and the other allele of the BAFO5 ADA gene producing an aberrant mRNA without exon 7.     

Was globin evolution very rapid in its early stages?: A dubious case against the rate-constancy hypothesis

Summary Goodman et al's (1975) claim of accelerated evolution in the early stages of globin evolution is based on an erroneous assignment of the time of divergence of vertebrate myoglobin and hemoglobin. When this is corrected, there is no basis for their claim. The data are much more consistent with the nearly constant rate expected on the neutral mutation-random drift hypothesis than with the uneven rates expected if most amino acid changes were caused by substitution of favorable mutants through Darwinian selection. In addition, the majority of the codons determined by their maximum parsimony method have turned out to be wrong when compared to the actual nucleotide sequences of rabbit and human hemoglobins determined by direct sequencing.Contribution No. 1314 from the National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, 411 Japan.     

Hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase: Mosaicism in the peripheral erythrocytes of a heterozygote for a normal and a mutant enzyme

A mutant form of erythrocyte hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase with an abnormal isoenzyme pattern was found in a patient with a partial enzyme deficiency and X-linked gout. This abnormal pattern was a marker for the mutant enzyme in hemolysate from the heterozygote for the enzyme deficiency.These studies were generously supported by the Medical Research Council of Canada (MRC # MA4758) and the Canadian Arthritis and Rheumatism Society.     

A sequential test for assessing observed agreement between raters

Assessing the agreement between two or more raters is an important topic in medical practice. Existing techniques, which deal with categorical data, are based on contingency tables. This is often an obstacle in practice as we have to wait for a long time to collect the appropriate sample size of subjects to construct the contingency table. In this paper, we introduce a nonparametric sequential test for assessing agreement, which can be applied as data accrues, does not require a contingency table, facilitating a rapid assessment of the agreement. The proposed test is based on the cumulative sum of the number of disagreements between the two raters and a suitable statistic representing the waiting time until the cumulative sum exceeds a predefined threshold. We treat the cases of testing two raters' agreement with respect to one or more characteristics and using two or more classification categories, the case where the two raters extremely disagree, and finally the case of testing more than two raters' agreement. The numerical investigation shows that the proposed test has excellent performance. Compared to the existing methods, the proposed method appears to require significantly smaller sample size with equivalent power. Moreover, the proposed method is easily generalizable and brings the problem of assessing the agreement between two or more raters and one or more characteristics under a unified framework, thus providing an easy to use tool to medical practitioners.     

Exposure to parasites increases promiscuity in a freshwater snail

Under the Red Queen hypothesis, outcrossing can produce genetically variable progeny, which may be more resistant, on average, to locally adapted parasites. Mating with multiple partners may enhance this resistance by further increasing the genetic variation among offspring. We exposed Potamopyrgus antipodarum to the eggs of a sterilizing, trematode parasite and tested whether this altered mating behaviour. We found that exposure to parasites increased the number of snail mating pairs and the total number of different mating partners for both males and females. Thus, our results suggest that, in host populations under parasite-mediated selection, exposure to infective propagules increases the rate of mating and the number of mates.