Rates of dinosaur limb evolution provide evidence for exceptional radiation in Mesozoic birds

Birds are the most diverse living tetrapod group and are a model of large-scale adaptive radiation. Neontological studies suggest a radiation within the avian crown group, long after the origin of flight. However, deep time patterns of bird evolution remain obscure because only limited fossil data have been considered. We analyse cladogenesis and limb evolution on the entire tree of Mesozoic theropods, documenting the dinosaur–bird transition and immediate origins of powered flight. Mesozoic birds inherited constraints on forelimb evolution from non-flying ancestors, and species diversification rates did not accelerate in the earliest flying taxa. However, Early Cretaceous short-tailed birds exhibit both phenotypic release of the hindlimb and increased diversification rates, unparalleled in magnitude at any other time in the first 155 Myr of theropod evolution. Thus, a Cretaceous adaptive radiation of stem-group birds was enabled by restructuring of the terrestrial locomotor module, which represents a key innovation. Our results suggest two phases of radiation in Avialae: with the Cretaceous diversification overwritten by extinctions of stem-group birds at the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary, and subsequent diversification of the crown group. Our findings illustrate the importance of fossil data for understanding the macroevolutionary processes generating modern biodiversity.     

何首乌不同种质花粉形态及进化趋势研究

采用电镜扫描法,对48份何首乌种质的花粉形态进行了观察和分析。结果表明:何首乌花粉形状主要为椭球形,少量为长椭球形和近球形,部分种质花粉形状正处于椭球形向长椭球形进化的阶段;极面观主要为三裂圆形,部分种质的变异为半球状、四边形、凹陷状或平三角形;赤道面观主要为椭圆形,部分种质为三角形或四边形;萌发沟3条,狭长,几达两极,部分种质的1条或2条萌发沟中部或近极端处隆起,2条或3条萌发沟在极端处相交;表面纹饰为穴状,部分种质的穴中出现小孔。研究结果表明,何首乌物种正处于活跃进化阶段且因区域及生境的差异其进化速度不一致,低纬度地区的种质进化程度较高纬度地区的高,其最初的起源中心可能位于高纬度地区,在向低纬度地区迁移过程中其花粉形态发生了不同程度的变异。     

High genetic diversity in southwest Asian populations of Philaenus spumarius (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha)

The genus Philaenus is one of the best investigated among Auchenorrhyncha, and several morphological, ecological, karyological, and molecular data have led to a designation of up to 10 species, distributed mainly in the Mediterranean and south-western Asia. The only widespread Palaearctic species, P. spumarius, is known to be structured phylogeographically as it consists of two highly divergent mitochondrial clades (northeast, NE and southwest, SW), with several subclades. This study contributes to the species phylogeography through the study of the genetic diversity and affinity of P. spumarius populations from southwestern Asia. Mitochondrial DNA (cytochrome B) show a high level of genetic diversity within Turkish and Iranian populations, the majority of which belong to the SW clade, and only single populations from northeastern Turkey are found to be substantially highly divergent lineages within the NE clade. One of the NE populations also showed significant differences in the distribution and amount of heterochromatin compared to other populations. According to the results of this study and previous phylogenetic and phylogeographic works on this species, we conclude that Southwestern Asia is probably the place of origin of the Philaenus spumarius.     

Cloning and Sequence Analysis of a cDNA Encoding Salmon (Onchorhynchus keta) Liver Transglutaminase

We isolated cDNA clones encoding a transglutaminase (TGase: EC 2.3.2.13) from a salmon (Onchorhynchus keta) cDNA library prepared from the liver. In the cDNA sequence combined, an open reading frame coding for a protein of 680 aa was found. The deduced sequence showed a considerable similarity (62.4%) to that of red sea bream TGase. By comparison of sequence similarity to other TGases, the structure of salmon TGase was like tissue type TGases, rather than membrane-associated type or plasma type TGases. As a structural feature of salmon TGase, 3 aa residues were substituted in the 25 aa sequence around the active site Cys residue, which is conserved among several tissue type TGases. The critical residues thought to form the catalytic-center triad (Cys²⁷², His³³¹, and Asp³⁰¹) were found in the highly conserved region, but the region surrounding Tyr⁵¹¹, which corresponds to the residue participates in hydrogen-bond interactions of active center domain, was less similar to other TGases, except for red sea bream TGase. These findings suggests that the overall structure of fish TGase resembles tissue-type TGases, but has some unique structure.     

Plant quality and local adaptation undermine relocation in a bog specialist butterfly

The butterfly Boloria aquilonaris is a specialist of oligotrophic ecosystems. Population viability analysis predicted the species to be stable in Belgium and to collapse in the Netherlands with reduced host plant quality expected to drive species decline in the latter. We tested this hypothesis by rearing B. aquilonaris caterpillars from Belgian and Dutch sites on host plants (the cranberry, Vaccinium oxycoccos). Dutch plant quality was lower than Belgian one conferring lower caterpillar growth rate and survival. Reintroduction and/or supplementation may be necessary to ensure the viability of the species in the Netherlands, but some traits may have been selected solely in Dutch caterpillars to cope with gradual changes in host plant quality. To test this hypothesis, the performance of Belgian and Dutch caterpillars fed with plants from both countries were compared. Dutch caterpillars performed well on both plant qualities, whereas Belgian caterpillars could not switch to lower quality plants. This can be considered as an environmentally induced plastic response of caterpillars and/or a local adaptation to plant quality, which precludes the use of Belgian individuals as a unique solution for strengthening Dutch populations. More generally, these results stress that the relevance of local adaptation in selecting source populations for relocation may be as important as restoring habitat quality.     

Pattern of inbreeding depression,condition dependence,and additive genetic variance in Trinidadian guppy ejaculate traits

In polyandrous species, a male's reproductive success depends on his fertilization capability and traits enhancing competitive fertilization success will be under strong, directional selection. This leads to the prediction that these traits should show stronger condition dependence and larger genetic variance than other traits subject to weaker or stabilizing selection. While empirical evidence of condition dependence in postcopulatory traits is increasing, the comparison between sexually selected and ‘control’ traits is often based on untested assumption concerning the different strength of selection acting on these traits. Furthermore, information on selection in the past is essential, as both condition dependence and genetic variance of a trait are likely to be influenced by the pattern of selection acting historically on it. Using the guppy (Poecilia reticulata), a livebearing fish with high levels of multiple paternity, we performed three independent experiments on three ejaculate quality traits, sperm number, velocity, and size, which have been previously shown to be subject to strong, intermediate, and weak directional postcopulatory selection, respectively. First, we conducted an inbreeding experiment to determine the pattern of selection in the past. Second, we used a diet restriction experiment to estimate their level of condition dependence. Third, we used a half‐sib/full‐sib mating design to estimate the coefficients of additive genetic variance (CV_A) underlying these traits. Additionally, using a simulated predator evasion test, we showed that both inbreeding and diet restriction significantly reduced condition. According to predictions, sperm number showed higher inbreeding depression, stronger condition dependence, and larger CV_A than sperm velocity and sperm size. The lack of significant genetic correlation between sperm number and velocity suggests that the former may respond to selection independently one from other ejaculate quality traits. Finally, the association between sperm number and condition suggests that this trait may mediate the genetic benefits of polyandry which have been shown in this species.     

The geometry of the Pareto front in biological phenotype space

When organisms perform a single task, selection leads to phenotypes that maximize performance at that task. When organisms need to perform multiple tasks, a trade‐off arises because no phenotype can optimize all tasks. Recent work addressed this question, and assumed that the performance at each task decays with distance in trait space from the best phenotype at that task. Under this assumption, the best‐fitness solutions (termed the Pareto front) lie on simple low‐dimensional shapes in trait space: line segments, triangles and other polygons. The vertices of these polygons are specialists at a single task. Here, we generalize this finding, by considering performance functions of general form, not necessarily functions that decay monotonically with distance from their peak. We find that, except for performance functions with highly eccentric contours, simple shapes in phenotype space are still found, but with mildly curving edges instead of straight ones. In a wide range of systems, complex data on multiple quantitative traits, which might be expected to fill a high‐dimensional phenotype space, is predicted instead to collapse onto low‐dimensional shapes; phenotypes near the vertices of these shapes are predicted to be specialists, and can thus suggest which tasks may be at play.     

Condition‐dependent expression of pre‐ and postcopulatory sexual traits in guppies

Female choice can impose persistent directional selection on male sexually selected traits, yet such traits often exhibit high levels of phenotypic variation. One explanation for this paradox is that if sexually selected traits are costly, only the fittest males are able to acquire and allocate the resources required for their expression. Furthermore, because male condition is dependent on resource allocation, condition dependence in sexual traits is expected to underlie trade‐offs between reproduction and other life‐history functions. In this study we test these ideas by experimentally manipulating diet quality (carotenoid levels) and quantity in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata), a livebearing freshwater fish that is an important model for understanding relationships between pre‐ and post‐copulatory sexually selected traits. Specifically, we test for condition dependence in the expression of pre‐ and postcopulatory sexual traits (behavior, ornamentation, sperm traits) and determine whether diet manipulation mediates relationships among these traits. Consistent with prior work we found a significant effect of diet quantity on the expression of both pre‐ and postcopulatory male traits; diet‐restricted males performed fewer sexual behaviors and exhibited significant reductions in color ornamentation, sperm quality, sperm number, and sperm length than those fed ad libitum. However, contrary to our expectations, we found no significant effect of carotenoid manipulation on the expression of any of these traits, and no evidence for a trade‐off in resource allocation between pre‐ and postcopulatory episodes of sexual selection. Our results further underscore the sensitivity of behavioral, ornamental, and ejaculate traits to dietary stress, and highlight the important role of condition dependence in maintaining the high variability in male sexual traits.     

Conserved roles of ems/Emx and otd/Otx genes in olfactory and visual system development in Drosophila and mouse

The regional specialization of brain function has been well documented in the mouse and fruitfly. The expression of regulatory factors in specific regions of the brain during development suggests that they function to establish or maintain this specialization. Here, we focus on two such factors—the Drosophila cephalic gap genes empty spiracles (ems) and orthodenticle (otd), and their vertebrate homologues Emx1/2 and Otx1/2—and review novel insight into their multiple crucial roles in the formation of complex sensory systems. While the early requirement of these genes in specification of the neuroectoderm has been discussed previously, here we consider more recent studies that elucidate the later functions of these genes in sensory system formation in vertebrates and invertebrates. These new studies show that the ems and Emx genes in both flies and mice are essential for the development of the peripheral and central neurons of their respective olfactory systems. Moreover, they demonstrate that the otd and Otx genes in both flies and mice are essential for the development of the peripheral and central neurons of their respective visual systems. Based on these recent experimental findings, we discuss the possibility that the olfactory and visual systems of flies and mice share a common evolutionary origin, in that the conserved visual and olfactory circuit elements derive from conserved domains of otd/Otx and ems/Emx action in the urbilaterian ancestor.     

Phylogenetic beta diversity in bacterial assemblages across ecosystems: deterministic versus stochastic processes

Increasing evidence has emerged for non-random spatial distributions of microbes, but knowledge of the processes that cause variation in microbial assemblage among ecosystems is lacking. For instance, some studies showed that deterministic processes such as habitat specialization are important, while other studies hold that bacterial communities are assembled by stochastic forces. Here we examine the relative influence of deterministic and stochastic processes for bacterial communities from subsurface environments, stream biofilm, lake water, lake sediment and soil using pyrosequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. We show that there is a general pattern in phylogenetic signal in species ecological niches across recent evolutionary time for all studied habitats, enabling us to infer the influences of community assembly processes from patterns of phylogenetic turnover in community composition. The phylogenetic dissimilarities among-habitat types were significantly higher than within them, and the communities were clustered according to their original habitat types. For communities within-habitat types, the highest phylogenetic turnover rate through space was observed in subsurface environments, followed by stream biofilm on mountainsides, whereas the sediment assemblages across regional scales showed the lowest turnover rate. Quantifying phylogenetic turnover as the deviation from a null expectation suggested that measured environmental variables imposed strong selection on bacterial communities for nearly all sample groups. For three sample groups, spatial distance reflected unmeasured environmental variables that impose selection, as opposed to spatial isolation. Such characterization of spatial and environmental variables proved essential for proper interpretation of partial Mantel results based on observed beta diversity metrics. In summary, our results clearly indicate a dominant role of deterministic processes on bacterial assemblages and highlight that bacteria show strong habitat associations that have likely emerged through evolutionary adaptation.