Evidence of repertoire sharing and stability despite a high turnover rate in a duetting neotropical wren

In songbirds, the spatial pattern of song sharing among individuals is influenced by the song learning and dispersal strategies within each species. In birds where females and males sing and create joint acoustic displays (duets), the processes defining the patterns of song sharing become more complex as there might be different selection pressures shaping the behaviour of each sex. To provide further insight into the vocal development and the dispersal strategy of duetting tropical species, we investigated the patterns of individual and pair repertoire sharing, as well as the stability of these repertoires, in a colour-marked population of riverside wrens, Cantorchilus semibadius, located in the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. Using data collected over a five-year period, we found considerable variation in the sharing levels of phrase and duet type repertoires among neighbouring individuals coupled with a general decline of repertoire sharing as distance increased between birds’ territories. These results are consistent with a pattern predicted in age-restricted learners that establish preferentially near their tutors. Furthermore, we found no evidence of individuals changing their phrase type repertoires over time, including after remating events. Duet type repertoires were also stable when pairs remained together. However, we observed a surprisingly high turnover rate. When individuals remated, even though the majority of the previous duet type repertoire remained, several new duet types were included. Taken together, our findings suggest that riverside wrens might create their individual repertoires by copying their same-sex parent and neighbouring individuals before dispersal. Additionally, we speculate that even though birds were able to create new duet types after changing partners, a substantial portion of their duet type repertoire might also be copied from their parents and neighbouring pairs during the initial critical period of song learning.     

Towards robust evolutionary inference with integral projection models

Integral projection models (IPMs) are extremely flexible tools for ecological and evolutionary inference. IPMs track the distribution of phenotype in populations through time, using functions describing phenotype‐dependent development, inheritance, survival and fecundity. For evolutionary inference, two important features of any model are the ability to (i) characterize relationships among traits (including values of the same traits across ages) within individuals, and (ii) characterize similarity between individuals and their descendants. In IPM analyses, the former depends on regressions of observed trait values at each age on values at the previous age (development functions), and the latter on regressions of offspring values at birth on parent values as adults (inheritance functions). We show analytically that development functions, characterized this way, will typically underestimate covariances of trait values across ages, due to compounding of regression to the mean across projection steps. Similarly, we show that inheritance, characterized this way, is inconsistent with a modern understanding of inheritance, and underestimates the degree to which relatives are phenotypically similar. Additionally, we show that the use of a constant biometric inheritance function, particularly with a constant intercept, is incompatible with evolution. Consequently, current implementations of IPMs will predict little or no phenotypic evolution, purely as artefacts of their construction. We present alternative approaches to constructing development and inheritance functions, based on a quantitative genetic approach, and show analytically and through an empirical example on a population of bighorn sheep how they can potentially recover patterns that are critical to evolutionary inference.     

Cryopreservation of somatic embryos and embryonic axes of Camellia japonica L.

Summary Cryopreservation in liquid nitrogen was attempted with both somatic embryos and zygotic embryonic axes of the ornamental Camellia japonica L. Several protective measures were applied to somatic embryos (desiccation, chemical protectors, hardening by culture at low temperatures, encapsulation in alginate beads), but none allowed somatic embryos cultures to survive after 24 h in liquid nitrogen. Embryonic axes, however, were easily cryopreserved by means of the simplest technique: desiccation in a laminar flow hood and direct immersion in liquid nitrogen. Although the causes of the difference in cryopreservability between the two types of material are not known, one might be the difference between their degrees of differentiation and water content.Abbreviations ANOVA analysis of variance - BA N6-benzyladenine - DMSO dimethyl sulfoxide - IBA indole-3-butyric acid - LN liquid nitrogen - MS Murashige and Skoog mineral solution - fwt fresh weight - LSD Least Significant Difference     

Temporary immersion systems to improve alder micropropagation

Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC) - A protocol has been developed for the propagation of Alnus glutinosa axillary shoots in liquid medium. The explants were cultured in Woody Plant...     

Cryopreservation of in vitro-grown shoot tips of Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn.

In vitro-grown shoot tips of Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn. were successfully cryopreserved by vitrification. Shoot tips (0.5–1 mm) excised from 6-week-old shoots were precultured in hormone-free Woody Plant Medium (WPM) supplemented with 0.2 M sucrose, for 2 days at 4 °C in the dark, and then treated with a mixture of 2 M glycerol plus 0.4 M sucrose, for 20 min at 25 °C. Osmoprotected shoot tips were first dehydrated with 50 % vitrification solution (PVS2), for 30 min at 0 °C, and then placed in 100 % PVS2, for 30 min at 0 °C. The solution was replaced with fresh 100 % PVS2, and the shoot tips were plunged directly into liquid nitrogen. The shoot tips were rewarmed in a water bath at 40 °C for 2 min, and then washed twice, for 10 min at 25 °C, with 1.2 M sucrose solution, before being transferred onto WPM supplemented with 0.5 mg l^?1 N ⁶-benzyladenine, 0.5 mg l^?1 indole-3-acetic acid, 0.2 mg l^?1 zeatin, 20 g l^?1 glucose and 6 g l^?1 Difco Bacto agar. The shoot tips were kept in darkness for 1 week and under dim lighting for another week, before being exposed to standard culture conditions (16 h photoperiod). This protocol was successfully applied to three alder genotypes, with recovery rates higher than 50 %.     

Continuous Infusion of Piperacillin/Tazobactam in Septic Critically Ill Patients—A Multicenter Propensity Matched Analysis

The clinical efficacy of continuous infusion of piperacillin/tazobactam in critically ill patients with microbiologically documented infections is currently unknown. We conducted a retrospective multicenter cohort study in 7 Portuguese intensive care units (ICU). We included 569 critically ill adult patients with a documented infection and treated with piperacillin/tazobactam admitted to one of the participating ICU between 2006 and 2010. We successfully matched 173 pairs of patients according to whether they received continuous or conventional intermittent dosing of piperacillin/tazobactam, using a propensity score to adjust for confounding variables. The majority of patients received 16g/day of piperacillin plus 2g/day of tazobactam. The 28-day mortality rate was 28.3% in both groups (p = 1.0). The ICU and in-hospital mortality were also similar either in those receiving continuous infusion or intermittent dosing (23.7% vs. 20.2%, p = 0.512 and 41.6% vs. 40.5%, p = 0.913, respectively). In the subgroup of patients with a Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) II>42, the 28-day mortality rate was lower in the continuous infusion group (31.4% vs. 35.2%) although not reaching significance (p = 0.66). We concluded that the clinical efficacy of piperacillin/tazobactam in this heterogeneous group of critically ill patients infected with susceptible bacteria was independent of its mode of administration, either continuous infusion or intermittent dosing.     

New halogenated 3-phenylcoumarins as potent and selective MAO-B inhibitors

With the aim to find out the structural features for the MAO inhibitory activity and selectivity, in the present communication we report the synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of a new series of bromo-6-methyl-3-phenylcoumarin derivatives (with bromo atom in both different benzene rings of the skeleton) with and without different number of methoxy substituent at the 3-phenyl ring. The methoxy substituents were introduced, in this new scaffold, in the meta and/or para positions of the 3-phenyl ring. The synthesized compounds 3–7 were evaluated as MAO-A and B inhibitors using R-(?)-deprenyl (selegiline) and iproniazide as reference inhibitors, showing, most of them, MAO-B inhibitory activities in the low nanomolar range. Compounds 4 (IC₅₀ = 11.05 nM), 5 (IC₅₀ = 3.23 nM) and 6 (IC₅₀ = 7.12 nM) show higher activity than selegiline (IC₅₀ = 19.60 nM) and higher MAO-B selectivity, with more than 9050-fold, 30,960-fold and 14,045-fold inhibition levels, with respect to the MAO-A isoform.     

Selection of Beauveria bassiana isolates to control Alphitobius diaperinus

This paper presents results on isolates of the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana for Alphitobius diaperinus (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) control. Of the 30 isolates tested, four (CG 71, CG 152, UNIOESTE 4, and UNIOESTE 40) resulted in mortality rates >or= 40% within 10 days. These mortality rates could be considered high because of the resistance of these species to B. bassiana. Tests were conducted using these isolates to estimate LC(50), mortality rate over time, vegetative growth, and conidial production on artificial medium and on insects. Isolates CG 71, CG 152, and UNIOESTE 4 showed the best performance and great potential to be used in an integrated management program in poultry farms to control A. diaperinus. Also, the molecular profiles of 12 isolates were analyzed using the RAPD technique. The high-virulence isolates presented a more homogeneous RAPD pattern than the others. Genetic sequencing of the ITS region was performed for one of the virulent isolates (UNIOESTE 4) and compared with sequences deposited at the NCBI database, confirming its taxonomical position as belonging to B. bassiana Clade A.     

Maternal response to environmental unpredictability

Mothers are expected to use environmental cues to modify maternal investment to optimize their fitness. However, when the environment varies unpredictably, cues may not be an accurate proxy of future conditions. Under such circumstances, selection favors a diversifying maternal investment strategy. While there is evidence that the environment is becoming more uncertain, the extent to which mothers are able to respond to this unpredictability is generally unknown. In this study, we test the hypothesis that Daphnia magna increase the variance in maternal investment in response to unpredictable variation in temperature consistent with global change predictions. We detected significant variability across temperature treatments in brood size, neonate size at birth, and time between broods. The estimated variability within‐brood size was higher (albeit not statistically significant) in mothers reared in unpredictable temperature conditions. We also detected a cross‐generational effect with the temperature history of mothers modulating the phenotypic response of F1's. Notably, our results diverged from the prediction that increased variability poses a greater risk to organisms than changes in mean temperature. Increased unpredictability in temperature had negligible effects on fitness‐correlated traits. Mothers in the unpredictable treatment, survived as long, and produced as many F1's during lifetime as those produced in the most fecund treatment. Further, increased unpredictability in temperature did not affect the probability of survival of F1's. Collectively, we provide evidence that daphnia respond effectively to thermal unpredictability. But rather than increasing the variance in maternal investment, daphnia respond to uncertainty by being a jack of all temperatures, master of none. Importantly, our study highlights the essential need to examine changes in variances rather than merely on means, when investigating maternal responses.     

Trimethylaminuria (fish odor syndrome): Genotype characterization among Portuguese patients

Trimethylaminuria (TMAu) or “fish odor syndrome” is a metabolic disorder characterized by the inability to convert malodorous dietarily-derived trimethylamine (TMA) to odorless TMA N-oxide by the flavin-containing monooxygenase 3 (FMO3). Affected individuals unable to complete this reaction exude a “fishy” body odor due to the secretion of TMA in their corporal fluids leading to a variety of psychosocial problems. Interindividual variability in the expression of FMO3 gene may affect drug and foreign chemical metabolism in the liver and other tissues. Therefore, it is important to screen for common TMAu mutations but also extend the search to other genetic variants in order to correlate genotype and disease-associated phenotypes.