Concepts for understanding fruit trees

This book presents a clear set of integrative concepts for understanding the overall physiology and growth of temperate deciduous fruit trees. The emphasis is on overarching principles rather than detailed descriptions of tree physiology or difference among numerous species of fruit trees. Although the focus is on deciduous fruit trees, many aspects apply to evergreen fruit trees and trees that grow naturally in unmanaged situations.

First record of Athetis rionegrensis (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) attacking soybean and new geographical report in Argentina

The genus Athetis Hübner (Lepidoptera. Noctuidae. Amphipyrinae) comprises numerous species worldwide, two of them recently reported as pests of maize in China. This work presents the first record of an Athetis species feeding on soybean in the eastern region of the province of Córdoba, Argentina. The specimens were identified as Athetis rionegrensis status rev. based on external morphology and genitalia characters for both sexes. Furthermore, additional specimens were collected in the province of La Pampa, Argentina, on October, 2021.This species was only known to be in Alto Valle, province of Río Negro, Argentina, therefore these specimens represent the first record of the species outside that province. The correct assignment of this species to the Athetis genus is confirmed. Finally, the implications of this new record are discussed.

Avoiding extinction under nonlinear environmental change: models of evolutionary rescue with plasticity

Rapid environmental changes are putting numerous species at risk of extinction. For migration-limited species, persistence depends on either phenotypic plasticity or evolutionary adaptation (evolutionary rescue). Current theory on evolutionary rescue typically assumes linear environmental change. Yet accelerating environmental change may pose a bigger threat. Here, we present a model of a species encountering an environment with accelerating or decelerating change, to which it can adapt through evolution or phenotypic plasticity (within-generational or transgenerational). We show that unless either form of plasticity is sufficiently strong or adaptive genetic variation is sufficiently plentiful, accelerating or decelerating environmental change increases extinction risk compared to linear environmental change for the same mean rate of environmental change.

The Compositional Aspects of Edible Flowers as an Emerging Horticultural Product

Edible flowers are becoming very popular, as consumers are seeking healthier and more attractive food products that can improve their diet aesthetics and diversify their dietary sources of micronutrients. The great variety of flowers that can be eaten is also associated with high variability in chemical composition, especially in bioactive compounds content that may significantly contribute to human health. The advanced analytical techniques allowed us to reveal the chemical composition of edible flowers and identify new compounds and effects that were not known until recently. Considering the numerous species of edible flowers, the present review aims to categorize the various species depending on their chemical composition and also to present the main groups of compounds that are usually present in the species that are most commonly used for culinary purposes. Moreover, special attention is given to those species that contain potentially toxic or poisonous compounds as their integration in human diets should be carefully considered. In conclusion, the present review provides useful information regarding the chemical composition and the main groups of chemical compounds that are present in the flowers of the most common species.

selscan 2.0: scanning for sweeps in unphased data

Haplotype-based scans to identify recent and ongoing positive selection have become commonplace in evolutionary genomics studies of numerous species across the tree of life. However, the most widely adopted approaches require phased haplotypes to compute the key statistics. Here we release a major update to the selscan software that re-defines popular haplotype-based statistics for use with unphased "multi-locus genotype" data. We provide unphased implementations of iHS, nSL, XP-EHH, and XP-nSL and evaluate their performance across a range of important parameters in a generic demographic history. Source code and executables are available at https://www.github.com/szpiech/selscan.

Calophyllaceae plastomes, their structure and insights in relationships within the clusioids

A complete chloroplast genome is not yet available for numerous species of plants. Among the groups that lack plastome information is the clusioid clade (Malpighiales), which includes five families: Bonnetiaceae, Calophyllaceae, Clusiaceae, Hypericaceae, and Podostemaceae. With around 2200 species, it has few published plastomes and most of them are from Podostemaceae. Here we assembled and compared six plastomes from members of the clusioids: five from Calophyllaceae (newly sequenced) and one from Clusiaceae. Putative regions for evolutionary studies were identified and the newly assembled chloroplasts were analyzed with other available chloroplasts for the group, focusing on Calophyllaceae. Our results mostly agree with recent studies which found a general conserved structure, except for the two Podostemaceae species that have a large inversion (trnK-UUU–rbcL) and lack one intron from ycf3. Within Calophyllaceae we observed a longer LSC and reduced IRs in Mahurea exstipulata, resulting in some genic rearrangement, and a short inversion (psbJ–psbE) in Kielmeyera coriacea. Phylogenetic analyses recovered the clusioids and the five families as monophyletic and revealed that conflicts in relationships reported in the literature for the group agree with nodes concentrating uninformative or conflicting gene trees. Our study brings new insights about clusioid plastome architecture and its evolution.

High throughput identification of genes conferring resistance or sensitivity to toxic effectors delivered by the type VI secretion system

The type six secretion system (T6SS) is a prevalent bacterial weapon delivering toxic effector proteins into nearby competitors. In addition to immunity genes that protect against a particular effector, alternate yet crucial nonspecific defences have also recently been identified. To systematically identify genes influencing T6SS susceptibility in numerous species, we designed a Tn-Seq-based competition assay. Combined with follow-up analyses using E. coli and V. cholerae gene knockout collections, we demonstrate that our Tn-Seq competition technique can be used to identify both immunity and non-immunity defences against the T6SS. We also identify E. coli proteins that facilitate T6SS-mediated cell death, including metabolic genes such as cyaA and gltA, where mutant strains were resistant to attack. Our findings act as a proof-of-concept for the technique while also illuminating novel genes of interest. Since Tn-Seq can be applied in numerous species, our method has broad potential for identifying diverse T6SS defence genes across genomes in a high-throughput manner.

Special Issue “Cell, Organoid and Animal Models to Study Pathogenic Human RNA Viruses”

Numerous species of RNA viruses pathogenic for humans are present worldwide [...]

Beewatching: A Project for Monitoring Bees through Photos

Bees play a key role in natural and agro-ecosystems and their diversity is worldwide threatened by anthropogenic causes. Despite this, there is little awareness of the existence of the numerous species of wild bees, and the common name “bee” is very often exclusively associated with Apis mellifera. Our aim was to create a citizen science project in Italy with the following objectives: (a) raising awareness of the importance and diversity of bees, (b) obtaining data on the biology, ecology and distribution of Italian species, and (c) launching the monitoring of alien bees. The first step of the project was to create a website platform with a section containing informative datasheets of the wild bee families and of the most common bee genera present in Italy, a form to send reports of observed bees and an interactive map with all citizen’s reports. During the 2 years of the project 1086 reports were sent by 269 users, with 38 Apoidea genera reported on 190 plant genera; furthermore, 22 reports regarding the alien species Megachile sculpturalis arrived. The majority of bees (34 genera) were observed on spontaneous plants, including 115 genera native to Italy. Considering the increasing number of reports and data obtained in these first two years of the project, our objectives seem to be achieved. Future steps will be to outline the profile of beewatchers, to plan activities in a more targeted way, and also to start some sub-projects for conservation purposes.

Seasonal Variations of Small Wading Birds in the Pichavaram Mangrove Forest, India

The Pichavaram Mangrove Forest (PMF) is one of the important wetlands in southern India. The PMF is harboring numerous species of shorebirds seasonally. The current study assessed the population characteristics of small wading birds by using direct count method from 2015 to 2016. In total, 27 species of small wading birds were recorded, in which the Little stint showed highest density 177.24±20.515 (No./ha.) and the Bar-tailed godwit showed lowest density 0.13±0.099 (No./ha.). Indeed the Little stint was only species turned highest density across the three different seasons studied. However, the bar-tailed godwit not recorded during the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons, the Dunlin, Grey plover and Great sand plover not sighted during the post-monsoon season. The density, diversity and species richness of small wading birds showed significant differences among the seasons (P<0.001). The study inferred that the population characteristics of small wading birds are declining when compared to the previous studies. However exhaustive studies are essential to explore the quality of the PMF which is need of the hour since it is supporting various species of shorebirds seasonally.